The Lawton Doll Company makes and sells porcelain dolls, striving to run our business according to biblical principles. Since our Lord is “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3b-4), we’ve tried to be available with friendship and encouragement to both customers and collectors. That means traveling across the nation each year to connect with people. In our more than 20 years in business we’ve developed close ties to people in every corner of our country.

My friend Teena Stewart, who’s a writer, graphic artist and Web-site designer, finally convinced me to build a Web site for our company. I was resigned to the idea, yet committed to doing the best job possible. We eventually created an Internet presence that includes searchable archives of all our dolls, monthly contests, news and events. (See www.LawtonDolls.com.)

As an afterthought, we also added a listserv — The Lawton Loop — as a way to connect collectors to one another. Little did I realize how important that one feature would become! A listserv is an e-mail discussion group. After members join, they can send an e-mail, and that message is then duplicated and sent to each member of the group, creating a kind of round-robin discussion format. I’d already been a member of a Christian listserv, a C.S. Lewis listserv and a writing listserv, so I knew that a sense of community quickly develops.

What surprised me, however, was that within months of our launching The Lawton Loop, deep friendships were developing among its more than 100 members. They were even planning face-to-face meetings whenever geographically possible. And early last year, when one of the members suddenly lost her husband, the other Loopers prayed and cared for her through those first numbing months. Day after day, they were there as she confronted new challenges. Her first solo trip was to an event in another state where our collectors gathered. As one Looper after another met, they were delighted to find flesh around the faceless people they’d already grown to love via the Internet. What fun to find all the different races, ages and shapes represented!

Since that time, we’ve prayed and loved members through cancer treatments, prodigal children, loss of parents, another loss of a husband, job upheavals, births, trips and all of life’s joys and sorrows. Messages fill members’ e-mail boxes whenever they power up their computers. If someone is awakened by loneliness in the wee hours of the morning, words from friends are nearby.

We are not a Christian listserv, yet I’ve been delighted to see how naturally and easily people accept others praying for them. One of our Jewish members often asks for prayer. And those who haven’t been to church in years hear words of faith naturally come out in heartfelt discussions. We are not in the business of evangelizing these friends, just loving them in Christ’s name. But as the love abounds, the Lord is in our midst.

In the church, we put a high value on care groups and connecting with one another. I’ve learned that we shouldn’t overlook that faceless computer that sits on the desk of many of our brothers and sisters in Christ. It may surprise you — as it did me — to find that the Lord has prepared a way in cyberspace, as well as face to face.