January 24, 2025

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

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Spiritual Formation, Book Reviews, Prayer

A Praying Life: Book Review

Equipping missionaries for greater effectiveness must begin with the foundation – a rich and growing relationship with our Lord. A few months ago, I highlighted a book that enriched my personal devotions by showing me a simple method to journal – The Divine Mentor: Growing Your Faith as You Sit at the Feet of the Savior by Wayne Cordeiro. Recently I finished reading another book that has re-energized my prayer life – A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller. Child-like dependency The author helped me to understand more clearly how essential a child-like attitude of dependency is. We need to learn helplessness when we come to God in prayer. Miller says, ‘When Jesus tells us to become like little children, he isn’t telling us to do anything he isn’t already doing.  Jesus is, without question, the most dependent human being who ever lived.  Because… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Leadership

Not Trying to Share the Stage with God

In the leadership course I recently taught in Khabarovsk at the Far East Russia Bible College, one of my assignments required my students to read through the first 6 chapters of Nehemiah. They were to describe five leadership characteristics or actions of Nehemiah that explain why he was able to motivate and organize the people to build the walls of Jerusalem in such a short time. During the week that I was in Khabarovsk, I decided to re-read Nehemiah for myself in my personal devotions, and pay particular attention to his leadership qualities. Over the years, I have read Nehemiah many, many times, and marked dozens of papers on this subject. But again, I noticed leadership qualities in Nehemiah that I had missed before, particularly in the chapters following chapter six. My reading and reflection on Nehemiah continued after my return to Kiev, and I would like to share a… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Training, Leadership Training

New Leadership Couples’ Retreat in Budapest

From May 4-8, nine new leadership couples from various parts of SEND’s world joined our International Director and his wife, our Europe Regional Director and his wife, and Bertha and me at the Walzer Hotel in Budapest for training and orientation to their new leadership role.  Each of these new leadership couples is now responsible for SEND’s ministries and teams in a particular country, and a few of them are actually responsible for ministries and teams in two countries.   Most of the leadership couples are serving in Europe, and thus Budapest was selected as the venue for this training. The topics we addressed included transitioning to the leadership role, the leader profile, the leader’s vision, the role of the wife, dealing with loneliness, keeping your marriage strong, delegation & empowerment and managing area finances.   The complete list of topics can be seen on the SEND U wiki.… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Character, Hardship

Character Development in the Life of a Missionary

  SEND U is very much concerned about the development of both character and skills.  We can impart knowledge and provide ministry skill training through seminars and various types of technology, but real character formation is only possible as we humbly submit to the work of the Spirit of God in our lives.   We have a growing list of resources under “Spiritual formation” on the SEND U wiki.   But we recognize that at best, we can only seek to supplement what God is already doing in your lives through His Word and the life experiences He gives you.   … Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Character, Team Leadership

Another Edition of Online Training for Team Leaders Completed

Online module completed.   This week, I finished reading the last assignments and forum posts in the online Team Leader Orientation module I had been facilitating in February and March.   The second edition of this course is now history, and I am very pleased to see that 12 more team or area leaders have completed all the assignments and have “graduated” from this 5-week course.   During those five weeks, each of the course participants identified their key areas of responsibility as a team leader, and what outcomes they desired to achieve in each of those key result areas by God’s grace.  They sought to describe how they would know whether they had achieved these outcomes.  These different components were assembled in an outcome-based job description for themselves, which they then submitted to their classmates for comments and critique.   The job descriptions were very well done, and I know several of the… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
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