Bridging the Global "Communication Gap"

 I recall when the power of the “world-wide-web” really hit me.

My church, here in Nashville TN, helped build and supports the Nigerian Christian Institute in Nigeria, West Africa. We have been involved in this ministry since 1986.

The means of communication was as follows:

Our church leadership and minister would make decisions about our support (i.e., building a new dormitory). My minister would send a U.S. Postal Express Mail Letter to the headmaster in Nigeria (asking for cost estimates; type of dormitory needed, construction layout, etc.) Arrival time was approximately 3 weeks.

The headmaster in Nigeria would answer the letter and mail it back, taking another 3 weeks.

Thus, decisions about growth of this ministry were taking about 6-8 weeks at a time.

While on a visit there with my church in 1997, the headmaster’s daughter and I brainstormed about ways we could best help this ministry. (She had attended a Christian college in the U.S. and had returned home to assist the school. I was the Staff Assistant at our church.) The school had just gotten internet access. We realized that we could help “bridge the gap” of communication between the school and the church.

When we returned to the U.S., initially, the routine was: 

She would email me communications from her father, the headmaster. I would print it and deliver to my minister, who would then discuss with our leadership. (Our church did not have internet access at that time.) I would them email a response from my minister back to the headmaster's daughter to deliver to her father. This helped shave response time from 6-8 weeks to approximately 3-4 weeks.

However, when my minister & the headmaster realized they could email each other DIRECTLY and exchange ideas & information – both the headmaster’s daughter & I were quietly eliminated from the equation. We were happy to do so…J

Communication, in the past, that was taking 6-8 weeks – was now happening INSTANTLY. Needless to say, the ministry in Nigeria grew tremendously & rapidly and continues to do so even today.

This highlighted several notions for me. First, communication is powerful and transcends globally. And finally, the world is actually smaller and more connected than we may realize and becoming more so every day...