New Translation Finished!

As of yesterday, production of the 1700th classic “JESUS” film translation was completed. It is the Cheke Itolo language, for Solomon Islands people in the South Pacific. All glory goes to God! 

Respecting the Bible

I grew up in church and my family was very devout. I recall my father telling me to never place my Bible on the ground. We were to respect God's Word as a holy, living love letter from God to us.

One time I remember using it like a coaster by placing my glass of water on it. My mother almost flipped out as she scolded me. This was the last time I made that mistake. To this day I am careful to treat my Bibles with respect, even if I mark them up inside with highlighters.

I've been through a lot of Bibles over the decades. Sometimes the binding gives way, the pages fall out and the cover fades or cracks. Not from misuse, but from daily use. Tape and glue can only go so far before I need to buy a new copy.

Some people, however, are not so excited about God's Word. Check out this story of how one tiny Bible changed a man's journey.

It was hot and Lonalynn was tired of being rejected all day whenever she tried to spark spiritual conversations with Middle Easterners.

During this Jesus Film^® mission trip, Lonalynn handed an Arabic New Testament to Mo, a Muslim man on the street. He took it, glanced at it briefly, then promptly threw it down on the curb.

That was the last straw for Lonalynn. Infuriated, she yelled "Hey! No! You do not treat a holy book that way!"

Mo stopped and waved his hand at her, "It is not the Koran. I have no use for it."

"This is the Word of God and you must respect that," she said as she picked it up from the street.

When he saw her passion, he changed his mind, took the Bible from Lonalynn and asked for more information. They spoke for a long time about the one true God and his Word.

Mo walked away that day eager to read this book from God and to watch the Jesus film Lonalynn gave him.

More conversations have been occurring as Mo continues to meet with local Jesus Film workers. Pray for Mo as he embarks on this new spiritual journey and reads his new Bible.

Check out this link to learn more about the Bible and its power to transform lives.

Building Bridges with a Thriller

Rarely do horror movies present the message of Christ. And I wouldn't really call the latest short film created by Jesus Film Project^®, a horror film. "Nightwatch"  is more of a G-rated thriller.

Moreover, God is using it to reach students overseas with the gospel. In one Asian country a young woman named Tiffany is seeing God work…

Tiffany was pretty sure the director of the girls' school, which adheres to the dominant religion in the area, didn't like her.

But as the in-country contact for Jesus Film Project teams in her region of Asia, Tiffany worked hard to build bridges with leaders in the community.

One day, to her surprise, she had a nice visit with the director. This resulted in an invitation for Tiffany and some of her Jesus Film^® associates to teach an English class at the school.

The superintendent personally welcomed the team to the campus, serving snacks and talking with them for an hour before the seminar for the students began.

The team then showed the short film "Nightwatch"  to a group of 72 girls before breaking out into small discussion groups.

According to Tiffany and the other members of the team, the time spent with the girls was precious. The director seemed appreciative of their visit as well.

Pray for God to continue to strengthen the relationship between the local ministry workers and the school's director and teachers. And pray this leads to more opportunities for believers to interact and have spiritual conversations with both the educators and the students.

I often use the sovereignty-themed, Mel Gibson movie "Signs," to jump-start conversations about God. What other scary movies from Hollywood might be easy to use for sparking spiritual conversations? Give us your ideas in the comments.

God's Perfect Timing

As Christians, we often never find out what happens to the people with whom we share our faith. If they are not an ongoing part of our life, we may never see them again. This is especially true when we distribute material but don’t get a chance to have a conversation.

This last summer, I went on a Jesus Film Mission Trip^® and had the opportunity to help distribute free Bibles and DVDs to busy shoppers in London. I was discouraged in not being able to have spiritual conversations with many of those who took the gifts I was handing out. Until I heard this story …

Every day Sada*, a Middle Easterner residing in London, would walk by the Jesus Film^® workers and take one of the films and a New Testament. Then, as soon as she was out of sight, she would toss it in the garbage. It was her small way of helping her people avoid the distraction of Christianity.

