The Garcia’s consistently send out a great newsletter. It’s timely. It’s informative. It has a great balance of all the right ingredients. They post it to their blog and it also arrives electronically in my email inbox.
Here is a list of the ingredients that make their newsletter a great communication tool.
- News about their ministry.
- Family news.
- Prayer needs.
- Financial needs including budget status.
- Praise reports.
These five ingredients are a great template for any newsletter. Sometimes when you sit down to write, your mind goes blank. Every missionary experiences this. In fact, anyone that must use communication as part of the ministry goes through this. There are two things you can do to overcome this.
First, make the time. That’s the biggest part of the battle. Actually sitting down to write you supporters is the lowest priority in our busy ministry lives. This must change in order to keep your pool of supporters from shrinking.
Second, make notes. On a piece of paper that you keep in a journal or somewhere on your desk, create headings from the above list and jot down ideas and events that take place day-to-day under the appropriate heading. Believe it or not, this is over 75% of the task. All you have to do now is string your notes together in a way that will make sense to your readers.
