3 Reasons Your Students Should Blog About Their Missions Experience

Updated 3/7/12

Campus is quiet today.

Our students are away on spring break.

And we’ve got 8 different teams scattered across the U.S. that we’re thinking about, and praying for, who are in the middle of their week of education, service and spiritual formation.

I’m so excited for them!

I can remember a time, not too long ago, when our hope and prayer would be to NOT hear from our teams while they were away — NO news was good news.

It was a time back before laptops, wifi, smartphones and much of the technology that makes communicating outside of our own area code so much easier today.

NOW, we love to get updates from our teams in the field!

Now, a call doesn’t necessarily have to mean that something’s gone wrong… it can just be a quick call to update.

No need to wait to see pictures either… Mobile uploads of images from the day are exciting to see pop-up in our Facebook feed.

Tweets, and twitpics, from project sites serve as reminders throughout the day that God is up to some pretty amazing stuff… all over the world.

And for the second year in a row, our office has worked closely with our IT department to create a space for our teams to blog about their experiences throughout the course of their week-long experience (you can check it out over at: http://blogs.belmont.edu/immersion/). Some teams have been better than others about sending back updates… but I think this is a great addition to our spring break missions experience.

And here are 3 reasons why I think you should consider adding a blogging component to your missions endeavors:

1. It’s a great way for students to intentionally process what they’re seeing, hearing, thinking, learning and experiencing… as it happens. It’s a matter of stewardship.  I know this won’t be the only way they process their experience this week… but knowing that a lot of people will potentially be reading their thoughts, students are much more likely to take seriously their thoughtful reflection, and be just as intentional with the words that they choose to describe their experience.
2. It’s a great way to keep friends and family, faculty and staff,  donors and supporters up-to-date on how their week is going.  Blogging along the way will allow for pictures to be shared, stories to be told and students to communicate with those who care about what they’re experiencing — in real time.  Parents don’t have to be as on edge and concerned — getting regular team updates, friends can gain insight into what they’re friends are going through, faculty and staff can have a better idea of what some of their students might be dealing with upon their return to campus, and supporters and donors can see the tangible fruit of their investments!
3. It’s a great way to get the word out about the kind of ministry we’re involved in with our students. Since blogs are “forever”, it can serve as a growing online resource for people who want to know what our ministry (or school) are really all about.  It can serve to draw new students into our ministries, or future mission experiences, as well as to help perspective students better understand what kinds of ministry opportunities are available to them should they choose to attend our institution.

While I think there are ways that this process could potentially become invasive to the team experience, or get students side-tracked (constantly looking for an “angle” for their post), it has more potential (if done well) to be a powerful tool through which we can multiply the power of our student’s experiences for primary and secondary (and even tertiary) participants.

Does your ministry already do something like this?  If so, what benefits have you seen as a result?  

Have there been any issues or drawbacks from you perspective?

If you’d like to see what our blog looks like you can click here — and a special thanks to Micah and Alysia for their work with Paul (from our IT department) on getting this ready for the 2012 teams!

Photo courtesy of: blogs.targetx.com