LT

Welcome to our new website.

We work with partners scattered all over the planet. This blog format will help connect us. After all, we discern the Holy Spirit’s leading most clearly in community. Unlike traditional websites, blogs change frequently – just as our Learning Technologies (LT) ministry does. So, you’ll find a couple of pages still under construction and, the established ones will change from time to time.

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MAF Learning Technologies has been working on creating informational webcasts explaining different aspects of Learning Technologies.  They are introductory videos detailing parts of Digital Resources, Instructional Support, and also Tools and Technologies.  Several informative videos are already available at the “How we minister” area of the MAF-LT website.

More webcasts are coming, and hopefully the webcasts will convey through multimedia how MAF-LT uses different technologies:

• to enable ministries
• increase access to information
• using appropriate solutions

In 1945 God challenged a handful of ex-military airmen to overcome geographic barriers to the Gospel.  They answered the call with airplanes, forming a flight service known today as Mission Aviation Fellowship.  Suddenly, days on the trail changed to minutes in the air.  Missionary dreams of reaching people living in remote mountain valleys or impenetrable jungles gave way to the reality of doing it.  They rejoiced that the Lord finally enabled them to surmount such formidable obstacles.

But then He presented a new challenge.  By the end of WW II both military and airline operations routinely included 2-way radio communications.  So, our early pilots, fresh from those environments, automatically integrated radios into their flight service. When missionaries saw our base staff routinely speak with pilots a hundred miles into the bush, they quickly realized the potential for their own work.  “That’s amazing.  Is there any way we could do that too?” they asked.

“Sure.  Here’s how it works,” we answered and quickly found ourselves in communications ministry, installing radios in central offices and remote camps.  Runners bearing notes stained with many days sweat gave way to instant conversations with near telephone ease.  Today, setting up and maintaining a radio network comprises MAF’s entire ministry in some countries and an important part in others.

But, professional aviation’s demand for mastery of the growing body of information compelled us to adopt computers at the dawn of the digital era.  MAF began automating shop, reporting and flight planning tasks.  When missionaries saw the boon these strange machines provided to our record keeping, they asked, “That’s amazing.  Is there anyway we could do that too?”

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. Psalm 5:3

One recent morning I decided to keep track of the communication that I was having with our partners around the world, people on the front lines of missions who are asking for our help. By 9:30 that morning I had interacted with the following:

• Eliane in Beirut to follow up on our training there to help them develop learner guides (Living Word Ministry)
• Mauricio in Costa Rica to discuss new staff training for a new member of our Learning Technologies team headed to Costa Rica (MAF Learning Technologies)
• Dennis in Uganda to answer questions about the Moodle site that he is setting up there for leadership training (Development Associates International)
• Mark in Kenya to review his pre-plan for developing Africa Nazarene University’s distance education program 

What an honor it is to work with these saints who are giving their lives to equip leaders around the globe. Keep praying for us!

Twas the day after Christmas
When all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The Christmas tree is lit, the snow is falling outside, and I am content with the Goodness of God.

I continue to battle the effects of jet lag, as in falling asleep many times watching “Miracle on 34th Street” last night, and waking at 5:15–thus the no mouse stirring.

But the jet lag reminds me of the good gifts He gave on our latest Learning Technologies project in Beirut and Amman where Brian Ward and I provided training to two ministries there. The most statisfying of these gifts being that the participants repeatedly stated that what we shared with them was very profitable.

But I was also surprised to be taken to several biblical sites: Mt. Nebo where Moses looked into the promised land, but did not get to go; the site on the Jordan River where John had his ministry and where Jesus was baptized, and Rabbah, the citadel where Uriah was murdered. It was an added gift to be able to go to these sites, unexptected and appreciated. (Thanks to my hosts, T and M!)

Well, the mice are beginning to stir….