The tow truck pulled up.. and we noticed it had a Jesus fish symbol on the back of it; Melanie and I just looked at each other and smiled. While all 5 of us settled into the tow truck headed for the repair shop I asked the driver “is that your book?” after noticing the Bible on the dash board. “Not really, it’s the shop owner’s, he is a pastor.”
When our car broke down on I-95 in South Virginia we thought we were headed home from our 3 week trip out of State; where we got to share our vision and calling to The JESUS Film... but God had a little detour for us.
God is good all the time. During our forced overnight stay in VA., we had the gift of meeting shop owner & pastor, Greg. We received the blessing of hearing how God called him to preach and we were also able to share about our call with The JESUS Film. By the grace of God we received our car repairs at the cost of parts and we were invited back to Emporia but next time to visit his church and not his repair shop! (hopefully)
This out of State trip was answered prayer. Thanks to many partners financial support, encouragement and prayers, this tour was made possible. We now have amazing new friends and great opportunities to partner with new families, groups and churches in the areas of D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
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Talking about Partnerships: The JESUS Film is working with partners from other ministries in the Amazon River region to reach many inaccessible tribes in an area that covers 40% of South America and includes parts of nine countries.
One of the problems with remote people is that it would take months to explain about biblical and cultural terminology before you can share one story. But when they see the JESUS film, right away they know what a Pharisee is. They're just as smart as we are, just uninformed.
One of The Jesus Films partners, Renew World Outreach visited 38 villages, telling people about Christ and inviting them to send representatives to be trained in how to start a church. Nineteen of those tribes saw the JESUS film and sent representatives to the church-planting training, where the ministry’s founder Stephanie met a leader named Segundo from Perรบ. Segundo became a Christian and later a pastor after watching the JESUS film.
Stories like Segundo’s happen because of partnerships. Wycliffe Bible Translators puts God's Word into local languages. Renew World Outreach designs portable video equipment so The JESUS Film Project can take the gospel to people in their own heart language. After that, Faith Comes By Hearing® equips illiterate new believers with audio Bibles they can use to plant churches.
Another JESUS Film partner COMIBAM International serves over 700 indigenous people groups in Paraguay and in the Amazon basin. The vision is to build four recording centers in the Amazon, far enough from the city that tribal people would be comfortable there in native attire. Each center will be set up for recording Scripture, the Jesus Film, and visual and oral stories in hundreds of languages.
Without you our partners, we wouldn’t be able to bring the story of Jesus to those who have not heard in Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world. Our partners are part of the group of unsung heroes, who make up The Other Half of the Story.
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Exciting News: After returning to our headquarters we had a meeting with the leadership of the Production department and a new goal has been set.
We trust that God will honor our new goal of finishing up our funding by December 1st. this year. That’s right only 8 more months! This is a tall order but we are excited and have faith. We need your prayers more than ever during this time. Also, we would like to ask you to pray specifically to see if God is leading YOU in some way to help us achieve this goal.
This will free us up by January to finish necessary training and begin the process of moving back to Latin America. There we will be in the field working on language production, making the JESUS film available in the remaining languages/dialects of the region so that everyone, everywhere has a chance to hear and see Jesus... Because Seeing is Believing!
Blessings,… Edgar & Melanie
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