Current Projects – James & Carolanne

Live Chat Launched!

Fri, 26 May 23 16:11:58 +0000

Dear Friends,

I'm excited to tell you about a really cool story that happened just today!

Over the past several months one of my projects has been to build a Live Chat system for our ministry. The goal was to create a tool that we could add to our evangelistic websites which would offer visitors an opportunity to chat right away in real-time with one of our online mentors.

Today we officially launched it on our primary evangelistic website, issuesiface.com!

My boss Sheldon (the director of our ministry) was the first to give it a try as a mentor. In less than an hour Jen (not her real name) popped up asking "i cant get in control of my life".

i cant get in control of my life

Sheldon introduced himself and invited Jen to share more about the issues she wanted to talk about. As they chatted, Jen was able to open up about some of the struggles she is facing. She shared that she is in Botswana and found our site because she went to the Internet searching for help.

Throughout the hour and twenty minutes they talked, Sheldon was able to turn the conversation towards faith. She shared that she was a Christian but hadn't been to church in a while. She allowed Sheldon to pray for her and to offer some suggestions for dealing with the issues she was struggling with.

What an amazing first chat on the new system!

This was such a cool conversation to have as our very first chat interaction. Near the end Jen shared "i really love this website, its the first live chat that was really helpful"

I'm so glad that I get to be part of a ministry that is making a difference in people's lives around the world! I love seeing that the work I do has a direct impact for God's glory.

Thank you too for helping support us in this! Please pray for our team that God would continue to use us to lead people closer to Jesus. That's our goal: to receive people wherever they are at, and lead them closer to Jesus.

As a result of this chat with Sheldon, it sounds like Jen is going to try going back to church. She was encouraged in her faith and given tools to grow deeper in her relationship with the Lord.

Thank you for the part you have played in letting this conversation happen!

Stories From The Field

Fri, 25 Feb 22 10:34:36 +0000

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share with you some stories that were shared recently by our ministry. These come from the monthly newsletter that is sent out by our team. If you wish, you can read the whole thing here:

https://mailchi.mp/p2cdigital.com/something-good-is-on-the-way

Here are a few key excerpts that I thought you might like. The first pertains to the current crisis in Ukraine and how we can respond as Christians in prayer.

"As I write this to you, hundreds of Ukrainians are displaced and fleeing for their lives. At the same time, millions of Christians around the world are praying for peace, repentance, protection, and deliverance from evil. To help you lament and pray for those in Ukraine, here is a guide that our global office put together."

One area in which I've been spending a fair bit of time is developing the software modifications needed for a newer partner of our ministry called OnlineCare.

OnlineCare provides crisis pregnancy and abortion grief support through their online, peer counselling service to clients across Canada - and now, with our ministry's help, internationally, too! They partner with the 82 pregnancy care centres across the country and seek to support those who are not yet ready to receive in-person support or do not have access to a pregnancy care centre nearby.

OnlineCare started using a customized version of TMM.io last August and, since then, we've been able to help their peer counsellors respond to 333% more clients in just six weeks!

Over the past few months I've had the privilege of working with the OnlineCare team to customize our mentoring software helping make their ministry even more effective. They shared this beautiful story with us recently.

Seven months ago, Jenna found out she was pregnant. She struggled to imagine raising a child with her abusive husband and contemplated terminating her pregnancy. Jenna turned to OnlineCare and found a compassionate, supportive peer counsellor in Nelly. Nelly encouraged her to connect with a local pregnancy care centre in Ontario for support and counsel. Although Jenna moved back to her home country for safety and family support, Nelly continued to walk with her throughout her journey through TMM.io.
Two weeks ago, Jenna gave birth to her baby girl, two months earlier than expected. Nelly has continued to encourage Jenna with scripture and points her to resources as she navigates this new season of motherhood.
"I know God or whoever is up there is looking out for me and my baby girl. He is giving me strength and wisdom to choose the best path for me and my baby... We are more than grateful to have your support half way around the world... " - Jenna
Learn more about our partner, OnlineCare: https://www.onlinecare.ca

Thank you for continuing to pray and support us in this ministry. We feel honored to have such a faithful team standing with us.

