Tara from The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog was asking me about a Missionary-Blogs.com button.  To promote this website as a whole, of course you’re welcome to link to the main page, or individual posts, or other pages.  But you can also use the button that’s found on the main page.  Just copy the image to your site, then create a link, using code like this:

That will give you a simple button that’s a link (after you change the URL, of course, to the location of the graphic on your server):

This is a great way you can help connect people with other people who share their passions in service to the Lord, or to open people’s eyes about the work going on around the world.  Thanks to all of you who have been a part of getting the word out!

As you probably know, this site is about connecting people. I’m looking for better ways to connect people to you through your blog – people who are excited about the kinds of ministry you’re doing.

One of the ways I’ve done that is through the Missionary Blog Carnival. But when I have ways that you can better connect through the site, I need to have a way I can tell you about it!

Hopefully many of you already subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog. But I’ve come up with something that should be more efficient for everyone…

I’m introducing a new (free) email ezine called the Missionary Blogger Update. It’s not quite as formal as it sounds, but the idea is that I can send out an occassional mailing to missionary bloggers (I’m thinking maybe once a month). It will let you know how you can let people know about your ministry through this site, and also give you some tips for improving your blog.

I would like to see every blogger in our aggregator subscribed, but it’s totally voluntary, and you may unsubscribe at any time. For more information, and to subscribe, visit the newsletter home page.

This post won’t get out to everyone – feel free to circulate this information to your teams and mission contacts – any cross cultural missionary who has a blog is welcome. (The update will not be of interest to the general public)  I’ll try to email you as well if I have your email address.

This site gets thousands of visitors every month, and the more I can connect the right people with the right blogs, the better! Sign up now for your free update!

The topic this month is poverty.  I’m going to do a couple of things here.  First, let’s look at some posts on the topic, including our two entries:

• No Getting Used to It – Macedonia
• Poverty and Community – Mexico
• Keeping Our Eyes Wide Shut – United Kingdom
• Value? – Kenya

All right, now.  I decided to add something else to this post that you might find interesting.  We’re going to do a quick blog tour of some of the world’s poorest countries. Below are a few of the bloggers who are in some of these countries.  Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re working with the world’s poorest people, but I think if you visit these blogs you’ll learn a bit about these areas.  Now remember, at least half of the people in these countries live on US$1 or less per day:

• under the acacias – Burkina Faso
• Livesay (Haiti) Web Log
• HAITI – CORAM DEO
• Our Journey…… – Liberia
• Malagasy Musings – Madagascar
• Flaming Waters – Malawi
• Chats with Cindy – Niger
• Life in Niger
• wings118 – Sudan
• Faders in Africa – Sudan
• Strong Confidence – Uganda
• paradoxuganda – Uganda
• Jonathan’s McBlog – Tanzania

This post was written to coincide with Blog Action Day 2008.

I’m not quite ready to give up on the blog carnival idea – stay tuned for more!

One note of clarification.  If you’re wanting to participate in Blog Action Day as well, of course the idea is that you post on October 15th, which is past the deadline.  To remedy this, simply write a brief post on the 15th linking back to your original post.  If you’re accepted for the blog carnival, I will also link to your post on the 15th.

(Of course, you could also do a new post, second in a series)

Remember, for the carnival you can also submit an old post.

Go on, write a post right now!  Share about your experiences, your ministry, your country, anything related to poverty.  It’s a great chance to get involved in the discussion, promote your blog, and hopefully infuse the idea of God’s love into the conversation.

We’ll see how it works the first time, and hopefully keep doing it!

You can find more details, instructions and entry form at the main Missionary Blog Carnival page.

The topic for this one is “Invisible Illness”.  It’s being run in conjunction with Invisible Illness Week, which is an annual event run by Rest Ministries.  If you’d like to know more about the idea of Invisible Illness week, read this post.

In order to coordinate with the upcoming event (8-14 September), the time is short.  If you’re a missionary blogger and want to be involved, your entry must be in by the 4th of September!

For everyone else, stay tuned here to see the results – hopefully links to lots of blogs you haven’t yet visited!  Feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed here.