First, be sure to check out these bloggers who are leaving the field (though not leaving ministry).  There’s a lot of great stuff on their blogs, so head on over to:

• Copeland Ramblings (don’t miss Reflections from the kitchen sink…)
• Mercy Watch

In other news, check out this ecclectic group of posts from veteran bloggers around the world…

• El Peñol de Guatapé (Columbia) – An amazing rock, and some amazing history
• Guarding sound doctrine without hurting people (Mexico) – a teacher’s quandry
• PRAY FOR GABRIEL MUGISHA (Rwanda) – Faith and Prayer
• From death to life. (Burkina Faso) – Do you think God was involved?
• Speaking the Truth (Papua New Guinea) – What do you know about the Sursurunga people?  They might be more like you than you think…

Thanks to these bloggers who have faithfully shared with us over the years!

Hong Kong, China

So here are some recent posts from the bloggers who have been blogging the longest.  I especially focused on those that I haven’t written about in a while…

• One week’s wages to buy a book  The challenges of publishing in Africa (Burkina Faso)
• Talking about money again, Life in Hong Kong: city folks! (China)
• Christmas programs may be a little different here than what you’re used to – School Christmas Program (Christmas leftovers) (a video) (Mexico)
• And how about some Sledding during Summer Vacation? (Argentina)
• Would you go to a church under a death threat?  The Mission at Mission (Mexico)
• Neat, a free missionary book!  Check it out at Our Gift to You (Hungary)
• The unexpected benefits of eating in Columbia – Everybody’s Gotta Eat
• A weekend of encouragement  A weekend in the life of missionaries in France.
• How would you like to hear some singing in Romanian?  Here’s another video for you:  O Noapte Sfanta (O Holy Night in Romanian)
• Dental Equipment Arrived in Gorom-Gorom – if you’d hesitate to go to a dentist with only this equipment, imagine going to the dentist before she had any equipment!  (Burkina Faso)
• I love it when photos really give you a feel for an area.  Check out these fabulous shots (warning – the page will take a while to load, it’s graphics heavy):  Final photos from the cruise (Indonesia)

• How would you like to visit some ancient Incan ruins?  Check out Just to the South of Lima, Peru…
• Some pictures and thoughts out of Ecuador – TIST (Things I saw today)
• Why do missionaries love to party?  Check out What Made this Party so Special in Paraguay
• And just for those who love Bilbo, check out The Things I See… (also in Paraguay)
• Arajuno–or “Jungle Light” – medical ministry in Ecuador
• The sacrifice of missions?  One missionary in Ecuador reflects on the past 24 years.
• Exciting stuff in Columbia!  Check out this post about Two Sundays of public services
• And how about a similar story coming from Chile?  Don’t miss the Exciting First Service!
• And while we’re in Chile, check out this retreat – Catching Up: (First) Church Ladies’ Retreat
• What does the Christmas season look like in Brazil?  Check out Christmas In Santos
• Fun and creativity with this goal: Teaching the True Meaning of Christmas in Brazil.
• And more thoughts about sharing the Gospel in Brazil – A Chance for a Changed Life
• What is Jesus building again?  Thinking about it at The River Iriri (Brazil)
• More sharing the Gospel in Brazil – Christmas Cantata #1
• In Argentina, It broke.

*phew* – and that’s only a few of the many blogs we watch down in South America!  Keep track of these and many more on the home page here.

By the way, you’ll notice I have more posts here from Brazil than any other country.  That’s because we still have more bloggers from Brazil than anywhere else in South America.  However, some other countries are starting to challenge them – such as Ecuador and Peru!

In the past I’ve posted about posts based on cool pictures – ones that caught my attention.

This time I ignored content altogether – at least to start with – and just looked for titles that caught my attention.

You know, other than "Our May Newsletter".  Or "Even more photos of our trip".  Or my favourite, "(no title)" (that’s what shows up in my rss feed reader when you don’t bother to put a title).

No, these titles caught my attention – and it turns out that people who write good titles tend to write good posts too!

For example, who could resist a missionary blog post about Tap Dancing (Kenya)?  Or how about the tantalizing Catching Creatures on Camera! (Columbia).

New Bible Study and Peter Pan! (Indonesia) brings us even more creatures among other things.  Mixing together topics that don’t usually go together makes an interesting title – though it’s not great blogging practice!

Everyone loves to share an opinion, right?  So that’s why I clicked on Input Requested (Indonesia).

And of course there’s always the finish-the-sentence posts, like A Garbage Can Full (of what?!) (Rwanda), and Take this hot chocolate and (and what?!) from France.

How about a shocker like Before Wii (Venezuela).  There was something before Wii??

All right, I’d better get this post done – here are a few more that caught my eye…

• Become Nothing (Niger)
• I miss being sick… (Japan)
• Battling bats, and Romantic Roaches (Uganda)
• "Gossip" …or perhaps ~ (Niger)
• The "God-Father" (Peru)
• 3 lines, 5 guys, 17 syllables, and a billion diapers (Tanzania)
• In Which I Prove We Will Acheive [sic] FTL Speeds by 2050 (Thailand)
• The Biggest Holiday of the Year (Peru)
• Note to self: remember to appreciate these things (for more than a day!) when I get back to the UK… (Thailand)

Which is your favourite title?

The incredible posts never stop . . . I wish I had time to highlight them all!  First, here are some comments regarding current news events that you might be interested in – the strike in Nepal, for example.  And from Taiwan, some comments about "Chinglish" and China’s World Expo.

