Irvnnan's thot bloggers

 Nan and I are excited to pray with you about the potential of helping see an Nkoya JESUS film funded and produced as part of Mission 865.  Mission 865 is the initiative here at the JESUS Film Project to complete all languages spoken by at least 50,000 people.  These next 865 languages represent some of the most unreached and remote people in the world.  But much as Jesus related the parable of the Lost Sheep , these speakers of Nkoya have not escaped His notice.   When it comes to making a new JESUS film translation, one of the greatest challenges is completing the translation of the script .  As we do smaller and smaller people groups, this challenge increases.  The reason for this is that these people groups are more remote, there is less likelihood that they even have a written language (an oral language with no formal alphabet) and they usually have no portions of scripture in their language. That is why we have had a partnership...

Christmas is such a great time to strike up a conversation about Christmas and spiritual things.  A few years ago we make little gift packets that we could easily give out to people we met.  It had a Christmas card (with a Christmas greeting and 'Merry Christmas' in 16 languages ), candy canes, a bag of microwave popcorn and an 8-language JESUS DVD.  We put it into a ziplock bag to make it easy to grab and hand out.  I guess if we had put a bow on it that would have been even better! This year we plan to do it again but with a special Christmas version of "The Story of JESUS Through the Eyes of Children".  This is actually one of our favorite films.  While it was based on the JESUS film (and uses a lot of the original footage from the JESUS film shot in 1979), it adds a compelling storyline of children at the time of Christ and witnessing His life.  With a runtime of 62 minutes, it's a great film that families can share together, or older family m...

Working with technology as I do, the Internet has been an incredible help to me in my work.  For instance, part of what I do has me communicating with people in places like California, Bogata, Barcelona and Hong Kong.  I also work between the office and a home office and regularly move a lot of information around as we work on tools to communicate the gospel to people around the world. But the Internet is of course a double-edged sword.  If you have an email account you already know that our email boxes are bombarded with SPAM, some of it rather vile, unless you have a filter.  It's not much of a leap to see how Jesus' warning in Matthew 24, " Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold..."   (in that rather chilling chapter about the end times) is at our door now. Our greatest defense is a close walk with the Lord as we 'put on our spiritual armor...to quench the firey darts of the evil one' (Eph 6:11,16).  I've also fou...

Here's an exciting video report that Campus Crusade for Christ staff on the college campus made about their outreaches using  My Last Day.     It is a video report showing how they have been using My Last Day (our 9-minute Japanese anime film that shows the crucifixion through the eyes of the thief that was crucified with Jesus).  Not only have they been using it on campus but also with families in the community. One of the things that excites me about this report and this use of My Last Day - is that, since the dialog used in this film comes from our existing JESUS film translations, this story could happen on almost any campus in the world in the future where My Last Day is made available - we don't have to send new voice dubbing teams to that country, the translation is already done!  Right now we have it in about 45 languages with another 90 or so in process.   I don't know the prayer 'back-story' to this story - but I'm sure God raised up a te...

If you haven't seen FallingPlates prepare to be moved!

Something I've grown to appreciate lately is the ability to be spontaneous and enjoy a particular moment that the Lord brings my way.  I had a chance to do this recently with my friend Dom Carola.  Dom is the director as we have been re-dubbing a much better English version of the Archivo Cero project that we had worked on in 2010 and 2011 (Dom was the director of that animated project and I was the producer). We were going to meet for lunch to discuss Archivo Cero, but as we met Dom mentioned that he was invited at the spur of the moment to see a vintage WWII C47 land at the Fantasy of Flight museum not far from Orlando.  So we changed our lunch plans, did our meeting in the car and headed down to see this plane land... Dom has done work for the owner, Kermit Weeks, and Kermit was up in the plane flying it to his museum.  Apparently it had been restored by the Onasis family and Kermit had acquired it in Europe.  But he had to go to great pains to fly it...

Just a quick report, but this is the group that met during the meeting I asked you to pray for.  Most of us are in Jesus Film representing various areas that relate to this project, but we flew in Zach from Budapest (3rd from left), Karl from Hong Kong (4th from right) and Andy (2nd from right) who normally serves in Japan (he's on furlough right now).  We were meeting to consider the use of My Last Day in ministry and how to make it more effective, and what other anime pieces might be needed - based on the dialog recordings we already use in the JESUS film. In this picture we are hearing form Karl about mobile device use in Asia and some of the creative ways people are using to present the gospel using media and images.  The rather suprising conslusion (at least to me) was that what is needed is an app for smart devices (like iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets) that combines My Last Day (and a new anime piece) with an interactive gosepl media presentation...

