Historical background to my interest in txt msgN in ministry

There is some history to my interest in the use of txt msgN for ministry. It all started with me pondering who are using the medium and how pervasively it is being used.

I met a Singaporean pastor friend who said to me that he hardly uses emails these days because "everyone uses SMS these days."

On a separate occasion, I asked a 13 year old niece how many SMS messages she uses per month. Her reply was about 900, and that most of her other friends use about 800.

Observation of Singaporean society seems to confirm that these comments are not just isolated pieces of anecdotal evidence. SMS is ubiquitous; the comments and observations suggest that SMS is the preferred communcations platform amongst many in Singapore today.

Anyway, that got me thinking about whether and how SMS has been used in ministry or in the context of education. I did a Internet search which uncovered some really interesting findings.

The one site that really grabbed me was ...

http://cargo.ship-of-fools.com/Features01/Features/RFather.html

http://www.rejesus.co.uk/expressions/r_father/