YFC Online
Teen Second Life Virtual World
Director Christy Talbert of YFC Online has pioneered a virtual Campus Life club meeting (link) in the virtual world on YFC Discovery Island. Using Teen Second Life, created by Linden Labs (link), Christy and the team interact with teens from all over the world. Currently, this is the only YFC meeting in the country that is held entirely online.
This initiative is taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to students who would otherwise never have the chance to hear it because of health reasons, or because there is simply no church in their area.
Virtual World?
Essentially a virtual world is a parallel to reality. You can communicate to people via your avatar through text and voice chat in real time. While exploring community spaces engineered on Second Life, you can create your own home, ski, fish, role play, make clothing, and find ways to express your creativity. Currently 1.6 million adults use Second Life, and around 160,000 teens are active users on Teen Second Life.
What’s an ‘Avatar?’
An avatar is a virtual persona that someone creates. They can be realistic looking people, or animals and even objects. Each one represents a person who sits behind their screen communicating to you in the virtual world.
Where are we headed with this?
Since 2008, YFC Discovery Island has witnessed almost 60 teens make a first time decision for Jesus Christ! We are happy to experience this, and we want to share our joy with you!
YFC Online is currently finishing YFC 3-D, our own virtual world, entirely designed by us. We hope to use this space as a tool to invite teens from TSL, and adults over to hear more about Jesus, and to become involved in discipleship training.
YFC 3-D will be replete with similar fun activities that you can enjoy on Second Life, that express your creativity (in appropriate ways, of course!).
Take a tour
If you want to see more of what we’re doing, join us for a "See the Story" ministry tour.
Watch our video
Find us on Facebook (link to facebook)
Volunteer with us
Have you ever wanted to reach people all over the world for Christ? You can help us do this! We have recently impacted students from all over America, the U.K. and as far away as Sweden. Without buying plane tickets or learning another language!
Need more?
Contact our team members here:
Christy Talbert, Director
Christy@YFCWorld.org
Doug Karl, Volunteer
Doug@YFCWorld.org
Kathy Shaw, Second Life Coordinator
Kathy@YFCWorld.org