JOLLT - January 2012

1. SUPER-LAZY, STAY-HOME “SUMMER” HOLIDAY
The decision to have a stay-home holiday wasn’t difficult. As well as being fiscally prudent, some of us were away a lot in 2011! We had C’s Mum stay for the last 10 days of December. An Australian cousin visited for a week, and Sandra’s parents arrived on January 18th. Rotten weather has been meant that we have enjoyed some of the many excellent movies that are currently screening. More than the odd good meal has been had with some of our mates. C preached on the 8th (thanks to the friend who emailed him on the 7th to remind him!). It is now time to get back into work mode. While the Auckland “summer” has been disastrous for sunbathers, this is the longest stretch of sustained laziest that we have had in years! Feeling recharged AND tanned would have been nice, but…

2. HOUSE-KEEPING ABOUT OUR COMMUNICATION OVERHAUL
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be making a number changes to how we communicate with folk who follow our ministry in Muslim Southeast Asia. For more than a decade we have posted or emailed Jollts to almost 400 people, four times a year. Nevertheless, we are no longer confidence that we are connecting with people who requested being put on our mailing newsletter mailing list. While we realise that receiving newsletter comes with no obligations to write regular replies, our mail-outs typically receive only 10-20 replies.

a. Hardcopies: Many of our most faithful praying supporters are informed about our prayer needs through their letterboxes (remember those things?). While payers get us out of the country (and keep us out), faithful prayers are crucial for our effectiveness. Those currently receiving hardcopies of our Jollts can continue to do so and people preferring hardcopies can request them by emailing jollt.info@gmail.com. Sorry that carrier pigeons are no longer available.

b. Mailchimp: Our monthly Electronic Jollts will soon be sent out by an internet mail service. If you have received this email, you will soon receive an email from Mailchimp. You will have to formally subscribe to our newsletter (which you will be able to unsubscribe from anytime). We will be neither surprised nor emotionally tyrannized if you choose not to subscribe. Although Mailchimp won’t report on how stimulated recipients find our monthly Electronic Jollts, it will confirm that they have been sent and opened!

c. Blog: Our Electronic Jollts are already archived on our blog (http://jollt.blogspot.com/). We have setup this up to not be searchable by google. A number of youtube videos have already been uploaded and we will add photos and other things that might be of interest. You might like to subscribe to this thru a RSS feed

d. Facebook: Nowadays, few have no concerns about their privacy. Although we rejected living paranoid and unnecessarily clandestine live years ago, we continue to be concerned about our security. There continues to be a subversive element in some of the things that we are involved in. We have long been aware that for many, social media is the default means of connecting with significant others. Our need to balance our concern for security with our desire to connect and communicate with people led us to take the terrifying step of setting up a facebook page, simply called “Jollt”. As a googleable site, we won’t be using our full names (we will be C & S, CJ, or SJ). We will refer to living in Southeast Asia. We won’t be referring to “missionary” work and will “unfriend” anyone who displays an inability to tweak their vocab when making posts on our facebook page. Our sincere desire is that initiative increases the amount of communication we receive from our readers. We plan to post significant happenings, photos, movements that matter, and prayer needs. It is possible that those who are “post-email” will unsubscribe from Jollt and follow us solely through facebook.