Missions in 1992 vs. Missions in 2012

In 1990 I was privileged to teach MKs at RVA in Kenya. At the risk of sounding old, in the two years I spent at Kijabe, our tech consisted of a computer with word processing program, a typewriter, photocopy machine and for the really tech savvy, a fax machine (which we had to travel to get to). As I get ready for this upcoming two week trip I marvel at the changes in how missionaries can communicate with their fellow missionaries, missions sending organizations, family, friends, prayer partners and supporters since I last spent more than a week overseas...

 Tech Tools for Missions in 1992 vs. Tech Tools for Missions in 2012

In 1992...

• a prayer letter was always a hard copy and preparing one meant folding paper, licking stamps, and handwriting and sealing envelopes.  Sometimes it was handwritten and photocopied, sometimes sent to a printer to print,  and sometimes it was typed on the typewriter or computer and printed with a dot matrix printer.  Regardless, it meant a trip to the post office.
• keeping in touch with prayer partners and financial supporters involved phone calls (and not too many of those from an African phone that didn't have direct dial), lots of aerogrammes, note cards, and stationery
• my tech savvy family in NY bought a fax machine so they could exchange faxed letters with me.  It meant faxing from NY to AIMServ in Nairobi, or vice versa then on the Nairobi end relying on some kind missionary courier to bring the letter from Wilson Airport to Kijabe when they stopped there on business.  It saved days or potentially weeks (the Gulf War was going on -- I didn't even know it was called Desert Storm until after I returned to the US -- and letters from NY to Kenya could get stalled for weeks) of postal travel time
• Photo taking was done with 35 mm camera using film and images printed as either slides or prints.  If you were really cool, you were taking video, too, and saving it to VHS tapes.  

In 2012...

• a prayer letter can be hard copy with folding, stamps, and actual handwriting, but could also be blogged, written as a post or note on a social media site.  It could even be a video creation!
• keeping in touch can be as traditional as mailing a letter via snail mail, or as instant as sending an email, video chatting on OoVoo or Skype, or texting on a cell phone.  Post office optional.
• Photo taking can still mean using film and printing out hard copies of photos, but rarely means creating slides.  Usually it is done with a cell phone or a nice digital SLR, and can easily be sent to the folks back home via a picture message, email attachment, on Facebook, twitter, or Google+ or as an album to be shared from Flickr or Picasa, or another photo sharing site.  They even make cameras now that allow you to upload directly to the cloud from the camera itself via WiFi.  Cellphone cameras can take video, or a small pocket sized bloggie or Flip type camcorder and laptop can allow for easily uploading video to a social media site, or creating your own movie with video editing software that comes with your laptop.
• I don't even know what else, but I am fascinated by the possibilities!