Computer ministry requires a vision. In my case, the computers are hardly the point. It’s just a way to get close to people.
I travel the region of human space called the Internet. I’m not all that interested in the Net, but it’s just how I get where I’m going. It’s the reason people ask for my help. They have computers and want to access the Net, but have troubles with it because bad stuff happens to their computers. Bad stuff happens to my computers because I keep poking around, but not because of what I encounter on the Net, so they ask me how to duplicate that.
I try to sell them Linux. Not because I truly believe in Linux as the best and most holy thing, but because right now it happens to come closest to what people need. The true believers in Linux don’t care for me, nor I for them. The true believers don’t care for any user in the first place. It’s all for the sake of the developers and their pure vision of pure computing, of Open Source and holy copyright notions. I don’t care. Linux is at a stage of development where it now typically works better than Windows for most things, and is a whole lot cheaper than Mac. At the same, it’s never been easier to use.
Because I am familiar with how Linux works, I can help people get their computer working pretty good at no cost. Sure, I accept gifts, but I never charge a fee. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing for the Cross. As long as I have the means to get to their computer, or get it to me, and can fix it and get it back to them, that’s what I’ll do. It’s a way of touching their lives with something which can’t be put into words, only indicated and demonstrated.
So I speak computer to these people. They hear what I’m saying, for the most part. It gets them where they want to go and keeps the bad guys away. If they want to learn more than just clicking on stuff and searching the Net, I teach. Meanwhile, they absorb something they may not otherwise gain. That’s the only reason I do it.
