Guest blog by Susan Meissner (Be sure to tune into Living Inspired today at 3:30 PM CST to hear my live interview with Susan!)
Every day, two million people around the globe are searching for God, for meaning, for hope, for love. And they are looking on the Internet, using search engines like Google to find the answers. If you’re like me, you want them to get the right answers.
Global Media Outreach feels that way, too. They launched a program a couple years ago that routes seeking people to websites that give them the true answers, right out of the Word of God, from real people, not just auto-responders. The program is called Online Missionaries. If you’ve wished you could help people find Christ in the farthest reaches of the world but knew you didn’t have the skills or the call to be a field missionary, then you don’t have to just wish anymore. GMO’s online missionary program trains people just like you and me to answer people’s questions about God from every corner of the world.
I have been an online missionary since May and I’ve personally responded to nearly 100 people from countries such as the Philippines, India, Iraq, and Nigeria. Some people just want to know who Christ is. Some want to know how to live the Christian life. Some want to know if God answers prayer, or if He is loving, or if He forgives. They are coming to Global Media Outreach websites from Google searches that lead them to online missionaries like me. Sometimes our email conversations will last several weeks, sometimes just a couple days. Sometimes I won’t hear back from them. But I always pray for them and send them a verse from the Bible that reaches them right where they are at.
Becoming an online missionary isn’t difficult: You need to apply, have two people ready to give a spiritual reference, and watch the short training videos. Then you will have 30 days of training with another online missionary while you actually start answering emails. You don’t have to use your last name and you never have to talk about where you live or give any other personal info. All correspondence takes place on the GMO server, so your identity is completely safe.
You can sign up to answer as few as three or four emails a week, and you can set your inbox for away-time when you go on vacation. There’s also a wonderful collection of online resources to help you answer people’s questions about God. And you can save responses that you have composed that you might want to use again for someone else who has the same question.
Here’s a great website to help you get started or to just get more information.
I have been amazed by the people I have met while being an online missionary, and I’m grateful for the ability to use my computer, something I am on every day, to help people find Christ and know Christ.
I’d be happy to answer any questions anyone might have. (Here are a few GMO websites – the very same ones people are directed to when they go onto Google and type, for example, “Who is Jesus?” – http://looktojesus.com/ and http://www.godlife.com)
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