What should ambassadors do?

1) Educate yourselves about Word & Deed
In order do this, please read the last few Word & Deed magazines carefully. Have a look through the “Focus on country” blogs on the left. Have a look at the information available under “Education” on the left of the blog as well as the Resources section. I will provide an updated Information Package for both Canada and the USA in the near future that you can print off. We can also send you portfolios (made up of the information package, some magazines and pamphlets) and pamphlets.

2) Communicate the needs of children and families in the developing world
This would include encouraging others to make a world of difference in child's life (and that of his or her family) by sponsoring that child (information and application sheets are in the resources section). Some of you are already putting notices in the bulletin and positioning application forms and information sheets on the back table of the church. Some ambassadors will be comfortable speaking to groups while others will prefer speaking to individuals. Both approaches are fine. This would also include organizing fund raising events which wouldn't necessarily be limited to the immediate church community (Rick Herfst organized a hockey tournament in Chilliwack which included un-churched members of the community who were happy to raise money for hurricane Stan). Here is one of the areas where sharing ideas is very important. Choose something you enjoy doing. If you are an outdoor enthusiast, how about organizing a bike-a-thon? They are easy to organize and, from my experience, very successful (I can help with planning). Invite families to take part and then have a barbecue afterwards. More ideas and examples are included at the bottom of this post.

3) Coordinate Mission Teams
Act as a coordinator for the team participating from your church or area. This may or may not include joining the team. Ideally you would join, but it certainly isn't necessary. It would include reading the documentation that is sent to you (usually e-mails and attachments, soon to be made available on the blog) concerning the mission team opportunity, notifying your fellow church members by way of the church bulletin (for example) about the planned mission team and answering any questions they might have. For questions you can't answer, you would then contact us at the office. You would also compile a list of team members from your church and send them to us. It should be made clear to individuals who want to join that they need to let you, the coordinator, know. Application forms could usually be sent directly by those interested via fax, e-mail or snail mail (normal mail, which they may want to avoid so as not to miss the boat (!)). We will fine tune this process as we go along. A special e-mail account has been set up for mission team related communication: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

4) Become part of, or assist with, a disaster rapid response team
This area is related to #3 above but may include quickly deploying people with certain skills to a disaster area; collecting essential materials needed to help victims from your church and then forwarding to central collection sites for possible shipment in containers. It may also include warehousing certain materials in different areas so that they are ready for rapid deployment. I hope to speak and meet with members of disaster response teams in the coming months to further develop this initiative.


Communications
My main means of communication with you will be by e-mail. I will also call you from time to time and we may schedule conference calls as well. If you have a high speed internet connection, please consider downloading 'skype' which is a program that enables voice communications over the internet for free. I use it to talk with people in Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia as well as Canada and the Netherlands on a regular basis. It can also be used for conference calls involving up to 5 people. It is a very handy tool indeed. My skype id is: rdpostma

Clearly the blog is also a new form of communications, especially from me to you! Feel free to add comments, but if you want to address something to me specifically, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone me: 1-877-375-9673.

Some Ideas

Child Sponsorship:
Teena has placed the following notice in the bulletin of her church and placed copies of the attached information sheet and application form on a table in the church. Perhaps you could consider doing the same. You could mention in conversations that after charitable tax deduction, the cost of the program for a person in an average income bracket is $.64 per day (in Canada). This is significantly less than the cost of a cup of coffee per day.

Colombia (you should edit out the references to the country you aren’t living in):
CHILD SPONSORSHIP – WORD & DEED: Have you thought about sponsoring a child? Why not do so through Word & Deed Ministries, Inc. (a ministry supported by our church). Your money ($35/mo. CDN or $28/mo. US) will be used to provide a Christian education, food, clothing and medical care to a selected child. Most importantly, your sponsor child will hear and, by God's grace, respond to the Gospel. Child sponsorship information sheets and forms are available at the back of church or call YOUR NAME for more information.

Malawi (you should edit out the references to the country you aren’t living in)

Want to make a world of difference in an orphan's life? Word & Deed is launching a basic form of the child sponsorship program in Malawi. For $35 CDN/ $30 US per month, you can sponsor 5 orphans. Children now also have an opportunity to sponsor an orphan for $7 CDN / $6 US per month and be made aware of the needs of their peers in Malawi at an early age. You and/or your child will receive a group picture of all the orphans at one of the centers and a yearly update on the progress of the center. Orphans are placed with care-giver families. They receive a minimum of 3 afternoons a week of Bible training, 3 nutritious meals, a blanket or some basic clothing, primary medical care and more. Child sponsorship information sheets and forms are available at the back of church or call YOUR NAME for more information.

Extending Word & Deed's support base of churches:
Lydia has written a cover letter and put it together with the attached information document and a few magazines and submitted it to the deacons of a church. The response was very favourable and I was contacted with some follow-up questions.

Concerts:
Why not ask local choirs to raise funds for Word & Deed? We can provide handouts that introduce Word & Deed and possibly describe a certain project that could be sponsored by the money raised.

Something involving food:
Breakfasts, desert evenings or full scale dinners are always a big hit. People like their food!

Schools:
We have successfully run 24 hour hunger awareness campaigns in a number of Christian schools (high school ages). Why not approach a school in your area? We have plans and forms that can be used for this. The fast provides an opportunity to highlight the plight of the needy and gives the youth a chance to do something about it. A presentation or discussion that further highlights this and also invites the youth to consider mission related work is also something that could be linked with the fast.

Physical activity related:
Always a big hit. I mentioned bike-a-thons above. Note that if you can get 20 riders with an average $500 of sponsors each this adds up to $10,000 in a hurry. The first year we ran a bike-a-thon in our area we raised $11,000 and we haven't gone below that figure since (8 years and counting I believe). Golf tournaments are also popular but
require more planning.

Estate Planning:
People can be invited to consider leaving a part of their estate to a charity like Word & Deed. Another interesting approach is to suggest that a charity be added as an additional child. For example, parents with 4 children could add a 5th so that the estate is divided into 5 equal parts with the 5th part going to a charity such as Word & Deed.