James & Carolanne

I was recently asked by one of our supporting churches to send in an update centred around the topic of current world events and how they effect our lives and ministry.  I thought it might be good to also share that response here along with an update on what we're up to in the ministry.

At the time I am writing this, the most recent world (or North American) event that has taken place is the false prophecy of the rapture. While I'm saddened by the way that group was misled, the media frenzy they created has had some very interesting and revealing side-effects. For one, it has resulted in a LOT of people talking about Christian beliefs. I've been amazed at some of the very deep spiritual discussions which have taken place on websites normally very hostile towards God. It has provided Christians some very unique opportunities to share their faith.

I also sincerely hope it has been a wakeup call to the believers that one day Christ WILL return and we DO need to be ready. Scripture says we don't know the hour or day of Christ's return, and based on the controversy I've seen, we don't even really know the WAY in which He will return. We should all be able to agree on one thing though and that is the fact that He WILL return and we WILL all be judged.

In the mean time, this is the other thing we know for certain: that Jesus told us to share the good news with others. It has become even more abundantly clear that we need to be sharing and showing the love of Christ to those around us in order that as many as possible may be given the opportunity to be saved. That's one of the biggest reasons I love doing what I do!

Current Projects

The past few months have seen us doing a LOT of work for what we're calling the "Staff Campaign". Essentially, a film team from TruthMedia was tasked with the job of interviewing and filming every member of the Canadian Power to Change staff in order to put together a comprehensive collection of staff stories and testimonies. In the end, it has resulted in over 1200 video clips being created and has been a huge undertaking.

One big reason for this was to provide us with a large number of quality clips that could be used in drawing people to the websites in order to share the gospel with them. Staff members shared about struggles and issues they had been dealing with in life, and after watching the clip the visitor is encouraged to read more about how they can find hope and peace in Christ as the staff members did.

Another side of this has been as a fund raising push. Many of the people on staff are low on support and this provided an opportunity to share their heart and passion for the ministry with those who may wish to give for them.

Smartphone Apps: In addition to that project we have also been working on the creation of a smart-phone app which could be used by churches as an evangelistic tool. While not completed yet, it would allow groups like youth groups or churches to promote a free app to their members or friends that could be used to share their faith, or even give out as something like a "tract".

Social Media Integration: Finally, we've been focusing on ways to allow our websites to integrate more effectively with social media technologies such as facebook and twitter. I've been making a number of changes to the sites to make them more compatible for sharing and discussion on those areas of the net. The objective here is to make it as easy as possible for people to share and discuss our content which we then use to guide people to more spiritual discussions.

Prayer Requests

I think our biggest prayer request right now is for funds. We have been asked by Power to Change to raise an additional $1000 per month in donations and we need to have it raised by June. More details on that here. Unfortunately we're only just over 50% of the way there. We HAVE seen an amazing response to this need from a number of people and have been really blessed by the generosity you have shown. However, we haven't made it to where we need to be yet. Please pray that the Lord would put our ministry on more people's hearts and that we would have many more people step up and stand behind us financially.

Please pray also for the ministry itself, that God would continue using us in mighty ways to reach people around the world for Christ. I simply love the fact that we are able to make such a huge impact for His glory through our simple day-to-day efforts. On average, every day in 2010 we saw around 42 people make decisions either to accept Christ or rededicate their lives to Him. I'd LOVE to see that number be higher in 2011.