Prayer – James & Carolanne

Are We Changing Lives For Eternity?

Mon, 01 May 23 11:13:54 +0000

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!

Muslim man is offended, but later comes to Christ

Wed, 11 Oct 17 22:42:44 +0000

I am often amazed at the impact that this ministry has in some of the most closed and difficult to reach countries of the world. I have been given permission to share this story with you, though names and key details have been changed for the safety of those involved.

Mohamed,* a 30-year old man, was born and raised in a Muslim family in Morocco. Mohamed found himself late one night surfing on the internet. Something odd caught his eye and so he Googled a search and found himself on one of our website pages that had a message that provoked him: “How can a Muslim become a Christian?” (The four Spiritual Laws)

“The Bible is full of errors and is corrupted! It is not scientifically sound."

He contacted us through WhatsApp (instant messaging text and audio service for smartphones). Mohamed fiercely challenged Paul, the director of our Arabic ministry: “The Bible is full of errors and is corrupted! It is not scientifically sound." He was ready for a fight but Paul responded calmly and shared with him his testimony — about why 14 years ago, he left Islam to follow Christ. By the next day Mohamed's irritation had grown. Ready for an argument he called Paul again and was even more aggressive. Yet Paul felt compassion for him and responded to his anger with empathy: "I was once like you too. I understand your anger. But let us continue to discuss these things together." And so they continued to talk together — it was an intense and seriously academic dialogue that continued for days and days. But after a time, Paul noticed that Mohamed was no longer argumentative and had entered into a genuine search for truth.

"I have found the truth."

Paul gave Mohamed many videos and links to go deeply in his search for the truth. And then one day, he told Paul: "I have found the truth." Mohamed had given his life to Christ! Paul connected him with other former-Muslim believers online. In this online group there is ongoing Bible Study, friendship, prayer, discipleship, mutual fellowship and encouragement. This online group will equip Mohamed as a Muslim Background Believer (MBB) to continue in Christ, rooted and built-up in Him, established in the faith and overflowing with thankfulness (Colossians 2:6,7).

It takes time, knowledge, and patient endurance to bring Muslims to Christ. It usually takes a process which involves weeks, months, and sometimes years and yet it all starts with a gesture of friendliness and a genuine desire for relationship. These are the stories that encourage me in this ministry. Thank you for your part in helping us to continue here at The Life Project. Your financial gifts and prayers are so very much appreciated!

A Very Special Opportunity:

Today, I'm excited to tell you about an amazing opportunity that has been made available to us.There is a financial donor who has pledged to match any extra donations that we receive over the next little while! This person will match up to $100,000 to The Life Project for any donations given towards our personal ministry. So if you give $500 to help support our ministry, this donor will give $500 to The Life Project general fund to support some of the other ministry expenses. I'd like to invite you to partner with us in this ministry and allow your gift to be matched to The Life Project. You can sign up to give on a monthly basis or a one-time offering. If you are already a regular donor, would you consider increasing your support or giving a special one-time gift to help both us personally and this ministry? Give to our personal ministry. Give specifically to the Arabic outreach. I would like to help in some other way. * Names changed for safety.

Global Daily Oct. 2014

Mon, 22 Sep 14 15:31:12 +0000

Dear Friends, This fall feels as though it is flying past. Thank you for your prayer and support of us during this past month. There have been some pretty major changes around Power to Change and even our team over this past summer. One of these has been a name change. Our ministry (within the greater body of Power to Change) is now called The Life Project instead of TruthMedia. Our mission has not really changed though we have grown leaner and more clearly focused. We lead people on a spiritual journey in the digital space. Please continue to uphold us in prayer as we work to this end. Pray for wisdom in knowing how best to reach and make an impact in people's lives. Pray for meaningful and purposeful relationships between our mentors and those whom they help. And pray for funds for the ministry. We have lost some good staff members over the summer due mainly to lack of funding. Please pray that God would provide the people we need and the financial resources as well. Thank you so much, James and Carolanne Warkentin

