Lily Chia and her husband, Patrick Bezalel, ran their own branding business in Singapore for 25 years.
But after feeling called by God to do something different, they gave that up for a Minecraft project. On a recent episode of Lausanne’s “God on the Move Podcast,” Lily taked about her new outreach strategy using a popular video game to bring missions online.
In 2018, Lily and Patrick began to ask if they should use their skills for God’s mission. They were already involved in a local ministry working with children, but was there a way to channel their creative talents in a better way? “We started to ask,’How can we present the Bible in a different way using media and so on?’” Lily told the Lausanne podcast.
In 2020, they felt called by God to close their business and focus on missions. At first, it wasn’t clear what God wanted them to do, but they followed God into the unknown. “I see people in the world spending millions of dollars presenting products in such a way to captivate people’s hearts to buy. I started to look at that sphere and wonder, ‘Where is all the excellent Christian content that the young people deserve? I’m not seeing a lot of it,” she said.
Patrick has his art on display in a gallery in Singapore, so it made sense to create a digital art gallery. They then started creating Christian art, as VR, NFTs, and in other formats.
Patrick started creating Christian art, as VR, NFTs, and in other formats.
And then COVID-19 happened. During the global COVID pandemic, people around the world were isolated at home but using online gaming to stay connected. Lily and Patrick prayed about it and felt called by God to do ministry in the gaming space. That quickly led them to the world of Minecraft.
The most popular video game in history, especially with young people, Minecraft presented a unique opportunity. Lily and Patrick started a new venture for missional outreach on a Minecraft server.
Building The City of Jerusalem in Minecraft
The Minecraft server, called Land of Promise, has content for different game modes across key biblical landmarks. “We have explore/retrievals where we have the entire Jerusalem city built on a 1:1 scale so you can literally walk through the whole city. We are building the Sea of Galilee now, also close to a 1:1 scale. We have the Tabernacle and other biblical builds as well,” she said.
The Minecraft server, called Land of Promise, has content for different game modes across key biblical landmarks.
Within that server, gamers will find different Christian resources, such as Bible verses they can read while sitting on a park bench. They can interact with Biblical characters like Simeon in the temple. There are also challenges related to biblical themes. For example, to explain that Jesus is the light of the world, gamers are tasked with finding different light sources.
The server is still in testing mode and is not yet live to the public, but Lily is excited for the future, especially if they can get more volunteers to join the project. “We want to build up volunteers to be ambassadors in the world, to welcome people when they come and let them own that world,” Lily said.
Land of Promise is not just for Singapore. Once it goes live, people from around the world can join the server. Lily hopes to one day have volunteers from around the globe as well. “I imagine in the future we could have a bunch of kids from far-away countries. We’d get together every week. Someone from the UK who has a heart for children could play with them every week at a certain time and build relationships,” she said.
Lily also sees opportunities for Land of Promise to help parents bond with their children. If the parents could be trained to play Minecraft, they could play the game with their children as a bonding experience, and as long as they’re in the Land of Promise server, there are plenty of prompts for spiritual conversations in the family.
Friends said it was impulsive closing their successful business without even having a plan for the next venture. Even when they decided on the Minecraft server, it still wasn’t easy. “Every step of the way, we doubted. Every step, we were on our knees, crying, ‘Is this really it? Are we supposed to do this?’ Lily siad. “But every step of the way, He was there.”
The Future of Modern Missions Includes Gaming
Lily believes that online gaming, including popular games like Minecraft, are part of the future of modern missions, where more and more outreach will be online. “God meets us anywhere, everywhere. In the next 5-10 years a lot of young people are going to be in this space. The Lord is going to be in this space, I tell you, if only we will pray, believe, and ask for his presence,” she said.
As is often the case, engaging in missions online has not only blessed others, but it has blessed Lily and Patrick as well. They’ve felt closer to God since working on Land of Promise. “We’ve never had a more fabulous walk with the Lord than the last two years. It is such a fun adventure,” she said.
For anyone looking to take a step of faith to try something new with online missions, Lily offers this encouragement: “As long as we remain open to the Lord, he takes care of that next step.”
God meets us anywhere, everywhere. In the next 5-10 years a lot of young people are going to be in this space. The Lord is going to be in this space, I tell you, if only we will pray, believe, and ask for his presence.
Lilly Chia