Tom and Becky Young Using technology to connect YOU with churchplants among unreached people groups 
Just like Mr. Smith (Jimmy Stewart) in the Frank Capra movie, I went to Washington, DC this week. Our purposes were different, though. He went to change the U.S. government, I went to learn from the U.S. government.
Along with two other members of NTM USA, we had an opportunity to meet with a division of the State Department tasked to advise and assist US companies, non-profit and faith-based organizations in the area of overseas safety. Some of our people have had a long-standing relationship with this group; this, however, was my first face-to-face encounter with them. Two of us were particularly interested in meeting with their head of cybersecurity to get a better feel for what resources may be available to us in terms of informing our IT departments in other countries about risk management, as well as any other topics that might touch on our efforts to provide a safe information sharing environment for our U.S. members serving in other countries.
NTM USA was also able to give them some information on technologies NTM was finding effective in terms of crisis management, to which they seemed impressed and thankful to hear, so it became a two-way street on information sharing. Our hosts were gracious enough to give us 1-1/2 hours of their time, and we definitely came away feeling it was well-spent, as well as making some contacts within the Federal Government that will hopefully strengthen a relationship for the future.
Since becoming the Director of Information Technology for NTM USA I’ve had to think and operate in a larger context for the good of the organization. In the past I may not have considered what impact working with the State Dept. could have for good.  I can now see presenting NTM’s specific IT interests and concerns to some of these larger audience can strengthen not only our relationships with others but our own perception of the role Information Technology plays in our organizational success.
With the knowledge I’ve gained from this meeting I intend to make some efforts to inform other faith-based groups with whom I am in contact at the annual meeting of the International Conference on Computing and Mission (ICCM – www.iccm.org), which meets next weekend at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. I want to share the good that came out of our time in Washington, and see if other organizations have like experiences with the Federal government from which we can benefit.