Off to Staff Conference

Sun, 22 Jul 12 21:37:37 +0000

As of tomorrow, we're off to our annual Power to Change Staff Conference! For those who don't know, every year Power to Change holds a Canada-wide staff conference where all the Canadian PTC staff get together for a week of inspiration, networking, team building and spiritual renewal. There are approximately 500 staff (and potentially their families) who will be attending. (I'm not certain on the exact numbers) Staff Conference is always somewhat of a challenge for us as it is a mandatory work related event, that we are required to raise the funds in order to attend. This year, we were originally planning for Carolanne and the kids not to come due to the high cost of attendance. However, we have made the decision (and been accepted) to have Carolanne volunteer to help with the childcare during the week which allows for their room and board to be covered. That's a big praise item for us as we really wanted to stay together as a family for that week. Another praise item is related to our dog. We have a very friendly Cockalier (Cocker spaniel/Cavalier King Charles spaniel mix) that we had to find a "sitter" for. We originally had someone lined up to help with caring for her, but due to complications it fell through a few days before we had to leave. The past couple days we've been somewhat frantically trying to find someone who could care for her in our absence. On Saturday one of the families in our church heard about our situation and has generously volunteered to care for her. That's a HUGE blessing and answer to prayer. Please pray that this week would be a good time of renewal and refocusing as we meet together. Have a great week, James & Carolanne Warkentin

Global Daily for June

Tue, 26 Jun 12 15:40:25 +0000

Question: Let us know about your activities, ministries, home assignment activities etc. for this summer. Answer: The nature of our ministry doesn't really change much with regard to the various seasons of the year. We do see somewhat smaller numbers at times during the summer, as people are often taking vacations and generally getting offline. We also often bring in a few summer interns to help them gain experience in web based ministry. During this time, our big project is the launch and refinement of TheLife.com and the related 35DayChallenge.ca. These sites are geared for churches and individual believers who are wanting to grow in their faith and take the next steps in their spiritual journey. We are also participating in a major outreach during the Calgary Stampede this year. Please pray for us in the following areas:

For the ministry currently taking place on TheLife.com. Many Christians are using TheLife.com to take a stand for what they believe and publicly declare that they are following Jesus with all that they are and have. Please pray for them in this, that God would use each one mightily for His glory.
For those who are taking the 35 day challenge. Built on the technology powering TheLife.com, the 35 Day Challenge is a five week long faith adventure where the participants are taught to share their faith with three other people in their lives. Please pray for the 600+ people currently taking this challenge.
For additional financial support. Carolanne and I are still lacking quite a bit of support. So far TruthMedia has been covering most of the shortfall however the ministry itself is also quite low on funds. Please pray that God would provide the support we need.

November 2011 Updates

Fri, 04 Nov 11 15:58:12 +0000

Dear Friends and Supporters, Thank you very much for your ongoing prayer and support of us here at Power to Change. It's been a busy few months but we have been seeing almost constant growth of both the number of people coming to the sites, as well as the number of people being brought into the kingdom of God. I was privileged to speak in our church recently about our need for more volunteers to help us answer the many emails coming in from the sites. The talk seemed to go well and we have had a very encouraging response so far. If you would like to know more about how you could help us with this, check out the video about it here: http://powertochange.com/itv/spirituality/become-a-mentor/ We have been receiving quite a number of messages from people on the sites, both as emails directly to us, as well as just from people commenting on articles. In fact, I just recently shared a really neat story about someone who came to our site with questions about God and was encouraged. Click here to read it. We also have a number of prayer requests right now and if you could uphold us in these areas, we would really appreciate it.

For our financial support. We still have a long way to go. Praise the Lord for those who have recently joined our team.
For more volunteers. We need more people to help respond to the many questions and prayer requests we receive from the websites. Visit www.truthmedia.com/mentor for information on how you could help.
For the daily new believers that we try to help grow in their new faith.
For the protection and guidance of all the staff and volunteers. Many are struggling themselves with various life situations. Sometimes it seems as though working with this ministry results in a large target being placed on your back for Satan to shoot flaming arrows at. Pray that God would give each of us courage and strength for the work, and that He would provide generously for each of our needs.

Thank you so much for all your prayers for us. We could not continue in this ministry without dedicated people standing with us and interceding for us. All the best, James (and Carolanne) Warkentin

