Fia’s name.

jay —  June 9, 2013  Leave a comment
Fia played for about 1/2 an hour with these two.

Fia played with these two kiddos for about 30 minutes.

Today is Fia’s 2nd birthday. We gave her the rest of her full name today – her middle name that is.

Sofia Amity Whelpley

Amity means “friendship” which she embodies like crazy.

We decided when she was born that we’d wait until she was 2 to give her a middle name that reflected the personality that she’s grown into. Yesterday during a layover at JFK she made friends with two little Saudi boys who were on their way to Disney world. She giggled, ran and climbed with the both of them and drew smiles and broken conversation from her parents and family.

We gave her a first name that we hope will embody her: Sofia means “wisdom“.

Her nickname, Fia, means either “firey” or “peaceful night” – she can definitely be both of those; which we like a lot.

For those of you that don’t know, Whelpley means “guarded pasture for small animals“. It’s rooted in the words “whelp” and “ley”. Whelp is easy to figure out. Ley is related to “lee” like the leeward side of an island, which is the side that is blocked from getting the strong winds. It’s safer to live there and farm there because of that protection. In our little branch of the Whelpley family we like to live this out by creating safe places for people who are in danger from the world around them, especially those who are defenseless on their own.

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May 2013 Prayer Requests!

jay —  May 20, 2013  Leave a comment

We failed to get a prayer letter out back in March or April, and that’s why we decided to include two updates this month.

This also means that we have quite a few prayer requests…

Please Pray For:

  • Bobby’s hearing on May 22nd. We will be testifying on his behalf.
  • Our travels this summer. We will be away from Orlando for family vacations, our national staff conference and for some support work. Pray for safety & sanity for all 3 of us.
  • Our opportunity to buy the condo that we’ve been renting. Pray for wisdom in the decision. This would be wonderful for our continued outreach to our neighborhood.
  • We’re hosting a brand-new small group for our church. It’s intended to be the beginning of an effort to reach this part of Orlando!
  • The friend that visited us on Good Friday, that he would find the freedom Jesus offers from guilt, anxiety and past hurts.
  • For Summer Cru at UCF which kicks off toward the end of June!

Praises:

Some of you saw our online update that we’d lost our conference housing unexpectedly. We found new housing!

Thanks for your prayers!

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May 2013 Update #2 — UCF: 100% Sent

jay —  May 17, 2013  Leave a comment

The campus year is officially over, but not without a fair amount of struggle. The question on the table this year largely revolved around the theme of sending: If we want to go beyond babysitting college students for a few years into the realm of equipping every graduate for a lifetime of personal ministry and kingdom influence, how does this change the “what, why and how” of our movement and how we measure success?

For the sake of brevity, I will spare you the long hours of debate and share possibly the most encouraging gauge I (Carrie) have seen. Accompanied by a host of incredible stories, this poster served as a year-end “Ebenezer” exercise — thus far the Lord has helped us! Each initial represents a small (or large!) victory our students or staff observed this year, in themselves or someone else. Praise the God who changes lives!

celebrationbingo

Ebenezer bingo?

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May 2013 Update #1 — Texas, Easter and Stats

jay —  May 16, 2013  Leave a comment
One of the panels I went to at SXSW. 
 In the picture are Dr Mae Jemison (astronaut), Dr Jill Tarter (scientist), and LeVar Burton (fictional astronaut).

One of the panels I went to at SXSW. 

In the picture are Dr Mae Jemison (astronaut), Dr Jill Tarter (scientist), and LeVar Burton (fictional astronaut).

Messin’ With Texas

Computational Science. Open Clouds. DIY API. 3D Printing. Nonprofit Social Media Management. UX of APIs. Inspiring Digital Natives. This is what my brain is still processing and digesting from my week at SXSW Interactive in Austin in March. The conference is a huge event, drawing more than 39,000 people this year from web developers, actors, marketers, entrepreneurs, astronauts (both real and fictional) and everything between.

It was a great time to refresh my “ideas box” for work. As I’m helping to develop what it will mean to partner with other ministries, it helps to learn what is working elsewhere and to add ideas to ponder. I’ve taken some time to condense what I learned into a report for my own good; to help me remember what I learned.

Risen Indeed

At the end of March we celebrated Fia’s second Easter (pictured) as well as a year living back in Florida.

Our 2013 "Easter Picture" taken in the same place as last year!

Our 2013 “Easter Picture” taken in the same place as last year!

To celebrate the Resurrection we visited Bobby in jail. The good news is that his recent charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, and that he’s spending lots of time in the Word! The bad news is that he is still in jail, awaiting a probation hearing on the 22nd of this month. Continue praying!

We also invited a friend over to watch the “easter scenes” of the JESUS Film with us after several long conversations about why the message of Jesus is good news. He seems to be searching for meaning and love in his life, and it is fun to be challenged by an intelligent friend to explain what the Risen Christ means practically for us also!

Encouraging Numbers

Since launching our app in October and starting to launch our platform:

  • The app will be installed for the 100,000th time sometime this week!
  • “Play” has been pressed on one of our videos for the 10 MILLIONTH time!
  • We’re averaging more than 55,000 video views every day.
  • Our newest partner, YouVersion, has logged over 1,000,000 views since adding the JESUS Film to their apps in March.
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