“You will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth.”
(Acts 1:8 NIV)

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We at Gloriscope love missionaries. It is an important part of our editorial policy to give them opportunities to tell the world about their successes, problems, hopes, plans, and the many ways they see God glorified in their lives and in the lives of other people.

We most warmly welcome letters from Christian missionaries of all nationalities in all countries, serving the Lord in any formal capacity either inside or outside their own country. We believe that missionary letters – like Apostle Paul’s biblical reports about his missionary travels – are a great way to glorify God and testify about God’s grace and life-changing power in people’s lives.

We have much love for you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ who serve as missionaries. May your missionary letter be a blessing to many people all around the world, to God’s glory! You never know where and how your letter may touch other people around the world.

GUIDELINES FOR MISSIONARY LETTERS

ORIGINAL, UNPUBLISHED TESTIMONIES
Your missionary letter must be unpublished and original, that is, you must be the only author of the text and photos of your testimony. If your letter was published before by a missionary organization or a church bulletin, or anywhere on the Web, it counts as published. In such a case, you should write a letter for Gloriscope from scratch or you can create a new, unpublished version of an old letter if you rewrite your old text in some significant ways.

SUBJECT MATTER
You are free to write about anything in your present missionary life that gives glory to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, or to two or all Persons of the Holy Trinity. First of all, the letter should focus on present or recent events (the last month or so) and it should be written from your own personal point of view, about things you have experienced or seen yourself. It should be written in a personal style, just like a letter to friends, giving details about everyday life in your own life, the life of your family and people around you. But you should add some background about your mission, the primary activity or activities you are involved in, and the local spiritual and practical situation in your area and among local people.
You are welcome to add your prayer request at the end of your letter. If you are sure that it is safe and secure for you and the people around you to do so, you are also welcome to add the name of the church or missionary organization that has sponsored you, their website address, and/or your e-mail address.

IT MUST BE ABOUT YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE
You should write about something that you yourself witnessed or experienced. (If you want to submit or alert us to somebody else’s missionary experiences, you are welcome to e-mail us about it, too, but the editorial treatment may be different.)

BIBLE QUOTATIONS
Your missionary letter must include at least one Bible quotation or Bible reference, either because the quotation was part of your experience, or because it gave you an insight about the events that you describe, or because it is one of your favorite verses. In short, you should integrate at least one Bible quotation or reference into your text.

LENGTH
Between 400 and 1,500 words.

LANGUAGE
Your testimony should be in English. We may edit any testimony for grammar, punctuation, style, length, and legal concerns. If English is not your native language, we will edit your text to proper grammar and spelling.. If you are not writing American or British English, it’s OK to write in another regional version of English (Indian, South African, etc.) – it may add to the authenticity of your report.

INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF:
We need to publish your real full name and current country of residence, as a minimum. We do make an exception for missionaries and other Christians living in or witnessing about countries where Christians are persecuted – in those cases, we may publish anonymous letters or use changed names of persons or locations, or both. You or we may also choose not to state the name of the country or city about which you write, or to refer to the location in only the broadest terms (e.g. “an Asian country” or a “Muslim country”).

Normally, however, we will publish your full name and country of residence (or the country you visited on a short-term mission trip). You have an option to include the name of your city and State or province, your age, and your occupation (e.g. university student, teacher, pastor, “mother of three children” – you can follow the usual format in missionary letters, MySpace, Facebook, your blog profile, etc.) You may also add a few words about your spiritual and worldly interests. If you wish to add the name and/or website address of your church or missionary organization back home, you’re welcome to do so and we’ll be glad to publish it along with your missionary letter. We want to give recognition to people back home who support you.

PHOTOS
We welcome one to three photos about yourself and/or the events, persons or locations described in your testimony. The photos should be e-mailed to us NOT in an attachment, but by inserting them into the body of your e-mail message, after the text. Preferably, one picture should be of yourself, with or without your family, preferably in some real-life situation (not just a portrait). Other photos can include your friends, co-workers, local disciples, or show locations, objects, or events described in your letter. We may contact you in case there are some privacy problems.

HOW TO SEND IT
Please e-mail your testimony to: editor(at)gloriscope.com. Put “Missionary letter” as the subject of your message. Include any photos into the body of your e-mail, not in an attachment.

YOUR CONTACT INFO
If we publish your testimony, we will not publish your e-mail address, unless you specifically tell us that you wish to see it published. If we need to talk with you about some things regarding your text or photos, we may e-mail you to send us your phone number by e-mail, so that we can call you.

PRIVACY AND LEGAL CONCERNS
We want to protect the privacy and security of missionaries and people around them, whether those other people are or are not mentioned in missionary letters. Please protect other people’s privacy and security – when in doubt, choose not to include other people’s sensitive information in your testimony. We will check your text for privacy, legal and security concerns (to avoid libel, for example) and we may need to contact you by e-mail or phone (if safe to do so) to resolve any issues.

If you or we want to change or withhold personal names and/or locations in order to protect other people’s privacy, you and/or we will have to tell our readers that names and locations have been changed or withheld for security reasons. Please tell us in your e-mail if some names have been changed, and, if so, which ones. If we need to change names in your testimony, we will never do so without asking you by e-mail for a permission to do.

Above all, if you are a missionary in a country where security of missionary is an important issue, do not put your security in jeopardy by getting in touch with us through unsecured e-mail connections in the first place.

EDITORIAL CHANGES
No missionary letter will be published without the author’s prior approval of the exact text to be published. If we need to make any editorial changes in your text – in language, length, deleted or changed names, whatever – we won’t do so without getting your consent by e-mail. If we decide to publish your testimony in the unchanged form, we’ll let you know, too.

COPYRIGHT:
You, the author, own the full copyright to your missionary letter and any of your original photos you may send us. If you send us your text and photos, your copyright will NOT get transferred to us. You remain the owner of the copyright. What happens, when you send us your original text and photos, is that you automatically grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide license for electronic rights (not printing rights) to use your submitted text and photos in Gloriscope and any other existing or future publications of 4T4C News Corp. (our company which publishes Gloriscope). You can find further details about copyright in our Terms of Service for Gloriscope.com.

PUBLICATION FEES
At present, we do not pay authors any fees for publication of their missionary letters. We hope, however, that we can create some publicity and prayer support for you that can be of benefit for you in your mission..

THE USUAL DISCLAIMERS
We do not guarantee that any missionary letter text and/or photos received will be published. We disclaim all responsibility and liability regarding your submitted text and photos. (For full details, please see our Terms of Service.)

WE THANK YOU for your willingness to share your missionary letter with us and we thank you for your time in reading these guidelines. May your mission and your letter be to the glory of God and an inspiration and blessing to many people!

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TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!

Published in the U.S.A. Copyright © 4T4C News Corp. 2007-2008. All rights reserved.