Each member of the SEND U team is committed to life-long learning, both personally and professionally. We want to be intentional in our learning and we all recognize the value of an Individual Growth Plan (IGP). But we all have experienced varying degrees of frustration with planning our learning and growth for a whole year in advance. We have recognized that often we don't know what we will need to know 10 months from now - or even 3 months from now.

The events of the past couple of years (e.g. the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine) have demonstrated how much our ministry and our lives may change over the course of 12 months. All of a sudden we are learning to do ministry in a completely different way (using Zoom or Teams) or we are doing a totally new type of ministry (working with refugees) or we are living and working in a different country than where we were at the start of the year.

So, in 2022, our SEND U Team decided to experiment with the IGP. Rather than each of us putting together an annual growth plan in January, we used a number of different approaches. Some of us set monthly goals. Others set quarterly learning goals. Others created learning groups for mutual support, encouragement and accountability. Not all of our experiments were successful. Some of them were dismal failures! But we learned a lot about how to plan our learning.

If you would like to hear about our stories of experimenting with IGPs, we have recorded our discussion on video and audio and we are sharing them with you for your edification - and entertainment.

• SEND U's 2022 IGP Experiment Audio only
• Watch the IGP Experiment Video

The current (last year's) Annual Ministry Plan and IGP Guide is NINE pages long. Maybe some of you are saying, “Only 9 pages? I wish it was 15.” But I suspect that many of you wish it was a little shorter and maybe a little simpler. Jenny Baker has reduced the IGP Guide to a single page! You can also find the IGP guide on this wiki page.

Besides explaining the value of the IGP and how to create an IGP, the new guide provides a link to a new IGP form that you can use to help you plan your learning for the next month, the next quarter or the next year. The guide also provides a link to a new IGP reflection form that you can use to record your learning at the end of the month, quarter or year.

These new forms are Word templates with fill-in blanks. Save the form to your IGP folder on your computer after you fill in the answers. You don't have an IGP folder on your computer? Create one today!

Of course, last year's AMP / IGP Guide is still available if you would prefer to use this method. You can find it at this link.

• Download the new IGP guide

Individual growth and learning is important, but it can also feel lonely at times. If we are being honest, as amazingly interesting as we each are, it can be a little boring at times too. So, what if IGP stood for Interactive Growth Party? An IGP group meets together once a month and discusses what each person is learning. It’s a great opportunity to have fun while cheering on and encouraging one another through the learning process. Fun and accountability are blended together as the group supports and prays for one another, and did we mention, while having fun?! These groups work well in-person or virtually.

With input from the SEND U team, Jenny Baker has put together a document filled with inspirational ideas for themes to use in your IGP Groups. These are just suggestions–groups can also create their own questions or simply use the questions from the IGP Reflection form.

• IGP Group discussion theme questions

A year ago, as we were talking about experimenting with IGPs, Jenny created a short video, promoting the IGP Group idea. We thought it was pretty funny! * Watch Jenny's IGP Group promotion video

We hope that our experimentation with IGPs will encourage you to try some new ways of designing your growth plan in this coming year. SEND expects us to be purposeful, intentional and persistent in our ongoing growth and development. As disciples of Jesus, we are committed to keep learning and growing from the Master Teacher. But we do not all need to use the same process or the same methods. God has wired each of us differently, and our learning methods should reflect that creativity.

So, in 2023, experiment with:

• different periods of time for your Growth Plan - one month, one quarter, 6 months, etc.
• different ways of learning - attending conferences, reading books, listening to audio books, listening to podcasts, taking online courses, interviewing experts, asking to be mentored or coached, etc.
• different types of topics to learn - history of your country, cooking/baking national dishes, missiological issues, theological questions, using social media for ministry, ethnographical studies of a new UPG, marriage and family topics, a new hobby, technological tools.
• different ways of sharing your learning experience with others - IGP Groups, accountability partners, prayer groups, personal or ministry blog, social media platforms, etc.

• Jan 2 - Feb 24- TESOL Part 1 This is an 8-week online training. This class will teach you how to teach English as a platform for ministry. Part 1 is the “light” version of the certificate course. Facilitated by Melody Kuka and Darlene Jovellanos.
• Jan 9 - Feb 10 - TESOL training- A 5-week in-person training in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Asia's Center for TESOL has been training TESOL teachers for 20+ years. ACT and its staff are dedicated to providing quality instruction, experience, and resources to our students.
• Jan 23-30 - Learning Culture Through Purposeful Observation (MOP 301). A one-week Grow2Serve online course designed to help a new missionary or cross-cultural worker to begin to put into practice their culture-learning skills. 4-6 hours of learning time.
• Jan 26-28 - Azmera- An in-person women's missions event in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX to connect and learn from other stateside and global ministry workers. There are specific training workshop tracks for TCKs/Global Families, Discipleship, Member Care and Self Care.
• Feb 6 - Mar 11 - Team Leader Orientation. This 5-week online training course (6 hours/week) explores what it means to be an effective team leader in a mission organization. It is for those who are already team leaders or are already designated to become team leaders in the near future. The training is led by Ken Guenther. The price for SEND missionaries is $30.
• Mar 1-15- Sustainable Resilience. A 2-week Grow2Serve online course designed to raise awareness and develop perspectives and lifestyle choices that will increase resilience and keep cross-cultural workers true to their God-given calling. Too many missionaries leave their ministry too soon when confronted with stress, conflict, danger, and suffering. This can change as we learn some key truths that help one grow in resilience. 10-12 hours of learning time over the 15-day period.
• Mar 20-31 - Facilitating Online with Grow2Serve. Understand the core roles and skills of an online facilitator and the tools available through Grow2Serve to succeed in the task. 8-12 hours of learning time over a 14-day period.

All these can be found on the SEND U Training Events page on the SEND U wiki.

Keep learning,

Ken Guenther
SEND U Director based in Saskatchewan, Canada