Last days of the STINT Briefing: An iPod Touch give away and Commissioning 390 missionaries

At the end of the conference, we held a iPod Touch give away for those who came to our strategy seminar! The winner was a guy named Greg - he is headed to North Africa and, for security reasons and safety of the national staff, we cannot show his face. So we did this! 

Greg is actually a second year STINTer, returning to North Africa. We met with him at the MidYear conference back in February and told him about the Jesus Film Media app. During the second semester, he used what he learned from our brief training and started a Bible study on the gospel of Luke with the students he was working with. I am glad he was the winner!

The last night of the STINT Briefing, all 392 STINTers heard from Campus Crusade for Christ's president, Steve Douglass. He cast great vision for sharing the gospel with others and entrusting the results to God. Another cool part of the night is when the STINT teams were welcome into the countries "regional area family" and prayed over by a director from a receiving area.

The night ended in worship with the very talented worship team Page CXVI  who blessed all of us in leading worship all week. Check out their music below:



As I've taken time to reflect and debrief with my team about this conference, I am thankful for all the ways God blessed our time. We had so many fruitful conversation with many teams and individuals. We heard powerful words from solid leaders within our organization. We experienced unique worship with missionaries, many of whom are headed to closed countries and won't engage in cooperate worship for many months.

"And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:18-20

STINT Briefing: Day 4 and 5

Here are a few more stories and updates from the last couple days:

• Friday, during our "free afternoon", my team and I got to spend some time with Daniel Myers - a guy who joined staff this summer to work with Jesus Film Media. It was fun to tour the city a bit, with him - a Moody graduate, who knows the city well. As we spent time with him, I reflected on where I was a year ago, in his shoes, starting the support raising process. Will you pray God provides for him quickly, so he can report to our team in Orlando soon?
• Yesterday, my team and I trained almost 350 STINTers in the foundational features of the Jesus Film Media app. Shortly afterwards, many of them stayed for a more-in depth training/strategy time lead by my co-workers, Danny and Jayson. Not only were we able to answer questions, but also provide ministry ideas for key outreach times like Christmas and Easter, using the JESUS Film as well as other films on our digital tools. It was received so well! I am excited for what God is going to do through this partnership with these missionaries and Jesus Film Media this coming year!
  

  

  Me training 350 missionaries with the Jesus Film Media app

•  Last night, my team and I met with a STINT Team called "Expedition Team" - they are pioneering a new internship. Similar to "The World Race", they are headed to 8 countries to raise up national leaders in various cities. This team is being sent to cities where we don't have capacity to send STINT teams, but they do have national contacts to empower and train in ministry. One of their main partners is Jesus Film - and I am hoping to be a resource to this team as the year progresses.

STINT Briefing: Day 2 and 3

Things are going well here in Chicago! Here are a few more short stories from yesterday and today:

• Yesterday, I bought 14 mini iPads (iPad Mini). This year, a STINT team is pioneering a new digital strategy. Similar to the "World Race", this team of 14, will be headed to 9 countries over the course of this year. The goal is to use technology, partnering with The JESUS Film Project to raise up national leaders in these countries and start ministry movements. I am praying that they get to experience radical things and are able to share what they learn with us at Jesus Film Media. It's like they are our field testers! How cool is that??
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Today, I met for lunch with the first ever STINT team headed to The Netherlands. I was really excited to meet with them, as they are my alma mater's  (Grand Valley State University) campus partnership. I was able to show and train them with the foundational functions of the JFM app. They were all excited for the possibilities of how they can incorporate it in their ministry this coming year. A few of them still have some support to raise. Will you pray God provides for them soon?
  
  
• This afternoon, my teammate Danny and I, met with a national from North Africa, named Mohammed*. He is in a influential leadership role for our companies digital ministry called Virtual Led Movement. During our meeting, he also told us that most college students in his country, have smart phones - which is why he wants to know how to share the app. It was a simple training done in 5 minutes! We also specifically showed Mohammed the valuable method of downloading the films to the user's device - which, once downloaded, eliminates the need for data or wifi. He is excited to take this news back to his country and share with his team!

*Names changed for security reasons

Summer Travel Day 67: STINT Briefing Day 1

Ready for the STINTers to arrive!

