You can’t be prepared for every one of them. Sometimes all you wanted to do was just visit a church while on vacation, not do a presentation about your ministry. But presentations, whether 5 minutes or 60, are a part of a missionaries’ job description and nothing is worse than an unprepared, unorganized, and boring summary of what the Lord has called you to do overseas.

Here are a few tips for turning your presentation from drab to fab:

1. Know what you’ll say. Have a general script focusing on your ministry, your goals, and your needs. Create it for a long presentation (about 30 minutes), but highlight certain key points that could be taken out for a meaty 5 minute presentation as well.
2. Be animated. Have the family participate in telling stories. Recycle the jokes that are guaranteed to get a laugh (your kids may roll their eyes, but your audience will think you’re brilliant). Tell interesting and off the wall facts about your host country that your audience can share with others at dinner parties.
3. Fake it. Even if you aren’t typically organized, practice your script enough times to make it look like you know exactly what you are going to say, exactly how the presentation should go, and exactly how much time you have.
4. Don’t abuse your time frame. No one thinks you are as important as you do, and people are annoyed when you hold them hostage just so you can talk about yourself. Always leave room at the end of a presentation for questions. Leave them wanting more.
5. Use visuals. Pass around those unique Mayan vases you picked up at the local market, show pictures, distribute materials on your ministry. People like to touch and feel, it makes them more connected to the world you came from.
6. BE PASSIONATE!!!! For goodness sakes, you have just given up your entire lives to go and serve this ministry overseas, and you need to convince your audience why this was an opportunity you could not possibly miss out on. Make them want to move there with you, or at least visit for a few weeks. Tell stories about what the Lord is doing there, and mean it! Get your audience so excited about your work there that they will be eager to contribute.

Relax. Take a deep breath and enjoy your presentation. If you can’t enjoy it, no one else will. All you are doing is sharing with your family what you do for a living. This isn’t an audition, and this isn’t going to ruin your ministry. All you are doing is sharing with your friends how the Lord has blessed your life. It’s the best possible thing you could talk about, so enjoy it!

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