After a mentor encouraged to push through with a meetup of digital technologists in our city, I thought, “Why not?” It has been five months since I first asked God for it and while the opportunity is right there, I realized this is the answer to that prayer.
Last October 2015, after seeing digital tools used as means to bridge Matthew 28:18-20 to the world through a Christian Hackathon held three weeks earlier, I and my Filipino brethren curated an overnight hacking session with Christian developers in our city. Having seen it attended by a good number of people despite it being a new event genre in our side of the world, it was like a go signal-- a hint from the Lord that said, “there are still more of those ‘missional techies’ waiting to be found”. That was the vision I looked forward to see happening.
It was during one April afternoon that it became concrete. About thirty people responded through a Facebook and a MailChimp announcement to gather within a quiet coffee shop in Taguig, Philippines. These people came to answer the question of what would it look like to see the synergy between missions and technology. Bloggers, graphic designers, coders, teachers, product managers and missionaries connected by their heart for missions came. They opened interconnections in their walk with the Lord, their work in the digital realm and with each other.
The result was a brilliancy of ideas and an explosion of passion. Lean Coffee method gave way to ideas like Biblical gamification, all rooted from their love for people, especially for God. The attendees' ideas overflowed from the plate (in this case, the coffee cup!), purposed for making Jesus relevant to the social media generation. It was beautiful to see initial strangers finding a niche and a community of like hearted and like minded missional techies, brainstorming together to discover ways they can help fulfill the Great Commission with none other than what God gave them as their lot-- technology.
Indeed, with the internet posing as a platform of opportunities to make Jesus just a click away, imagine the number of hearts that can find Him on cyberspace. There could be no closed countries, and even closed hearts. Having this first meetup as a launching ground, one could only wonder where God would lead His people through Indigitous Philippines. I wonder what prayer will be answered next. Will you pray with us?
