Want to read the story of a pioneer in internet ministry? How the ‘Light’ came into John Edmiston’s life and sent him into cyberspace is an interesting story.
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Seeking seeker dialogues
A friend wrote today:
You have mentioned several times a place were seekers can go to enter dialogue. Can you tell me the link to that site?
Perhaps this will be useful you also. I responded that there are two types of dialogue that we use in our evangelistic outreaches: email conversations and live chat.
Most of our major evangelistic sites have a form as the last page on a site that a site visitor (seeker, questioner, new believer) can indicate they would like someone to contact them for dialogue. This will lead to email conversations with a trained mentor. Some examples:
- http://godlovestheworld.com/
- http://secretsofsuccess.com/people/varela.html
- http://powertochange.com/landing/joj.html
Click Yes on any of these and you’ll see the form. (Don’t click YES too many times as each YES indicates an initial decision to receive Christ. But since we’ve received 475,000 through the end of Sept, a click or two won’t mess with our statistics!!!)
Some of our evangelistic sites also offer chat opportunites (as different from email questions/answers). These chat opportunities are organized by topic and time. Some examples (chat calendar on left side of page):
- http://powertochange.com/
- http://christianwomentoday.com/
- http://womentodayonline.com/
- http://mentodayonline.com/
Send your friends who don’t yet know Jesus to some of these sites. They will be well cared for!
An interview with Keith and Kay
Kay and I were interviewed last Saturday night as part of Global Impact Week (missions conference) at Grace Bible Church.
1. Keith and Kay’s ministry focuses on using current day technology to reach people for Christ. In the past you have shared with us some of the success stories of internet ministry. Is internet ministry continuing to grow?
Yes, in fact it is accelerating. Right now on Campus Crusade websites alone, every 5 seconds someone sees the gospel. Every minute someone indicates a decision for Christ. Every 3 minutes an email conversation begins between a seeker and a trained counselor.
These are statistics, and they are exciting. But every one of these has a name like Exxxxx in Accra Ghana and Exxxxx in Tblisi Georgia. I know these names because these are ones I’ve personally emailed in the past few weeks as we discussed their spiritual journey. This afternoon I received an email from Mxxxxx who prayed to receive Christ yesterday. He lives in Doha, Qatar. I don’t know where the conversation will go, but we will begin tonight.
2. I have heard you have a story about Steve using a new tool your team has developed. Tell us about this.
When Kay and I lived in Nigeria, I frequently faced problems. Sometimes a village chief would not give us permission to show the Jesus film in his village. Sometimes someone recording a portion of the Jesus film would object to the translation and insist we translate it differently.
I knew that somewhere in the world, others had faced these problems before. They had solved them effectively. I felt like I was a lone ranger having to resolve problems all by myself. I felt disconnected from others.
I returned from Africa with a deep desire to make it easy for laborers to connect with one another and with the best resources. That was part of what led us to get involved in the internet 15 years ago, placing ministry tools on the internet for professors to use with their students.
Over the past 3 years, we have been developing a global solution to this disconnectedness. My colleague Doug has been directing this project. We call it Global ConneXion. It’s a major technology solution, something like Yahoo e-groups on steroids.
Earlier this year, we were having some difficulties getting Global ConneXion “to market”. Doug asked Steve, a business consultant and friend, to come in and help us with our final 6 month push to deliver GCX in September.
I remember that first meeting last February. Doug and I were sitting in my living room with our GCX leadership and Steve. As Steve learned more about GCX, he became very excited. He said, “This is exactly what we need for our Izere Project.”
We learned that Steve had been involved in a project to reach the Izere people of Nigeria, very near where Kay and I lived for 15 years. The Izere Project involves multiple organizations like The Seed Company which is part of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Cedar Mill Bible Church in Portland Oregon, and the Great Commission Movement of Nigeria which is the local name for Campus Crusade for Christ. It also involves multiple strategies. There is Bible translation, literacy training, Jesus Film evangelism, and New Life Training Center discipleship.
They have been very systematic. They have surveyed the villages. They are training at least 2 people in every village to read so that when the Bible is delivered, there will be readers in each of the 130 Izere villages.
But Steve was very aware of the communication problems. Most didn’t know where to get the latest copy of the village survey. Most didn’t know where to get the literacy training materials, or the NLTC training curriculum for basic training. Sometimes they were praying for a prayer request that had already been answered.
Steve immediately recognized that the GCX tool would help them. Now they have one place to go to share their prayer requests and learn of God’s answers. Now they have one place to get everyone’s email addresses, and know when they have changed. Now they have one place to get the most recent versions of any documents.
