Family

Trip Down Under

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The “land down under” – a vast area of outback territory with kangaroos and koala bears. It’s a popular vacation spot but also a dry and thirsty land spiritually. Only 3% of the population would consider themselves as connected to any Christian church. Most likely even fewer have a growing personal relationship with Jesus.


Campus Crusade’s missionary staff in Australia and New Zealand have invited Shannon and I to serve at their annual conference September 23 – 28.We’re very excited about the opportunity to come alongside these 170 or so staff and hear what their needs are for Internet ministry and communication systems.Most of our time will be spent interviewing the staff, learning what existing systems they have, determining what technical requirements are needed for growth of their ministries and offering training and implementation for the global systems our team has already developed.

 Please pray for our travel and the conference . . .

•    Lift up our children – staying the whole week we’re gone with the grandparents (Eads family).  Pray for wisdom and perseverance of the grandparents, too!
•    Ask that we’ll not be too jet lagged in order to serve well at the conference. We arrive on Sept 23rd after 21 hours of air travel and a shift of 15 hours in time zones!
•    That God will be greatly glorified through the conference and the Australian and New Zealand staff would be even further grateful to reach out in Kingdom service.

Family

You’re In Our Bowl!

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prayer bowl
A while back the Hand family adopted a practice which helps us remember you in prayer. Your name – along with the names of all of our ministry partners – is on a strip of paper in a bowl that sits beside our dinner table. Before every meal, one of the kids selects (at random) someone to pray for. The Lord reminds us of how grateful we are for your partnership with us and this is another way we can connect with you. Since you are truly a partner in our ministry, it’s our privilege to lift you up! Recently we’ve been reminded that you may have some specific prayer needs which we can lift up for you.

Ministry

Awesome Video Recap of What Happened in Korea

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This video clip is a recap of Campus Mission 2007 – which was the global mission conference that happened in Korea this summer. Almost 16,000 students from 127 different countries showed up to worship, plan and deploy to reach their home campuses for Christ.

It will give you an idea of what the conference was like: A once in a lifetime experience of seeing believers from all over the world, united in one purpose.

For more info, view our post about the conference from June.

Cru Digital Ministry

Ho! 1,000 Languages Milestone

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Jesus Film Translation

Just last month, the JESUS Film was translated into its 1,000th language! In fact, according to the Jesus Film Translation Progress Report Web Page, as of August 23, 2007, they have officially translated 1,009 versions of the film. This is a huge milestone, as the film is now available for people groups in their native language covering 90% the world.

Many of you know about the JESUS Film. Created in 1979 by Campus Crusade for Christ, it’s a full length docu-drama used by missionaries and evangelistic teams around the world. Years ago I used the film in Eastern Europe to introduce several people to Christ.

For people who can not read the Scriptures or who just are more attuned to responding to visual media, the film is an excellent tool. Many other mission organizations use it. In fact, it is the most translated film in the history of the world.

Even more amazing is the story behind the translation of the 1,000th language – a language called Ho. Ho is spoken by about 1 million people in Central Asia and India.

Staines Photo
Jesus Film translation work for the Ho language began 10 or more years ago in India. Involved in the effort was Australian missionary Graham Staines. One night in 1999 Staines and his two young boys traveled to a small village to meet with believers. Only a small percentage of villagers had come to faith at the time, and it was considerably dangerous to be in opposition to the prevailing religion. During the trip, he and his boys spent the night in their Jeep. While they slept, radical Hindu leaders surrounded the Jeep and set fire to it. Graham and his sons were burned to death.

After receiving news of the murders, Mrs. Staines said, “I’m terribly upset but not angry. My husband loved Jesus Christ, who taught us to forgive our enemies.” She continued to serve as a missionary in India with her daughter. Last month, for the first time through the Jesus Film, people from the Ho language were able to see and hear the complete story of our perfect Forgiver and Redeemer Who lives today.

P.S. Sadly, but for the glory of God, many other Jesus Film workers have been put to death around the world. See more in our post about these amazing men and women here. The photo above is from the memorial plaque honoring Staines at the Jesus Film Master Studio in Orlando. If you’d like to learn more about the Jesus Film and its translation work around the world, come visit us in Orlando and take the Jesus Film Master Studio Tour.