Global Daily - May 2021

Thu, 15 Apr 21 09:20:31 +0000

Dear CHC friends. Thank you for continuing to pray for us. We really appreciate all the folks who have been so faithful to stand with us in prayer and financial support in this ministry. Thank you for your encouragement and generosity.

The P2C::Digital Strategies ministry is currently developing partnerships in several other countries to translate and contextualize the work we have done into their own cultures and languages. We're excited to be working right now with a ministry in the Czech Republic, having just recently finished working with a similar ministry in Slovakia.

We also continue to build our online mentoring platform in order to help our online missionaries here and around the world be even more effective in reaching their world for Christ.

Please continue to pray for more good technically minded staff to join our team. Please pray also for strength, encouragement and unity for our team.

Global Daily - Dec. 2020

Fri, 20 Nov 20 11:34:48 +0000

Thank you for your continued prayer for our family and ministry during this strange, complicated time. Our team has been really busy working to start up the mentoring ministry in Slovakia, Turkey, Latin America and some other closed countries we cannot discuss. Please pray for our ministry that the Lord will raise up more laborers to His harvest field. We have some staff (including from my Technical team) who are leaving. Please pray that God would provide more people (especially technical) to serve with us. Please pray also for funding, both for the ministry and for our personal support. Personally we still have a lot to raise. Learn more about us on our ministry blog at: ptc.jamesandcarolanne.com

Thank you!

A Ministry Opportunity

Tue, 24 Mar 20 16:13:31 +0000

Dear Friends,

I trust you are well. We are currently living in a very unusual time. COVID-19 has driven people indoors and online to find new ways of connecting with others.

As an Internet ministry, this presents us with a tremendous opportunity to share and help people who are turning to the Internet to look for answers and support. We want to respond to people online with God's love and compassion, leading them closer to Jesus.

For this we need many more Christians to be willing to sign up and be trained as mentors in https://tmm.io. Please pray that God would continue to bring people to the ministry. Please also consider if this is an area you could volunteer.

People who sign up as mentors don't need any special training or qualifications. They simply need a willingness to listen, pray with and encourage people who write in needing support.

Thank you for your prayer and your consideration,

James W.

Branching Into New Countries

Tue, 09 Apr 19 21:46:09 +0000

Dear Friends and Supporters, The past several months have been a whirlwind of activity. We are in the process of building several new partnerships with teams on the ground in places like Indonesia, Liberia, New Caledonia, Jordan and Singapore. Teams in many of these places are joining with us to build evangelism and mentoring strategies to reach their own people, often in their own language, to lead them closer to Jesus. And that is what our team is all about!

The world is online, we help them know Jesus.

Just recently I had the opportunity to connect with a man leading a team in Jordan. They work to help facilitate connections between new believers and churches or individuals in the middle east who can help them take the next steps in their faith. This team is partnering with us to use our mentoring software to make some of these connections and has even volunteered to translate the platform into Arabic. This means we can have Arabic speaking mentors using the software in their own language and connecting with new Arabic speaking believers. In another initiative, one of our staff members with a heart for reaching Liberia has created a special Liberia edition of one of our evangelistic sites. He is in contact with a minister in Liberia who has planted 21 churches, leads a seminary, does some urban ministry on the streets of Monrovia, and is interested in trying our online strategy in his context. We used Facebook advertising to specifically reach people in that country with ads for that site and within 48 hours a $20 investment brought in 17 new people in need of mentoring. In the country of Indonesia a team has been working diligently to create their own translated and adapted version of our evangelistic IssuesIFace strategy called CeritakuCeritamu. They are focused on reaching people in-country using Bahasa Indonesia and connecting them with their own Indonesian speaking mentor. They are also translating the mentoring platform into Bahasa Indonesia in order that Indonesian mentors can use the platform in their own language and respond to people from their own country. You may have heard in previous letters that we were reaching people in the country of India as well. This strategy is continuing and has seen some really great responses and success. We are now working to translate the MyStruggles site into both Punjabi and Hindi in order to reach an even wider segment of the population. We are working with people in-country to provide the best possible resources. These are just a few of the many different strategies and partnerships we are currently working on or have developed. I didn't even mention Iowa, Singapore, Brazil or North Africa. One of our ministry's biggest needs right now is for more mentors. In the words of our Lord, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. We really do need more mentors (and also staff) who have a heart for ministry and would like to help contribute to the fulfillment of Jesus' great commission. Please pray for more people to join us. If ministering to one of these countries I've mentioned touches your heart, please don't hesitate to connect with me for more details, or sign up to be a mentor at tmm.io. Thank you for listening! Thank you for praying! And thank you to those of you who give financially to help us continue in this ministry. Check out our blog for other updates and more personal family stories.

