Near the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, I started hearing reports about spiritual seekers turning to the internet in greater numbers. I decided to increase the amount of money our church was spending to promote Christian resources through Facebook posts in other languages targeting unreached people groups. Whether because of this, or the fear aroused by the pandemic, or something else, private messages started pouring in! I was getting an average of one new message every hour throughout the day and night! I would wake up every day to 10-12 unread messages in the inbox! However, most of the writers did not speak any English, and I have only very limited skills in one Middle Eastern language. I reached out to some friends in the Middle East and one of them found a local believer (“Harry”) who was willing to respond to messages. We started promoting posts in his country only and Harry started spending gobs of his free time messaging with seekers. He knows a little English, I know a little of his language, and my friend acts as a translator between us in a separate chat.
Harry has been able to connect seekers with local believers for follow up…Through [his] updates, our church has been given a glimpse into how God is working.
While many people write in with the intention to argue, Harry seems to have a gift for knowing who to engage in deeper conversation. He had a conversation with one man who was trying to convert him to the majority religion, but by the end of the conversation, that guy wanted to get together so he could learn more about the Bible. Another time, someone who is strong in the majority religion expressed gratitude for the scriptures Harry was posting and asked him to please post every day. Harry was very happy about this and rejoiced, “Thanks to Jesus! His word is working in my country!” A few people have been so ready to turn to Christ that the very first question they sent was “How do I become a Christian?” or “How can I follow Jesus?” Harry has been able to connect seekers with local believers for follow up and he has coordinated with a few to receive Bibles.
Both Harry and my friend have been encouraged by this outreach. My friend has also been responding to some of the messages and says he has been especially blessed by learning from Harry. He is exploring the possibility of having another local believer join so he can learn from Harry’s approach.
Through Harry’s updates, our church has been given a glimpse into how God is working. At one point, I was online while Harry was conversing with someone who wanted to know how to follow Jesus. I sent a quick text to our church prayer team so they could join in prayer. A little later in the day, Harry shared a praise about someone else who had just then asked how to follow Jesus. I also shared this with the prayer team so they could rejoice in how God was working and continue praying. What an encouraging day!
A couple of days later, I woke up to two messages from Harry: a woman was wanting to know more about Jesus, and a young man had met with Harry the night before to learn more about how to follow Jesus. What an awesome privilege it has been to have a front row seat to just one small part of what God is doing as he uses his laborers and the internet to carry the gospel to the unreached.
If anyone is interested in starting a small online ministry like this one or participating in a larger one that is already in place and offers free training, feel free to email beacon@cmcrosedale.org for more information.
2 Responses
Wow, Jessica, this is so exciting! I heard from a church leader in Ethiopia that their virtual worship services are being attended clandestinely by many Muslim seekers — many using pseudonyms so as to remain anonymous. He said, “for them God turned the evil (of COVID) into good.”
He also said he’s challenging their church which was underground during the 80s and part of the 90s due to a Marxist government. “COVID is more challenging than Communism. Let us challenge it and multiply our membership when we resume our worship program as we did when communism ended in Ethiopia.” (The church grew from 5,000 to 50,000 and spread to each province during the underground communist era.)
–Jewel Showalter
Oh wow! That’s super exciting, Jewel! I think when we get to heaven we are going to be amazed at all the ways God was working and all the people who were being drawn into the kingdom during this unprecedented time. One large Christian organization reported that at the beginning of the pandemic they had seekers tuning into their website in record numbers. On their page where they have an invitation to begin a relationship with Jesus, they had seekers clicking the “I want to begin a relationship with Jesus” button every 2 minutes 24/7!! I think even now, with the total breakdown of our society and the loss of trust in information, people are beginning to hunger for truth and a solid foundation to build their lives upon. May we be ready to point them to the source of truth!