Rob wrote about the Campus Crusade search engine that indexes over 400 websites in almost 30 languages. I use this regularly in my ministry as an email mentor. How?

I’m glad you asked. When someone emails me with me a question, I will copy relevant phrases from the question, paste the question into the search engine, and see the many documents that Campus Crusade has that address the issue.

It works really well. I skim read some of the documents to make sure they are relevant to the question. Then I email one or two document hyperlinks to the person who asked the question. I usually ask them to read and write me back with their thoughts about the article.

Then I frequently type out a short prayer, in the email, asking God to enlighten them and grant them understanding.

Here’s an example from tonight. Jean lives in Italy and indicated he had just recommitted his life to Christ. He emailed: “Why people suffer when God exist?” I pasted this into the search engine box. Many results were returned. The first few looked too academic for an Italian English speaker. The third result looks really good. It’s from Truthmedia’s Power to Change site and is titled If God is good, why is there evil and suffering? There is even a short audio file so if Jean has difficulty reading English, he can listen to the audio file.

Using the Campus Crusade search engine this way works great. I’m able to send high-quality materials that help the seeker. And I don’t have to be a great theologian with tons of knowledge in my head.