James & Carolanne

Over the past few years, one-on-one mentoring has become more and more central to our ministry focus. People come from many countries in the world asking questions on our websites, and we try to match each of them to one of our mentors who can walk with them in prayer. It is amazing to see how these relationships can carry on for years as the mentors and mentees walk together along this spiritual journey. We often hear reports from both mentors and mentees regarding how much their lives have been changed through these personal discipling relationships. This was written recently by one of the mentees to their mentor.

I hope you receive this. It has been incredible how God has used you in my life, particularly in the seasons of deep need. I have seen God be instrumental through you to reveal His hand of healing truth, love, and comfort. I will miss our times of communication, you mean a lot to me.

Thank you for always being there to listen and give wisdom and discernment, especially to pray for me. My life has changed for the better for having your support and encouragement.

Thank you so much for praying for and supporting us in this ministry. It is amazing to see how God uses my small part in this to touch the lives of people literally around the world. We even receive messages from people in places such as Iraq, Syria, India and China. It's so cool to be able to play a part in that sort of impact. Thank you for allowing us to continue to be a part of this ministry. Thank you for your prayer, and thank you for your financial help.

Some Numbers For The Statistically Minded:

For the 2015 fiscal year (July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015) we saw the following:

Incoming Messages Matched To Mentors: 83,537

Active Mentors: 1065 at fiscal end

Chat Room Participants: 122,585

Indicated Decisions for Christ: 13,271

Organization Updates:

As you may have heard, for the past while Power to Change has been searching for someone to fill the role of President. Rod Bergen was previously holding the Interim President position during the search, and has now accepted the full role of President of Power to Change. Additionally, Sheldon Kotyk has taken the reins of Director of The Life Project which is the ministry that I serve. Our mission statement is The world is online. We help them know Jesus.

Read more about our team here.

Support Status Update:

As many of you know, my work with Power to Change is funded by monthly financial donations given by people like yourself who stand with me in the work that I do. I am very grateful for this team of donors and prayer supporters who allow me to continue working with the ministry.

To date, my support level is around 50% of what it should be based on Power to Change guidelines of my salary and expenses. In light of the deficit, The Life Project has generously contributed a portion of the remainder to cover my ongoing salary. (being a non-profit, this basically means that someone else has had to raise the money on my behalf) The expectation is that I continue to try and raise the remaining amount as monthly donations. Please continue to pray that God will provide for our financial needs. For the past year or so I have also been working a second job (in addition to my full-time at PtC) to help with our family finances.

Family Update:

As a family, we have been doing very well. Carolanne continues to homeschool the kids and meets regularly with other homeschooling moms and groups in town for field trips and socializing times. We have quite a variety of homeschool related projects that take place around our house such as rock collections and research, hatching baby chicks, math assignments and lots of trips to the library to check out the latest reading materials.

The kids are growing fast and have been quite excited about the prospect of going to Disneyland in a few months. We wanted to take them while they were at the right age to enjoy it, so we have been saving as a family for a few years now, and plan to go down later this spring with Grampy and Grammy. We hope to also visit some of our other family members and supporters in San Diego while in the neighborhood.

Final Thoughts & Prayer Requests:

Thank you again for standing with us in this ministry. Both Carolanne and I are very encouraged to have such faithful friends supporting us in prayer and financially. Please continue to pray about our financial situation. God has been so very faithful in providing for all our needs, and yet it still always seems to be a point of stress in our lives. Maybe He is still teaching us patience and reliance on Himself.

Please pray also for our core team. (The Life Project) There has been quite a lot of change lately with financial cut-backs, and people being let go or moving on to other fields, and systems requiring changes, and leadership changes. Please pray for unity in the team and for God's provision for our ministry as a whole.

Finally, please pray for our mentors. They truly are the front-line of the ministry, serving the people who come asking for help, and walking with them on the next steps of their spiritual journey. Please pray that they would be encouraged in their relationships.

Often the mentors write to visitors and never get a response. Other times the "prayer requests" are so shallow or short that they almost seem to not be worth responding. And yet in some cases, some of our coolest salvation stories have come from short (or even empty) messages we have received from people who turned out to be in some far off country looking for help but unable to express it clearly.

Thank you again,

All the best,

James & Carolanne

Ben & Julia