Ministering In India And Expecting Twins

Fri, 23 Mar 18 15:09:32 +0000

Spring is here! ? And with it we see the early flowers starting to blossom and the trees putting out new buds. Here in BC we also had to start getting up an hour earlier (ugh) but it does feel like the days are getting longer and I'm glad to have more daylight in the evening after work. ?? As a good Canadian, I must apologize... I may have misled you into thinking that Carolanne and I are expecting twins. Thankfully, we are not, but read on to find out who might be! ? Partnerships In India Our team has been busy the past few months, and one of the biggest developments has been the formation of several partnerships with groups and lay-leaders serving on the ground in India. ?? The nation of India is a huge potential mission-field with a population of 1.3 billion people with only 2.3% claiming Christianity as their religion.* We are in the process of building partnerships with several different groups right now who would like to use our mentoring software to reach and mentor people in their respective areas of India and Bangladesh. ? Please pray for these partnerships, that the Lord would use the folks on the ground, and the tools we provide, to share the love of Christ with many in the nation of India. Pray especially for our director Sheldon as he and a small team will be traveling out there to meet with leaders in-country and finalize some of the details required to allow this ministry to happen. * Source: Wikipedia Donation Matching Update A few months ago I mentioned that there is a special donor who has partnered with The Life Project to financially match any gifts that we are able to raise, up to $100,000. This gift has been a HUGE blessing to our whole team and we have all been working together to take this opportunity to raise funds in order to take advantage of the matching. Essentially it has meant that every additional donation we receive is duplicated with a gift to The Life Project. ? ? I am really excited to tell you that working together as a team we have raised the full $100,000! In fact, the donor making the match has been quite impressed and has pledged an additional $50,000 until the end of June. ? ? As part of this funding drive, Carolanne and I have personally been praying for and trying to raise an additional $250/month in monthly support. Though one-time gifts are VERY helpful, these monthly donations are especially critical to us, since we are still a long way from having our full monthly support. Encouraging Stories What would a newsletter be without "stories from the field"?! ? Since my role on the team is very technical, I went looking for a good story from one of our more "front-line" staff. I found this, which reminded me again why I do this work. This was written by one of our online chat coordinators:

One of the greatest joys so far this quarter is the salvation of an expectant teenager who came into the room in January, fearful that she'd be pushed into an abortion. That first evening, she accepted Christ as her Savior. The next day her boyfriend came to the room and made the decision to follow Christ as well. Soon she reported that she'd been to a pregnancy resource center where she'd joined a Bible study and was getting help. The last I heard, they had gotten married and had found out that she's expecting twins. Both of these young people come from homes where parents do not yet know the Lord, so do join us in prayer for their salvation.

Praise the Lord ? ? for how He continues to work every day through the faithful service of our team using the tools I have the honor of helping to build. Thank you for your part in allowing us to be a part of this ministry. Prayer Requests ? We truly appreciate the great team of friends, supporters and prayer warriors who stand with us in this ministry. We are reminded quite often that we couldn't do this job without you. Please continue to pray for us in the following areas:

Sheldon's trip to India (see above)
More technical staff We are looking for a few more people to join our technical team. Specifically a front-end designer and a back-end programmer.

Lets Get Together! If you have any questions about our ministry, or would like to hear more, we would love to connect further. If you live somewhere in or around the Fraser Valley, BC, we could easily get together for coffee, pie or a meal. ? Why not drop us a note? Click here to leave us a note on our website form. It goes to both Carolanne and I (James). Or, if you got this by email, just hit "Reply". We would love to hear from you.

