It is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time with more other people on more different kinds of work from more different corners of the planet and on a more equal footing than at any previous time in the history of the world - using computers, e-mail, fiber-optic networks, teleconferencing, and dynamic new software. - Thomas Friedman [The World is Flat]
Today during our weekly staff meeting at the Elgin Ministry Center, we got to hear prayer requests and stories from an ITeams missionary serving in Soroti, Uganda. This kind of event isn’t all that unusual for us… however, one particular detail made it really interesting: Tim was speaking to us FROM Uganda. Using Skype, a laptop, a computer microphone, and a big speaker we were able to connect with this guy half-way around the world.
Ok… so big deal. We talked to a guy on the phone. Well… yeah… but the real difference is that we used a phone service provided for free via a high-speed internet connection… that was accessed wirelessly with a laptop… and, hey, we even could have recorded the conversation and offered it up as a podcast available on the iteams blog - so that thousands of others could experience the same thing (albeit not live) at potentially the same time. We even had options to e-mail him, chat with him on a cellular phone, pass files and text back and forth using any one of the 10,000 instant messaging clients available… probably incorporating some web cam video in that too…
Friends, what we’ve got here… is a big huge swiss army knife of communications.
No kidding - it never ceases to amaze me what technology allows for us to do… and even more, how fast these things are developing.
I’ve just started reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman… the quote above struck me as I thought about what I do on a daily basis. The communication tools and avenues available to me make almost anything possible… today’s experience during the staff meeting was just one example. The implications for the church and missions are huge in terms of the real-time connection that is available - missionaries and churches praying together for various needs, sharing stories of the work of the Holy Spirit, and collaborating on the details of ministry strategy.
(No doubt there are challenges for this sort of thing as it collides with our relationship with God - I’m mainly speaking of the intense distractions that come with living in such a wired and busy world. Friedman also mentions a couple others… one of them being that bad people have the same options for “collaborating”.)
Early on in the call with Tim today he mentioned that water had been hard to come by lately in Soroti… a result of a particularly rough dry season. As he explained the situation in detail - how it was impacting his family and the community in which they lived - I think all of us who were sitting in the room on this end were probably feeling the same way… scraping for a context to even imagine what that would be like… praying silently to ourselves that God would send rain - and a lot of it.
As the call was wrapping up, Tim said that he thought he heard thunder in the background… I just checked Weather Underground and noticed that there is a chance for precipitation in Soroti every day this week!
