August 15, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Lifelong Learning

Spiritual Formation, Learning Attitude

Not a Victim, But a Learner

In two previous blog posts, I have been talking about crucible experiences that God often uses to perfect us. But as I have noted, difficult life experiences in themselves do not refine us. Our response to the crucible experiences of life and ministry is what allows the crucible to become transformative. Crucibles are used in refining gold out of crushed ore.  In doing some study on the process, I have learned that borax is often used as a flux for smelting gold out of crushed ore.   Borax reduces the melting point of gold, thus making it separate more easily and quickly from the other minerals in the ore.  The question I have asked myself, “How can we add borax to our crucible experiences in life, so that we can extract the ‘gold’ more quickly and easily?”… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Book Reviews, Growth Plans

What’s Best Next

As we think about goals and priorities for the new year, we are frequently reminded of how often we have failed to reach our goals of previous years. Apparently only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions successfully accomplish their resolutions. In our mission organization, we are asking all of our members to put together an Individual Growth Plan for 2015.  Being intentional about and planning our learning is important.  People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.   But planning is only the first step.   Unless we carry out the plan, we are no further ahead at the end of next year. How do we make sure that we get the most important things done?  How do we prevent our lives being crowded out by the tyranny of the urgent, leaving our good intentions and learning… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Lifelong Learning, Growth Plans

Would the Apostle Paul Fill Out an IGP?

Would the Apostle Paul fill out an Individual Growth Plan (IGP)? YES! The Apostle Paul was committed to life-long learning. We see this very clearly in Philippians 3:12-16. I will start quoting from verse 7 to pick up the context: But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that comes from faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley2 mins read
Lifelong Learning

Lifelong Learning Begins with Humility

We all need to be lifelong learners.  As David Mathis reminds us in a recent Desiring God blog post, Teaching and learning are at the very heart of our faith. To be a “disciple” means to be a “learner.” … The Christian faith is not a finite course of study for the front-end of adulthood. Our mindset shouldn’t be to first do our learning and then spend the rest of our lives drawing from that original deposit of knowledge. Rather, ongoing health in the Christian life is inextricably linked to ongoing learning. Questions Persist The first step toward being a lifelong learner is to admit that despite our experience and education, there is still so much that we still do not understand about life and ministry.   We don’t know it all. We haven’t figured it all out.  In fact, some of the most important questions are still mysteries to us.… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Growth Plans

Do-It-Yourself Retreats

I was recently browsing through articles on the SEND U Wiki and came across one I had not previously noticed entitled “A Do-It-Yourself Marriage Retreat.” What a novel idea!! Maybe some missionaries are in the habit of doing something like this, but it had never even entered my mind before (and I have been bemoaning the fact that my husband and I haven’t been able to attend a marriage retreat for several years). Many of you live in parts of the world where opportunities to attend marriage retreats are scarce, maybe even completely absent. Or it could be there isn’t enough free time in your schedule when a retreat finally IS offered (or maybe the problem is not enough money in your pocketbook). Yet it seems to me that the key emphasis of many marriage retreats is improving communication between husband and wife. The methods and questions posed in this… Read the whole post
Darlene Jovellanos1 min read
Back To Top