My mother uses the internet for discipleship

Yesterday 12:02pm.  [Phone Rings]

Me: “Hello, this is Russ.”
Caller: “Hi Russ, it’s your mom.  Are you busy?  Are you in a meeting?”
Me: “I’m available right now.  How can I help you?”
Mom: “I’m trying to play a video on the computer but it’s freezing in full-screen.  I need help.”
Me: “Before we try a few things, I’m curious, what’s the video?”
Mom: “Oh, my friend that I’m mentoring is coming over this afternoon and I thought we’d watch something online as part of our study.  I’m just getting ready for that.”
Me: “Ok, what happens if you try…”

After hanging up, I realized the profoundness of the interaction I just had with my mother.  I called her up later in the day to find out some more details.

Me: “How did the time with your friend go?  Did the video work?”
Mom: “Yes.  It worked fine.”
Me: “Tell me more about this video you watched.”
Mom: “Well, I can just go online everyday and watch clips from one of my favourite programs, Back to the Bible.”
Mom: “Watching the online clips are better than those DVDs we often watch in small groups because they’re shorter.  My friend has a short attention span.”
Me: “So how do I check out this site?  Can you send me the link?”
Mom: “Oh, Russ, you know I’m not good at sending links.  You can just Google it.  It’s easy to find.”

Observations:
– my mother only has a high-school education
– my mother once said  she’d never communicate through a computer
– my mother knows how to find web content to use for discipleship
– my mother wants web content to use for discipleship
– my mother told me to “Just Google it”
– no one ever told my mother to use the internet in discipleship, it just seems natural to her