October 2010 Skinner Family Prayer Letter



Dear family and friends:
Here are some notes to catch you up on what God is doing in our ministry.

Primary ministry site: GodLife.com

Last year I mentioned our "mega-site," GodLife.com. It was designed from the beginning to serve both desktop and mobile users.

Chapel

We've added something there called "GodLife Chapel." Not in any way a reduction of our efforts to get new believers into local churches, It's just a new outreach to provide some Christian fellowship, worship and teaching for those who have no other outlet. It features worship music from Hillsong, sermons from speakers like John Ortberg, Greg Laurie and Francis Chan and a chat-like way for visitors to interact with us.

Live Chat

The "Chat with us!" button has been appearing on many pages of GodLife.com, alerting visitors that live help is available. A team I'm working alongside is beginning to staff this feature, and we've been getting great questions like, "How do I discover my purpose in life?" "How can I get the Holy Spirit into my life?" and "How do I share Christ daily with friends on Facebook?"
Speaking of Social Media, I've also been part of a team creating discipleship-related posts on our GodLife Facebook page (see us at http://facebook.com/GodlifePage and http://twitter.com/GodLifeTweets ) I think social media could become kind of a "glue" that would integrate some of our other approaches to discipleship—as I was hosting open chat two weeks ago, I invited the Facebook fans to join me. (We're at around 13,000 of them now!) About 22 of them did—and I believe that five prayed with me to receive Christ!

Difficult Theological Questions

For a few years now I have been the Community Leader of GMO's "Difficult Theological Questions" community. A Community Leader provides guidance for the Online Missionaries and directs traffic flow. One of the advantages is that I often take over for other Online Missionaries who have retired from service or are having trouble. I get some interesting contacts that way.
Dot, in the U.K., is one such contact I inherited last year, and she has been quite a blessing. Six years ago, she told my friend Harry that she prayed to receive Christ. Since then she had occasionally asked for prayer over concerns in her life. At some point I remarked that it had been several years since her decision for Christ and asked if she noticed things changing, or were circumstances still a big influence on her satisfaction in life? That really started some great conversations. We started going through a discipleship program together, she started reading the Bible on her own, tentatively sharing her faith, and looking for a good church.
GMO held more "Million Visitor Days" on September 16 and October 2, 2011.
Approximate results:
2,046,931 visitors
234,529 indicated decisions
26,827 emails
65,319 discipleship visits
Dot wrote me, "This is an important mission that is not for the faint hearted, and the world needs you. There are so many people out there whose chance for eternity, need for love, for support, for understanding, and for knowledge of His Word and other spiritual needs may depend on whether or not they have someone like you.
"You have always come through for me when I literally was feeling like I had absolutely no one else in the entire world, and consumed with fear. I don't know what I would have done without this support which I believe is God working through you."
Of course, Dot doesn't fully understand that we, in turn, are here because God is working through you! I just wanted to share a few ways your faithfulness translates into turning seekers into equipped laborers for the harvest field!!
Love, in Christ,
P.S. Please see our latest photos!
Mike and Cindy Skinner
"One day closer!" (Romans 13:11)





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