Technology Fast

Beginning tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM, Aaron and I will be participating in a technology "fast" with the rest of our class here at the missionary training center. For the next four weeks, the 45 students in our class and our class mentors will be fasting from:

-The Internet (Facebook, email, blogs, Google, YouTube...everything!)
-Movies and television
-Texting

We will still use our cell phones to make calls (and call people back if they happen to text us), and we will use our computers for school work. But that's it! 

So why are we doing this? Many reasons. Here are some of them:

1) To increase the quality of our face-to-face relationships. When we get to the mission field, we are going to need to be engaged with the tribal people day in and day out for hours upon hours each day. We need to be practicing our real life communication skills now to prepare us for that type of ministry. 

2) To focus more fully on our relationship with God and His Word. Let's face it...technology can be a huge distraction in our spiritual lives. We desire to spend some time without these distractions in order to invest more in our most important relationship (with Jesus Christ Himself).

3) To make time in our day for reflection. Because we can so easily have our mind engaged the entire time we are awake (by Facebook, Internet browsing, movies, TV shows, Pandora, etc.), we really don't leave much room for thinking and reflecting on things we are learning. Because the courses we are taking and the things we are reading here at MTC are so important and vital to our upcoming ministry overseas, we desire to get the most out of them that we possibly can...and that will require some quiet time to think and reflect on the things we are learning.

4) To practice better time management. By taking all of these technological things "off the table" for a month, we would like to see our days restructured and reorganized to include more of the things that are most important to us (time together as a couple, family time, time alone with our kids, time studying God's Word, prayer time, etc.). These are areas we want and need to grow in, and it seems that it will be a little easier to include more time for all of these things without the option of going to technology for entertainment.

5) To get the focus off of ourselves and onto others. Much of social media can begin to revolve around "me." My pictures, my family, my recipes, my adventures, my experiences. We desire to think of others more--to empathize with and serve others. We want to trust God to grow us in these areas, and we think this fast is a good starting point.

6) To prepare (in a small way) for our lives on the mission field by practicing self control. We have been hearing story after story in our Worldview Analysis class about missionaries on the field who are struggling because it is such a temptation for them to be online all the time and stay immersed in the Western world. While we know that the Internet and technology will be incredible blessings on the field, we also know that if we don't have self control in this area, it could very negatively affect our overseas ministry. We want to be able to be really present in our ministry overseas, without using Facebook and the Internet as a way of escape from the hardships over there. 


Overall, we want to focus on God during this time and replace the time we usually spend on technology with things that have eternal value (NOT saying that there is nothing online that has eternal value...we do believe that the Internet can be used in very good ways.). We want to reflect on the Internet and technology and figure out how to redeem it for the glory of God instead of having it shape us negatively.

We want our life to look different after this month is over, and we would like it to keep looking different, even after we do break the fast.

We are so excited to see how this month will change us, our marriage, our family, and our training.

All of that being said, I do have to say that it will be quite difficult for me not to blog, not to check Facebook, and not to text anyone for a whole month! But...four weeks will go very fast, and I'm sure it will be very good for me in the end. :)

Until then...you can expect it to be pretty quiet around this blog. See you in four weeks!