All summer the Jesus Film workers were there in London. Every day Sada took a copy. Near the end of summer, she forgot to discard it and found it in her bags when she got home. She tossed it up in her closet and forgot about it.

For nine years!

Soon after Sada graduated from med school, she discovered the Bible and the DVD in her closet and became curious. She opened the package and watched the film. Then she began reading the Scriptures. To make a long story shorter, she eventually received Christ into her heart.

Sada is now a doctor and an influential leader in her community in the UK. She shares her faith regularly.

God’s timing is perfect. Had Sada received Christ nine years earlier, before college, she says her parents would have cut her off financially, disowned her and a degree would have been impossible. Her chance of being a doctor influencing other community leaders would never have materialized.

We may share the gospel dozens of times with a friend. We may give away hundreds of Bibles or other materials. We may pray for years for the salvation of a loved one and never see evidence of a change.

But be encouraged; God is at work and He knows the perfect time to draw people to Himself. If you’d like to know more about Jesus Film Mission Trips go to www.jesusfilmmissiontrips.org.

*name changed

Loving By Faith But Cursing Mad

"I don’t really care about you and your family so stop trying to be friendly. I only care about myself. I don’t need you guys in my life."

My jaw dropped as this relative of mine spewed out his hateful comments toward me and my family. He was lashing out at me for making small talk and asking how he was doing. My question was benign enough, but no doubt something about it set off his tirade of misplaced anger.

As someone who doesn't follow Christ, his reaction should not have been surprising to me. I apologized and tried to respond with kindness and humility. This only enraged him more. He called me some awful things, letting me know he didn't care to speak to me again.

My thoughtfulness didn't help anything. In fact, rather than deflating his anger, I exacerbated the issue. While I've had to protect myself against another attack by setting boundaries, I still want to be an example of forgiveness and love him by faith, in order to be a light in his dark world.

Honestly, part of me wanted to slap him across the face. But he was obviously struggling with something deeper than just people being kind to him. Maybe he thought I lacked authenticity? Certainly a firm slap would not have helped him see Christ in me.

Hate and intolerance toward Christ followers is not only an American problem. Check out this story that recently came across my desk at Jesus Film Project.

In a northern African village, a woman we'll call Asma became suspicious; she knew something was happening in a particular house where many women met regularly, and she was very angry.

She suspected the meetings were attended by women who had renounced her country's religion and become Christians. But she wasn't sure. She wanted to find out, but was so angry she dared not speak with them.

Whenever Asma saw one of the women on the road, she would curse and swear, calling them prostitutes and betrayers of her family's religion. However, they always greeted her pleasantly, ignoring the insults.

Later, Asma's husband was unfaithful to her, and everyone in the village heard about it. This brought shame upon her. One day on the road, she passed one of the women, but instead of cursing, she hung her head in shame, hoping to pass unnoticed.

One of the women walked up to her and said, "We care about you and want to talk to you if you like." Asma burst into tears and they embraced.

The women took her to their home and comforted her, demonstrating love and acceptance in spite of her past mistreatment of them. After watching our film "Magdalena," a powerful adaptation of the "JESUS" film for women, Asma realized Christ was who she needed. She became a Christian and experienced release from her shame and anger.

What a powerful reminder for me. I need to be full of the Holy Spirit at all times, even when accused wrongly or mistreated. When my flesh wants to defend or hold resentment, I pray the Heavenly Father helps me respond in love—like Christ, when hanging on the cross for so many of us who didn’t want his gift.

If you would like to know more about how to love by faith, check out this resource at Cru.org.

Have You Taken Your Child on a Mission Trip?

I recall my first mission trip. It was Haiti, 1995. It was transformational. It changed my life forever. So much so, I would eventually become a full-time missionary.

Flash forward 22 years.

My 14-year old daughter and I will be going on a 1-week mission trip next month. It’s one of the dozens of Jesus Film Mission Trips offered to the public each year. This family friendly trip is available for kids 14 and older if accompanied by a parent.

