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!

I cannot help wondering sometimes if our work is really making a difference. Are we bringing hope to the hopeless? Are we making a difference in people's lives for eternity?

Carolanne and I donate funds towards this ministry in the same way several of you who receive this newsletter do. Are our gifts really being used to change lives and point people towards Jesus?

My own work in this is often behind the scenes building the software that allows ministry to take place. As such I don't often see the direct impact of what I do. Is it really making a difference?

To answer these questions, this morning I started to read through some of the stories and emails that have come in just in the last few hours. I'd like to share a little of what I found with you.

I'm failing at every point and its getting hard for me now, I can't find the motivation to get up and try again. I want to give my best achieve everything and I want to end it all at the same time

8 minutes ago from N**** in Delhi, India

Because of the fact that this message contained the words "I want to end it all", our system flagged it as a more urgent crisis and sent an immediate response with several suicide and counselling hotlines designed specifically for people in India. This was a feature of our mentoring system that I built several years ago, specifically for our growing India ministry. I'm glad to see it is working well!

The system has also assigned it to a mentor who wants to answer messages from India and has specifically taken our "Offering Hope in Crisis" training. And, since N**** has told us she is female, the system also chose a female mentor to respond.

As I continue to read through the messages I see people asking for help, asking for prayer, confessing sin and several considering suicide. It's hard to read and even harder to know how to help. Many of the messages are in languages that I don't speak or understand. Chinese, Portuguese, Hungarian, Russian, Slovak, Polish. That's just the past hour or two. I'm very thankful that we have over 1000 mentors from a variety of cultures and languages who are willing and able to receive these requests and help to guide people towards hope in Christ.

Hi there, as I'm a muslim want to be achristan, can I ask something? I need to what I have to do & who do help me exactly after I except Christianity.

M. A. from Pennsylvania through partnership with Luis Palau Association

Not only do we respond to these messages ourselves, but we partner with several other amazing ministries and churches working toward the same mission. We offer our tools like the mentoring system for free to these organizations so that they too can easily respond to people seeking God.

The message above was responded to by one of the Luis Palau mentors who was able to encourage M. A. to get connected to a local church.

You and I play a critical part in bringing HOPE to people worldwide!

As a result of your prayer and financial gifts and with God's grace and provision we have been able to continue in this ministry. Is our work making a difference in people's lives for eternity? Absolutely Yes! God is using these tools to touch the lives of people LITERALLY around the world every day.

Recently we put together a map with a small selection of ministry stories from around the world. You're welcome to check it out here.

Thank YOU!!!

Thank you for standing with us in this ministry. Thank you for holding us up in prayer. For those who give, thank you for using what God has given you to help advance His kingdom.

Please continue to pray for us and for this ministry. Pray for the people who write in every day looking for help, hope and prayer.

Some specific prayer requests at this time:

• Pray for the several people who have written in recently and are contemplating suicide
• Pray for more opportunities to connect with more people
• Pray for wisdom for the mentors to respond with love, grace and hope
• Pray for funding for our ministry and staff (including us personally)
• Pray for our new Malay partnership who want to work with us to develop their own evangelistic resources in Malay, Chinese and Indonesian

Thank you!

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your continued prayer and support of us. We are very blessed to have friends and donors who continue to surround us and this ministry in prayer.

As you may know, much of my practical day-to-day activity is writing the back-end code that runs our various software platforms and outreach sites. Right now I'm exploring how we might build a live-chat system where our visitors would be able to talk directly to the mentors while maintaining security and anonymity on both sides. Please pray for wisdom in this process, both for the building of it as well as the development of the over-all strategy.

Please also pray for our continued funding both as a ministry as well as personally.

Finally, pray that God would continue to bring technically minded people to serve with our team.

Thank you! :)

Dear Friends,

Thank you for continuing to lift us up in prayer throughout this past year. Your partnership with us through financial support and prayer is a great encouragement and allows us to continue in this ministry. I thought you might be encouraged to hear how God has been using your gifts.

In 2022 your partnership helped 1491 people make decisions to follow Jesus through our mentoring program. Additionally, 243 new mentors were trained and began ministry responding to people who came to us looking for help.

Thank you for being a part of this amazing work that God is doing through P2C Digital Strategies. To learn more about the ministry visit p2cdigital.com

This is just a quick note today to let you know that the Power to Change head office location has officially moved from Langley to Abbotsford. If you have been sending donations by mail, please be sure to update your address book. The new address is:

Power to Change Ministries
30439 Great Northern Ave
Abbotsford, BC
Canada V2T 0J6

Thank you for remembering us in your prayer and giving!