Global Daily - July 2017

Mon, 24 Jul 17 16:04:00 +0000

* GlobalDAILY is the monthly prayer calendar of Central Heights Church global workers. Each month a question is asked of us in order to facilitate discussion and inspire us to share new and interesting facets of our ministry. The question: How are you being blessed right now? I (James) am excited to share that a website programming project that has taken much of my time for the past few years has finally been completed. I am incredibly blessed to have been part of the talented team of folks who worked on this and I am looking forward to seeing how God will use it to reach many more people with His love in the coming years. Please pray for our team as we look for new and innovative ways to reach more people with the message of the gospel. Pray also for our mentors who serve on the front lines of ministry, responding to the many people who come to our website seeking help, prayer and comfort.

Merry Christmas 2016

Fri, 23 Dec 16 14:16:53 +0000

Dear Friends and Supporters, Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We trust you will have a wonderful Christmas and New Year celebration. We also want to say thank you VERY much for your prayer and support of us this past year. We are so blessed to have such a great team of people surrounding us in this ministry. Our family has been doing well. Ben is in grade four now and Julia grade two. They are both continuing to enjoy being homeschooled and regularly attend field trips and excursions together with Carolanne and other Chilliwack and Abbotsford homeschooling families. We told them both they had to pick a "public" class to attend as well this school year, so Ben picked parkour and Julia has chosen to learn piano. (her classes haven't started yet) The Life Project has really made some great advances in ministry this year. I am not exaggerating when I say that thousands of people have been led to know Jesus, tens of thousands have been encouraged in their faith and hundreds of thousands have had the gospel shared with them in some form or another through our websites and online churches. Thank you for your part in allowing that ministry to happen! The Life Project has also been through a time of refocusing our vision and mission. Our mission has been clarified and simplified so that team members, mentors and donors can easily know exactly what it is that we do.

The world is online, we help them know Jesus.

It really is THAT simple. Large segments of the world population now have very easy access to the Internet through cafe's, mobile phones, personal computers and many other devices. Our mission is to help them know Jesus. We accomplish that mission right now in a variety of ways including websites, chat rooms, forum discussions, email mentoring and online churches. Online mentoring especially is one of our key resources for reaching people. It allows for a very personal one-to-one relationship where both mentor and mentee can grown in their faith, taking the next steps of their spiritual journey.

Our vision is to see 5000 mentors leading one million people closer to Jesus by the end of 2020.

Again, Thank You for your part in allowing this to take place. There are very few ministries or churches in the world that can legitimately say they are making such an impact in the world of evangelism and outreach. To read more about our ministry visit The Life Project (https://thelifeproject.com/) Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, James & Carolanne, Ben & Julia

Priscilla - A Mentor's Story

Thu, 28 Jul 16 17:31:01 +0000

The following video shares the story of Priscilla who is a faithful mentor with The Life Project. It was shown at our recent Staff Conference and I now have permission to share it with you. This is one of the many reasons why I love being a part of this ministry. If you received this by email, and for some reason the video doesn't work, you can view it on our blog at: /2016/07/26/priscilla-a-mentors-story/ https://vimeo.com/174239509/4b226bf5aa What an incredible story of service and care from her heart. I love hearing and seeing how the mentors who serve with us care so deeply about the impact they have and the opportunity to make such a difference in the lives of those they mentor. We have such an amazing opportunity to change lives around the world! I know that not all the conversations mentors have with people have results like these ones. Sometimes we write back and never hear anything further. Other times the initial message from the person might be a single word. And yet some of the most powerful stories of lives being changed have come as a result of the mentor persisting in love. And in the end, the job of the mentor is to simply encourage the person to take the next steps in their journey towards knowing Jesus. May I challenge you to consider being a part of this ministry in some way as well? There are many different ways you could help.

