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Dotcom Disciple
Vipool Patel follows his heart to reach spiritual seekers online.| Outcomes, Apr/May 2008
While you were sleeping, 3,000 Chinese, awake to the increasing availability of the internet, were privately scrolling through a website whose content, spelled out in Chinese script, is perhaps something that elements in their government might not want them to see—much less accept.
Sixteen time zones away in San Diego, Vipool Patel, the website's founder, views a new collection of Chinese names on his screen. Every day, at least 10 more Chinese people sign up for an online course, "Jesus 101."
Welcome to the 24/7 world of JesusCentral.com.
This month alone, an estimated 200,000 online visitors in 197 countries will search, study, and perhaps embrace the words of Christ found on this site that promises "simple, clear and credible information about the life, teachings and impact of Jesus."
This is good news for leaders from Campus Crusade for Christ and church pastors who have already contacted Patel wanting to use "Jesus 101" as a source of basic, trustworthy teaching for new believers.
Patel is certainly not the first person to effectively wire the gospel to the Web. No one, however, can duplicate his story. His journey from a hardscrabble childhood to Silicon Valley successes and now into an emerging global online ministry is still a well-kept secret.
Gifted, Skilled, and Uninsured
Patel grew up in Anaheim, where his Hindu family ran, he says, "a dumpy roadside motel a few miles from Disneyland." Vipool and older brother Nick were expected to do many of the chores.
The boys lost their mother to cancer when Vipool was 11. A year later, he and his brothers went to live with another family. During his lonely teenage years, Vipool attended a church youth group and found a booklet: "The Four Spiritual Laws."
"I read it and prayed the prayer at the end," Patel says, "and nothing happened."
But a year later, the reality of Jesus became deeply personal. "I was just looking for a friend," Patel says. "I found a Savior, a guide for life." Christ's impact was simple and profound, though it would take Vipool years to discover his calling.
Patel became a student at Stanford, where he earned degrees in industrial engineering and economics. But one day in 1985, after graduating, he was curled up, sick, on the living room floor of a rented house. "I went to the student health center, and they told me 'Sorry, you're no longer enrolled here. You no longer have insurance. We can't help you.' "
After he recovered, the experience prompted Patel to wonder how he could address problems with health insurance.
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Posted: May 18, 2008 3:04 PM Doug Weller
