Leadership Team 2016

A big change in my role this year has been participation in a newly formed Leadership Team for CO Belo Horizonte. It is a small group of veteran staff, each with an Area of Responsibility seeking to maintain and direct the Vision, to Shepherd our team and to be primarily Executive in our decisions. 

In July of this year (2016), our Director, Demps Dempsey, and his family began a 1 year Sabbatical. Leading up to this, there was much discussion about how to fill the leadership gap during his absence, but also in how to move towards sustainability in our Brazilian context looking towards the future. The idea of a specific leadership team collective, rather than a top-down single Director was discussed as something that might be an option for our reality. So this current Leadership Team is our first trial run. Then, when Demps returns, the goal is for him to be freed-up to focus on coaching, shepherding and vison-casting for the future and expansion with the Leadership team functioning to guide the grassroots ministry and infrastructure. 

So, this next year is sure to be the busiest ever, with retaining my Resource Director responsibilities, Leadership Team, participation in church leadership as an elder, and still leading myself and my family with a new baby arriving in October. It's a lot, but I am trying very hard to remember what the Lord said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Please pray with me that I may have the same response as Paul did, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

Computer Theft

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Tracking my stolen Macbook... the name had already been changed to "gaga"

The bad news is someone broke into our office and stole my notebook computer and new backpack about one month ago. It happened in broad daylight on a Monday during lunch, and we're not sure how. But the tracking option on my computer sure tells me it was not in my office anymore and that someone tried to connect it to the internet.

The good news is that I had recently met another American staying for two months in Belo Horizonte, and he sold me his computer that was newer than my stolen one and in really good condition. Buying this computer from him in Brazil was much, much cheaper than buying one from a store in Brazil, and also cheaper than purchasing in the US and having to declare it in customs upon entry into Brazil and pay the tariffs. (Thanks Rob Adams Films!) God oddly works things out when we sometimes don't think He will.

So, this was a round about way of getting a computer upgrade! Our office insurance should help pay for some of the loss, but my backpack and cherished items like my Swiss Army knife that I got for my 15th birthday are gone, and that's hard to be cheerful about.

Just wanted to share the ups and downs from the field.

The Great Update Drought of 2015

Last year was the scenario of the unfortunate, the lamentable, the debacle know as " The Great Update Drought of 2015". Supporters and Prayer partners, I have nothing to say except the mediocre, "I'm sorry!" Or maybe, "bad missionary, bad!"

So, 2016 rushes in with a series of BLOG posts and I will begin with a lackluster job of recapping 2015 for all, hitting only a few highlights.

1. The last post of 2015 was in April, after we spent 4 month in the US on the support trail to be positioned for the next life-phase of ministry in Belo Horizonte. God provided new partners and new support through long-time supporters. Also, the economic reality in Brazil has not been a good one, so the Brazilian currency in relation to the US Dollar has fallen, meaning out purchasing power increased without an increase in salary. Summarized, we are financially ready for the next years barring a sharp fall-off of support or an economic 180º here in Brazil.
2. As director of the Resource (administrative) Team, 2015 was an important year to consolidate my team. Fabiana really embraced her role and did an amazing job in my absence. We hired Pedro Albuquerque, a recent grad from UFMG and member of my discipleship group. And both Pedro and Fabiana got married during between August and December. They will both continue on full-time with our Resource Team.
3. Our UFMG campus team continued their coffee-shop discussion groups through out the year, and were a great way to initiate and go deeper in personal conversations about God alongside other Bible-studies and individual times with students. It all cumulated to our summer project in jan 2016, which you can read more about here!
4. Tathiana and I began to lead a Regional small-group at our church, and has given us the opportunity to grow our pastoral role in the church and invite non-campus friends to events where the central focus is on Jesus.

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!

Death, Divorce and Despair...

This morning I hugged a mother at the funeral of her son who was murdered because of his involvement with drug trafficking. Last week I heard an old friend say he had no hope for his marriage and was going forward with a divorce. This week, also, brought word that a little girl we have been praying for to be healed from cancer is terminal, and the doctors are ceasing treatment.

This is not a shock-effect opening of a blog post that quickly turns your attention to another issue. This is the issue. In recent months I feel that it has been a bombardment of hard and bad news. We have been counseling some young married couples, one facing an impending divorce and another on their way to the same fate. Our years around the families of students on campus now leads us to witness the end of one girl’s life, and to witness others face shutteringly painful treatments of complicated diseases with little hope of recovery. Death, also, has been present; both natural and premature, anticipated and unsettlingly unexpected, from afar and from very close by.

In many years in Brazil relating to young, healthy and capable students from the campus ministry, I admit this is one of the first times we have faced such, well…harsh reality. Of course, here and there, there has been sorrow, bridges burned, passing away of loved ones, and hard times to help people seek God when life doesn’t make sense. This time, it has been an onslaught of such apparent withholding of God’s mercy that I am feeling it weigh me down a bit – and am not sure how to help the ones who are facing these difficult times.

We do believe in our good God and His purpose… sometimes it just takes a lot to face a fallen world and also try to abide by Galatians 6:2, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Pray with us, and for us, please.

Home, Sweet Apartment!

There it is, the light at the end of the tunnel! It's the light reflecting off our new apartment keys. After a much desired and necessitated move, it is happening.

The saga is long and frustrating, but after 7 years in our first home as a family - most of them happy and good - we are leaving the first Elam abode because of problems in the apartment that neither the owner, rental agency nor building seem very eager to get resolved. So, to all those folks, we say, "Bye! Have fun with those leaky pipes!"

Now, the great news. We have our keys in hand, already sent the exterminator in to poison all the creatures of the INSECTA class, bought paint and set-up with our painter to GET THIS DONE! 

The new place is a bit larger, literally right around the corner from Tathiana's sister, Fabiana, still in the same neighborhood we really like, and, as we began to pray a while back, still within our budget. God does amazing things in even more amazing ways. Thank Him with us for grace - we do not deserve it.

Our guest bedroom is back, so here is an invite to come visit.