Battle Log
Sunday 29 March 2020
Posted 30 March 2020, 6:52 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
Saturday & Sunday I was back out on the virtual streets (literally)!
On Friday night I watched a YouTube video about a virtual pandemic that had occured in an online game. This got me thinking about this as an option for online evangelism, but I didn’t want the game to distract from my time in sharing the gospel. And this made me think of something that caught a lot of media attention back in the year 2000 (I think it was): Second Life (https://secondlife.com/). It was a virtual world, where people could build things and socialise. I looked it up in the morning, and to my amazement, it is still a thing - all these years later.
I signed up, downloaded the client, and installed it. I logged in and instantly I was in a virtual world, with people around I could interact with! I followed the tutorial and it wasn’t long before I was attempting to start conversations with real people.
Interestingly, second life has rules, just like real life (pictured). But that makes sense. The same gentleness and respect is required in virtual conversations as in real ones!
I managed to get into a conversation with a newbie (like me) from Poland. But she wasn’t keen to talk about spiritual things, so I just left it.
Later, I was in a spot with three other people near me, and I realised I could talk to them all at the same time. So I simply, and politely asked them what they thought happened after life. I got a nibble from one of them, but the conversation didn’t get rolling. Just like in real life!
To my surprise, the girl from Poland got in touch later on. She wanted to catch up, and she was bringing a friend. Before I knew it, I was talking to both of them about the important questions of life (pictured)! Unfortunately, they both left before hearing the gospel - but I was very encouraged by the gospel possibilities - even while in COVID-19 lock down!
What have I learned so far? 1) Typing in the Second Life client is laggy (I can type faster than the letters appear on the screen) - this actually makes it really hard to communicate. I’m hoping I’ll be able to find a solution for this. 2) There are areas in Second Life to be avoided, just like in real life. I ended up getting teleported into a nightclub at one point, and you can come across some visuals that are not wholesome. So beware of this if you are thinking of trying this yourself!
On Sunday afternoon I would normally be on Cashel Mall, but I can’t be there! So I decided to try Second Life again. I didn’t want to waste time, making the most of my opportunity to share the gospel, so I realised I was just going to have to start approaching strangers and try to start conversations. I was suddenly very nervous! Just like in real life! But putting aside my fear, I got to it.
The first two people I tried talking to ignored me (pictured). But on my third try, I got some response (pictured)! To my shock, the guy was a pastor in real life too! He gave me some in-game money (I don’t know how to use that yet), and he gave me some tips.
Due to the typing delay, I decided to move back to Omegle.
My first conversation was with another guy who seemed to be involved in a Christian cult. I could tell this was going to be a good conversation, but he unexpectedly left. :(
My second conversation started well. The person on the other end didn’t believe in God, but when I explained how we know God exists - they clearly saw the logic of it. I was encouraged, and used the law to explain the bad news. At this point they started to understand the implications, and didn’t like it. They insisted they would go to heaven, but eventually came to see it wasn’t so: “OK i understand”. I now had the chance to swing to the good news, but I decided to try to spend a little more time to make things clear, when they suddenly disconnected. I felt grieved. Maybe I should have just shared the good news first, and then tracked back? Oh well, I leave them in God’s hands. May they have another opportunity to hear it!
I wanted to see what other online communities I could engage in. So I searched for “talk to people online” via Google. A long list came up! I tried the first one: https://chat42.online/ - it’s just like Omegele! There are many opportunities for the gospel online.
I’m going to keep working with Second Life, and see if I can find good spots for other Christians to join me in evangelism. I’m confident that we could even make a flip chart - you can make anything you can imagine in Second Life, and there is a scripting language for making the objects interactive.
Looking forward to getting back to the real streets, but in the meantime, I’m trying to make the most of these online opportunities. I hope you have been encouraged and inspired. What gospel gold mines are yet to be discovered?
View previous Online Evangelism report (27 March 2020)
Online Evangelism
Here are the tentative weekly outreach times for online evangelism:
Sunday 1-3pm (Practical Training Outreach)
Monday 9am-5pm
Tuesday 1-5pm
Wednesday 1-5pm
Thursday 9am-5pm
Friday 1-4pm
Saturday 1-4pm
These times are all in AEST (GMT+10), so adjust them based on your own timezone.
How to take part
To watch any of our online outreaches, you can watch live on our YouTube channel or Facebook page.
Or to take part in any of these outreaches, email us for the virtual room meeting link.