Signs & Wonders Blog

Social media is a powerful tool I use for ministry. It has also been a distraction. Many of us will admit to spending hours scrolling through our news feeds. I enjoy the occasional humor and cute pet photos. Still, a lot of frivolous things appear I don’t care to see and read. A few are insulting, such as saying I’m “old” if I recognize a particular item. I don’t mean to be critical of what people post on their social media pages. That’s their business. Fortunately, there’s a way to stay connected with select individuals without unfriending them and having their posts appear in my news feed. I’ve been unfollowing Facebook friends who repeatedly do the following: Make too many posts. I’ve seen as much as forty a day by some folks (rarely do I exceed two or three). I don’t need the same individuals overwhelming my news feed. There are other friends I want to hear from. Post chain letters , hoaxes, and memes that contain profanity . Make requests for money. Some ministers send me fr...

To  avoid spam and robocalls, I’m selective with who receives my cell number. Instead, I use Google Voice as my primary phone number. I’ll list that when needing to give out a phone number on paper and online forms. Nevertheless, telemarketers and fraudsters occasionally call me. I refuse to answer if I don’t recognize the incoming phone number. If it’s someone I need to talk to, they can leave a message for me to call them back. I also state in my outgoing voicemail for both numbers that they are registered with the National Do Not Call Registry. Yesterday while online with my laptop, I noticed someone mistakenly sent a text intended for another person to my Google Voice number. At first, I replied by telling the sender they had the wrong number. Then I realized this was a witnessing opportunity. Here’s how the exchange of messages went (my comments are in bold): Maria, how was your trip to Virginia? You have the wrong number. I'm not Maria. I'm lsabella, don't you ...

For about a month now, I’ve experienced an unexpected surge of friend requests on Facebook. Until recently I might get one or two per day. Now they’re pouring in at an unprecedented rate. One morning I woke up and had sixty new friend requests waiting for me!  A fellow evangelist I often work with has also seen this happen but only accepts friend requests from people he already knows. As for myself, I will accept most of them as long as my potential friend appears to be a committed Christian. They must also have a legitimate profile photo . At the time of this writing, I now have over 3,600 Facebook friends from different parts of the world. Most of whom I’ve never met personally. Yet many of them want to chat immediately after I accept their friend request. That prompted me to draft a letter that I now display on my Facebook page . This letter clearly outlines things I will and won’t do online. I’ve had to email this letter to new friends who apparently didn’t notice it...