• At registration today, 392 STINTers walked through the conference doors, ready to be trained! Jesus Film Media had a table, where we gave away about 100 JFM t-shirts, gathered over 100 emails to receive monthly updates over the year and we learned most people have already install the app prior to coming to the conference! This is great because they can follow right along when I give a training to the whole conference later this week! #JesusFilmMediaApp

• Tonight, I met a guy named Ben who came to know the Lord via the film JESUS after it had been delivered in his mailbox from a local church outreach. He is now headed over seas, equipped with the Jesus Film Media app to share the gospel. #Jesuschangelives
  
• There is a STINTer, headed to Greece to do ministry for the year. During her support raising time, she invited referrals (friends of friends) to come with her. They are ALSO here, fully supported, and headed to Greece to do ministry with her! #stepsoffaith #justask

STINTers being led in worship by Page CXVI

Be Still My Soul

This morning during my quiet time, I was listening to the awesome music of Page CXVI.

Be still, my soul: your God will undertake
To guide the future, as in ages past.
Your hope, your mind, your will let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's joys restored.

Be still my Soul, Be still my soul (6x)
And praise Him, and praise Him, (4x)

As I reflected, I thought of all the moments God calls me to "be still". It doesn't necessarily mean, just sit in a chair, do nothing and wait for Him to speak to you. (Which would be hard for me to do! I like to keep myself active and working on something... work or for myself.)

What I do think it means is being patient and choosing to trust Him. And in those "still" moments, you can still be worshiping Him, honoring Him, glorifying Him, praising Him... It could be helping your co-worker out with a task, being a good listener to a friend, praying for someone who shared a prayer request with you recently, making time to spend quality time with the Lord, seeking wisdom of an older wise person you look up to... As believers, I think we need to make the conscious choice to do these types of things!

How will you use those moments of being still and waiting for the Lord?

I'm excited!

Moments ago, I sent an email to over 60 people who are leading STINT teams this year - going to share the gospel all over the world. The fact I was given their contact information is a total God send! 

Contacting them prior to next week's conferences can be so beneficial - letting them know Jesus Film Media will be there again, encouraging them and their teams to install the app before coming, and offering them our contact information to set up training times for individual team times.... bah I am pumped all this is unfolding!

Please pray with me that they read it will excited hearts and see Jesus Film Media as a team to partner with during this next year.

I'll elaborate more in my next prayer letter - would you like me to email it to you? Just let me know!

Rocky "David" Booth

[It took me two weeks to write this, and I still have tears rolling down my cheeks...]

For most people, as a kid and growing up with a pet, is like growing up with a four-legged sibling. (My sister wrote a post a couple years ago about our puppy, Rocky.)

They attend family gatherings and holidays, comfort you when you are sad, come on family vacations, irritate and let you down at times, are often included in family pictures, earn nicknames, are apart of family inside-jokes, are known by name (and even loved) by family friends...

These are a few of things that rang true in the life of our dog, Rocky.

Sadly, the morning of July 22nd, Rocky's time with us came to a close. Having struggled with the challenges of 'old-dog-age', we as a family were faced with one of the hardest decision, I think I've personally had to make. We all knew this day would eventually come. When I moved to France as well as Orlando (both times), I cried as I left, knowing my time with my grown puppy was even more limited. In January 2013, when I moved back to Orlando, I made my family promise me they wouldn't do anything until I was home.  

As I made my summer plans earlier in the year, I had assumed this would be my last visit to see Rocky. We headed up to Muskegon, for a short weekend, where my parents had just bought a cottage. After we moved everything in Sunday afternoon, the rest of the evening was filled with Rocky stories, laughter and some tears as well as individual time with him. We were all dreading the morning.

As we all, teary eyed, drove with Rocky one last time to the vet, silent filled the car. I'm sure we were all replaying various memories with our beloved dog over the past 11.5 years. We pulled, parked and Dad had to carry Rocky out of the car. We all slowly started for the door, as the tears and sobs increased. It was if Rocky sensed it, because he went through the first door then turned around and headed back for the car.

Dad had to shepherded him back to the doors leading inside. We headed down a hall for the last room on the right. It was in this room we said our final farewells to our favorite pet. He hobbled around as if to say good bye to each of us, leaving plenty of "Rocky hairs" behind. We all knew this painful decision had to be made as Rocky himself, in his old age, had been enduring pain for the last several years.

As our family of 7 drove back to the cottage, again all being quiet, silent tears continued to roll down my face. The rest of the day seemed like a blur that dragged on. We were all emotionally wiped - as well as physically from moving into the cottage the day before.


As I was processing all that had happened, I was thankful my family had this place (the cottage) of retreat, rest and comfort. And that Rocky had been able to be there at the start of all the memories that will be made.


I don't think any of us will ever had a pet that will measure up to the legacy Rocky has left in our lives. And as the song Gracie made up goes, "Is that my puppum Rockum? It is my puppum Rockum! Hello my puppum Rockum. I love my puppum Rockum."