Global Daily for CHC

Fri, 04 Nov 11 15:22:39 +0000

Every month, I'm asked to write an entry for the Global Daily for Central Heights Church. This is my entry from October (published November). We are asked to respond to specific questions, and the one for this month was "Tell us about a Scripture book or passage that is especially meaningful to you." I (James) think my favourite parts of the Bible are those highlighted in red text. I love reading and learning about what Jesus said to His disciples and to us. I love learning about His character and personality, His humour, compassion and love. Lately I've been reading through the Old Testament and it continues to amaze me with how many things in the OT are simply reflections of the more complete picture given in the NT. It reminds me of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 13:12 when he said that "now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully". And I know that the best is yet to come. As for our prayer requests, we have a few: - For our financial support. We still have a long way to go. Praise the Lord for those who have recently joined our team. - For more volunteers. We need more people to help respond to the many questions and prayer requests we receive from the websites. Visit www.truthmedia.com/mentor for information on how you could help. - For the daily new believers that we try to help grow in their new faith. - For the protection and guidance of all the staff and volunteers. Many are struggling themselves with various life situations. Sometimes it seems as though working with this ministry results in a large target being placed on your back for Satan to shoot flaming arrows at. Pray that God would give each of us courage and strength for the work, and that He would provide generously for each of our needs. Thank you so much for standing behind us in this. All the best, James and Carolanne Warkentin

Global Daily

Tue, 20 Sep 11 15:54:36 +0000

What are the major hurdles, from your perspective, that will need God's divine enabling and overcoming in order for you to reach your ministry objectives? What are these objectives? Our position within the Power to Change ministry is actually a fairly unique one. What I mean is that as missionaries on the Internet, we are not working in a traditional missionary type of environment. We are not somewhere far off overseas serving the Lord in a foreign country or spending months and years learning new languages. We are not able to send back pictures of ourselves posing with the leaders of the local church we planted or show slideshows of our children playing with local natives or eating weird foreign foods. In reality, we may actually shop at the same supermarket you do and stop at the same local restaurants you enjoy. If we posed for pictures with our local church leaders, you might recognise them as your own pastors, and even though Chilliwack may seem distant to some, it's actually not that far. Our children may even (one day) attend the same schools that yours do. These are probably the cause of some of our biggest personal hurdles. We feel that generally, it is very difficult for people to really come to an understanding of how we are "missionaries" and why we need financial support. After all, we're in North America, the land of freedom and french fries. Why doesn't James just "go get a job"? The difficulty is, how do we explain to potential supporters and prayer partners that we help to reach people around the world with the message of God's love for them. How do we communicate that some of our sites are able to reach people in lands that traditional missionaries have a really hard time getting to? How do we share all the stories of teens and youth pouring their hearts out to us with things they might never share even with their own families. How do we help people visualise what the numbers look like? Just this last August, we were able to share the gospel with around 44,000 people and we saw 1008 people tell us that they had accepted Christ. That's 32 people every day of the month! So how can you pray for us? Please pray for all of us at TruthMedia that we would have the opportunity and ability to share the impact of this ministry effectively with those who need to hear it. Many of the staff who serve with us (as well as the ministry itself) are quite low on funding or support. Pray that God would lay the need on the right people's hearts. Pray also for the new believers as we try to help them grow in their faith. Pray for the 700+ email mentors who generously volunteer their time to serve on the front lines helping us in this work. And finally, please pray for Carolanne and I, that God would continue to guide us in the decisions we make regarding the ministry and that He would provide for our needs. Thank you very much, James & Carolanne Warkentin

