Ministry

My Last Day – New Movie from JesusFilm

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This is a very short (9 minutes) Anime’ version intended to reach young adults and teens who view hundreds of hours of movies online and on their mobile phones.

The story unfolds through the eyes of a criminal who receives the same crucifixion sentence as Christ. The criminal’s own guilt causes him to realize more fully Christ’s innocence. “My Last Day” is a short film of regret, repentance and redemption that frames the story of salvation in a new and refreshing way that will capture the attention of a new generation.

DISCLAIMER:  This is a unique style of movie and is thematically and graphically intense.  It is NOT suitable for small children.  The crucifixion scene in particular may make you uncomfortable.  However, the story is very powerful (as is Jesus’ costly sacrifice), and speaks powerfully of redemption.

This video has been released on the Global Short Film Network site and is free to watch and download.  Also download discussion questions.

Direct link to video: http://www.globalshortfilmnetwork.com/my-last-day-p-344-c-8.html

See our previous posts about how Global Short Film Network uses movies as spiritual conversation starters.

Ministry

Million Day Milestone

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See Image: Historic Day for Global Media Outreach

Totally an answer to prayer through an amazing “pull” from God.  Last month, Global Media Outreach (one of our evangelistic web ministries – we have posted about them previously here), set a crazy goal of trying to get 1 Million visitors to engage on their sites within a single 24 hour period.

The Lord did it!

Here’s a quote from Global Media Outreach’s blog:

In all yesterday there were:

1,094,614 Visitors to our gospel sites

111,859 Indicated Decisions

13,514 Emails to our Online Missionaries

Less than 6 years ago, Global Media Outreach would have been pleased to see approximately 2 Million visitors during an entire year!  So, no doubt, the Lord has really opened up the floodgates on the Internet and is drawing incredible numbers of people seeking God.   And it’s really encouraging that over 12,000 of the 101,000 people who indicated decisions for Jesus on March 24 engaged further in email follow up – requesting discipleship and prayer follow up by email.

GMO Staff member getting fueled up before the 24hr marathon online outreach:

Powered by Fruit Loops

Ramping things up in the control room before 12am when the outreach started:

See photo: in the GMO control room

Family

Choice Photo Updates

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It’s a flat out gorgeous Palm Sunday here in sunny Florida. Wanted to share two sets of photos with you.

In the first set, drum roll please, enjoy our most recent Hand family portraits! These come courtesy of our friend and talented photographer Kristina, taken shortly after Thanksgiving last year. Notice the slight hint of fall in these scenes – it’s as much fall as we get here in central Florida.

fun family photo of Hand 5

our favorite kids pic: Toby acting crazy

See the complete album (6 photos) here.

I’d hoped to share this second set of photos with you sooner, after I returned from my ministry trip to Thailand in March. These were captured at the Global Technology Leaders (you might notice the misspelled ‘GLT’ welcome banner created by the hotel) conference my team helped to facilitate. About 25 of our missionaries representing over 11 different countries gathered for worship, leadership development, technology training and problem solving sessions.

One day you'll get to meet these special people!

The three pictures at the top (clockwise from top left corner) show some remarkable leaders from around the world. It is truly a privilege to work with and serve these men:

~ Ephesians from East Africa. (Yes, his name is Ephesians and his life story is a true example of Ephesians 3:20)

~ Mishel from the Middle East / Russ from Canada / Me with Ephesians / Miheret from Ethiopia

How we wish you could meet each one of these talented people! The Lord has brought them into His service and is using them to accelerate the Great Commission. Thank Him with us for them.

Family

Meeting in Thailand (again)

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It’s always a rush trying to get ready for an out of town trip.  So I’m grateful to be able to post this shortly before I fly out.

My team from the Global Technology Office here in Orlando is hosting a meeting in northern Thailand this weekend through next Wednesday.  This will be a gathering for 27 Campus Crusade missionaries serving in about a dozen different countries.  We host this meeting twice each year.  For the last two times, we’ve met in Thailand.

Rather than tell you about the meeting I’ll just list some prayer points so you can lift these up:

Pray for …

  • Lift up Shannon and the kids.  Holding down the fort for 8 days while I’m gone is not a trivial matter.
  • Pray for peace in our hearts as I’m away.  The Lord is always near; pray for His presence to fill the Hand family and all the participants at the meeting.
  • At the meeting, we’ll be learning ways to help us have a deeper servant mindset and become more effective technology trainers. Pray that our time will be effective and very fruitful.
  • My friend Sam from India (pictured here) is ill and won’t be able attend.  Also, a couple of our Egyptian missionaries can’t come due to the instability there.  Pray that they won’t be too discouraged and ask the Lord to provide other opportunities for them.

David and Sam from India