A month or two ago, J.D. Payne shared an article from NPR how women in Saudi Arabia had their first gaming convention. He did more than share an opportunity for gamers to befriend and share the Gospel; he taught me that news of missional opportunities don’t just lie in Christian publications, but exist in secular places.
Like this one,
“Many people will probably wonder why I’ve decided to do this,” read the beginning of the suicide note that Eris had scheduled to appear on his Tumblr on 27 April 2015, two days after his death. “I was sexually abused as a child … and have dealt with the consequences of that my entire life. Imagine going through life with an ever-present shadow hanging over you, worrying if you too might be like the people who destroyed your childhood and life.” (READ MORE)
A man on an online game, known for being a horrible person, committed suicide, or appeared to, until you realize he faked the whole thing. A brilliant person who went to great coding lengths to figure out his life. What surprised him was how much people cared about him and tried to follow up on his suicidal attempts and the ones who grieved his, “death.”
The writer ended the article with,
“As for Eris, he is feeling better – a change he credits to a new regime of antidepressants and returning to church. Not so much for the God-worshipping part, but because it’s nice to “sit and listen to a sermon and maybe talk to people afterwards”
The lesson here? Video games are awesome opportunities to reach out. This man was a computer programmer. He could be like the man you work with at your job or the guy that makes your coffee every morning. What if you reached out at work to your troubled co-worker while someone playing video games with him does the same? I think, before we scoff at these opportunities, we ought to really SEE.