Since we started out in missions in 2009, we have used Facebook as our primary means of regular updates, while sending out both News and Prayer eLetters. Someone created a tool just for missionaries to communicate updates, and as I (Phil) have investigated it, I decided to make the switch from Facebook. I pondered these changes for a while. Why change? Because there are, believe it or not, many people not on Facebook who miss out on these updates. Some of these people are close to us, and we want to make our updates accessible to anyone and easy to access (in your email inbox). With us entering a new season of life and ministry - now seems to be a good time for this (and other) changes.
We will continue sending out our News eLetters, now branded "Reed Report" instead of "The Reed Report". In fact, using Epistle will likely allow us to make those shorter, as we will just share some highlights with links to the longer story in Epistle. And we will likely stop sending out Prayer eLetters, opting to do that in Epistle instead.
What WILL change is that our private Facebook group will eventually no longer be the primary place for communicating updates. We still may use that group for important things and urgent prayer requests and, for the near future, we will post our Epistle updates there.
How does Epistle work? With Epistle, you do not have to go to Facebook or login to view our updates. Instead, you will get an email with our updates either daily, weekly or monthly (you decide). Just like our eLetters, you just read the updates in the email. You only need to leave the email if you want to interact with us regarding that update or to see all the pictures with that update (highly recommended). Very easy! We are learning about this as we go, but the deeper I go, the more excited I am!
To sign up to receive our updates (please do!), it uses a process like signing up for our eLetters. This is NOT, however, something that I can do for you. Click on this link: Epistle-Signup.
Here you enter your first name, last name, and email address, then click Subscribe.
Shortly afterwards, you will receive an email that requires you to click on "Confirm Subscription".
That will bring you to webpage to confirm that you really want to subscribe to our Updates. Click "Confirm Subscription" on the confirmation webpage.
The final webpage is where you can choose the frequency you want for receiving our updates (Picture 4 - Select Frequency Page). Choices are:
Daily - this means that every day you will receive an email (if there is a new update) with all the updates for that week (they go out every night - Pacific Time)
Weekly (chosen by default) - this means that once a week you will receive an email (if there are new updates) with all the updates for that week (they go out every Monday night - Pacific Time)
Monthly- this means that once a month you will receive an email (if there are new updates) with all the updates for that month (they go out the last night of the month - Pacific Time)
That is all you need to do!!
The next (and final) step is me approving your subscription. This is to keep those who should not be receiving our updates from getting them. After you are approved, then you will start receiving updates. And if you want to go back to look at past updates because you cannot find the email, they can always be found at Epistle, where you do NOT need to sign in because we are not doing ministry in a sensitive area. It just takes you to our Epistle page with all our updates. Again - easy!
If there is more than one picture, and if you want to see them, then you click on the update in the email, which will take you to the webpage with that update on Epistle (without having to sign in). From that webpage, you can like the update or click on praying. If you choose to, you can also send us a message. Messages are just between us, so there is no need to read messages that other people have written. Our desire is to interact with more of our partners, and we believe that this tool will help us reach that goal!
As always, if you have questions or issues, please Contact Us!