Many people have been asking what's next?  We've worked on web episodes of  "Escaping the System" for the last 2 years and before that My Last Day on Earth .  What's next?  What are you doing now? That's a good question. First, let me say that I've pondered a bit over my last 25 years with Campus Crusade for Christ (soon to officially be called Cru here in the U.S.).  I have spent all 25 of these years working for just one ministry - the Jesus Film Project.  And I've wondered, why have I stayed?  Am I just so uncreative that I can't think of anywhere else to go.  Many people have multiple careers in that time.  Well, I actually have had several careers in that time. When I first came in 1986, it was just me, Tom Dennen and Mike Milchling in 2 rooms in San Bernardino with a bunch of tape machines.  Yes, magnetic audio and video tape.  The PC was in the second generation (the 80286) and the Mac was just barely 2 years old.  ...

Thanks for praying for our trip to Barcelona.  I traveled with Dom (the director on the 'Escaping the System' project) to Barcelona to be with the team there.  After nearly 2 years of a largely U.S. team working on the project it was time for them to take on the last half.  In this picture you can see Marc and Eva (top left) who have been the heart and soul of this project for many years now.  Their vision is to reach students all across Spain - and to go to the places and into the culture where these students live and engage with them; in their media, at their events and through their lives.  They are truly inspiring people to be around and they have a tremendous heart for the Lord and His love for people.  At the bottom of the picture are William and Isra.  William is an animator recently out of school.  Isra is managing the project part time as he continues in his job at an advertising company.  There are other people handling the websi...

Wow - what an incredible adventure the last 2 years have been - it's hard to believe it is winding down. It all started with hearing from my supervisor at the time, Bailey, that the team in Spain was looking for help in animation. I was just finishing work on pre-production of My Last Day (the pilot film of our life of Jesus in anime concept). Bailey and I proposed a research project to see if we could be of help to our sister ministry in Spain (called Agape), and we were off. I had previously been talking with my friend Dom about the project (CEO of Premise Entertainment here in Orlando - former Disney senior animator and all around great guy to work with). We had kicked around some ideas. Also at that time God brought about a connection (through a mutual friend) to Joshua G. who had just graduated from Full Sail as a rigger for CG characters. Joshua also had a modeler/zbrush artist friend who had also finished Full Sail, and together with Mark from the Pioneers ministry, w...

A new name for Campus Crusade for Christ I can't say it much better than this FAQ posted on Campus Crusade for Christ's website. While we knew the consideration of a new name was going on for the last year or two, we hadn't thought much about it until it was formally announced last week during the biennial staff conference going on in Colorado. So we wanted you to hear it from us rather than the news - yes, the new name that will be gradually phased in next year is, quite simply, Cru.

Last week our team completed the 5th episode from what in the United States would probably be called the "Escaping the System" story - the project we are doing in partnership with the Agape ministry in Spain. It is exciting to hear of students who were ministered to at the huge secular comic festival in Barcelona in May. Many students came up to the workers there that had first been exposed to the story at the festival a year ago and had been following it ever since. This episode touches on the prodigal son story, and episode 7 deals with the death and resurrection of Jesus. (You can see it at here or linked from our blog). Please keep the team in your prayers as we work through finishing episode 6 (in production right now) and episode 7 (in pre-production)! After we do these episodes the plan is for production to transition to Spain. So please pray for the team that is being formed in Spain, and for Josh (our TD) as he travels there in July to help with the transition...

"My Last Day on Earth" - finally released! After about 7 years of on again/off again, research, web surveys and various steps toward this day, the short 9-minute film on the crucifixion of Jesus is finally finished. There are several things that are unique about this film, in addition to how various obstacles that were cleared and people that came along at just the right time; it was all - well amazing if not miraculous. A few of the unique aspects to this film: the story was writtne by Barry Cook (director of Disney's 'Mulan') in between his other projects. He remotely supervised assembly of an animatic (thanks to Ovi Nedelcu for his storyboarding skills!), but Barry's vision was always for a Japanese studio to take over final production and make a great film with their unique artistry. it retells the crucifixion story, but through the eyes of the condemned thief (actually, some research indicates he might have been one of the 'zealots' that used ...

Okay, okay. So I am not an avid blogger. I do update the blog, sometimes yearly - whether it needs it or not. Ha ha. I let our other website go back to the digital ether and will rely on posting here for any important supplements to our newsletter. The Japanese studio finished most of the work in the early Fall and we were getting some important feedback from people in various parts of the world. Dealing with Jesus' death & resurrection and telling the story from the thief's perspective, we wanted feedback to know that the film was as clear as possible. I hadn't really thought about it very deeply before this, but there are some meaty issues in the Christian worldview that this story touches on if you think about it. We know that Jesus died a physical death, and demonstrated that he was raised to life in a physical body - although a glorified one. He could eat , and be touched, and he retained the scars on his hands and his feet . He promised the thief that ...

