‘Investing in Eternity’: Stories from Two Internet Evangelism Supporters

Thousands of people around the world make BGEA’s internet evangelism ministry, Search for Jesus, possible. Some are donors and some are volunteers. Here are two of their stories.

Why She Gives

Barbara McDaniel had a difficult childhood. She grew up in a rough Chicago neighborhood with a destructive home life and remembers her older sister beating her up daily. Years later, her sister moved to Seattle, became a Christian and started writing to Barbara and her mother.

“Everything in those letters was so weird to me because she had a love and kindness she never had,” Barbara said.

By that time, as a young teen, Barbara was living in Los Angeles and soon made the same decision her sister had, giving her life to Christ at a church downtown. It wasn’t long after, in September 1949, that her sister took Barbara to Billy Graham’s first Crusade in L.A. where Barbara sang in the choir.

“I started singing in the choir at my church from then on,” she said. “It was the foundation to keep me through many years … of trauma that I’ve been through since that time.”

Those difficulties include losing a sibling, her husband and two of her three sons—one to murder—and seeing her mother distance herself from the family. Yet after decades of praying for her family to seek God, she knows the value of using every means possible to communicate the Gospel.

And that’s one reason she gives to internet evangelism.

“There are a lot of people, old people and young people, who will not ask questions [in person],” she said. But with the internet at their fingertips, it allows “a huge door to open up for people to ask about God. … It’s opening up a world of opportunity to share the Gospel.”

Since 2011, more than 37 million people have visited PeaceWithGod.net (or its Spanish counterpart PazConDios.net), an interactive BGEA site that explains the Gospel in simple terms.

Nearly 8 million people worldwide have indicated decisions for Christ—some for the first time, some rededicating their lives to Him—and over 1 million have provided their contact information for follow-up and discipleship.

“I am just blown away by how many people have come to the Lord through the internet,” Barbara said.

Back home, Barbara looks for ways to share her faith in person. She reads BGEA’s Decision magazine in coffee shops in hopes of striking up conversations. She shared a DVD of Franklin Graham’s trip to the Holy Land with her chiropractor who’s of another faith.

But her sphere of influence doesn’t stop there; she’s also impacting the digital world.

By giving to internet evangelism, Barbara is sharing hope with millions around the globe, and though she’ll likely never meet them face to face, she’s confident her support won’t return void.

“It’s a nice reminder that God is actually using what I’m giving to help the world come to the Lord,” she said. “It’s not just giving to give a check; it’s investing in eternity. … Who knows who’s going to be in heaven because of that?”

Would you like to support internet evangelism? Your gift means sharing the Gospel around the globe—24/7.

Why She Volunteers

Carmen Wyatt spent years ministering to drug addicts, women and teens in Puerto Rico. After she married in 1990, she hoped to get back into ministry, but with her husband’s failing health, put it off for a time.

When her husband passed away in 2011, Carmen again felt a tug toward what she calls “God’s work.”

But by then, there was a problem; after years of deteriorating vision, Carmen was considered legally blind. Although she can still see somewhat, she said, her vision is poor. She started praying for something she could do from her home in Tampa.

Not long after, Carmen saw some old clips from Billy Graham Crusades on TV.

That’s when she said she sensed God saying to her, “Look at what I did with one man … one person that was willing to follow Him and obey His calling,” she said. She continued watching the North Carolina farm boy speak to overflowing crowds on TV and thought if God could use him, He could use her.

“After that episode was done, I stood up, went to the computer and went to [BGEA’s] website,” she said. That’s where she found out about En Busca de Jesús, (or Search for Jesus in English). That’s BGEA’s internet evangelism ministry geared toward Spanish speakers.

She went through volunteer training and now serves as an email coach, responding to spiritual questions people leave on the evangelistic website, PazConDios.net (the Spanish version of PeaceWithGod.net).

“It has been the highlight of my Christian walk,” Carmen said a year into volunteering.

Since February 2015, Carmen has sent over 2,800 emails full of guidance, encouragement and prayer to people she knows only through their words. It’s not something she takes lightly, either. She prays before responding to people and asks God what He wants her to say.

Because of her poor vision, Carmen increases the text size to read her emails. She also lives with fibromyalgia and arthritis and has two hearing aids.

“I’m not as mobile as I would like to be, but I’m just so thankful that I’m still able to walk, that I’m still able to see and that I’m still able to hear,” she said. “Thank the Lord for technology.”

Carmen adds that she’s not a good typist—she blames sitting near her crush in typing class decades ago—but says with email, she has time to write a response.

Some emails she receives stick with her for months, like the one from a woman who had recently lost her son and was concerned he wasn’t in heaven. Carmen still wonders if her brother ever accepted Christ before his death, so she tearfully wrote the woman back, identifying with her situation.

Yet, even as she ministers to others, she said, God is working in her own life and teaches her more about Himself as she shares His love through email.

She encourages others to get involved in BGEA’s internet evangelism ministry, too.

“I believe wholeheartedly that this is God’s ministry,” she said. “Everyone on the team, the love that you feel through them, I mean … that I can’t put into words.”

Would you like to reach people online with the hope of Christ? Consider volunteering with Search for Jesus—or with our Spanish ministry, En Busca de Jesús.