My daughter is very excited and I’m thrilled I get to be a part of this experience with her. This particular trip to London focuses on a certain group of religious people from the Middle East who vacation in England each year.

More than 200,000 of these individuals flood into the country to sightsee. So we will have the opportunity to meet this friendly people group, form relationships and share our passion for making Jesus the center of our lives.

What I love about Jesus Film Mission Trips is the care they offer you as a trip participant and the training you get for this outreach.

If you go, you and your child will receive training on the religious beliefs of these unreached people. And you’ll learn how to find common ground in what you know and believe is actually true about God. Finding common ground, rather than arguing over truth and heresy obviously builds trust and friendship rather than building walls that separate and alienate you--making it easier to share your faith.

As part of our in-country training, my daughter and I will also learn some basic conversational Arabic! How cool is that? This also helps create bridges and build relationships to more effectively share the gospel. Part of our role (and yours too) will include distribution of the “JESUS” film and copies of the New Testament.

I’m confident my daughter will return from this trip changed forever. After speaking with the trip leader on the phone, my daughter is already so excited she’s mentioned switching her future career plans for being a lawyer, to being a missionary.

Wow! And we haven’t even left yet.

If you’d like to know more about how you and your kids can experience a life-changing mission trip go to www.JesusFilmMissionTrips.org.

Partners at Home

An Open Letter From Your Neighbor

Jesus Film Project partnerships provide ways to link arms with U.S. churches, organizations and individuals to reach internationals both overseas and in America. When opportunities arise, these partners offer a "JESUS" DVD to immigrants and foreign visitors. Below is a thank you note from Cindy Dake and her family in Texas:

It was summer when we took in an 8-year-old Eastern European orphan through a hosting program. It was our job to show Petya* what American family life is like. The orphanage suggested we get "The Story of Jesus for Children" in his native language, so we did. But we forgot about it for some time.

Petya was with us for five difficult weeks. When his bio said he spoke Russian, I assumed we could use Google Translate, but he couldn't read Russian yet, so he couldn't type back.

It was painful to hear the wonderful discussions other host families were having with their orphans who spoke English or used Google Translate. As the weeks wore on, the lack of communication made his visit more difficult. His fascination with America diminished. He was crankier and didn't want to interact with us much.

We were unable to discover what else he was thinking. We only got yes or no responses from Petya or food requests like ‘peeza, cheeken, or gamburgers.’ Xbox was his escape from those with whom he couldn't communicate.

Finally, God broke through. Two nights before his departure, we finally watched "The Story of Jesus for Children," with English subtitles for us. I worried he would balk at giving up an hour of video games. But once he heard the Russian language, he was completely taken in—never budging throughout the movie.

Our entire family piled on the bed, watching this young boy hear the gospel for the first time. He happily giggled when Jesus (speaking in Petya's mother tongue) performed miracles. He was visibly touched and wiped his eyes when Jesus was crucified.

At the end of the film, when the child actors explain what it means to ask for forgiveness, follow Jesus and receive eternal life, Petya enthusiastically nodded and responded. He wanted Jesus to forgive his sins and be Lord of His life. Then he prayed to receive Christ.

Wanting to be confident he understood what he just did, we hit rewind, backing it up to the beginning of the salvation message, making sure he heard it again. It was obvious the film made the incredible love and forgiveness of God clear to this little guy. I know God will honor Petya's childlike step of faith.

When he left us a few days later, we sent with him versions of this film and the original, classic "JESUS" film to share with the orphanage. We were told the hosted kids often bring home DVDs, and the directors appreciate this because all the kids benefit. We also sent a Russian children's Bible, so one day, when he learns to read, he will have it.

It is humbling to watch God break through an impossible obstacle to reveal Himself to someone for the first time. I’m so grateful for the person or organization that funded the Russian language translation of this film. What a blessing it’s become.

*Name changed for privacy.

If you'd like to learn more about how you can use the "JESUS" film to reach people in your community, go to www.JesusFilmStore.com.