Recently I overheard a new phrase from some of our overseas missionaries:  “Skypleship.”   Discipleship is happening in amazing, fruitful ever increasing ways through Skype – a software tool which allows people to talk face to face over the internet for free.

Skypleship is most likely happening right now, across many time zone and country boundaries. At a conference called MinistryNet – which our team sponsored several months ago, our staff in Central Asia shared how they have used Skypleship as a filtering strategy as well as a means to interact with disciples.

Several times a month, staff spend a half an hour or so searching for Skype contacts in particular cities (Skype users may choose to be “listed” in a directory of sorts, showing as much or little contact information as they wish – such as location).  Like a phone book, once you find another Skype user you want to communicate with, you send a request to that person and, if they accept, you can just push the “CALL” button on Skype and then a chat, voice or video conversation is started.  In several locations in Central Asia, staff find that Skype users contacted often will be interested to talk at least for a few minutes once they learn that the person on the other end is actually from his or her region.  Staff ask a few questions about the person’s interests, including spiritual interests.  According to the staff, a decent percentage of people indicate a desire to talk about God, sometimes even leading to a face to face appointment for coffee or tea.

Once a relationship is established, contacts indicating further interest in Jesus can be invited to join a 5 or 6 week topical discussion group via Skype. This discussion group is a Bible study of sorts.

A few weeks ago we posted the scoop on Global Media Outreach – one of Campus Crusade’s Global Evangelistic Web Site Strategies.  Want to learn how easy it is to be involved in reaching out to people all over the globe through your home computer?  Volunteer with Global Media Outreach (GMO).  As the image above describe, almost 2 million people every day look for God by searching for Him on the Internet!  A large percentage of these are visiting sites such as Jesus2020.com, TrueLoveandGod.com and 4StepstoGod.mobi – these are just 3 of hundreds of web sites GMO operates.

See how people are coming to faith in real time.  This map is very cool to watch!

In 2009, Global Media Outreach:

• Presented the gospel 61,695,024 times
• Saw 10,502,641 people indicate a decision for Jesus
• GMO volunteers responded to 1,943,585 emails requesting follow up from 191 countries

For another view of internet evangelism in real time, check out another real time estimate of numbers of people coming to faith.  This one is not associated with Global Media Outreach:  http://www.internetevangelismday.com/worldpopulation.php

Would you pick out a couple of requests and pray for them on the appropriate days?  Thanks!

Click the image below or visit this link for a printable calendar (download pdf file):

More often than not, movies tell a story that has some idea that is related to God, spirituality or topic that Jesus talked about.

Why not go to the movies with some friends who don’t know God and then discuss it with them afterwards?  You’d need to be prepared to ask some good questions – which is always key in transitioning a conversation to the gospel.

Global Short Film Network is an entire ministry dedicated to leveraging short films – less than 20 minutes, usually lower budget films, not 2 hour blockbuster movies – to fuel gospel centered conversations.  Visit their web site here and click on “Training” to see how to get started.  You can actually watch their training videos to see examples of how to use the films.

You can even download films from their web site to your iPhone or laptop for easy sharing.  Many students now share the films on their phone with friends.

Want to watch one of the films featured on Global Short Film Network?  Visit their home page and click play!

Click the map below to see a live, real time geo corrdinated map of evangelistic web site visitors from around the world.  See who is searching for Jesus right now.  Amazing:

Are you looking for a way to make an eternal difference for Christ? Wondering how you can help tell the world about Jesus? Global Media Outreach has several inspiring and exciting opportunities and hands-on activities to help you pass on your spiritual gifts and talents while learning how to use technology to spread the gospel.

Global Media Outreach offers you many different ways to help spread the Gospel by using one of our online widgets, sending a gospel email, linking to a gospel website and more.

Find out how your church can begin its own online missions program. Or, if you are looking for a way to share your faith, they provide the training and a safe, online environment. Just a little time online each week and you can share Jesus with the world.

I have been volunteering for GMO for about 3 years – responding to about 3 emails a week.  The emails come from visitors to evangelistic web sites all over the world.  Here is what my GMO inbox looked like earlier this week – this is a screen shot from an actual message I received.  Results like this have been typical for me at least 2x per month.

