[CS-FSLUG] Your Mission Dream

Mon Apr 3 10:26:37 CDT 2006

A great topic Ed. I really like Tim Young's answer. Tim, do you mind if
I repost it on my blog? I get excited when tech and missions collide!
:-) To elaborate on another area he mentions . . . 

I'm currently raising prayer and funds to fill the spot at a single
mission agency, Fellowship International Mission in Allentown, PA. This
weekend, I met with the Techs at a ministry that Tim's ministry has
assisted called Christar in Reading, PA. I don't think Tim has been
directly involved with them. I heard that Christar has worked with Linux
for 20 years and has had knowledgeable people. I'm excited to be coming
in on a relatively blank slate with FIM. They have 2 servers, one a
Linux file server and a lot of need. There's so much to do that I'm
mentally prioritizing project needs now in preparation of the
overwhelming task to start with, but I'm excited to get this off the
hands of the Director of Personnel. His face just lit up like the sun
when I walked up to him at the missions conference and shared my
calling. :-)

I've benefited from one of Tim's classes directed toward Missionary
admins on security through LightSys. It was really good. I'm still using
what I learned from him over a year later, and it was great fun.

If any of you are interested in supporting this sort of ministry, let me
know. I bet Tim has some opportunities as well. I'm looking to make the
move to Allentown in March 2007. Details:
http://missions.ritchietribe.net

Before you think about supporting these type of ministries, I'd
seriously take a look at how you might be able to fill the need yourself
elsewhere. There's a huge need for IT in missions. Any missionary I talk
to from any agency like Pioneers, Christar, SIM, etc. get excited just
to hear about me taking this position even though they won't directly
benefit. I had a Pioneer guy ask me to send anyone who expressed
interest his way. His wife is filling the position for some division in
North America if I remember correctly.

Missionary Tech Support also has openings for people on much more
flexible and volunteer basis. Check out
http://missionarytechsupport.com/getinvolved.html for that sort of
thing. This group has been a blessing to many missionaries.

There is also a several missionary agency programs you can find out
about at LightSys that are being developed under the OpenSource model.
Some are highly complicated and probably in need of people with
commitment and significant coding skill to put years of their volunteer
coding time into making these programs usable. I know of agency's who
have invested multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars into software to
do what they need to do, in other words, your time on this project could
save a lot more money than you could potentially ever give.

JSR/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christiansource-bounces at ofb.biz [mailto:Christiansource-
> bounces at ofb.biz] On Behalf Of Tim Young
> Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 9:40 AM
> To: A Christian virtual Free Software and Linux Users Group.
> Subject: Re: [CS-FSLUG] Your Mission Dream
> 
> Well, as a full-time missionary already, I believe I am on the mission
> field the Lord has called me to.
> 
> I am a computer missionary. I am not trying to save computers, but
> rather I make sure that the computers that are being used for the
Lord's
> ministry are running properly. Because of this, my mission field is
> where the computers are.
> 
> We have pinpointed a number of places where it is possible to be very
> effective in fixing computers for missions. I am really called to one
of
> these fields, but I will list them all anyway and then explain why I
am
> called to the one.
> 
> The mission home office usually has a computer guy who manages their
> computers. Usually this is done by a "regular" missionary, a trained
> pastor, an old evangelist, a medical person, etc. They return to the
USA
> and get tucked into the home office. Because they have fought
computers
> in the past, they become responsible for the computers for the entire
> mission. From managing the LAN, the website, to dealing with remote
> problems over the phone or Internet. (see www.lightsys.com)
> 
> When missionaries get together for mission conferences, we have a team
> of IT people gather also. We can fix 50 computers in a 2 day period.
> This is much more effective than sending one IT guy out to the jungle
to
> fix a single missionary laptop. (see missionarytechsupport.com)
> 
> The next challenge for missions IT will be in servicing the national
> workers. There is a great movement to send workers from the third
world,
> many of who are used to living off one to three hundred dollars a
year.
> These missionaries want to participate in the various data-collection
> processes that we have been doing for the last 20 years. (part of the
> movement started by AD2000, trying to determine what it means when the
> Bible refers to "every tribe, tongue, and nation") We have target
> working with the Bible training centers around the world, putting in a
> computer infrastructure, so that the national workers will have some
> computer knowledge when they are sent out.
> 
> One other part of the ministry is the part that develops computer
> programs for missions. As we work with more and more mission
> organizations, a number of tools that are obviously lacking have
sprung
> to the foreground. We are developing open-source solutions for these
> particular mission needs.
> 
> My personal mission-field is multi-fold. First, I work with the main
> mission offices, which has me primarily in the USA. I am also involved
> in putting together short-term missions trips for IT people. (let me
> know if this group wants to put together a team ;) And my third
> responsibility is to find new means of IT support that is effective,
and
> try to locate people and ministries who will take it on.
> 
> Mainly, the reason I have targeted this particular means of ministry
is
> because it is the one that I am most suited to be in. My calling was
> fairly generic, I knew it was to be with computers and missions. But
> when I looked at my personal gifting, skills, personality, and
> upbringing, what I am doing now was the perfect fit. I grew up as a
> missionary kid traveling mainly in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, living
> out of a motorhome. By age 14 I was helping missionaries with their
> computer problems. I have been trained as a computer IT guy, I have
> missions built into the core of my being, I have a good idea of the
> whole part of missions, and much more. My personality is the one thing
> that makes it pretty sure that I am called as a field consultant. I do
> not have ADD, but nearly so. I have a very difficult time working on a
> long-term project. But as I travel from one place to the next, each
> location gives me new and different problems. This works to keep me
> interested and involved.
> 
> So, to answer the "Location" and "Why" question. I would travel in an
> area which was very cost-effective, working with multiple mission
> organizations, training their IT people, helping them work through
their
> current problems, and helping them plan for the future. My wife and I
> would live in a motorhome for parts of the year, doing a circuit of
the
> USA to be most effective with time, gas, and finances. There are a few
> locations in this world where this is possible. The largest land-area
> with the highest population of mission headquarters is the USA. Europe
> would probably be second. Since I already have a motorhome, and since
I
> am an American, the USA is the simplest and most cost-effective place
> for me to be.
> 
> Anyway, enough of an essay for now. :)
> 
> - Tim Young
> 
> Ed Hurst wrote:
> 
> >Let's assume for the sake of discussion you are called to a mission
> >field. God is letting you choose the place. Where would it be? Say
why,
> >if you know.
> >
> >
> >
> 
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