Did you ever stop to think about why the Bible seems to present two different pictures of marriage and singleness in the two Testaments? Marriage is the expected norm in the Old Testament, but singleness is encouraged in the New Testament (Matt. 19:10-12, 1 Cor. 7). In the Old Testament, having children (and lots of them) was evidence of God's blessing (see Gen 13:16, Deut. 7:14, 28:11). In contrast, in the NT, we see no indication that physical offspring was a significant sign of God's blessing. Of course, the New Testament also teaches us much about marriage and family, but the most well-known Christian leaders (Jesus, Paul) were single and had no children. Nevertheless, Isaiah 53:10 talks about the “offspring” of the suffering servant. Paul calls Timothy and Titus his sons in the faith. Offspring has a different meaning in the New Testament, apparently.

I had never given much thought to this question until I heard Barry Danylak talk about the topic of “offspring” in a SEND leadership retreat back in 2018. Dr. Danylak is a single pastor and Executive Director for SEE Global ministries. He regularly teaches on the topic of singleness and their place in kingdom service. He has also written a couple of books on the topic (see the wiki page on singleness). After hearing Danylak, our SEND leadership asked SEND U to teach this material at MOP and so we have incorporated it into our curriculum. If you would like to hear Barry Danylak teach on the subject, you can find a number of videos and podcasts on the See Global website. We ask our MOPers to watch Danylak's sermon “Singleness by Design.”

In the list of upcoming training events below, you will see the online course “Learning Culture through Purposeful Observation” repeated. This short one-week online course is offered multiple times a year by Grow2Serve. SEND U believes this course is a great way to learn and practice some cultural learning skills (ethnography). We have made it a part of MOP, calling it MOP 301, and we are asking all new missionaries to complete this course six months after you arrive in your host culture. Marcie Williamson will be sending you a reminder to enroll at that time.

Grow2Serve has been developing a whole series of online courses on the subject of exploring culture or ethnography. The second one in the series is called “Contextualization and Culture Study.”

We are planning that our next Member Orientation Program will be done in person, rather than online. After completing two editions of MOP 202 in an online format (called MOP 202V) using Microsoft Teams, we are definitely looking forward to interacting face-to-face with our new missionaries. We realize that there are some advantages to training via online means, but there are definitely some disadvantages as well. In an online environment, we lose some of the MOP experiential learning such as the ethnic church visits, the visit to a mosque and Muslim community, and the 4-culture game. The SEND U team and Leadership Council are continuing to evaluate whether we will continue to offer MOP 202V after the pandemic no longer prevents travel.

With the sale of the Farmington campus, we have moved our MOP training venue, but it will still be in Michigan. Ward Church in Northville, Michigan (about 6 miles from the Farmington campus) is graciously allowing us to use their facilities for MOP and also Reconnect. If anyone would like to observe the MOP training, we have room. Just contact Marcie Williamson.

A recent post on the "Internet Security" channel on the International Services Team in Teams gives some guidance on this question.
The bottom line - we rank the different methods in this order, from least secure to most secure.
1. Personal email (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.)
2. send.org email
3. Microsoft Teams chat or conference call
4. Movaci email (if both parties are using Movaci)
5. Signal chat message

• May 22-26 - Northern Ministry Training - A SEND North training program designed to equip those ministering in the North. The realities of working in bush ministry have always been difficult and this past year has added new challenges. NMT is an opportunity to gather with many servants from different agencies and locations together after such a long period of isolation. In Soldatna, Alaska.
• June 14-27 - Facilitating Online with Grow2Serve - Two-week training (8-12 hours) in facilitating online courses.
• July 5 - Aug. 6 - TESOL Training in-person in Thailand - 5-week TESOL certificate. This course provides theory, in-class practice teaching, and a real-life practicum. Go to www.actesol.com for more information. Sam and Melody Kuka are facilitators.
• July 8-10 - Safety & Security training - Two and a half days of pre-field training in safety and security led by SEND's Director of Corporate Security, Rich Ramirez. This training will be hosted at Ward Church in Michigan.
• July 11-23 - MOP 202 - A 2-week onsite Member Orientation Program for appointees going long-term with SEND, have been cleared by their coach, and have completed MOP 201. This training will be hosted at Ward Church in Michigan. Mid-term members are welcome to attend, but not required.
• July 19- Sept. 10 - 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. Go to www.actesol.com for more information and links to apply. Facilitated by Melody Kuka and Darlene Jovellanos.
• Aug 16 - Sept 18 - 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. The training is led by Ken Guenther. The price for SEND missionaries is $30 (please ask Ken for a coupon).
• Aug 18-25 - Learning Culture through Purposeful Observation - a one-week online course designed to help new missionaries begin to put into practice their culture-learning skills. Requires 4-6 hours of learning time. All SEND long-term members are asked to take this course as part of MOP (MOP 301) about 6 months after arriving on the field.
• Sept 13-20 - Learning Culture through Purposeful Observation - a one-week online course designed to help new missionaries begin to put into practice their culture-learning skills. Requires 4-6 hours of learning time. All SEND long-term members are asked to take this course as part of MOP (MOP 301) about 6 months after arriving on the field.
• Sept 29-Oct 6 - Contextualization and Culture Study - an 8-day online course that addresses foundational concepts of contextualization and its importance for effective ministry.

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