Photo by Kuba Bożanowski

By Melanie Mar Chow

Call me? Maybe.

I truly give audible thanks for my daughter’s patience to share her technological ability with me.   Not only does it drive me crazy that she knows how to use my phone better than me, but for someone who does not own an active phone, she is leaps and bounds ahead of me.  This is especially relevant for me, as ministry is all about connecting with people regularly and often.

Since seminary, I was encouraged to maintain a learning posture in life from one of my favorite professors, and have learned quite a lot from those around me.  Being a campus minister and keeping up with college students hasn’t hurt either.

So in trying to keep in contact with people, I found a new challenge of having to learn and remember people’s preferences for contact.   Forgetting and having to ask for grace with people has been something I do regularly.  I have come to liken myself to the Disney cartoon character, Kim Possible.   As a secret agent, she helps people and the best way to let her know she was needed, as she sings in her theme song, is to “call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me.”

As a child I still remember my parents using a rotary phone to dial up a friend.   I cannot believe how we have evolved from using rotary phones to cell phones, from letters to tweets, not to mention the use of emails, Facebook messages and G-chats along the way. We can now even see people via Skype.  Who would have known? Sometimes it is still just better to pick up the phone and call people to make sure they are okay.  Before, you called their neighbor if you couldn’t find them.  Now you have to rack your brain to remember who their neighbor is.

But technology is only a means to deepening relationships.  I am still “old school” and appreciate sitting with a friend over a nice cup of coffee at a cafe.  But one day soon, I know I’ll find myself sitting in front of that friend on my computer while we skype, as they sit in their local coffee shop or tea house in their part of the country.  Still, whatever it takes, do what it takes to build kingdom relationships, and to get to know each other better for God’s purposes.

Rev. Melanie Mar Chow serves God through Asian American Christian Fellowship, the campus ministry division of the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS). She has been an ordained American Baptist minister since 2004. A Pacific Northwest native, she currently lives with her husband and daughter in Southern California.