Become a mentor! Starting is simple. You can get your feet wet by going to https://tmm.io/. We provide the training right there and you can start in as little as 5 minutes. Don't worry, we start you off VERY easy and you control how much you want to take on.
Join our team! We need good tech people, writers and communicators. Find out more on our site: https://thelifeproject.com/join
Give generously! God has placed His resources in our barns to be invested wisely in His kingdom work. From a business finance perspective, the ROI in this ministry is HUGE. This is the parable of the talents in action! Prayerfully consider whether this is something He would want His funds to be used for. Learn how you can give here: /help-us-keep-ministering/
Subscribe! We send out period newsletters with updates from our ministry and personal lives. Sign up here.
Ask Questions! If you came here and don't understand what all this is about, or you haven't yet made the decision to start your relationship with God, I would love to talk with you and try to answer your questions. You can contact me or Carolanne privately on our contact form. We would love to hear from you. OR read more about what we believe here.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you would be interested in hearing more about our ministry, I would love to get together for coffee or dinner. Don't hesitate to talk to me. All the best, James Warkentin

Our Passion - June 2016 Newsletter

Tue, 28 Jun 16 16:41:34 +0000

I would like to share a little bit with you about why it is that I continue in this ministry. Carolanne and I believe that God loves every person in this world passionately and longs to see each one return to a right relationship with Himself. In the sacrifice of Christ He made a way for each of us to be reconciled to Himself. As followers of Christ, we have been given the task of sharing the message of His love and plan for salvation with those who are still lost. People around the world today are hungry for answers and are searching for them on the Internet. (online) We have the chance to provide them with those answers. This is such an amazing opportunity! The people are coming to us! We simply need the ability to provide the answers they seek and respond to them in love.

I'm glad to have stumbled upon that site and have met you and be able to talk to you about all my problems and the things I'm facing. A little girl died today, she took her life because she was depressed and I'm so grateful God has placed you in my life to keep me on the right path and help me grow closer to him - From a visitor

Working with The Life Project, we answer this problem in the following ways:

We provide websites with the information that the people are looking for.
We encourage the people on those websites to enter into a more personal discussion with our team.
We train mentors, volunteers and churches to respond to these people and encourage them to take the next steps in their journey towards knowing God.

The impact of this strategy has been incredible. Literally every day we hear about how someone across the world prayed to accept Jesus, or was built up in their faith, or was encouraged to go out and share their testimony as a result of the mentor speaking into their life. We have conversations with people in India, China, Afghanistan, Iran… not to mention those in the western, more accessible countries.

I want to adopt Jesus but I don’t know what to pray. All the people around me are Muslims and if they know I will be killed. - Recently from Afghanistan

This is what gets me up in the morning. This is what really makes everything worth it. God is doing mighty things in and through this ministry. He has placed us on the leading edge of this mission field and has been using us in amazing ways. There are so many more stories like these, of people who's lives have been changed for eternity because of God working through us on the Internet. If you are among those who give financially to us, I want to say a special thanks. I was reminded recently of how we are all really just stewards of God's property and how to an extent He leaves it to us to choose how and where to invest for the best return in His kingdom. Thank you for investing His funds, entrusted to you, in this ministry. They really do reap great rewards. Thank you for praying for us. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for serving with us. We feel so incredibly blessed to have faithful people on our team who really "get it". To learn more about how you could get further involved visit /making-a-difference/

December 2014 Update

Fri, 12 Dec 14 08:34:18 +0000

I wanted to write a quick update to let you know how things have been going in the ministry with Power to Change these past few months. There has been a lot of change around the ministry this year and I do not want you to be taken by surprise by news you might hear through "the grape vine". Major Change Highlights:

Our ministry name has been changed from TruthMedia to The Life Project. The essence of what we do remains the same, but we have become more focused in our direction and purpose.
Karen Schenk has stepped down as director of our ministry and is pursuing some additional personal leadership development.
More than 15 other staff have either left or been let go due to refocusing of the ministry and budget constraints.
Leonard Buhler (the President of Power to Change) will be stepping down soon and a leadership search in under way.
The film team has been split off into it's own ministry. Previously it was a part of TruthMedia. Now it will be called Power to Change Films.
My personal status on staff has been changed slightly to allow me to take on some outside work in addition to my regular work with The Life Project.

