AGWM News

Modern Media Explosion

In my parents’ early days on the mission field, my father, Earl Wilkie, sometimes rode on horseback in his travels around El Salvador. He preached to one group of people at a time. He taught in Bible schools with mimeographed notes and few or no textbooks. He wrote his missionary newsletters on a manual typewriter and mailed them to the States, sometimes taking weeks to arrive. He took pictures with his 35mm Leica and showed them during itineration in the States to one church at a time, with my mother, Ruby, narrating each slide.

My brother, John, an AGWM missionary, currently makes videos for Bible schools through IBMM that are disbursed in Latin America through the Internet and other means that can be seen by multiple groups at the same time. He and most other AGWM missionaries now drive around the mission field in Speed the Light vehicles on greatly-improved roads in most countries of the world.

Missionaries now preach and share the gospel not only in local settings, but also on tapes, videos and DVDs created on their own, or through ministries such as IMM. They communicate around the world through Internet ministries such as Network211, and on personal and ministry Web sites and blogs. The Bible schoolteachers and students have access to many more textbooks and Internet courses such as the “Faith in Action” textbooks produced by Global University and put on video by IBMM. Missionaries can now instantly e-mail or call their friends, family and supporters, and show in churches quality videos or PowerPoint presentations they create themselves.

It’s an ever-new, ever-growing technological world in which we live. I’m grateful the Assemblies of God World Missions is taking advantage of these various methods of communication. I believe God is allowing this modern media explosion in these last days to enable us to share the gospel not only with just a handful of people at a time, but with the masses around the world who still need to hear that Jesus loves them. Let’s take advantage of these communication gifts in every way we can.