September 6, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

All Blog Posts

Hardship, Leadership, Spiritual Formation, Leadership Training

Crucibles

When God prepares a person to serve him in a leadership or other significant ministry role, he often chooses to use crucibles. Crucibles are small pots used in chemistry labs in which metals or other substances are heated to a very high temperature. In the middle ages, alchemists used crucibles in their various attempts to forge gold out of base metals and various strange ingredients. But Webster also defines a crucible as a difficult test or challenge or a place or situation that forces people to change or make difficult decisions. The Scriptures speak of the crucible as an instrument for purifying silver, but always in the context of some type of testing for the purpose of refining.   Related Posts:Christ Went Through the Crucible Before UsNot a Victim, But a LearnerProcessing Crucibles with the Help of OthersCulture shock: God's crucible?Valuing ConflictCrucibles Develop Our Capacity… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Spiritual Formation, Self-Feeding, Spiritual Disciplines

Puritan Meditation: The Centerpiece of Spiritual Formation

In our pre-field training and on-field coaching of missionaries, we emphasize the critical importance of feeding yourself spiritually, or in other words, taking the initiative to regularly nurture your soul in a context where the busyness of ministry and stress of cross-cultural living can make it difficult to keep our hearts and minds set on things above (Col 3:1-2).   Feedback from our missionaries in training suggests that this emphasis is greatly appreciated and desperately needed.    One of those ways that we can feed ourselves spiritually is by learning the spiritual discipline of meditation.   In this area, we have few better teachers than the Puritans. Related Posts:What Melody Are You Making in Your Heart?What Does the Bible Say About Self-Feeding?What Does It Mean to Feed Yourself Spiritually?Who Feeds the Missionaries Spiritually?How Do You Train Others to Feed Themselves?Feeding your soul in a time of crisis… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Training

Apps to Schedule Meetings Revisited

Today, I want to highlight a few useful apps that I use regularly in my leadership and ministry, coaching and training missionaries in 20+ different countries and multiple time zones.   The two teams I lead are both virtual teams, and the members of those teams are located in 6 different time zones.  Currently I am coaching five different individuals, and they are located in 4 different time zones.   Skype and GoToMeeting make connecting across time zones relatively easy, but before you can make the call, you have to arrange a time. Setting up one-on-one meetings across time zones can be a real challenge, both because of the complexity of trying to remember how many hours difference there is between our respective time zones, and because of the hassle of trying to find a time slot that fits both of our schedules. A few years ago, I recommended Tungle.me for online… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
New Missionaries

Stressed from Core to Cosmos: Article Review

“Ministry is a hazardous occupation! To be in ministry is a ‘high calling’ and a grave responsibility–and therein lie much of the stress and struggle which makes it so hazardous. Anyone who chooses a role in ministry across cultures compounds the hazards almost geometrically.” So begins an article by Lawrence and Lois Dodds entitled “Stressed from Core to Cosmos: Issues and Needs Arising from Cross-Cultural Ministry.” The Dodds were cross-cultural missionaries for many years before founding Heartstream Resources to provide care for people in cross-cultural ministry. This article addresses the familiar topic of struggles that missionaries face. The strength of the article is that it also provides suggestions for dealing successfully with those struggles. Related Posts:Your Kingdom Come: A Missionary's Prayer for More LaborersHow Do We Define Success as Missionaries?The Least of TheseWhat I have learned about teaching in another languageUnderstanding our Youngest MissionariesWhat type of mission team is best… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
New Missionaries, Coaching

The Value of Coaching

In our mission organization, we provide a coach for all of our new missionaries at the mid-point of their first term.   This coach meets with the new missionary for a total of 6 times over a 3-month period to help them walk through the process of doing a self-assessment of their spiritual, physical, emotional and relational health.  This 3-month coaching period is called MOP-up (Member Orientation Program under pressure).   SEND’s pre-field training is called MOP or Member Orientation Program, and MOP-up is a follow-up event a few years later.  The whole program seeks to 1) reinforce the pre-field learning, 2) identify what has been learned experientially since arriving on the field, and 3) plan future learning goals for the rest of the first term.  You can read more about this training for first-term missionaries at this link. At the end of the MOP-up experience, we ask the coachees to give… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
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