On the 1st day of Indigitous Addis, Moses Osagiede, a speaker from Nigeria, shared his experience on using Whats App for mission. Right at that moment, Aman Eremyes, one of the participants from Ethiopia picked up his phone and started a WhatsApp group. It didn’t take long for this young man to put into practice what he learned.
At the closing dinner of Indigitous Addis, I had the chance to talk with some participants on what their plan is after Indigitous Addis, including Aman.
Aman had a low expectation of the conference when he was first told by his church to attend the conference, where he serves in media and graphics design. But at the last day of the conference he was very excited about his experience in Indigtous Addis. “It helped me to expand my mind, to realize that there are people who look at Christian media like I do and strive for best instead of mediocre; just being surrounded with such spirit of excellence is great,” he said. Aman believes he is called for the youth in urban culture, he sees his vision expanding to diaspora’s struggling to find themselves. Aman had been in such struggle as a diaspora himself and he wants to use his personal experience to reach others. He adds that digital strategies are the means he could use to fulfill his vision.
Jimmy Gor, is a young man from Kenya who I got to talk to at the conference. He is involved in his church in developing media strategies, and script writing for short films. He had also shown great performance in acting in one of the short films developed in one of the group projects of Indigitous Addis. After Indigitous Addis, Jimmy plans to develop short films that impact people with positive stories. “I learned how to get my products out there and reach the people especially by using mobiles,” he said. “I had also learnt how to use the social media, especially WhatsApp and Facebook for missions. Jimmy has a vision to disciple nations through media, and he believes Indigitous Addis equips him to achieve his vision.
Francoise Ally, a young woman from Seychelles, a country of 80,000 population said 1/3 of the population is on Facebook. Francoise started using digital strategies for mission only recently, though she has always been involved in mission works. She believes Indigitous Addis shaped her perspective on how to use social media to reach unbelievers. “The young generation of Seychelles does not like to read, they prefer interactive media. They relate more to Facebook and WhatsApp,” she adds. As she goes back to her home country, Francoise wants to engage on chatting to share the gospel and plans to be involved in developing short gospel films.
It has now passed more than a week since Indigitous Addis, I wonder what other participants from all parts of the world have learned from the conference and have started applying.