After attending our niece Emily's wedding in Rustburg, VA. Aimee and I were able to tack on a few extra days in Washington D.C. It was great to be able to see important sites like Arlington National Cemetery and Mt. Vernon. We also saw Ford's Theater (which does a great job in helping you understand the times surrounding Abraham Lincoln, the end of the war and his assassination). Aimee was even up for seeing the Holocaust Museum. Her simple, but heartfelt summary of the atrocities was one word - disgusting. A personal quest of mine was to go to the National Archives. I had never actually seen the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. There is something significant to me about seeing the actual documents touched and written on by our founding fathers. I praise God for a country like ours! The wackiest visit - the International Spy Museum. Yep - spy stuff through the years, intrigue, crazy stories and even James Bond cars; three stories of it. Yikes. One th...

It has been an incredible privilege to be involved on My Last Day on Earth. It has felt somewhat like a scene from a short film I saw where the character came to a great chasm where there seemed no way across, but as the character leaps out, steps would rise up to meet his feet so that he could run across in safety. These last few months have felt like such an experience because of what the Lord has been doing through your prayers! For instance, I related in a previous letter that the local company I usually rely on was not available to work on our project. But God provided all the people that were needed. During a trip to California He extended my network of contacts to provide additional people I could hire to do other parts of the work. So far He has provided people that are believers and that are incredibly excited about this project. His provision has also included technical solutions and equipment that have arrived at ‘just the right time’. There have also been volunteers w...

I'm always amazed at the interplay between simplicity and beauty, beauty and complexity - for that matter simplicity and complexity. If you know much about math, fractals come to mind. If you read scripture, our relationship to God comes to mind. Take Colossians 1:9 -11. Here, Paul is writing to a people that had 'secret knowledge' teachers trying to get them to skip past Christ. This would be a forgetting that it's so simple: God's Spirit lives in us when we have a relationship with God through Jesus. His Spirit at work gives us all the understanding and wisdom we need to live a life that honors the Lord and enables us to please him by doing good things in a broken world. We know Him through this process and His power makes us patient and strong enough to endure anything - and be truly happy. In working with God - entering into what He is doing in us and around us, we get all we need and experience more of Him as well. The complexity comes in living that out in a b...

Okay, so I'm not a prolific blog writer. At this point even 'occasional' doesn't fit. But what a crazy time 3 hurricanes in a row was last year. Now the blue tarps on roofs seem to be pretty much gone - but it did take all year for that to happen. There are probably many houses like ours that still have some drywall work inside that needs to be done. And so it goes... In retrospect, a year ago this week, we were reeling from the mess Charley had made of Florida. As we watched the start of hurricane season and no storms actually came near central Florida it was kind of a 'whew!' moment in a way. So what else is new? From our latest letter I wrote: "Right now we are focused on doing one of the parables of Jesus as a short anime film. The immediate need for this is as an evangelistic ‘bridge’ video for a new short film strategy emerging in Europe. Europe is very saturated with media and films, but they love short films – especially youth and college students. ...

Fourth hurricane to hit Florida in a season...last time this happened to a state was Texas, back in 1868. Hurricane Jeanne is pounding us right now. After it came up the Atlantic, seemed to arc out to sea and then looped around straight at us - it came ashore on the East Coast and is looping north just below Orlando and Orange County. This means that we are getting much of the ferocity because northern and eastern sides of these storms usually pack the power because of the counter-clockwise rotation. So far, a new roof is at least 3 weeks away, but the repairs and tarps seem to be holding so far. It looks like some gutters have been ripped off the house and there is banging on the roof, but no leaks so far. Amazingly, no loss of power so far. I guess the previous 2 hurricanes that came through here knocked down all the easy targets next to power lines. Praise God! For a good perspective on how this relates to God see this .

We made it...but it is wet and sloppy here. This storm was a slow mover and dumped a lot of rain for the last day or two...even today now that the eye went over Tampa and is heading up toward the panhandle of Florida, the storm is so big that the eastern side of the circulation is over the whole state and bring winds from north to south with rain and thunderstorms all day. Wacky! I made a quick emergency roof repair yesterday since we were having some leaks, and now I'm back up to the roof when it stops raining to tack down some plastic over another section. We had power restored in about 12 hours so that was a real praise to the Lord. The energy crews are really on the ball here and there were already extra crews here because of Charley. Sounds like we were one of about 20% or less that got it back so soon. Now they tell us hurricane Ivan is brewing and that 'cone of probability' that weather people show keeps pointing to us again along with the East Coast and...