The following story was shared recently by our Arabic ministry director. He is an amazing man who loves the Lord dearly and is passionate to reach the Arabic world with the gospel. I love hearing him share stories from the ministry and I hope you will too. The names have been changed for the safety of these new believers.

Salima’s life of privilege and wealth came crashing down when her husband was sent to prison for fraud. It wasn’t until several years later that her life changed for the better.

Aisha happened to be a Christian and invited Salima to church. She quickly accepted the invitation, went to church and, caught up in the moment, she made a profession of faith in Christ. Within a few days, though, Salima felt conflicted, guilty and fearful of Allah’s wrath. She returned to Islam with more tenacity than before.

Like a seed that falls on the path and is pecked away and eaten by birds, her faith did not last more than a month (Matthew 13:18,19). But God was working all the while.

Earlier this year, something changed. There was something in Salima’s heart that she could no longer deny. She began to investigate Christianity further and found our Arabic website, where she connected with our mentors.

Salima had many questions. Her mentors spent hours with her, helping her understand the truth about Islam. Eventually, Salima decided to reject the religion. She wanted the same joy that she remembered Aisha and others at the church had.

Together with her mentors, she studied the Bible and learned what it meant to follow Jesus. Salima decided to make an informed, sincere decision to give her life to Jesus. She is now back at her previous church and in August, she led her daughter to faith in Christ and both of them got baptized!

Thank you for your part in allowing this Muslim lady to find truth and salvation. Your prayer and generous support help us continue in this ministry.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has been praying for us in our move! We have a new home!

We are SO thankful for this new place. We have been here a week as of Wednesday and so far we love it! Though the journey has been rocky and super stressful at times we're thrilled to be finally through and officially moved in.

Thank you for praying for us! We know there have been many who have prayed diligently as we have walked through this process.

A little about the journey so far...

The picture above is the new place that we bought in the small town of Quesnel, about 6.5 hours drive north of where we used to live in Chilliwack. Since my (James) work is entirely online, I can work from anywhere as long as there is good internet connectivity. We started this process back in March, packing boxes into a storage unit and then listing our house for sale in April. We both felt like this was the direction that God was leading us.

One cool example of this was on the day that we were having pictures taken of our place. I had been praying the days before that it would be sunny for the pictures. I really wanted the place to be presented well and so sunshine coming in the windows would be just perfect. But we woke up on the morning of pictures and it was very grey and POURING rain. Still, I hoped for a miracle, though looking outside wasn't very uplifting to my faith. Even 20 minutes before the photographer was scheduled to arrive it was still grey and raining.

Then, the Lord answered my prayer. When the photographer showed up and started taking pictures the rain stopped, the sky opened up, and sunshine shone through. There are very few times I have seen such obvious and unmistakable answers to my prayers, but this was one of them. I know it might seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, but it was very meaningful to me and it gave me a little glimpse of what might be to come.

So, we listed our place for sale and the real-estate market in Chilliwack promptly crashed.

The crash...

Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but not much of one. We've talked to real-estate people who say the market turned almost overnight. We lived in a very nice townhouse complex and we saw another place in the same complex sell very quickly shortly before us. In fact, there was a bidding war and it went for $50k over the asking price within a week. However that place was a real "fixer-upper" so to speak. Realtors might say it had "good bones" and just needed "a little elbow grease". We know it needed a LOT of work.

So, we listed slightly higher, thinking we would have no trouble selling our nice, move-in-ready place. We wanted to sell because we really wanted to get into a larger place, in a quieter area with more room for the kids to roam and play. Not to mention we anticipated that Ben would want to park a car on the driveway soon enough.

But then, after listing with high hopes, nothing happened. No offers. Very few showings. We started to wonder if we picked the wrong agent, but he seemed to be doing what he could. We even ran into a few other agents who said he had mentioned our place to them.

After a month and a half the realtor encouraged us to consider lowering our price. We grudgingly hacked a year's wages off the price tag and waited for the lower offers to flow in. We hoped that we had taken enough off to capture people's interest and maybe still get bids over what we were asking. Yet, still nothing.

After what seemed like years, we finally received a very low offer for our place in July. This was another $35k lower than what we had already lowered our price to. At first we did not want to consider it. It was too low. It was far less even than the dumpy unit that sold in the bidding war down the lane. It was almost an insult!

