Gail Deavers knew she needed a computer. It was 1998, approaching the next millennium, at the apex of technology, and she knew the Lord was telling her to minister to the “gadget generation.”
“I asked God that if it was feasible to get a computer, then I would start a ministry,” said Deavers, a member of NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville, in Birmingham Baptist Association. “The Lord just burst it in my heart to do it.”
At first, Deavers had no idea what the Lord wanted her to do with a computer. However, according to fellow church member and friend Nedra Wright, Deavers just trusted and believed.
“She said she just knew there was ministry she could do with [a computer]. She didn’t know what it was, but she was sure there was one,” Wright said. “I have heard many people talk about things they wanted and how they would use it for God, but this is one special lady who really meant it.”
Soon after purchasing a computer, Deavers decided to help members of her growing Sunday School stay connected. She began sending e-mails about upcoming events and prayer requests to the 30 people in her class. Each e-mail included prayer requests, praise reports, job opportunities, items for sale, event reminders and services available or needed. “It’s like a community bulletin board in a grocery store, and I always add a devotional and a recipe at the bottom,” Deavers said.
These e-mails were soon more than just text on a screen. They were a way to serve her fellow believers. Using her computer in this way became a ministry, which she dedicated to the Lord with the name G-Bay, playing off the popular auction site eBay.
“A lot of people think G stands for Gail, but it really stands for God,” Deavers said. “The G is just a coincidence.”
As her Sunday School class and church congregation continued to grow, so did Deavers’ e-mail ministry. NorthPark Baptist moved from Roebuck to Trussville about seven years ago, just as the ministry was taking off, so Deavers decided to expand G-Bay to the rest of the church during the transition.
Now, she prays daily for her computer because her ministry has grown from 30 recipients to about 2,000. Although G-Bay became an e-mail ministry for fellow church members, Deavers said she now includes anyone who submits an e-mail address.
Deavers notes that G-Bay fosters a praying community, even for those who have moved away from the area. She said, though, that she doesn’t know the depth of her ministry because she leaves that to the Lord. “I send it out, and God takes it from there,” she said.
Several people of the G-Bay community, however, have seen Deavers’ ministry bloom and flourish. Nine years ago, Belinda Rollins frantically asked G-Bay recipients to pray for her brother and sister-in-law, Neal and Allison Greenway, whose son Austin was born prematurely, 26 weeks into Allison’s pregnancy. Although Austin was given less than a 10 percent chance to live and weighed only two pounds, he went home after almost five months in St. Vincent’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Today, he is a healthy 8-year-old boy.
“For years after this, when my sister would meet people and introduce herself, they knew who she was and would ask her about little Austin,” Rollins said. “I praise God for this ministry that Gail has started. It is so reassuring to know that if we need prayer warriors we can turn to G-Bay and the word will be spread and that we will be lifted up to God by thousands of people.”
And Rollins is not the only one who has seen God use G-Bay. Vickie Knox, a member of NorthPark Baptist, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2006. She immediately asked Deavers to place her prayer request on G-Bay. Throughout her six months of chemotherapy and three surgeries, Knox received an outpouring of e-mails and phone calls from the G-Bay community.
“I am now going through my second round of chemo, another six months,” Knox said. “Almost every day I see or talk to someone who says, ‘I’ve been keeping up with you through G-Bay and praying for you every day.’ This is such a wonderful ministry.”
Deavers says she understands now why she had an overwhelming desire to buy a computer. It wasn’t to fit in with the technologically savvy culture but rather to help others bear each other’s burdens.
According to fellow church member Gwen Driskill, G-Bay has indeed allowed her to shoulder someone else’s cross. “On this site, strangers become dear prayer partners,” Driskill said. “I find myself crying tears of sorrow and of joy for people I will probably never meet except reading about their needs and God’s goodness in answering them.”
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