Touching the world--and being touched by the world--through new media

Many of you know that despite the fact that it's necessary for us to continue to build our team of ministry partners, we are actively involved in a part of our ministry: helping to staff the world's first Internet-based Ministry Response Center. It's really a blast--I get to follow up, disciple and answer seeker questions coming in from people from all over the world.

Last month, responses came from England, France, Slovenia, Romania, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, India, Malaysia, The Philippines, New Zealand, and even Pakistan and Algeria. I personally handled 71 responses, (and I'm only one of over 300 volunteers), communicated the Gospel, prayer, doctrine and encouragement with Christians and seekers from all these countries.
  • Helped a believer in Ethiopia get a bible through Campus Crusade's office in Addis Ababa.

  • Helped answer the question, "Where in the Bible does it say I can pray a prayer and be saved"

  • I helped a seeker in India who came to us saying, " I AM IN DEEP TROUBLE. AS I WAS BROWSING FOR SOMETHING I FOUND THIS SITE . I READ THE PRAYER FELT HAPPY ABOUT SAYINGS .THEN I THOUGHT TO PRAY THE SAYING.GOT DOUBT WHETHER TO PRAY OR NOT. PLZ HELP ME"
  • Another gentleman, also in India, simply wrote, "Who is Yasu?"

  • Frederick, in Tanzania, writes "What is the relationship between primeval history and Biblical history as we read in Genesis 1 - 11?"

  • Refiloe, in Zimbabwe, writes that she has prayed to receive Christ for the first time, and adds, "I would like to be helped in praying and getting the greatest blessings of God. I would also like to be a member of the church. God bless you"

  • An anonymous believer from Algeria, writes that he has a question before he is ready to receive Christ: "What is the Kingdom of God? I don't know, tell me."

  • Young Timothy, in England (assisted by his dad) writes, "Is that what Jesus really looks like?"

  • Victoria, in Malaysia, is unsure about her relationship with God and wants to know how she can know for sure she is a Christian.

  • Tanya, from Minnesota, writes, "Are my sins washed away, even though I don't confess with a priest?"

In India and Pakistan, Christians number around 2% of the population. Of course, in Algeria, it's more like .29%. There are tremendous needs and challenges in all of these countries, and sometimes the challenge to faith comes not from poverty and persecution but abundance and secularism, like in our country. (See Ezekiel 16:49) One thing we can leverage, though, is our wealth of communication resources, our Biblical education, and our time to instantaneously reach across boundaries and touch someone with Jesus' love who  desparately needs it. Would you consider joining us in this volunteer effort? Imagine being the first to be able tell a brand-new Christian from the 10/40 Window what Jesus has done for them.

When you became a Christian, several things happened:
-Christ came into your life (Revelation 3:20)
-You became a child of God (John 1:12)
-You received the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:15), and were baptized by Him into the Body of Christ! (1 Corinthians 12:13)
-ALL your sins were forgiven (Colossians 1:14, Hebrews 10:12)
-You now have the gift of eternal life, (1 John 5:11)--and God doesn't take His gifts back! (Romans 11:29)

These brothers and sisters in Christ need the assurance that God's Word can provide them; and keeping it from them is like hoarding any other resource. They may ask questions that make you uncomfortable or challenge your theology. But you have all the time you need to pray and ask God for guidance, and scour His Word for the answers to their questions and yours. Why don't you take a moment to look at the Response Center?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have all contracted the virus....

Last week and this weekend, I spent precious development time trying to rid myself of unwanted software on my coumputer called " Virtumonde ." Believe it or not, I'm pretty new to viruses and that kind of thing, coming from a background of developing on the Macintosh platform and using the Windows platforms to deliver product on. Well, this was a nasty wake up call to what Windows users have to deal with all the time. Virtumonde is called "Adware" and it's something that has sneaked on to your computer either by being installed along with some kind of trial software, or getting past your computer's defenses on the network. Its job is to watch what you do at all times with your computer, then occasionally pop up advertisements. In my case, most of the time, these advertisements were for anti-virus software. But they kept popping up an installation window for the software and beginning the installation even when I clicked, "no" for "do you w
Read more

2023—Week21: Ezra01-Nehemiah11; John19-Acts04

Ezra-Nehemiah 11 : In the Jewish Canon, Ezra and Nehemiah are one book, and, although the division in ours makes sense, it’s clear that they cover the same basic period. They form one answer to the question at the end of 2 Chronicles’ hanging question, “Therefore, who among the LORD's people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 36:23, ISV) Yet despite their trust, the people are greatly weakened until the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah (and Haggai and Zechariah, Ezra 5:1) encourage them. Ezra’s trust is clearly represented in 8:22, where he is ashamed to request a protective guard for the fortune in treasures he carries, instead trusting in the hand of God for protection. Ezra’s prayer in Ezra 9, Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11, and the people’s covenant prayer in 9:5-37 are the outcome. Faith precedes confession, because we don’t fully understand how badly we fall short until it’s revealed to us. Even then, we ne
Read more

1 Samuel 28-29; Psalm 106; Romans 10

  June 4 : In Job 34:14 and Psalm 104:29, the authors make the point that if God withdraws His Spirit, we die and return to the dust. In today’s three passages, I see how crucial His continual presence is in my life. He withdrew His Spirit from Saul, and it upended his reign and legacy. He sent leanness to the souls of the Israelites in response to their repeated concupiscence and whining at Him about what He was providing. The religious leaders in Israel by the New Testament times had been purified to some extent of yearning for carnal pursuits and of literal idolatry by the captivity’s exposure to a carnal and idolatrous culture, but they had become religious relativists, taking their extreme fastidiousness about the Law as evidence of their holiness, while ignoring the purpose of the Law, which was to make them dependent upon God, to be ready for His salvation, to long for the true holiness they couldn’t find in themselves. As Paul has said, I have to avoid the ever-present temptati
Read more