MC Sync-Link 10

Member Care Update--October 2017

During 2017 we are syncing our CORE MC entries with our monthly MC Updates. Essentially, we'll add a monthly weblog entry that contains brief excerpts from the MC Update for that month. By linking their two strap lines together, the purpose and potential for connecting these two MCA tools becomes clear: "expanding the global impact of member care...reflections, research, and resources for good practice." May these materials encourage and equip you as you endeavor to practice member care well, with character, competence, and compassion.

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Special News

A New Season for Relevance and Resilience

Click HERE to access this Update

Dear colleagues,

We are in the process of adjusting the various Updates that we send out. A new season is here for relevance and resilience—in light of global issues, responsibilities, and opportunities!  Here are some of the ideas we are considering for a new type of Update to further support you and your work: 

1) sending Updates periodically rather than monthly; 

2) featuring guest consultants-contributors; 

3) focusing on a combination of global issues, mental health, integrity, and member care; 

4) continuing our emphasis on truth and peace (Zechariah 8:19) in the church-mission community;

5) and complementing the Updates with interactive webinars and roundtable consultations related to practical applications of the Missio Dei model of global member care. 

Note that the September 2017 Member Care Update is an especially valuable resource as it contains a summary of all of our Updates over the years (100 issues). This summary Update also includes a final section (Personal Reflections) with our thoughts about the crucial relevance of “global integration” for member care and mission.  So…we encourage you to save it and use it!

Also note that the latest Global Integration Update (August 2017) is on the theme of “Everyday Global Heroes: Moral Lives Matter” and the previous issue is on “Doomsday: Next Stop, Global Dis-Integration?” (June 2017).  Have a look!

All of our Updates (member care, global integration) are archived on our MCA website (http://membercareassociates.org/).

We welcome your ideas! Contact us at MCAresources@gmail.com  

Warm greetings from Geneva,

Kelly and Michele

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MC Sync-Link 3

MC Update--March 2017

During 2017 we are syncing our CORE MC entries with our monthly MC Updates. Essentially, we'll add a monthly weblog entry that contains brief excerpts from the MC Update for that month. By linking their two straplines together, the purpose and potential for connecting these two MCA tools becomes clear: "expanding the global impact of member care...reflections, research, and resources for good practice." May these materials encourage and equip you as you endeavor to practice member care well, with character, competence, and compassion.

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Go for It!
Building Our Future Foundations—Now!

 (click HERE to access this issue)

Don’t quit!.
.
.
Do it!

In this Update we feature three articles that we have written over the last year (March 2016-March 2017). Although focusing mostly on mental health professionals, they are also very relevant for those with member care responsibilities. The articles are meant to encourage us as we consider the many new opportunities for member care in mission and for mental health as mission. This trio of articles provides directional tools that can help us build our “future foundations.” Chief among these tools is the global integration framework that we have been promoting the last six years….May these materials guide and goad us further into our future foundations and into the heart of Jesus Christ for all people…Go for it!....

I [Kelly] miss working at times with a healthy, close team of colleagues and especially with true friends.  I sometimes feel like a Ranger in Tolkien's in Lord of the Rings, doing good behind the scenes and periodically popping into public view for some important reason. Not always understood or appreciated, but sometimes yes. Sometimes I want to exit the world of influence and "rangering" and just be something like a barista at a classy-rustic-cool small hidden coffee cafe (close to good waves) and fade into oblivion, living a simple life working with my hands a la 1 Thes. 4:11. Fortunately though I have super friends who have been proven through adversity. We live on different continents. All of us forging relationships together in our 20s or earlier. Would we die for each other? In contrast, being betrayed by believers who are fair weather friends or foul-weather fiends is no fun. Yet not trying to wear it on your sleeve or define your life by betrayal. Following Jesus Christ is worth all.

We were just at an Oxford College (about 20 miles from our former home in Oxfordshire where we first really connected with Dave Pollock for a weekend at our place, dreaming of what was to become MemCa and planning, early 1998), on a private visit with the former Principal we know, with some of our closest friends too coming along, and I was wishing that as friends we could all somehow magically flow together in some new way, leveraging our various skills/life experiences/faith on behalf of humanity in a new way...consulting over fine English ale about making our marks in later life, doing something that could really have an impact vs something that would sustain our lifestyles primarily, ad majorem Dei gloriam… (Kelly's email, February 2017)

Share your comments/resources about this Update
on the MCA Facebook page.
Share this Update with your colleagues and networks.

Kelly and Michèle

Sync-Link 2

MC Update--February 2017

During 2017 we are syncing our CORE MC entries with our monthly MC Updates. Essentially, we'll add a monthly weblog entry that contains brief excerpts from the MC Update for that month. By linking their two straplines together, the purpose and potential for connecting these two MCA tools becomes clear: "expanding the global impact of member care...reflections, research, and resources for good practice." May these materials encourage and equip you as you endeavor to practice member care well, with character, competence, and compassion.

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New Global Member Care Model:
Member Care in the Missio Dei (MC-MD).
(click HERE to access this issue)

This Update features the newly expanded model for global member care. It emphasizes the missio Dei context for member care and adds a seventh sphere, Humanity Care. The original model (2000) and its updates (2011, 2013) have been used widely in the mission community to “guide and goad” member care practice. We are delighted to note that the model continues to emphasize Jesus Christ at the core of member care, including our relationship with Him, member care/mission workers serving Him, and His love for all people….

Global Member Care (GMC) continues its emergence and impact as an interdisciplinary, international, and multi-sectoral field. The latest expansion of the global member care model (MC-MD), now with seven spheres, is a reflection of GMC's growing influence. It points us to many new possibilities for connecting and contributing globally and for supporting mission personnel and their sending groups….It continues to promote the growth and development of workers in the context of sacrifice and demanding work that often involves prudent risk. It also seeks to extend the global reach of member care and to encourage colleagues to track with developments in our globalizing world. Similar to the emphasis in volume two of Global Member Care, it is meant:

•To support mission/aid workers in their well-being and effectiveness
•To equip mission/aid workers with tools and opportunities for their work with others
•To equip member caregivers who directly work with vulnerable populations and others
•To support colleagues in other sectors via materials in the member care field
•To stay informed as global citizens about current and crucial issues facing humanity.

 Share your comments/resources about this Update 

on the MCA Facebook page.
Share this Update with your colleagues and networks.
.

Kelly and Michèle