James & Carolanne

Many of you may have heard about our recent push to raise $1000 by June, but for those of you who haven't, I thought I'd post an update on what this is all about. We have been asked by Power to Change to raise an additional $1000 in monthly support by June 2011. This is not because we're suddenly going to be paid more, but rather due to cut-backs in P2C's covering of our existing support deficit.

Basically, right now we have raised approximately 40% of what we need on a monthly basis to cover the amount we are currently paid along with the various other administrative expenses associated with working at Power to Change. In light of the fact that I've been working full time with the websites, the organisation has generously been covering the remaining amount that I haven't raised. As we are a faith based, donor supported organisation, this basically means that someone else has had to raise the money for me. As of last summer, I was told that the amount P2C was covering would be reduced incrementally over the next year by a total of $1000 by June 2011.

One initiative I have started in an effort to get this money raised is to create a facebook page to tell people about our mission and need. You can find it here: http://jamesandcarolanne.com/1k/ My hope is that it will raise an awareness of our situation in a much wider audience than I normally am able to connect with.

Ways you can help:

1. Simply 'Like' the page.

One simple step you can take to help us with this is to simply 'Like' the page.  To do this, simply visit the page and click the 'Like' button you see near the top.  This will indicate to people who read your updates that you approve of what we're doing and are trying to help.  It will also help to raise an awareness of our ministry.  I'd like to see how long it takes us to get 100 Likes.

2. Share the page.

When you visit the page, on the left hand side below our picture at the very bottom of the column you should see a link which reads "Share".  Click that, add a short description or recommendation, and hit "Share".  This will post a link to the page on your Wall.

3. Donate or consider increasing your donation.

I want to say right off the start that I know many of you already give generously and faithfully to our ministry and we REALLY appreciate it.  You are the reason we are able to remain in this ministry at all.  Thank you.

I hesitate to ask this but I must... if you have been receiving our updates and are not already supporting us would you consider joining our team?  If you have previously given occasional gifts but have not committed to something more regular, would you prayerfully give it some thought?  And if you already support us regularly but think you might be able to bump your giving up a little, would you be willing to help?  We appreciate every little bit of help.  $10 a month is 1% less that we have to worry about.

Again, I want to stress that we really do appreciate the generosity that many of you have already shown to us.  You have been so faithful and kind to us, and Carolanne and I have both really appreciated it.  Thank you.

4. Pray

Most importantly we need your prayers.  This whole situation is a huge stress for us as neither Carolanne nor I are very good at asking for people's help, especially not financially.  Please pray that the Lord would give us strength, that He would guide us to the right people to talk to and that people would be open to helping us in this way.

Ministry Stories

Now, in order that you don't begin to think that all I we do is try and raise money, not doing any real ministry, I'd like to share with you a few stories from the field which reminded me why I do what I do. This was sent to me from our director:

"I’d like to know more about Jesus , and whats the different between Jesus in Islam and Jesus in Christianity ( in Quran and Bible)? would you please help me?"

If you were looking for Jesus, where would you go? Probably the same place you go for all the areas in your life you want information on: the internet. It’s becoming more common for people to go online to ask their questions long before they ever go to an individual. I’ve recently been watching how my 13 year old daughter engages with the Ask app. If she has any questions (even homework), she takes a mobile device, goes to the “Ask app” and asks her questions. Her questions are about life, math, and any kind of trivia.

We are seeing people come online from all around the world. They ask us simply and directly about how they can know Jesus. Here are two emails we got this week. One from a closed country and another from Canada.

Qatar: I’d like to know more about Jesus , and whats the different between Jesus in Islam and Jesus in Christianity ( in Quran and Bible)? would you please help me? Thanks.

Canada: I would like to find Jesus.

In Chat:
"what must I do?" [to be saved]

Just recently, a man in our chat room was asking about salvation. He asked “what must I do?” Warren, one of our staff told him that it’s more about who you know then about what you do. He asked “what do you mean?” So Warren explained to how we are separated from God spiritually by our sin but that God told us how we could fix that.

He then told him how in John 1:12, scripture tells us that in order to know God and become His child spiritually we need to believe and receive Him as our Lord, committing our lives to Him. The man replied “I knew there was more to it than just believe.” Over the course of the next 15 minutes another name was added to the book of life. Warren gave him a link to our free online Bible Study for new Christians – Knowing Jesus Personally - and he said he could hardly wait to start.

What an incredible blessing that we are able to connect with people in their time of need and share the message of Jesus. Recently we began plans to create our own app that churches can use to connect with people. This app would give people the ability to ask their questions directly from their mobile device which would mean that the connection between mentor and mentee to take place even faster. Please pray as we begin moving in this new direction to make it even simpler!

Thank you again for all your prayers for us and the generosity that you have shown.

Wishing you all the best,

James and Carolanne Warkentin