God has allowed Kay and I to be a part of fulfilling a dream that began 25 years ago in Nigeria. Global ConneXion is currently being used by 300 communities both inside and outside Campus Crusade for Christ. Laborers are being connected to each other and to information.
3. You also travel the world. What is the purpose behind these trips?
What attracted us to CCCI as students was the strong emphasis on training and discipleship. For the last 30 years, we’ve been involved in training and discipling others. Currently we are developing next generation leaders, particularly the technology leaders in the 12 regions of the world.
Oumar is one of those we’ve worked with. Oumar lives in Bamako, Mali. It is probably one of the last places you’d associate with internet technologies.
We’ve helped Oumar develop a strategic plan for his area. He has implemented an email solution and is giving email addresses to the 1000 staff in French-speaking Africa so they can email one another to share ministry ideas, and to encourage and pray for one another.
We do this by traveling to their areas, by hosting conferences, and by many conversations. Our goal is to develop the Oumars of the world into leaders for the next generation.
Watch your language
I read this interesting comparison of terms. It is very insightful. I have been changing my vocabulary to be more “join with you in the journey” as I talk with fellow travelers on airplanes and other opportunities. I thought you might benefit from it also.
Doing what we love
DOING WHAT WE LOVE TO DO
September found Kay and I spending 3 weeks helping lead 8 conferences developing leaders from around the world. Building into others is one of our greatest privileges.
When I was a student at Texas A&M University, Frank came by my dorm room one afternoon and shared how I could know God personally. Frank was a fellow student who loved to tell others about Jesus. I had already made the decision to accept Christ as a youngster through my parents and my church. Frank continued to meet with me and help me learn to grow as a Christian. During those months of growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I decided to invest my life helping others learn to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit every day, to live life abundantly, and to invest in the lives of others. When Kay and I married, we began to dream together of fulltime opportunities to disciple others and soon joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ.
For 30 years, we’ve had the privilege of helping build strong disciples and develop leaders.
So spending 3 weeks in beautiful Budapest, Hungary with 80 leaders from around the world was awesome. We love doing this. The greatest part about our time in Budapest was not the “touristy” opportunities (which we did thoroughly enjoy!), but rather the privilege of helping fulfill the Great Commission through growing our capacity to build and sustain movements of evangelism and discipleship in every location in the world.
What does building discipleship infrastructure look like? It looks like Ray developing training curriculum in computer skills and teaching staff throughout the Middle East so their computers become tools to create and distribute evangelistic and discipleship materials.
It looks like Oumar setting up email accounts for staff throughout French-speaking Africa so they can hold email conversations with young people who are seeking Jesus. It looks like Russ and Mark developing a flash drive of software that will run on any computer so that staff who do not own a computer can take their “mobile office” into any internet café to easily communicate ministry ideas with one another. It looks like Richard flying from Singapore to countries around the Pacific Rim helping them plan strategically and wisely.
Kay and I help develop these leaders who then multiply throughout their areas of the world. We love this! It’s not work, it’s a privilege.
MEETING WITH MINISTRY PARTNERS
During the next few weeks, Kay and I are doing another thing we love. We are meeting personally with many of you, our faithful partners. We can share more stories and answer your questions.
Kay and I continue to have the privilege of being your partners in this mission. Together, we are building leaders. Together we are building capacity for the Great Commission. We appreciate doing what we love with people like you.
SKYPE IS EFFECTIVE IN INTERNET EVANGELISM
Oumar Diagne, technology leader for French-speaking Africa, writes: S.D. came into my office very enthusiastically and told me “Oumar, I have a success story!” He told me how he had a ministry opportunity with a man using SKYPE (computer to computer communication). S. D. told the man that he and his wife worked with Campus Pour Christ. The man replied that it was hard for him to work with his wife at the office and that it was better that she remain at home. As the conversation progressed, S. D. discovered that his friend was actually divorced. S.D. agreed to keep everything confidential and continued by presenting the Gospel to the man while on-line. The man broke down in tears, which S.D. could see through his Web camera, and he led his friend in a prayer to receive Jesus as his Savior and Lord!
NOTE: Oumar is the technology leader for French-speaking Africa. He is a leader in using internet technologies for evangelism and discipleship throughout Africa.
DID YOU KNOW…
- that Campus Crusade for Christ staff maintain over 600 websites in almost 30 languages?
- that you can search these 600 websites? Click here to test it out.
- that over 300 communities of purpose have been formed in our Global ConneXion community tool over the past several months? (Visit here to learn more.)
You can download and print this prayer letter here: Doing what we love.