As you can see, there has been a LOT of change. The work we do remains the same though and has become even more focused on our purpose which is to lead people on a spiritual journey in the digital space. For this point in time, it means we have become more focused on the mentoring side of the ministry, as well as on connecting seekers even more effectively with mentors who can help them one-on-one. Karen's departure has left a bitter-sweet feeling. We miss her leadership on the team but also understand that this is a very positive move forward for her personal development as a leader. Rod Bergen has taken her place as interim leader of the ministry and (I believe) there is a leadership search under way for her replacement. Rod has brought some great experience and focus to our team and we are looking forward to what the future will hold. My personal change in status is really only a paperwork change. My job and day-to-day activities remain the same. The difference is that I am now permitted to earn additional active income outside of Power to Change, something I was previously not permitted to do. If you have any further questions about these things, or would like to talk to me more, I'd be happy to connect with you. Please feel free to email, call, or grab me at church. :) Recent Stories and Articles: I have posted a few other articles recently that you may find encouraging. We have been continuing to see amazing results in the ministry and have recently heard some great stories.

Gone Fishing - A great story from one of our chat mentors.
Mentoring Map - A cool visual example of how this ministry really is world-wide.
A Note of Encouragement - Received recently from an email mentor.
Some Recent Stats - Reasons why I do this.

Thank you for listening and for caring, praying and supporting us in this ministry. We really appreciate everyone who so faithfully stands with us. We wish you all the best in this Christmas season, James, Carolanne, Benjamin and Julia Warkentin

Global Daily - Nov. 2014

Tue, 25 Nov 14 08:28:43 +0000

Thank you to all of you who have been continuing to uphold us in faithful prayer. Christmas is a harder time for many of the people we connect with online. They come to us searching for meaning and hope, advice and comfort. One of our big sites these days is called Issues I Face. It is a place where people come to find answers to the issues they are facing today. Just looking through the history of what people have come searching for I see things like academic failure, pornography addiction, bullying, abuse in relationships and losing a loved one. We try to connect each one of these people with a mentor who can help walk this road with them, give them advice and encouragement, and share the love of Christ with them. Please pray for us, and for the mentors as we seek to introduce these hurting people to Jesus. Maybe you would like to consider becoming a mentor yourself! Read more about it at tmm.io

A Note of Encouragement

Mon, 20 Oct 14 08:46:17 +0000

I have written previously about how I have been working hard with our team to build our new mentoring system. We recently started moving more people into it, and other than a few minor hiccups, the response has been quite positive. I found this email especially encouraging:

"The new training system is awesome and I enjoyed going through it. I like the fact that it consists of videos to cater for those who don't like reading that much and would prefer watching and listening. Going through the training was a great reminder of why am I a mentor and what is my role. Therefore it's great for new mentors as well as for the old. For new mentors it is straight to the point and the system is easy to adapt to. Thank you for the great reminder and I wouldn't mind going through it in future to keep on reminding me the importance of staying at the top of my game and let the Holy Spirit reach as many people He would like to reach through me. God bless!"

In the next weeks, we will be moving all our mentors into the system. To try it out for yourself, visit http://tmm.io/.

Global Daily - September 2014

Thu, 21 Aug 14 14:04:20 +0000

Dear Friends and Family, Thank you very much for remembering our ministry in prayer over this past summer. In the past few months, we have seen God’s hand of blessing on the efforts of our team and our many volunteers. People are hearing about God’s love and coming to know Jesus in a personal way. Our traffic has doubled over the past year. This last July we saw 1596 people tell us that they had made a decision to follow Jesus. Since February alone, we have seen double the responses into our mentoring! People are coming to know Christ and we are so incredibly thankful for that. Our recent evangelistic strategy, http://issuesIface.com is one of the most effective digital strategies that we have embarked on. There is something to the raw and real stories about issues that people face every day that is resonating with non-believers. They are sharing what is going on in their lives and talking to mentors, who then help take them on a faith journey. Please continue to pray for us. As you look at your fall and consider ministry involvement, please pray about how you might help. Quite honestly, we need people to help with answering the emails (mentoring) and we need people to help with funding. Find out more at or on facebook at facebook.com/jcptc Thank you, James & Carolanne Warkentin