However, time was moving on, and since we were planning to go further north we really wanted to be moved into a new place before the snow hit. After more thought and prayer we decided to accept their offer. Not having any insight yet into where we might move, we agreed to a possession date for the end of August. That gave us 1.5 months to find a place, make an offer, verify all the particulars and do the move.

The search...

Throughout all of this we had already been looking for new places up in Quesnel. We chose this town because of a combination of factors. We love the climate and terrain. We really wanted to live in a smaller, quieter, more peaceful area. We were constantly running into folks who spoke highly of the town. We could almost afford a proper house here. And two of Carolanne's brothers already lived here. When my sister and brother-in-law decided to move up to Prince George, (1.5 hours north of Quesnel) that clinched the decision.

Having accepted the offer on our place, we searched for homes with even greater vigor. I had multiple realtors sending listings to me, along with several automated systems watching for any new place or development. I scoured hundreds of listings looking for just the right place. We even put offers in on a few of them, though we were usually out-bid by others.

I think the Lord continues to have a sense of humour because in the end, in spite of the automated internet robots alerting me to anything new, and the multiple realtors watching for possible places, and my own constant searching, it ended up being Carolanne who found this place while casually browsing on Facebook marketplace. I'm so glad she did!

We moved in on Aug. 31'st. Now we have begun the long and tedious process of unpacking boxes and figuring out where everything is going to go. There are a few little things around the house that need fixing or repairing (hot water tank, fridge and some painting to name a few) but in general the place has been well kept and we're very happy with where we have landed.

Thanks!!!

Thank you again for praying for us! We really have appreciated all the support that folks have expressed to us and how many people have prayed for us during this move. It's a big deal to move a family that far. The kids had never moved before, and Carolanne has never lived outside the Fraser Valley. Thankfully since we homeschool there is less school exchange stress. We are going to continue with the homeschooling. We're still not sure exactly how prepared we are for the imminent snow. But we know that God continues to be with us and we trust He is guiding our steps.

As mentioned above, I James am continuing to work as a missionary with Power to Change. That part of our lives has not changed. I still serve with the internet based ministry called Digital Strategies (under P2C) and spend most of my day writing computer code used by our ministry and others to present the gospel and mentor people around the world.

We also still have many friends and family members who donate regularly to support us financially in this ministry. We are super thankful for each one who gives so faithfully and generously to help advance this kingdom work. Thank you for your continued gifts and prayer.

Our ministry really depends on these gifts and donations from people who understand the opportunity and impact, and who give generously to support it. If you would like to give to help support this online ministry, click here to go to our secure ministry giving form.

Thanks again on behalf of all of us,

James

Dear Friends,

We are excited and encouraged to tell you that it looks like we have found a place to live! Thank you for praying!

We have made an offer on a house for sale in Quesnel and it has been accepted. We still need to do our due diligence to verify things like financing and getting an inspection done, but over all it looks very promising! We are very thankful that God is answering our (and your) prayers about this!

It is an older home and will need a few updates here and there, but over-all seems to be in decent condition and shouldn't require huge up-front expenses to make it move-in ready. We will find out if there are major issues we haven't noticed once the inspection has been completed.

Thank you so much for praying for us in this. It's been quite a journey over the past several months, first trying to sell our place, then needing to find a place to buy and sorting out movers and such. We're really glad to be able to finally see the big pieces falling into place.

Please continue to pray that everything goes smoothly from here on out. We know there are still a myriad of details to get sorted out.

We will try to keep you informed as things progress.

James & Carolanne, Ben & Julia

Dear Friends,

We have a special and urgent prayer request for you today.

Please pray with us that we can find a new place to live by Aug. 30.

Here's a bit of background to this. Earlier this year (maybe February or March) we decided that it would be a healthy decision for our family to sell our townhouse and move to a larger place. We have lived in our Chilliwack townhouse for 15 years now and with the kids growing up it is beginning to feel pretty small.

However, mainly due to housing prices and mortgage costs, we decided we could not afford to buy anything larger around here in the Fraser Valley. Any actual houses around here typically sell for double the value of our townhouse. Usually over $1 million, which is far beyond what we can possibly afford to buy or mortgage.

As such, we chose to look for places in Quesnel which is a small town around 7 hours drive north of here. Prices there seemed much more reasonable, we had two family relatives already living there, and a third family of relatives moving to Prince George. (about 1 hour further north)

So, mid-April we put our house on the market for sale, expecting that it would sell fairly quickly at a good price. Two other places in our complex sold very quickly, with multiple competing offers. Then we waited... and prayed... and waited... and prayed... and waited.

