Ministry of Partnership – Training

The training was held from the 13 to 17 February (which was the same week as Rhodes University’s orientation week – one of the most crucial weeks in the life of our church. I was VERY sad to miss out on meeting all the first years!) in Johannesburg. I hadn’t done much travelling around Jhb before this week – and I was NOT loving the traffic. I decided, though, that a definite up-side to it is that you get to listen to a WHOLE cd (or more) before you reach your destination. In Grahamstown, you only get through one song. Two if you’re lucky... :o)

I arrived at the training having only very vague ideas of what MPD was, but the week’s input soon dealt with that! The system is so well structured and organised – it works so well – that it surely must be God inspired. I can see that it definitely is a tool that God has given us to get on with what we do. On the first day, we looked at the biblical backing for MPD. Did you know that this was really the way Jesus went about His ministry? He had people partnering with Him :o) Over the next few days, we dealt with the practicals of how to go about making a phone call to set up an MPD interview (what relevant info to include etc), the best way to go about starting of an interview, transitioning into your MPD presentation, and then ending with “The Ask” (the bit that’s the most scary!) – asking the person if they’d like to partner with you. We got to practice our presentations on each other... nervous-making but useful! We also spent a good deal of time talking about how important it is to maintain relationships with your partners. Because this is not fund-raising, but partnership, keeping your partners in the loop as regards what you’re up to is vital. It means that they get to practically see what their money is going towards, and get to realise the full extent of what their partnership is achieving. We spent the last day setting up (helping people who didn’t yet have them) facebook and twitter accounts and blogs. Like this one :o)

I left the training understanding how vital it is that we reach Rhodes campus – and how important the role that MPD plays in that is. Thank you to everyone who contributed to my trip to Jhb and the training – you have sowed seeds into my life (and therefore into the campus) that will definitely reap a harvest in the future.