Click the picture to go to the site.

My Last Day, is one of the JESUS Film Project’s newest resources. Officially released in the past couple months, it should be a wonderful tool for “visually translating” the possible story of one of the thieves crucified next to Jesus.

We’re hoping that social media will be a tool that will help to accelerate the spread of this 9 minute short film.

The first thing put on my plate when I arrived at my desk was to help put the finishing touches on the site that had to be outsourced to a development company that costs the ministry a pretty penny.

As I checked off the boxes of making text-changes to the site (not as easy as one would think), I noticed that one of the key portions of the site — the “Share This Site with a Friend” did not display properly on any mobile device if it was in a landscape setting (wider than it is tall). This could be a huge problem! With our key audience browsing more and more on mobile devices, this could end up being somewhere in the ballpark of 10-25% of our audience that was locked out of our key method of spreading the message!

It took me a few days to figure out exactly what the problem was and to fix it, but it works now. It may not be a the largest of issues, but those hours may just lead to a few hundred more people considering what it means to have eternal life.

A Whelpley family Easter photo.

Transitioning into Transition

We’ve joined the JESUS Film Project at an interesting time. Two weeks ago with a grand total of 5 work days under my belt, I joined the rest of the Orlando-based JFP staff in a large conference room to celebrate the passing of the leadership baton. The former Executive Director of the JESUS Film Project, Jim Green, was stepping aside to allow Erick Schenkel to take the reins. In their 5 decades on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ, the Greens have lead the JFP in amazing ways. Now the Schenkels represent a younger generation of leadership, and are excited about reaching people with the Gospel through film in innovative ways.

4.1 Million, 6 Months

Last time, we recommended some tools. One that I left out was Bible.is, an app available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. It comes with multiple languages of the Scriptures’ texts, audio Bibles, as well as the JESUS Film broken up into clips in 24 languages. Since September over 4.1 million clips have been viewed by around 2 million people! We’re only beginning to scratch the surface of the ways that our tools could be used in the near future!

Homepage, Homestead

Jayson’s been thrown right into the deep end with work. He has completed 1 smaller project, is wrapping up a second and will begin his largest-ever web-development project this week.

Meanwhile back on the “homestead,” Carrie’s (with the help of visiting family) has focused on getting our nest in order in hopes of having a comfortable space to entertain the neighbors we’re slowly meeting. As the Lord would have it, our townhouse sits under the only street lamp and sees lots of traffic from the school kids who have taken a liking to Fia. And just across the street, we met a young mother with 3 kids and twin boys due June 1! Pray that we would be a blessing here.

Pray For:

• MyLastDayFilm.com – the project that Jayson helped to clean up and finish last week. It could be pivotal for bringing the JESUS Film to a new generation of Western youth.
• A regular car-pool for Jayson so Carrie and Fia can have a car to use during the day.
• The confidential project that Jayson is working on now that is tied to the initial release of our newest evangelistic film in at least 6 languages/countries this weekend – some in very sensitive locations.

Grace & Peace,

Jayson, Carrie & Fia

As I type, I’m sitting at my new desk in the Digital Development Team’s area of the JESUS Film’s wing of Campus Crusade for Christ International’s headquarters in Orlando. Carrie and Fia are at our apartment in the Azalea Park neighborhood of Orlando.

This is what we’ve been aiming at for the last 9 months. We’ve met with a lot of people and shared the vision for my new position and these locations, so many of you have come along side of us in prayer and by giving your finances to this work of the Lord. Thank you for that!

Please be praying for all three of us. After a wonderful 9 months of being able to work from home and spend time with Carrie and Fia, I’m already missing them a lot and wishing I could cuddle that cute little ball of fat and spit (Fia) and hug my wife. Carrie and I prayed together this morning for our new normal, for this place being home for now, and for God to show Himself as big in our lives and hearts.

I am praising God for reporting today, and it’s sweet with only the slightest twinge of bitterness – join with us in praying through this transition as well!

WE’RE MOVING!!

Just yesterday we signed a lease on an apartment in East Orlando! We’re very excited about it and are looking forward to moving in 12 days from now. As of March 17, our new address is:

Jehovah Shama – the Lord who Hears

From a recent JESUS Film Project story update:

In a crowd of approximately 100 people watching the “JESUS” film—a large gathering for a country in South Asia—sat a Buddhist monk. He watched the film very intently and heard Jesus say He is the only One, He is the Way, and “whoever believes Me, believes My Father.” When the film finished, he came to the film team and started talking about Buddhism. They told him that no matter what anyone does, no one can gain salvation by works. They shared with him that Jesus is the only One who hears our voice, speaks to us, sees and walks, and helps us in our every work. Their words pierced his heart, and the monk—an honest and sincere man—told the team he wanted to accept Jesus as his God and Savior. They prayed with him, and now he attends church regularly and serves Jesus. Praise God for leading this man to the truth!

Jehovah Amaer – The Lord who Speaks

After weeks of hunting, we found an apartment and were hours from signing a lease this past Friday. But as Jayson prayed that night, he went to bed with a weight of unease on his chest. Since we had asked the Lord to put us in clear agreement, we spent Friday morning searching listings for a different place. By 3 pm — less than 15 hours after praying again that God would lead us to choose well together— we’d found a place that seemed even better. A friend checked it out and three days later, we have a lease on a lovely town home close to downtown Orlando.

Our location puts us 2 blocks from the main thoroughfares, surrounded by other town homes with neighbors to meet (our friend spotted a stroller next door), and lots of ethnic restaurants. Praise Jesus who hears, gives counsel and helps us in our every work!

Pray For:

• The next 17 days will be crazy! Jayson heads to Austin & back, then we drive to Florida and move in… pray for God’s grace and power to be evident in our family in the next few weeks.
• Pray that we’d be able to meet & build rapport with neighbors quickly. We’d like to serve our neighborhood as well.
• As we drive a car and moving truck south, pray for good weather and safe drivers to be around us.
• Pray for Carrie’s parents’ adjustment to having an empty nest.

Passionate about tools.

We feel very fortunate. The positions that God has led us to over the years have overlapped well with our own skills and passions. One of those things for me (Jayson) is that people would use the available tools and resources to the fullest — especially in proclaiming the Gospel!

With the JESUS Film, that means that as we develop applications and tools, I want to make sure we’re creating things that people can actually use, not just flashy useless things.

Some things for you.

I also want our partners to also be able to make the best use of the resources out there. For those with an Android or Apple smartphone, search for an application called God Tools. This app puts great evangelism tools in your pocket — the tried-and-true Four Spiritual Laws in 3 forms, and one for struggling Christians on the power of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life.

If you don’t have a “smart phone”, let me suggest two Bible tools that do have phone apps, but are available on your computer alone: BlueLetterBible.org and ESVBible.org. Blue Letter Bible has just about everything one could want for personal study — 18 versions, word-by-word concordance, commentaries and more. The ESV Bible online offers a way to keep notes, free audio Bible, devotional readings and optional add-on Greek & Hebrew study tools.

About your church: it should be easy for people to find out inf
rmation — at very least service times, an address, and a way to reach leaders by phone or email. If someone searches your church’s name in your town the first result should be a page with its information on it. This is the contemporary equivalent of having a sign by your building.

The easiest way to get a website started is WordPress.com. Their basic pages are free and with plenty of tutorials to get you started. If your church wants their own “.com” site, it will cost a mere $27 a year. A pretty low hurdle!

We see our ministry as not only to our students, neighbors or people through the showing of the JESUS Film, but also to you who partner with us with prayer and/or finances. Please let us know if you ever have questions, how we can be praying for you, or other ways we can care for you!

Pray For

• We’ve set a moving-to-Florida date of March 15. Pray that we can find the right housing for our family.
• We need about $315 of monthly support before Jayson can report to his team. Pray that it would come quickly.
• Jayson is traveling to Austin for a tech- conference in March. Pray for safe travel and lots of learning!

Where: East Salem UMC (Routes 235 & 333 between McAlisterville & Thompsontown) When: Friday, February 10, 2012. Doors open at 6:30pm. Movie starts at 7:00pm. It’s completely free. Bring anyone you want. We will also play the JESUS Film for Children & we will talk briefly about our work.

"Born is the King of Israel."

I should have posted this about two weeks ago. Better late than never, right?

Click the picture to go to the PennStateCru site.

Every time there’s a scandal or tragedy on any college campus, I think that it hits a lot of Cru staff a differently and closer than many. When Virginia Tech lost students to an out-of-control gunman it hit us harder than most in Western PA because we know the staff team that mourned the death of some of their disciples. This morning the news carried reports of a gunman on campus in Wilmington, NC and my heart prayed for JP, my roommate from a Summer Project over a decade ago who now leads that campus’ team.

For this reason and because we’re temporarily living about an hour from the campus, our reactions to the disgusting Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State are deep indeed. Of the scores of Cru staff that we’re friends with, Penn State alumni make up a significant portion – indeed, most of our very closest friends cheered in Happy Valley for a time.

Thursday nights are when Penn State Cru has their large-group weekly meeting. At it Tim Henderson, the team leader and a friend of ours, broke away from their ongoing series to talk about how Christians at Penn State should be thinking about the situation.

When victim six returned home from a visit with Sandusky, his mom noticed he had wet hair. On the basis of that small detail alone she was concerned and learned that they had showered together. Immediately this mom called the police, cooperated in a wiretap, confronted Sandusky to his face…

What’s the difference between these cases?

The difference is the mom loved her son. She loved her little boy and was moved to outrage by the simple fact of his wet hair. She moved aggressively. She wasn’t fulfilling a legal obligation, and she wasn’t fulfilling a moral obligation. Obligation wasn’t the issue.

Love is the issue.

Last Tuesday (the night of the riots), I spoke with one of our Penn State friends who now lives in Orlando and he was deeply upset – “my home is self-destructing.” He spoke of a deep pain drawing him to pray for his alma mater – so that it would be a place of healing and joy. Somewhere over which “Jesus Christ would be King.”

Take some time to visit the PennStateCru.com/love page and take a look or listen at what our friend had to say. You can listen to the talk, or read the abridged or full transcript. I’d suggest listening to the entire talk – it’s powerful.

“Armed” for Battle

Daddy and Fia

One of the best things about this season of focused fundraising is the wealth of time we get to visit and worship with friends, and meet the folks who are important in your lives too. This month, one church we visited studied Exodus 17, with Moses’ upraised arms and staff bringing Israel to victory over Amalek.

Incredible as the miracle is, the glaring reality remains: even the mighty prophet Moses is human with arms prone to tiring out. I (Carrie) could immediately relate. The arms of pregnant women are often barred from lifting anything; the biceps of mothers (I am learning) must do battle with all manner of seats and strollers, never mind the dead weight of an eleven-pound sleeping child. That Sunday during the sermon, I thought of countless afternoons where, like the author of Hebrews, I long for the One greater than Moses whose arms never tire, our Messiah Jesus who “upholds the universe by the word of his power.” A later search turned up no shortage of verses reminding YHWH’s people of His “mighty hand and outstretched arm,” most of which allude to deliverance and strength in battle.

Holding Steady

All this to say that like any work, the work of finding partners for this ministry is not immune from the spiritual battle that we all face as believers.  While I praise God for how well things have been going, please join me in praying especially for Jayson, as he carries the bulk of the responsibility for our family during this time. Pray for our continued protection and endurance through the spiritual battles of fundraising. As we live in transition for an unknown length of time with so many details up in the air, pray that the LORD would be our rock of stability. As we visit churches and meet people, pray that we will rely on the Holy Spirit’s power to initiate even when we feel socially taxed, and for discipline to keep the Sabbath.  Pray for protection from the emotional ups and downs of “crunching numbers,” and from fears of disappointing friends and partners, losing financial support, and feeling unworthiness in ministry.

We praise God for the way He has provided for our needs, protected our marriage, and proven Himself so faithful during this time, but we know we aren’t immune from the enemy’s attacks. Please join us in calling on the One whose strong arms are mighty in battle. We would love to be heading back down to Orlando to The Jesus Film Project by January 1. Thank you again for the part you play in holding us up – we couldn’t do it without you!

Pray For:

• Our last newsletter had ‘mysterious’ prayer requests that were probably confusing. They weren’t secret codes – just filler-text that we forgot to replace. Pray for our organizational abilities as they seem to have taken a hit since somewhere around early June.
• Pray for the financial support that would allow for a report date in early January.

Sometimes I have to help mom and dad out.

Last week mom and dad did something silly. They sent out the September newsletter with a little bit of an error on it.

Usually there is a box at the bottom left where they share prayer requests, each month they tend to be different things but the general design of the newsletter stays just about the same each month. Well, the two old coots forgot to change the “filler text” into something meaningful. Unlike me they’re not trying to say something novel or sneaky when they babble unintelligible sentences at you guys.

Please forgive them and pray for their administrative abilities. They keep saying something about needing me to sleep so that they can “work” or “concentrate” or something… I have no idea what that means, all I know is that I’m hungry, or I’m tired or bored. I’m not sure, I’m going to let them figure it out…