Alumnus Opportunity

Last week, I was very pleased to have been included in the Samford University Journalism & Mass Communication departmental E-newsletter, Monday Morning Memo. Often the MMM includes a short testimonial from alumni as a means to encourage current students and to allow for networking among its graduates. I was happy to write about how I benefited from this quirky department and how my time spent there aids my current role as Resource Director with Campus Outreach.

http://howard.samford.edu/jmc/

Alumnus Spotlight: Jon Elam (2001)
Global Horizons

Hello, my name is Jon and I'm a production junkie.

Before arriving at Samford, I knew I liked to design and enjoyed writing, but I thought myself too mainstream to be an art major and yet too unique to be a mere business major. Advertising seemed enough of a mix of capitalism and creativity to be enjoyable and also to provide a job upon graduation after dropping a pretty penny on a private-school higher education.

I believe God sometimes enjoys irony as much as we lowly men do.

Now, almost 15 years after graduation, I still do not have that coveted job that makes my higher education cost worth it...or maybe I do? Divine irony has ordained my vocation as a support-funded missionary ever since 10 months after graduation. I work with Campus Outreach in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and I love it.

The JMC department at Samford truly was a great fit for me. The academic rhetoric of a liberal arts university was inspiring. However, I had a craving to do something. I love to do, complete, make, refine and produce. Yes, I am a self-diagnosed production junkie. So I loved the hands-on, project-heavy JMC advertising track. I freely admit that I did not have a traditional exam the last two semesters of my college career. Those countless hours spent in computer labs and group meetings to get projects done... that was the life!

It was the mentoring of JMC professors Dr. Melissa Tate, Dr. Jon Clemmensen, Dr. Dennis Jones, Dr. David Shipley, Dr. Julie Williams, other adjunct faculty and loving JMC department regulars that made my impulse to produce into a skilled capability to produce something that actually had content and quality for the audience it was directly toward.

I really enjoyed advertising, my internships and the Advertising Federation competitions. It all seemed like the type of job I wanted and the type of atmosphere that a guy who loved Christ could go into and have relationships that extended beyond the normal surface-level, business culture. That would be my future: a creative/production career in this non-status-quo field. So, since that would be my long-term future, it made total sense (to me) to go overseas to serve God and experience non-American life for a few years before my professional reality began.

A two-year term in Brazil turned into five years, then longer, and before I realized it, ministry became my calling and Brazil became my home. I spent several years as a campus staff member, but most recently I have been serving as Resource Director, taking charge of the administrative and operations side of our field team for both our American and Brazilian staff.

However, my time spent preparing for advertising was not wasted. I really do believe that the well-rounded education and preparation I had as an effective communicator has served me so well as a missionary. From coordinating external and internal communications, to financial reports, and all the way to editing resources in Portuguese, I thank Samford JMC's courses and staff for helping me produce quality material communicated in an effective manner. I use my training as a communicator so that Brazilian college students can investigate the person of Jesus Christ in their own language and context.

Obrigado e abraços a todos!

Jon Elam is from Chattanooga, TN., and lives in Belo Horizonte, Brazil with his Brazilian bride Tathiana and their 2-year-old son Isaac. He serves as Resource Director for the Belo Horizonte region of Campus Outreach where he coordinates the U.S. and Brazilian administration and operations for his staff team. You can find more information about his ministry at www.jonelam.net.

Prepared, Assessed and Positioned

2014 was an atypical year in many ways for the Elam fam. We met some new challenges, downshifted a bit to regain some perspective and energy, and now are headed your way for a support-raising season to get positioned for the next season of life and ministry in Brazil.

PREPARED: We called it a "semi-sabbatical". A kind of part-time rhythm for Jon and Tathiana in terms of our ministry responsibilities in order to focus on health: physical, emotional, marital, spiritual and with our growing family. It lasted from January to August of 2014. In a much-to-oversimplfied summary, it was REALLY GOOD FOR US. 

ASSESSED: Then came a sort of evaluation of our job and how we fit into what we are doing. Recently these types of Assessments within Campus Outreach have been more proactive, wanting to evaluate before any burnout comes sneaking in. Three Assessors from CO came to visit us, and also a Brazilian psychologist who has worked with several members of out team recently filled up about 4 days of meetings and read a gazillion pages of diagnostics and reports that we had previously filled out. Tathiana and I were excited about really thinking through our role, our calling and our future. Admittedly anxious to receive feedback indicating something we weren't expecting. 