August 2011 Newsletter

Tue, 02 Aug 11 11:26:23 +0000

Dear Family and Friends, Thank you all very much for your ongoing prayer and support of us over these past few months. It's hard to believe we're already a good way through summer. (probably because we've had so little sunshine) :) I wanted to say an especially big thank you to all of you who have responded recently to our fund raising requests by joining our team, increasing your giving and giving additional special gifts. Thank you VERY much. It is SO meaningful to us to know that people are standing behind us in this. Thank you also to those of you who have remained faithful in your giving and prayer for us for so many years. You have all been a HUGE blessing and we feel so honoured to have you standing with us. You may be wondering what has been going on with my health recently. As many of you know I struggled with some health problems over the last few years and have had to undergo repeat surgeries attempting to correct things. I'm happy to say that I'm "cautiously optimistic" about it all. It seems that the most recent surgery has been successful and things are starting to go back to normal. I'm very thankful that the Lord has allowed things to finally heal properly. It's been a long journey and I feel that I've learned a lot about God's grace and will during this time, but I'm also glad that it seems to be over. Thank you very much for your ongoing prayers for us in this. On the ministry side of things, the past few months have been super busy with preparation for our annual conference. Our film team has been hard at work putting together over 1000 video clips of the staff across Canada, along with creating two documentaries. This in addition to their regular video work for the site. One of the documentaries is actually now available on the Power to Change site. The story is only 19 minutes long but it will change the way you see the people around you. We showed it at our staff conference this past week and had incredible feedback.
http://powertochange.com/experience/spiritual-growth/as-they-pass-by/ This video is a great tool that you could use with a small group. We have created discussion questions to engage your group in a conversation about how it is that we know the Gospel, but it so hard to share our faith. We've also had some really cool connections happening in some of our online communities. This excerpt was sent to our team from our director and I thought you would also find it encouraging. - - - excerpt - - - Jess, who has attended one of our online small groups for quite some time, had been causing a fair bit of trouble. She had a fair bit of attitude and had been disrupting her group regularly. More than one leader had considered asking this person to no longer be part of the group. One of our moderators reached out to this visitor and built into her life, sharing the love of Christ even when the lady was responding out of her own pain. Others on our team have regularly prayed for Jess for months. Then one day early this month, Jess was in a conversation in open chat and led one of our newer visitors to the Lord! After sharing for quite some time, she came into the online small group (moderated chat) to share this good news with the ladies present that evening. The ladies rejoiced and prayed for this new life. Would you join us in praying for her growth and that of others who have accepted Christ this month? It’s incredible that every single day, thousands of people come to the site looking for information, conversation and often answers to some of life’s tough situations. Many people are looking for information on tough relational issues. When they find our videos and articles, they often join the community. One of our articles reached over 1,000 comments this past week. As people comment, we have mentors who are responding and coming alongside these people. The goal is to connect current realities to God. In the context of relationship, hearts are open to hearing the message of Jesus. - - - end - - - Thank you for your ongoing prayers for us in reaching these people with the love of Christ. Please continue to pray that God would make us even more effective and show us how best to reach the next generations. Please continue to pray also for our support. It has been really encouraging to see that it has been increasing lately, however we also still have a long way to go. As it stands right now, we have raised approximately 46% of our total need. Thank you again to all of you who have been standing with us so faithfully. We wish you God's blessing this summer in all you do. All the best from James, Carolanne, Benjamin & Julia.

Sharing Prayer

Fri, 11 Mar 11 20:36:17 +0000

It has been an exciting few months here in TruthMedia. Now that the majority of our work has been finished on the Power to Change supersite, we have had the opportunity to branch out into a few other projects that were waiting on the back-burners. One of these, was to try and build a facebook app that would let people send in prayer requests. Power to Change and TruthMedia’s new “Need Prayer?” Facebook app helps connect our team of dedicated volunteer mentors with people who need prayer. Mentoring is free, secure, and entirely confidential. Help us share this app with your friends, and help them discover or reconnect with God today! Here’s how you can share the “Need Prayer?” app: 1) Visit our “Need Prayer?” application 2) Like our app 3) Share it with your friends! You can simply ask “Do you need prayer?” Click here to watch a video on how you can use this tool yourself. Another project that I've been working on is a coaching / mentoring system for athletes. Destined for use by our Athletes in Action ministry, this application will be reaching out to athletes to connect them to Christian coaches who will help with their personal development and guide them in their spiritual journey. It's not quite released yet, but I'll send more updates when it goes live. Since I last wrote, I've also gone through another surgery and am now healing slowly. This was my first surgery with the specialist in Burnaby and as far as I know, things have gone well. I seem to be healing properly, but we really won't know for sure until my next appt. with him in April. Please pray that things will completely heal, and that no further surgeries will be required. The progress on our support raising effort has been slow, but steady. I've written in the past about the $1000 that we are trying to raise in monthly support by next June. We have seen a fair amount come in already, however we also still have a long way to go. You can help us by praying that the funds would come in, considering a donation yourself, and sharing or liking our promo page on facebook. There have also been a few of our ministry partners who have either started giving or increased their giving and we want to say thank you very much! Thank you also for your ongoing prayer for us and your willingness to stand with us in this ministry. We really have appreciated your faithfulness and friendship.

