2016 will see some changes to the frequency of publication of the RA curriculum. Starting in September 2016, RA World, RA Leader and the RA Resource Kit will be published on a quarterly basis. You will begin receiving them on a quarterly basis and they will cover 3 months instead of the current 2 months.

Why the change, you might ask? Good question. As you may or may not know, WMU does not do the actual printing or mailing of the RA material. These tasks have been farmed out, currently to a company located in Kentucky. Well, that company got bought out and the new company was not willing to renew the current contract terms at a cost effective price. WMU searched the marketplace and found a new printer/mailer that will take over the printing and mailing at the current cost. On an annual basis there will be no cost increase and content will stay the same. It will just be packaged 3 months at a time instead of the current 2 months. This change will also apply to the GA and CA curriculum as well helping WMU standardize on subscriptions and keep costs in check. Beginning in September, almost all WMU curriculum will then be quarterly helping keep costs down. This will also match most churches Sunday School curriculum ordering and delivery which should simplify ordering for church ministry assistants.

Another change that I think you will like is that the Annual RA Promo pack is being redesigned. The Awards poster and Attendance Poster are being removed so that the Promo pack will have a 3 to 5 year shelf life thus saving some money by not having to purchase them each year. The Awards Poster and Attendance Chart will be included in the September issue of the Annual RA Resource Kit at no additional charge. Additional individual copies will also be available for purchase if you need more copies.

The 2016/17 theme for Missions Education will be "By All Means" and is based on 1 Corinthians 9:19-22. You will begin seeing this in the September RA curriculum.

The 2017 Childrens Ministry Day theme will be "Love Your Neighbor". The 2016 International Mission Study will be available June 1 and is focused on what is termed "The Nordic Cluster", Norway, Sweden & Finland.

A curriculum focus group of about 30 men and women met with the WMU writing team to brainstorm ideas about RA, GA, CA, Acteen and Challenger curriculum. In the time they met many great ideas were discussed, more than we have space to talk about here but I do want to share 2 major themes that were heard by WMU. The group would like more digital content of the current curriculum. That content would not take the place of printed content, it would be in addition to give you more options. The other major idea is more of what I call the backstory of the Missionary featured that month. More stories in the Missionaries own words and more about what they do on a daily basis to build the relationships with the people they are ministering to in order to plant the next church. Many of our Missionaries are serving in secular capacities in their places of service as the means to meet people, build relationships and share the Gospel and we want to hear more about how they do that. While no promises were made, the message was heard loud and clear, so hopefully we will see some shifts towards meeting these requests in the near future.