Missionary Malcolm Lanham of course puts his faith in God.
But he and his team with Global Outreach, based in McDowell County, the poorest area in West Virginia and the fifth poorest county in the United States, rely on Skype to communicate with far-flung missionaries.
Lanham, international director of Mercy Ministries/Global Outreach, said his organization uses Skype exclusively for long distance calls. The organization has 10 accounts with Skype Pro accounts for unlimited calling in the United States and Canada.
He and his colleagues are savvy Skype users, serving the coal mining towns in West Virginia and Appalachia, and sending out teams for short-term missions around the world. They work in such places as Uganda, Trinidad/Tobago. Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Mexico, New Orleans, La., and Brooklyn, N.Y.
About 50 missionaries use Skype.
Lanham, international director of Mercy Ministries, said there is steady voice and video calling traffic several times a day between the HQ in Bramwell, W.Va., and a missions base in Romania.
In Bramwell, the missionaries use Skype’s chat feature instead of an intercom on the phone.
At home, some serious Skype use is going on as well. Lanham said: “Personally, when my wife and/ or I travel, we use Skype to talk with our family back at the house. We also use it for stuff as simple as making sure the kids get home OK: They Skype us when they walk in the door from school.
“I also have Skype set to auto answer calls on my home PC and it allows me to check on my house from anywhere in the world. And I have a Skypeln number that I use as a mobile number when I travel."
Lanham has big plans for the years ahead, and Skype is part of them:
“In the next two to three years, here in West Virginia, we are going to be starting mission locations throughout McDowell County. As we do this, each site will have a main Skype account (from which) we will have a local number forwarded to Skypeln. By doing this, it will save us a ton on calls for each site.
“Even in the very rural areas of West Virginia, Skype is more reliable than a cell phone is.”