Showing the true love of Jesus to someone means truly caring for them.  Truly caring means listening well.  Listening well means asking good questions.

Being prepared with a few simple questions is important.  Asking good questions allows you the opportunity to hear where your friend has been, where he is now, and where he desires to be spiritually.

Take a look at this pdf file which you can print out or store on your phone or mobile device:  50 Powerful Questions

Many of these questions could be followed up with this question:  “Has anyone ever sat down and explained to you how a personal relationship with God could make a difference in this area of your life?”  “Would you like to hear how?”

Take a look at question #47.  It’s a really good transition question.  Ask it and then ask the questions above.  Pray first, then ask the questions.  Then see what happens.  Successful evangelism is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.

Had a great time at the men’s breakfast at the conference this morning.  We were encouraged each other and the Word:

Christ leads us in triumphal procession – this includes evangelism.  The Great Commission was His original idea and it is His work.  Always Jesus leads us to be the fragrance – the very presence of God.

See 2 Corinthians 2:14 – 3:5

Here’s the link to the book and helpful web site – Etertaining for Eternity – which I mentioned.  Highly, highly practical tips for using hospitality as a personal outreach tool.

Successful evangelism is taking the initiative to share Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results to God.

Here’s a great article which gives a real life example of how you can do this very thing.  Think of it as “Prayer, Care, and then Share.”  In fact, that’s the title of the article:  Prayer, Care and Share.

During and after the conference, I’ll be sharing my thoughts about topics raised and asking pertinent questions.  I’ll be doing this in a digitally social fashion.

There are several avenues available to enable this digitally social conversation.  Feel free to just “listen in” or reply with your comments, thoughts and questions.  Here’s how.  Choose any of the methods below that works best for you:

Mobile phone text messages:

I have set up a special phone number for this.  Just send me a text to (407) 278-8185.  Text something like “add me 2the conversation for this weekend’s conference.”  From there I will put your mobile number on my list to include in the conversation.  You will not receive unwanted texts from me or others.

Web:

www.HandsHeadlines.com – our family blog.  Post your comments and questions there, receive an email (optional) of all the responses and follow up comments.  Just click the link below the title of any post where it says “Comments and Reactions.”  Note that you may sign in with your Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo account to synchronize comments on both our blog and your Facebook wall, for example.

Facebook:

If you are not my friend on Facebook, you can find me at facebook.com/dhandman Every time I respond or comment in the ongoing conversation, I’ll update my status with the content.  From there you can comment, ask, or just say you “like this.”  It’s easy.

Twitter:

My account = @dhand  You do not have to sign up for Twitter to follow my posts and replies from others there.  Just go to http://twitter.com/dhand and read it all there.  However, if you want to “talk back” using Twitter, then you must have a Twitter account.  Twitter is also very good for text message response and delivery.  You can configure your Twitter account to work with your mobile phone texts.

RSS Feed:

“Listen Only” Point your web broswer to http://hellotxt.com/dhand and just read the scroll.  Click the RSS Feed Icon just below and to the right of “Lifestream” to see the RSS Feed.  From there you can subscribe to the RSS Feed as you normally do using Google Reader or any feed readers.

See our previous post for info on Global Aid Network (GAiN) – they’re doing a great work in Haiti.  Already they have distributed 1,000,000 meals.  Read below how you can participate with them in sending a hygiene kit(s).

Two Campus Crusade staff members – Haitian nationals – are still missing in Haiti.  We’ve not heard from them in over two weeks.  Also, a few student leaders involved with Campus Crusade in Port-au-Prince died during the earthquake.  Please continue to pray for our missionaries and volunteers, that the love and compassion of Jesus would work through them to heal lives.

See more updates with video and links on ccci’s main web site here.

This is a recent photo some of our staff with GAiN sent in.

Esperandieu Pierre – director of Campus Crusade in Haiti – in front of a container with meals before distributing.  (Photo taken several months ago.  As the Lord arranged it, several containers were already on the ground in Haiti when the earthquake hit).

Tags: pray, hygiene, Haiti, earquake, missing, prayer, help, give, send, kit, relief, aid, GAiN, meals