Use Your Tools

I must confess that I don’t love social media. I know that’s an ironic opening for a Facebook post, but it’s nevertheless my perspective. I find that, too often, the cheaper and easier it becomes for us to communicate, the more trivial our content becomes. (Hence, the classic “tweet” about someone’s dog getting a new sweater.) With that being said, my contempt for the negatives of social networking does not mean that I’m not interested in staying connected. On the contrary. “Staying connected” isn’t just a significant part of our Alumni Association mission; it’s an ideal that has come to mean a lot to me personally.

In fact, it was with the natural desire to stay connected that I just recently signed up to receive copies of missionary prayer letters. Let me explain.

Jenny Knowles, the missions secretary at Southwest Baptist Church, has a weekly task of copying missionary prayer letters for our church’s missions committee, as well as any others who request to receive them. I’ve walked into the staff office area many times and seen Miss Jenny sorting missionary letters into their various, requested piles. A little over a month ago, though, it struck me that I would also like to read what the Lord is doing through the missionaries that Southwest supports. I knew there was no way I could read all of the letters for all of the missionaries, but I figured that I could at least read a few. When I asked Miss Jenny about signing up to read some of the letters, she was immediately willing and helpful.

“Which letters would you like to receive?” she asked me. I knew I could receive them by just about any classification—region of the world, certain sections of the alphabet by last name, just the missionaries sent out by Southwest, etc. I probably could have asked her to sort them by shoe size. Miss Jenny is just that good.

“Hmm. How about the letters from Heartland and Pacific Coast graduates?” I asked. Honestly, my response to her question was as based on a whim as requesting the letters in the first place.

“I think I can do that. I’ll actually have to look. I’m not sure which of all of our supported missionaries are graduates. But, yeah, I can do that.” And that was that. The following Wednesday, I received my first stack of letters.

Having now received about 6 weeks’ worth of letters, I can’t even begin to tell you what an unexpected blessing that reading those letters has been. “Staying connected” has taken on fresh meaning as I have read the words, enjoyed the pictures, and seen the hearts of co-laborer classmates and friends. A few resulting observations:

1. I’m shocked by how many missionary letters that “just Heartland graduates” involves! This week alone, I had 13 letters to read! There’s a lot of us out there! What a blessing to watch the fruit of Heartland Baptist Bible College multiply with each graduating class!
2. It’s amazing to realize just how far across the globe that we are scattered. From the comfort of my office chair, I have been able to join the Travises in Nepal, check out prospective buildings with the Hetzers in California, and ride a train with the Reasoners in Russia.
3. One more undeniable reality—God is at work. I know it’s “bad out there” (as some would say), but I would challenge anyone to remain discouraged when you get a better perspective of all God is doing. He is growing beautiful families and exciting churches all across the world.

Now, those of you with friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter might be laughing at my archaic way of staying connected. I understand! I agree! I know there might be easier ways of staying connected, but this is the method for me! And that brings me to my point. Regardless of where God has placed you or what tools you do or do not have at your disposal, it is worth your while to stay connected. Call someone! Text! Email! Post! Tweet! Regardless of how you go about it, the technology of our day leaves you with little excuse for staying isolated or discouraged. My favorite result of reading these letters has been receiving the contact information of graduates I should have chased down long ago. I wouldn’t trade the subsequent phone calls, text messages, or email exchanges for anything, and I’m confident that the same effort on your part would yield the same result. Besides, it’s very possible that some fellow graduate is waiting for you to find your way to “Stay Connected.”