DS DISPATCH

Over the last few months we have been creating a new feature for TMM.io that will allow our websites and those of our partners to have live chat.

We are testing it live on Issues I Face and The Life now. This story is from the very first chat I (or anyone) had with a person other than one of our tests with a staff member.

James, our Technical Director who wrote the live chat program, was following my conversation with Jen. He wrote this soon after to send to his ministry partners.

My boss Sheldon (the director of our ministry) was the first to give it a try as a mentor. In less than an hour Jen (not her real name) popped up asking “i cant get in control of my life”.

Sheldon introduced himself and invited Jen to share more about the issues she wanted to talk about. As they chatted, Jen was able to open up about some of the struggles she is facing. She shared that she is in Botswana and found our site because she went to the Internet searching for help.

Throughout the hour and twenty minutes they talked, Sheldon was able to turn the conversation towards faith. She shared that she was a Christian but hadn’t been to church in a while. She allowed Sheldon to pray for her and to offer some suggestions for dealing with the issues she was struggling with.

This was such a cool conversation to have as our very first chat interaction. Near the end Jen shared “i really love this website, its the first live chat that was really helpful”

As we continue testing this system, we are evaluating every aspect of it, from the user interface to the latency between our systems. The thing that we really love however is that these conversations are able to help people know Jesus and experience his power to change the world.

Even though my conversation with Jen helped her confidence and encouraged her, the most exciting thing for me was helping her understand the role of Holy Spirit in her life.

Interested in having conversations with people in Botswana? Bolivia? Bangladesh? Many of the same things we struggle with in life are global issues. Being able to offer some guidance into her life helped me realize why I do what I do, and why I think you should all consider becoming a mentor!