Finally 3 months later we decided to accept the only offer we had received, which was very low compared to what we listed at originally. Our realtor informed us that if we didn't accept this offer, the next would likely be lower. So, we sold our place with a completion date of Aug. 29'th.

Now we're in the complicated position of needing to find somewhere else to buy, and quickly. We can't really afford anything larger here in the Fraser Valley; most likely not even the same size as what we have had.

We would really love to find a place on acreage. There are a few of these in Quesnel but they still have pretty high pricetags and many are older or quite run-down.

At this point we're starting to feel pretty desperate. We thought this was the direction that God was leading us. There have been several things that have taken place in the process to point us in that direction, however the overall progress has felt painfully slow and really stressful on all of us.

Please pray that God would provide just the right place for us and really quickly.

Thank you!

James, Carolanne, Ben and Julia

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.

Dear Friends,

What a crazy summer it has been! I know I and my family are definitely ready for life to go back to some semblance of normal. I'm sure you are too. Seems like every month brings new calamities.

As I write this today, our skies here in Chilliwack are grey with wildfire smoke, and at times the air has an acrid taste. Just this week a train derailed nearby, and a large pier went up in flames an hour away in Vancouver. That's even apart from the whole Covid situation where some of our neighbors are quarantined awaiting test results, and any time I cough in public I look around guiltily wondering how people will react.

And yet, in all of this, God is still at work in the hearts and lives of people around the world. Our internet ministry has continued to grow dramatically over the past year. Spanish is becoming big right now with a group in Latin America starting to really use our software tools to reach Spanish speakers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Another group pushing forward these days is Turkey. Several different Turkish strategies are being used to reach that area of the world by a group using our online mentoring system.

Yet another is Slovakia. A group there has used our IssuesIFace strategy as a template and developed https://mamproblem.sk to reach Slovak speakers. I'm glad we can partner with these folks, because my Slovak and Turkish is a bit rusty. :D

It's so cool to see God using the tools we create to reach people in countries I've never been and languages I can't even pronounce. Thank you for helping to support us in this ministry and allowing this to take place.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray wisdom for us as we are in process of figuring out how to allow people to be mentored via more Instant Message style systems such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Text Messaging.
• Please pray for more funding for both our personal support and that of the ministry. This is a tough time for everyone and fundraising is especially complicated.
• Please pray for our family as we work through some health concerns.
• Please pray for wisdom as we are homeschooling our kids again this year.

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you also for your generosity with us through gifts and donations to our ministry.

* image credit Brent Hayden OLY
https://twitter.com/thebrenthayden/status/1305362285280387072

Dear Friends,

I hope you are well. I know these are stressful and difficult times, but I wanted to encourage you with the words of Jesus from the gospel of John.

³² “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:32-33 NIV - Emphasis added

Kinda seems appropriate for today, doesn't it! He was speaking to his disciples shortly before they were to see Him arrested, charged and sentenced to immediate death. Suddenly instead of being a merry band of followers, they would be scattered, alone and in fear that they were next on the soldier's list. So Jesus tells them ahead of time what is going to happen so that they might have peace and know that He has overcome the world.

This message is for us too in these troubled times. Even though the world around seems to be in chaos, we can hold tight to Him. He is our peace. He is alive. He is risen. And He has overcome the world.

In the ministry, things have been really very busy. As a result of Covid, we find ourselves suddenly in the position of being "the experts in the field" of online ministry. Organizations who have traditionally focused on in-person style ministry are now looking at their online presence and wondering how they can pivot or improve.

Our staff has been growing and so has our reach and impact. Our primary strategy is still to encourage people to connect with an online mentor who is there to pray with them, encourage them and lead them closer to Jesus.

I don’t understand not working for my salvation. I’ve stressed myself out with this for years and now, I’ve given up on trying to find Jesus. It’ll never work for me and I’ll never understand it. The world is ending and I’ll never experience God.

Initial message received from Bobbie* two months ago.

I made the decision to follow Christ.

Received from Bobbie* last week after a long conversation with the mentor.

We now have over 800 active mentors who have together mentored more than 30,000 people just in 2020. We are continuing to expand into new languages and new areas of the world including Turkey, Slovakia and Russia. We are expanding our IssuesIFace.com strategy to languages such as Arabic, Farsi, Hindi and Punjabi.

Thank you for the part you play in allowing this ministry to continue. Through your financial partnership, support and prayer you help us continue to serve. Please continue to pray for us! And please don't hesitate to talk to us if there is anything we can help with or pray for you.

Wishing you all the best,
James W

* name changed for privacy

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.