The Internet Ministry Comes Into Its Own
When I answered the call to come into a telephone crisis service, I could not have imagined what God had in the area of technology.

In the 1990's the Internet was becoming a popular place to be. Paul Volstad, our accountant, registered and set up a bulletin board chat ministry, where people could post their questions and comments. One of our staff (or often Paul himself) would answer the questions. Other volunteers stepped forward to design a web site for Love Lines, which is still at www.lovelines.org. Here you can find information on Love Lines and receive ministry. We tried a chat service on the Internet, which didn't work because we couldn't find enough trained prayer counselors to sit and type on the Internet the same 24-7 that the phones were covered.

In 1999 a major television show named Love Lines started on MTV, a youth channel. This show would give 5-minute testimonies of 'one-night stands' and sexually deviant behavior. The show was all about sex. The show was owned by CBS, which was owned by Disney. We tried to get them to stop using our name, for which we have the 'ancient trademark' but didn't have enough money to fight them. We wanted them to give up our name since now everybody thought that we were a sex line.

But God had a different plan. He arranged this so that we could take positive advantage of them through the use of our name. Young people heard the name, "Love Lines," and thought of this sex show. And they called us, by the hundreds.

A local business man, Michael, started an advertising campaign and testimony line for us. The ad ran in the "City Pages" newspaper, in with fantasy sex and the XXX ads. Our ad said, "Love Lines, free recording." When you dialed the number our recording said, "Thank you for calling Love Lines. If you are a man and want to hear a woman, press 1. If