On the culture, a common issue in Latin America as seen by one blogger in Columbia.

And finally, on the topic of change.  Missionaries experience constant change, in their lives and in the lives of others.  Sometimes good, sometimes challenging.

First, moving from one country to another and discovering Stowaways!

Next, a time of change as these missionaries also move, for different reasons.  This is one of those especially challenging changes.  Don’t miss Committed to the Cause(s).

Lastly, in Swaziland Jesus Transforms an Abusive Teenager!

• Let’s get practical – How Can You Pray for Missionaries?  Some great ideas here.
• Getting ready for hot season… just how do you do that in Niger?
• What’s it like going to a women’s conference in Sudan?  Read all about it and see some pictures in “He makes winds His messengers…” Psalm 104:4
• Hope – how do you hang on to it in such difficult circumstances?  Read about a pregnant woman searching for hope in Swaziland.
• Just plain beautiful!  See it here – Doi Tung, Thailand.
• Some news from Haiti – Sherry’s update – Feb 2, 2010
• A glimpse into a few people’s lives – Guess who was waiting for me during a trip to Columbia.

It’s time to congratulate those who have completed 5 years of blogging!  5 years is still a good old age for a blog – in fact, these blogs are still older than this site (which started in 2005).

I’ve done this in the past, but I’m not sure if I’ll do it again – the more time goes by the more blogs are celebrating!  But here it is, at least one more time – Happy Blogoversary!

• Adventures With God serving in South Africa
• Musings of a Missionary serving in Thailand
• The Boyds to Columbia serving in Columbia (their former blog is here)
• The Kautz Family serving in Columbia
• Itsara serving in Thailand
• Always an Adventure… serving in Taiwan
• Coxes Quarterly serving in Germany
• les Davey de France serving in France
• Simplicity serving in Taiwan
• Under the acacias serving in Burkina Faso
• Life of a Steward serving in the United Kingdom
• The Ramblings of Norm and Debra Copeland serving in Guinea/Senegal
• Kingsley Clan serving in Ireland
• Into Rwanda serving in Rwanda
• Ramble Zone serving in Guatemala (AAAHHH!  They’re having a baby right now!)
• Kurt, Johanna, Kassia and Luke Metzger serving in Papua New Guinea
• Reflections of Refinement serving in Japan
• garcias2chile serving in Chile
• The Roe’s Garden serving in Germany
• Nanana serving in Mexico
• The Journey serving in the Netherlands
• The Naine’s Cameroon Adventure serving in Cameroon

But today we’re going to use that tag cloud to focus on the countries that aren’t there – the countries that are mentioned less here at Missionary Blog Watch.  Here’s the first sample…

Power plant in Sofia, Bulgaria

• Togo:  "First of all, imagine that you take every single thing you own and you put it in a container.  Then that container goes on a ship that might sink…" read May Update
• Tanzania:  "We’re out of water. We’ve been out of water for days…"  read Perfect Laid Plans
• South Africa:  "Highland communions typically lasted over a period of five or more days. Informal fellowships and prayer meetings run by the elders might stretch this out to a week…."  How does this Scottish tradition relate to South Africa?  Read Easter Communion
• Cambodia:  "I thought you would like to read my email conversation with my dad where he asks some good questions about the new place we are living…"
• Costa Rica:  "I had really hoped that I would not feel right at one of the places, but that didn’t happen. Now I’m torn…"  read My Heart is Torn
• Bulgaria:  "Since returning in March, I have been asked about training for teenager/youth over here.  Besides the Love Bulgaria event there seems to be a big hunger for information on the training and equipping of students for service to Christ…"  read Teenage Work – Once a Youth Pastor …
• Columbia:  "It’s been a bad time for the students. A week ago it was announced they would loose their free mid-morning coffee…"  read No more Colombian coffee

Please stop by and check these out – and also let me know if you see any errors (with all that work I’m sure there were some slips!).

What kinds of blogs will you see there?  Here’s a preview!  From our brand new missionary bloggers…

• Straight from my heart… writes from Ukraine
• Life in the Frying Pan from Niger
• Adventures in the Dominican Republic! – well, you know where that is.

How about the up and coming missionary bloggers?

• Soul-Purpose in India
• Missionary Mom from Chile
• Missionary Gas is in Columbia

You want some more experienced missionary bloggers?  No problem…

• Missions Minded coming to you from Nicaragua
• JustusBlog is in France
• on target from South Korea

Finally, it’s time for the veteran missionary bloggers!

• Malagasy Musings is in Madagascar
• disciplemexico.org is, of course, in Mexico
• Church Planting in Puerto Rico is right where you would expect!

Enjoy these blogs, and please don’t forget to leave a comment on the blog posts you enjoy!

• In Why the trains are free, we get a close up view of elections in Columbia, and it just may be a lot different than the elections you’re used to
• Home Based Care talks about the joys and frustrations of serving the very ill
• There’s A Land of Unique Opportunities right across the street from language school
• I think more people would be serving the Lord if they realized that it can be fun!  Take for example Bowling=Outreach?
• Driving can be hazardous to your health – the surprising world of gridlock in Guatemala
• Beauty – ambiance – details – parties – can they glorify God (or, don’t you dare let your Christian life turn grey!)?  Read more in Beautiful Party
• How to make a lake angry – hear all about it in the Interesting Conversation of the Day