Recently, an International Mission Board team in Southeast Asia asked a young woman if she had heard the story of Jesus. She replied that, yes, she had heard about Him through a video online!
“Back in the day,” shared Amanda Clarkston, an IMB missionary who has served in Southeast Asia for 33 years, “when I first came on the field, you’d go somewhere and gather all the people together in the village to watch the JESUS film.”
Now, face-to-face conversations about Christ on the Southeast Asian islands are harder to accomplish. While teams travel to these remote islands often, living in a sparsely populated, animistic background culture as a foreigner creates suspicion and make long-term ministry difficult.
Furthermore, young people today have become more comfortable with talking online than they are in person, Clarkston said, which is true of the islanders as well. Attempting to have a spiritual conversation face-to-face has become “too much” for locals, Clarkston shared.
So, how do you share the gospel with multiple people groups who are constantly online and less comfortable with in-person interactions?
Effective entry point
For these Southeast Asia teams, digital engagement — the use of social media platforms to share a message — has become a plausible and effective entry point. The social media agency We Are Social confirmed this, revealing that 82.4% of Southeast Asia’s population uses the internet.
“No matter where they go, how far they go, how remote it is, people have phones,” Clarkston and her team realized, “And though sometimes they do have to climb up the highest peak to get reception, people do it.”
Clarkston’s team has begun creating and publishing Jesus-focused ads, videos and other digital content in hopes of building bridges to the islanders through the internet. Viewers can click on the ad to message back and forth with a responder, a local believer or missionary who is available to pray, build relationships and answer spiritual questions.
“It seems like locals are more open to watching those things in the privacy of their own cell phones,” Clarkston said.
Clarkston intends to use digital engagement as a means for initial contact with people with animistic backgrounds, evangelism and, eventually, discipleship. She said that this new ministry has the potential to open doors with individuals across these islands who would normally never reach out on their own or respond to the gospel in person.
“Maybe they’ll respond this way,” Clarkston said, “I know without a shadow of a doubt that God is calling people to Himself.”
Technology’s grip
Now, more than ever, technology has a grip on society. Many spend hours each day mindlessly scrolling, searching for meaning, for happiness. And now, more than ever, there is an incredible opportunity to plant seeds across Southeast Asian islands through digital engagement.
The IMB Southeast Asia team gives praise to the Lord that He has provided a creative way to reach the lost and plant seeds. Pray the people among the Southeast Asian islands would see these ads and engage with responders boldly, even though they may face persecution or harm because of it.
Names were changed for security.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Mikah Young and originally published by the International Mission Board.
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