What a joy it was to hear from my director and the other assessors words like "right-fit", "influential couple", "a lot of personal growth", and "leaders." 

POSITIONED: With this, we made a decision spend a few months in the US to get positioned financially for the next season. We have lost some support over the past years, and have some specific goals we would like to reach for our family. We will spend the end of December with family for Christmas in Chattanooga, then spend January through March raising new long-term support for an extended investment in what God is doing in and through the CO ministry in Belo Horizonte and possibly new cities in the near future! More info coming in 2015.

See you soon!

Conference & Contributions

October 2014 is going to meet me with some drastic climate changes. I will bid a brief farewell to Brazil's dry season finale and its 95º dry-heat and brushfire-smokey air. Then, I will say hello to a brisk Fall in the Southern US. Then, I will close out October with a return to Southeastern Brazil's arrival of its monsoon-like rainy season. These rushed travels do have TWO good reasons; not one of them having anything to do with the weather.

I'll start with the second, but most pressing, reason. During my time in the US I will be meeting with some support contacts and churches in Chattanooga and Nashville to try and raise $6500 in one-time donations. Over the past 2 years, Tathiana and I have had an above-average loss of support for various reasons, and we now need to raise a lump-sum in order to finish the year in the black. If any of my monthly and annual supporters desire to give beyond their pledge, it would be graciously appreciated.

Now, continuing the reverse order, the first reason is that I will participate for the first time in an annual conference of all the Campus Outreach administrative directors in Atlanta, GA. We call ourselves Resource Directors because we want to be administrative teams that are a resource to the front-line work of evangelism and discipleship on the college campus. These meetings bring together conversations and meetings about best practices, networking, vision for the future as a ministry and fellowship between us Resource Directors. In my almost 4 years as Resource Director in Belo Horizonte, I have not been able to participate in person because, well… I live on another continent.

I will be leaving Brazil on October 4th, spending some days with my extended family in Tennessee, then a trip to Nashville sometime in the middle, and finishing up with the conference in Atlanta, where I fly out of on Oct 30th.

Hope to see as many people as I can, and raise as much support as God allows me to.

Colleague For A Few Months

I’d like everyone to meet Paulino Oliviera. He is the newest member of our team, but will also be one of the first to leave our team.

I met Paulino at PUC-Minas in 2009 while he studied Economics, and over his years in college he stayed connected with our ministry as he investigated about Jesus. Shortly before graduating became a Christian and joined our church.

I sought to hire Paulino, even for a short stint, because he is go-getter and has skills in everything financial. God’s timing was quite good, because Paulino had just quit his job at one of the largest banks in Brazil to dedicate time to pursue entrance into a Master’s Degree program.

Paulino will spend the next months helping us answer some pertinent finance and tax questions, with some accounting issues mixed in there. He has already shown his professionalism, humility in his work and excellence in getting the job done!

Paulino was accepted to participate in a Brazilian Federal Government program and in August of this year will move to New York City to begin his Master’s Degree in Financial Engineering at NYU Poly, Brooklyn. He will study right next to the Financial Center of NYC, and, well – the world. Such a great opportunity for him to speak of his Savior!

Global Connection

A) Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND: B) Brisbane, AUSTRALIA: C) Khon Kaen, THAILAND: D) Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA: E) Belo Horizonte, BRAZIL: F) Augusta, GA - USASix men in six different countries, in six different time zones, on five different continents and of three different nationalities connected via a video conference call last Wednesday, December 5, 2012. I know that happens all the time these days, but it was a first for me.

All five of the international Campus Outreach ministries and one administration facilitator spent over an hour talking about the administration needs that each one is facing. The goal was to encourage an exchange of experience and knowledge about how to move forward and help out campus ministries thrive in their different organizational contexts.

It was the first of many such global connections to come. I, personally, relished the time to hear from other Resource Directors of other CO franchises about what they are facing and how similar it is to what we are trying to build and integrate here in Belo Horizonte. I want to help our ministry gain infrastructure that helps our relational campus ministry thrive on what we do best, and help take care of our staff for the long-haul of evangelism and discipleship on the universities here in Brazil.