Talking Passport Photos

What’s more horrifying than staring at a passport photo?

Staring at four (sometimes five) talking passport photos!

Those cyber conferences from free providers do not make one look good on screen, but who cares? They do wonders. They get you connected and allow up to a six-way communication. Now, how good a communication it is? Well, that’s another story.

Our Board Meeting for Media Associates International (MAI), Asia, was set to take advantage of one such public provider. MAI is an international organization whose goal is to help fledgling writers and publishers produce Christian literature that is culturally relevant.

The Philippine contingent met in one place so together we could meet online with the rest of the members in other countries. At the exact hour, passport photos popped in from Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. For some reason, the photo from India was missing. The president, who is from the US, was fortunately in Singapore so he was able to adjust to our schedule.


Four of us from this country positioned ourselves to fit one small frame. One had to be very careful not to sneeze or he'd be out of camera range. If you peer closely, there’s me taking a picture of the computer screen.

Then the photos suddenly started talking. The lip movements never matched the voices, but the messages came through. One country did the opening prayer and another country led the devotional.

Like clockwork, we would hear what sounded like an ambulance siren coming directly from . . . we couldn’t tell. And although not one of us was in a cave, our voices echoed.

We raised our hands at voting time and clapped when there was something to celebrate. We laughed at a joke three seconds late. All told, we got through the 12-point agenda; minutes were taken in Singapore, and the meeting closed with a prayer in the Philippines.

The meeting was so surreal I thought I was thrown into some place I’ve never been to before. Well, in a sense that’s true. I’ve never had to do cyber conference with a non-stock, non-profit organization, whose ministry is fueled only by funds still yet to come from conduits of grace.

It was a BOT meeting that saved us thousands of dollars in travel and accomodations costs, and got the job done, talking passport photos notwithstanding.