Build A Computer Lab

GOING ON A
MISSION TRIP?

BRING A GIFT!
Recycle computers
and BUILD A 
COMPUTER LAB!

Bring a complete computer lab with you on your mission trip!   A gift that keeps giving!!

The following is my testimony of how the Lord Jesus Christ moved and gave me the vision for MissionaryNet. 

     I was attending Beulah Heights Bible College in Atlanta Ga. at the time. I had just been blessed to have had the opportunity to travel to France as part of a church plant team sent there to establish a church among the large Muslim population living in the suburbs of Paris. That was my first trip ever outside North America. When a posting was made at Beulah Heights for an upcoming mission trip to Barbados in the Caribbean  I felt pretty confident about participating in such a event,  having one trip now under my belt, so I enrolled for the trip. The leader of the mission trip, Pradeep Daas, the head librarian of the college, suggested I take the upcoming mission training course offered by the college called M.O.S.T. (Missions Overseas Short Term). M.O.S.T. was an intensive 1 week course where missionaries and mission agencies come together to teach and share what God was doing in the mission field. 

     During the course, a woman, a short-term missionary from a local church, gave a testimony of their trip to Brazil. She told a story of seeing a thousand plus children scavenging from a garbage dump in Rio de Janeiro. Something went off inside at the thought of those kids. It wasn't a good thing that went off though, because it was a mixture of indignation and judgment directed at God. I literally "got in His face" about His neglect in this matter (I hope that doesn't offend anyone, I merely need to be honest). I started to tell Him of His promise to "be a father to the fatherless" when He interrupted me  with a few simple words. "Do something about it". I was stopped dead in my tracks, sort of gulped, and began to take in His words. "Do something about it" I realized, had many aspects to it. It transferred some of the responsibility of the problem to me but at the same time it also brought promise of His empowerment. It also gave me some authority in the matter, for I was able to do the work in His name, not mine. It gave me peace and freedom, also, in that I was only responsible for what I could do. And last, but not least, it gave me a purpose. For the first time I had a purpose which came direct from the Lord Himself.
     

     I now had a purpose, but I didn't have a method. My own preferred method would have been to have a farm for kids to come to. I have a background in agriculture and would really love to have such a place. But when I started seeking the Lord about this, I really started to pray for a way to help the masses of children. In fact, I was willing to forego the farm scene if I could get something for the masses. This issue was on my heart for some time until one day, while returning from my day job (the one I was working my way through college with), I saw an advertisement for a web cam in a newspaper. The web cam was selling for $79.99. I was absolutely blown away by this. I was like the thawed-out Neanderthal seeing this technology for the first time. I had no idea that they had made such leaps in technology and for such reasonable prices.

     This brings up something from the Bible. It is by God's power that we do these things, not our own. One of the amazing things about this call is that I was one that wanted to have nothing to do with technology and had very little skill in it. I actually leaned toward the belief that technology was going to be used as the "mark of the beast". At that time I would have much preferred a cabin the woods to a computer. But it is by His strength and for His glory that we do this.

     So I see the $79.99 webcam and am amazed at the low price for such amazing technology. Immediately the children relief agency Compassion International (thanks to Rebecca St. James for telling me about Compassion International) pops into my head. Compassion maintains a world-wide child sponsorship program where the sponsor receives a picture and a couple letters a year from the sponsored child. I began to put the two together and started thinking about what the effect of having a web cam in the mission field would be. It was a step by step revelation, but think about it. With a web cam  the mission could send pictures, obviously, and if they had email they could send the letters via email. Taking it a step further is the idea that frequent and easy Internet access would enable constant and repetitive email contact. 

     The progression of the ideas of repetitive email contact to distance education is a small one. When we realize that repetitive email contact enables the initiation of distance education we now have the foundation for Internet based missions. The essence of missionary work, I believe, is teaching. I get this from the results of a simple bible word search of the New Testament. If you search for the occurrences of the word "teach" you should notice the constant message that Jesus was a teacher. Everywhere He went, He went teaching and preaching. Teach is one of the four action words of the Great Commission. And distance teaching is a successful and viable use of the Internet.

     To summarize then, I believe the answer to my prayer was the revelation of the effect of combining a child sponsorship program together with Internet capabilities together with the teaching mandate of the Great Commission. My ministry then, is to deliver that revelation to the local church so that they may use it in whatever way the Lord leads them to. I have put together the latest of Internet tools to help equip the churches for that type of work. The tools are usable for introducing Internet mission work as well as enhancing current church teaching events. All for the Glory of God!

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