Who says virtual relationships can't go deep? On Friday a man I've never met, but who has become like a son, is coming to America. His name is Uche Izuora. He lives in Nigeria and the Sudan, and we have been corresponding and collaborating for almost four years now.

Here's the first email he sent me:

From: Uche Onochie Izuora
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 1:06 PM

My family and I live in Lagos, Nigeria currently; though my missions base is in Yei, South Sudan. I've been working there for 2yrs now. I still go, send a couple of months or weeks as His grace would allow...then return to my family. Hopefully, soon, we'll all move there or at least close enough to make for effectiveness.

Subsequently, we struck up a relationship. I admired Uche - here was a man who took seriously Jesus's command to go and make disciples of all nations. With very little support, he was establishing a ministry in one of the toughest parts of the world. He is a father to dozens of young people and disciples them to go back to their families with the Gospel.

Since then, we've continued to stay in touch. Uche is a regular blog reader and interacts with me on a range of topics. Somewhere along the way, I helped him set up a blog. At first he felt a little tentative and had me review it. But over time, he grew confident in his voice and the posts came more naturally.

After a while we were able to set up a skype connection. Mostly I just wanted to encourage him. Serving for months at a time away from his young family is difficult. But after a while, I was able to connect him with people in the tribe that is slowly starting to form around my network of friends. And then this past fall, his wife Sola visited us when she was in Atlanta on business.

Then last week, although he'd been turned down before, we got a great surprise - Uche got a visa to come to America! He arrives next week and stays through April 9. What fun it will be to get to know him in person.

If you're interested in talking to this man of God, please let me know.