Look for opportunities to feature a person who has met the Lord and was irrevocably changed. Write about families that are growing in their relationship with Jesus. Find ways to talk about the work as it affects local people. Missionaries plan their days around the people they serve. Sometimes, however, their newsletters read like postcards from tourists who are visiting ruins and playing on the beach.
Nothing is as discouraging as a newsletter filled with failure.
Without becoming a Pollyanna, look for the positive aspects of the work and write about good things that are happening. Tell them things they can use, give them opportunities to rejoice with you, call on them to share your dreams and participate in your victories for the Lord. A report on the Christmas retreat detailed in the summer issue of your newsletter is not only incongruent, it suggests a lack of organization and hints that there is no urgent information included. Americans have more than enough good material to read. Out of date material is almost as easy to set aside as material that is out of touch.