Feb. Surgery Update

Wed, 09 Feb 11 11:32:59 +0000

On Thursday of last week (Feb. 3) I received a call from the office of the specialist that we have been trying to see, telling me that they had an opening to operate on the following Tuesday (Feb. 8 ) and wondering if I could make it on short notice. Naturally I said yes and quickly arranged for a few days of sick leave from work. Though it wasn't ideal timing, I've waited for quite a while to have this surgery done and my boss has been very understanding and accommodating through this whole process. My biggest concern was regarding the cold that Ben and Julia promptly got. Typically when they get sick I'm quick to follow. I could pretty much guarantee that the surgery would be cancelled if I got sick. We prayed very hard through the weekend that I would not get sick in spite of dealing with lots of sneezing, coughing and runny noses. The Lord heard our (and your) prayers and in spite of all the germs, neither Carolanne nor I got the cold. That was definitely a miracle in and of itself. Another concern we had was how to get me there. The surgery was scheduled to take place in Burnaby at 10:45 am and I needed a ride to get there at 8:45. Though Carolanne could have driven me there with the kids and then driven me back again when done, it would have been a really long day for the kids as we had to leave at 6:30 in the morning. As it turned out, one of the pastors from our church graciously accepted our request for help and drove me out in the morning. (thanks again pastor Dave) Going in to the surgery I really wasn't sure what to expect. Though my wound had been healed over for the past few months, I just recently had a scare where things started to swell up again and our family Dr. put me on antibiotics to help try to prevent a full fledged infection. (that's what this whole thing started with originally) I explained all this to the Dr. before the surgery, and after examining things he basically concluded that he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do much or not. He told me he would decide how much needed to be done during the surgery. Well the end result seems to be the best possible solution as far as I can tell. He did do some cutting so I have a small(ish) wound, but it doesn't *appear* to be really deep or big, and I don't have to go in for homecare every day. I would have been concerned if he didn't do anything since I know that there have still been problems with it. It also would have been frustrating if he had made huge incisions and I would have to take many months more of healing. Over all, it seems like quite a decent outcome. Thank you again Lord! Thank you to all of you as well for your prayers and concern for us over the past year and a half. This whole thing started July 13'th, 2009 and many of you have been praying for us since then. Thank you very much! I really hope that once I heal up, this will be the last of the surgeries for a LONG while!

Prayer Requests

Wed, 24 Nov 10 09:42:12 +0000

Please pray for the hurting people who we interact with on the sites. This last Monday our director shared how she had the opportunity to literally save a young man's life through the website over the weekend. The person was intending to drown himself in a lake, but searched the Internet one last time for the phrase “what happens when you commit suicide”. Our site came up as the first result in his search and so he posted the following comment on our article.

Greetings, this is going to sound very strange, l’m a very loving human being, l’m always happy. I know GOD PERSONALLY, but NOV 21,2010 l’m going to drown myself in lake michigan. Because l don’t understand why my prays are not being answered. I pray for humanity l love life l teach people aboutlove, but l have bills thats overwhelming (from Daniel)

Our director “just happened” to be looking through the site, found the comment and quickly began a conversation with him, encouraging him to choose life. In the end he DID choose life and the conversation is ongoing. Sadly, this sort of situation is quite common and we receive emails quite often from people, stating that they intend to “end it all”. Please pray for the team members who receive and do their best to respond quickly and appropriately to these emails. Please pray also for this particular situation and for our director as she continues the conversation. Please pray also for the TruthMedia ministry. We are really pushing hard to move into the realm of producing evangelistic video content in a desire to connect with a younger, video hungry audience. We have recently published four new video channels on our site entitled Business, Family, Spirituality and Sports. The goal of these channels is to provide both video and text content that leads people into deeper spiritual discussions and ultimately to a decision for Christ. The process has been a lot of work and learning for all of us. Please pray that the Lord would continue to use our efforts for His glory. The impact of these videos has been undeniable. We have seen huge spikes of traffic to these video resources and we're doing our best to lead people from the videos into further spiritual discussions. Please pray that the Lord would use these to their maximum impact. Thank you for all your prayers and support of us, James and Carolanne Warkentin

2010 End of Year Update

Wed, 17 Nov 10 14:50:51 +0000

We recently mailed out an end-of-year ministry update for 2010. We tried to get everyone we could think of who could possibly be interested in receiving an update about us, but if for some reason you were missed, we are putting it up here on the ministry site for you to read. You can download it in PDF format here. One of our big needs right now that we mentioned in the letter is for monthly financial support. We know that many of you already do support us financially and we are truly grateful for your generosity. Thank you! This letter was not intended to make anyone feel obligated to give more than they already have been giving. That being said, if you do feel that God is leading you to increase your support or begin supporting us we would be super grateful. We would also really appreciate if you know of anyone else who may be looking for someone they might support. While that may sound like an unusual situation to be in, I suspect (and hope) it may be more common than we might expect. I know for Carolanne and myself, we set aside a certain amount of our tithe each month and try to keep our eyes open for people who may be in need of our help in that way. I'm sure there are others out there who do the same. If you know of someone who might be interested in helping us by joining our monthly support team, we would love to get in contact with them. Wishing you all the best for the end of this 2010 year, James and Carolanne Warkentin