Chapter 12

 

The Fourth Five Years:

November 2013—October 2018

More brochures and books and two new websites

 

(Only about three years has passed at this time, so take that into consideration as you read)

 

 

 

            One of the unexpected major changes in this decade was the change in the rate of downloads of the Korean brochures.  After nearly a year of downloading many thousands of brochures each month, the number of downloads dropped rapidly.  During November 2013, people downloaded 56,192 brochures, but by May of 2014 downloads had dropped to only 2!  In January of 2014, I noticed that “something” was happening to downloads on the Korean website.  They had dropped by nearly 50%.  When I notified the Koreans, they reassured me that all would be better when their new website was completed.  However, the decline continued until they nearly disappeared.  In May 2016, only 30 Korean brochures were downloaded.  The new website is much larger and more “attractive,” but it does not lead to getting brochures into the computers of missionaries. 

 

New Websites

 

            A we moved into the second decade of the twentieth century, people began visiting websites on the Internet through devices with smaller screens than on desktop or laptop computers.  People were using their smart phones or tablets.  Websites designed for computers with large screens could be viewed by people with smaller screens, but sometimes it was rather inconvenient.  Soon, more than half of the traffic on the internet was people with smaller screens.  With responsive web design the website being visited can detect the size of the screen on ,the viewing device and send a page that is more appropriate for a screen of that size.  Of course, people visiting a website prefer a page that “fits” their screen.

            On June 1, 2016 we launched www.missionarycare.com and www.crossculturalworkers.com as new websites as responsive web design sites.  The results have been interesting and surprising.  The number of books downloaded has remained nearly the same.  However, the number of brochures viewed or downloaded has increased greatly.  During the last six months of the old websites, the average number downloaded each day was 252.  During the first six months of the new websites, the average number of brochures each day was 612.  That is more than double the number downloaded from the old websites.

 

Brochures

 

During these next five years, I continued to write brochures for the “What Missionaries Ought to know…” series  

Additional brochures for the “What Missionaries Ought to Know…” series, 2013-2018, are:

 

• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Attrition
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Confrontation
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Contentment
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Danger and Risk
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Difficult Leaders
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Dissatisfaction
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Millennials as Adults
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Memory
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Perfectionism
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Pornography

 

• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Rejection and Betrayal
• What Missionaries Ought to Know about Same-sex Marriage

 

 

Stewardship of Self (no new brochures)

 

Marriage Issues (no new brochures)

 

Singles Issues (no new brochures)

 

 

Database

 

2014 added 22 new references.

Not able to be searched on line, but it may be downloaded and searched in one’s computer if one knows Access.

 

Books

 

• Missionary Transitions (2015).  We had led 35 reentry retreats and written five books about reentry, so we had dealt with the reentry transition.  This book mentions them but adds other transitions such as going to the field, family transitions, ministry transitions, field transitions, retirement, and to heaven.
• In Their Own Words: Email to missionarycare.com (2016).  During the last decade people I have never met wrote 3000 emails.  After consulting several people about ethical issues, I compiled some of these into a 100-page book. This book is for those serving in member care, so I am send it to those who request a copy rather than posting it on-line for the general public.  It is especially helpful for those new to member care.
•  Memories and Musings about Missionary Member Care (2017).  This book was posted in January, 2017, and it contains information about how I became involved in missions and member care as well as the story of the websites.

 

Books downloaded during these 3 years and 2 months

• Missionarycare.com                            116,894
• Crosscutlturaworkers.com                  15,680
• Total                                                     132,574

 

Summary at end of December 2016

 

3 Websites (Pageviews)

·         Missionarycare.com                            4,257,223

·         Crossculturalworkers.com                      610,640

·         All Nations Mission Center                         N/A

·         Total Pages Viewed                            4,867,863

104 Brochures (Downloads)

·         Missionarycare.com                               957,922

·         Crossculturalworkers.com                      356,824

·         All Nations Mission Center                   482,009

·         Total Downloaded                              1,796,755

17 Books (Downloads)

·         Missionarycare.com                               317,023

·         Crossculturalworkers.com                        55,696

·         Total Books Downloaded                      372,719

Database (only on missionarycare.com)

·         Records                                                         930

·         Full citations viewed                              906,304

 

Looking toward the next two years

 

            The Koreans have translated some more brochures during the last year, and they have plans to translate more books into Korean and post them online.  Here is a note from the All Nations Mission Center Newsletter in 2016:

 

The work of translating member care resources by the Onnuri volunteer translators, which started in 2015, is now close to completion. The plan is to edit and modify the received resources and upload them to the All Nations website (www.anmcusa.org), and then to publish brochures which will be available to missionaries from all nations.  Dr. Koteskey’s work, “What Missionaries Ought to Know,” and the following topics will be made available as resources:

1. ● Marriage & Singles Issues
2. ● Raising Resilient MKs
3. ● Missionary Member Care: An Introduction
4. ● Understanding Adolescence
5. ● Cultural Creations: TCKs and Adolescence

 

This all bodes well for the future.