For all contacts, do not share your personal contact information (phone, email address, physical address) or social media information (Facebook or Twitter, etc).
Never tell anyone in a sensitive country that there are Christian workers, pastors or missionaries in their country. Also, NEVER offer contact information for local Christians. See procedure below for making on-the-ground connections.
Some contacts say they are afraid of persecution. Most people will not be endangered simply by making a private profession of faith, but by openly displaying their faith or aggressively sharing Christ with others.
Sometimes when contacts say they want to meet someone locally, they just want to meet new people. If they sincerely want to grow in their faith, you should try to connect them with a church or believers on the ground. Here’s the procedure:
- 1) OM must carefully determine that the contact is ready and has a good reason to meet with believers on the ground: Ready to be baptized or otherwise declare his faith, or get involved with a Bible study or church.
- 2) OM gets contact info from the contact. Some have Skype or Facebook ID's that provide security and anonymity for both parties. This could also be e-mail address or cell #.
- 3) OM passes this info to our on-the-ground person, who initiates with the contact, using proper security procedures. The Global Representative for each region (see list below) can put you in touch with the on-the-ground coordinator or pass the info through for you.
- 4) OM continues correspondence with the contact to track progress, keeps record in contacts’ Notes section.
See also: