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May 2012 Update — Not the Underdog!

carrie —  May 24, 2012  1 Comment

Rooting for the Underdog?

Though it’s taken a new shape for me as a mom, the work of my life as a “professional” Christian is basically to cheer on the Truth. To my daughter who has found it in her heart to test her new teeth on my shoulder. To the college students I will likely encounter this fall on campus. To my neighbor who has disregarded faith in favor of a library of humanist and new-age self-help literature. I admit, sometimes in the realm of uplifting the True, the Honorable, the Just, the Pure, the Lovely, and our Good God of whom they speak, it can feel like we root for the underdog.

Luckily, central Florida has no shortage of reminders. Today I attended a women’s lunch at Wycliffe Bible Translators, one of Cru’s close partners, and literal next-door neighbor. The keynote speaker, Elizabeth Schenkel, has recently returned to the U.S. with her husband, the new director of The JESUS Film Project. (We talked about this briefly last month.) And, like most overseas missionaries, she tells stories that could make even your goosebumps cry.

Truth Transforms

There's another story from Elizabeth at the bottom of this post.

Today, she spoke of a man from a small village in central Asia. To say “Muslim family” is an understatement – his father had memorized the Quran. After the fall of the Soviet Union, his tribe went to war and the young man was recruited by Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, his sister headed to the capital city to attend university where she would meet a believer who shared the message of Jesus with her. When she told her brother of her decision to follow this Jesus, he was outraged. His family was shamed! So much so that he decided to go with her to this house church where he would kill her, and everyone there.

But that day, as the preacher shared, God moved something in the young man. He repented of his decision and began to read and meet with the pastor! It would be three more years until he would surrender his life to Christ, but now – what proof of the transforming power of the Truth! Kindness and servanthood practically glow from his face. And though the house is tight with their three kids, he and his wife don’t dream about how to change their situation or acquire more things, but how to share more with widows and orphans, how to extend the good news in more places — schools, hospitals, prisons…

Certain Fruit

All this to say, the Truth of Jesus Christ is not the underdog in our world! Like Paul reminds the Colossians, “The gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing – as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth…” Thanks for the part you play!

Please Pray For:

  • Growth and safety of Muslim women like this sister who are responding to JFP’s resources about Jesus in un-namable places.
  • Revival and transformation in our diverse Orlando community. We have already made friends from Australia, Puerto Rico, Palestine, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, and Mexico.
  • The JesusFilmMedia.org site that Jayson put together (twice due to technical problems) and launched over the course of the past week. It could be a huge first step for the next season in the JESUS Film Project’s history.

Grace & Peace,

Carrie

 

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April 2012 Update

jay —  April 21, 2012  Leave a comment

The only one Fia smiled in.

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

 

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April 2010 Update

jay —  April 22, 2010  Leave a comment

What do you do again?

Some days, I wonder this myself.  My position focus outlines a few basic responsibilities, among which are loving my Lord and team, learning the culture of my city, and coaching student-led spiritual movements on college campuses here.  The accompanying expectations vary from helpful to rather vague, depending on the tilt of the day. Once in a while, though, we’ll have an encounter or hear a story to which we point and say, “This. I’m pretty sure my job is this.”

This.

The following are excerpts from an email from Jess, a student leader at Marymount University, shared with permission.  Of course, no one story can capture the whole, but I’ll share it because it’s still a good day. From Jess, shortened to fit:

“So today, I was walking down the hall & my friend S. (she’s an RA too) walked by & she looked sad & I found out that her boyfriend of over a year cheated on her with her BEST FRIEND! We talked about it & she seemed stable & everything so I said bye & told her to keep me in the loop. [Background info: I have been praying for opportunities to share my faith with both S. & N.]

Then I went to the mall with N. & E. When we got back, we ran into S. & she was BAWLING HER EYES OUT. So we stopped & asked what was wrong & she totally gushed about the whole boyfriend drama. Turns out, her “best friend” has been sleeping with her boyfriend for over a month. It was a huge fat big ugly secret & everyone knew but her… literally. So they didn’t tell her the whole truth & one of her friends accidentally blurted it out. She was hysterical & as she was standing there in the deepest desperation, I’m thinking what do I do? How can I serve & love her… in front of E­. & N. who are not Christians??? So we listened for about another 10 minutes & she shared that yesterday she took 4 Zanex to calm her nerves & has 3 packs of cigarettes to smoke tonight. That was it, I was like, can I pray for you? And she was like… I wish I was more religious & I wrapped my arms around her & prayed for her out loud. E. & N. both hugged us from the outside & we all cried & prayed for strength & comfort for a solid 10 minutes. And the Holy Spirit moved. Wow. S. was sobbing through the whole thing & thanked me through tears at the end. I gave her a hug & told her to come to my room if she needs me.

THEN, N. came to hang out & I brought up facebook & checked my inbox. In it was a message from my friend, Meg. We were writing about prayer requests & she told me she wants to help me with summer project :) N. looks over my shoulder & is like who is Meg? I was like… she’s my friend from home, she’s so on fire for God it’s so inspiring (because I’m really open with my friends even if they are not Christians). I could tell she was interested & she was like… Oh I felt that way once… must be nice. So I was like…what do you mean? She explained that she went on a camp trip & had a moment where she was overwhelmed with tears & accepted Jesus. After that she was baptized. She said she literally felt like God touched her soul with his Hand. (woah.)  She also said that it was like she came to this crazy understanding of how much God loves her & that she understood who Jesus is. So I asked what happened? what changed? She explained that when she went home, her friends looked at her like she was crazy & her mom was like let’s see how long this lasts. Since then, she said she believes in God. But she flat out asked me… How do you get to heaven? So I shared how you get to heaven with her!!!! God is so cool! We talked for a long time, she said some strange guy on the street gave her a track TODAY with all these encouraging verses about salvation. She asked me, Do you think God is telling me something? I said, Maybe he wants you to revive your love for Him like it was that one night at camp? We talked a lot about the Bible & read some verses & she was like this was fun, we should talk like this more often! She left so peppy & encouraged, the papers I gave her in hand.

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you, if it wasn’t for the bold love that you have all showed me and the literal lessons on how to share my faith, today would not have been the day it was. God is at work, and using you to bless others. Let’s praise Him for how wonderful and in control He is!”

Grace & Peace,

Jayson & Carrie
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April 2008 Update

carrie —  April 16, 2008  Leave a comment

The Percentage Problem
In campus ministry, building successful student-led movements often boils down to finding the perfect storm of two things – 1.) a felt spiritual need and 2.) a capacity for leadership. Typically, this has panned out to be most prevalent in the middle-of-the-road schools – the Slippery Rock U.’s, the Penn States, the Virginia Techs, — and we have seen much success in these places. Less often striking this balance are the top 20% (often more self-sufficient and indifferent) and the bottom 20% (often more needy and transient). That’s why gaining momentum in a city ministry can be such an enigma – almost all of our schools fall within these top 20/bottom 20 brackets. Never mind trying to build community among students from such vastly different backgrounds and situations!

So to help gain momentum, our tiny team brought in a task force to increase our manpower by 900%: 60 students from further south willing to “fly north” for spring break. Hailing from Radford University in southern Virginia and the University of Georgia, these brave souls (some relatively new to faith themselves) hit the ground running, talking with students and doing service projects all around the city.

Winds of Change
In a brief overview of Bible imagery, the Wind rarely escapes its “Big Bad Wolf” typecast. Though spoken of often, it’s usually accompanied by words like “scorching, scattered, smote, and swept” in verses about vanity, chaos and destruction. I can only think of two occasions – Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus in John 3 and Pentecost in Acts 2 – where the Wind gets to play the good guy. But this month in DC, it got a star role with two of our visiting spring breakers.

Radford students were the first of our visitors to get out to Bowie State, initially to just cover it in prayer. There weren’t many folks to talk with that Friday, but for some reason, Haley had an unusually strong sense that the Lord’s presence was loud and clear, particularly when the breeze picked up. As it blew, she was struck with an odd sense of God’s love for that campus and the students there.

It wasn’t until Wednesday that Jessica from U. of Georgia would be at Bowie, joining with other Christians there to do some surveys about spiritual things. In the process, she connected with one particular girl and was praying with her before leaving that day. That night at our group sharing time, imagine Haley’s surprise when Jessica recounted that interaction, and how strongly she sensed God’s presence among them when, on an otherwise calm day, the wind picked up noticeably the entire time they were praying!

Things are stirring here in the city. By now, everyone is back home from various spring break ventures and the school year is winding down. But the spiritual atmosphere feels like the hour before a good summer rain, when the light changes quality and leaves upturn and get fidgety. Glimmers of the Holy Spirit’s work are blowing around, foreshadowing movement and change in dry places. Please continue to pray with us for the release of God’s healing, freeing power in DC!

Please Pray For

  • The four new believers @ PGCC who came to faith through spring breakers, as well as the ongoing focus groups we mentioned last month.
  • We have followed what we’ve perceived to be the Lord’s leading and are planning on staying with the DC Metro team another year, please pray for us as we work out all of the details that go into making this a reality.
  • Good closure to the end of the year, even as we prepare for a summer of taking classes, raising funds, and planning for next year.

If you’d like to download the prayer letter, you can download the PDF here.

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