| January 2006 Off and Running It’s hard to believe that I’ve been working for Outside the Box Ministries for over five months already. It feels like I just started yesterday, and yet it feels like I’ve been around for a long time. One thing I know, I love my job, and I love the work that we do. It has been such a joy to be part of this team! Let me give you some highlights: · The second week of August, I spent time in the mountains of Colorado on a video shoot for Dare 2 Share, one of our valued clients and trusted partners in ministry. We were there producing an eight part training curriculum called the G.O.S.P.E.L. JOURNEY. (You can read more at www.dare2share.org). The concept of the event is as follows: we selected seven youth, ages 16-20, three Christians and four non-Christians to live together for six days in the mountains of Colorado. Their experiences included: non-stop filming by a crew of 18, participation in six extreme mountain experiences, listening to Greg Stier, the president of Dare 2 Share, teach six sessions, interaction in a lively Q & A after each session, and being asked always to stay open and honest in their feelings and beliefs. There were many amazing experiences, but the best of which was that two of the non-Christian students came to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior during the week of filming! Of course the goal of this training tool is to help Christian teens have knowledge from Scripture and answers to some tough questions so that they can effectively lead their friends to Christ. · Beginning October 5th of this past year, I started the REVOLUTION tour, this year’s Dare 2 Share conference that takes place in ten cities around the country. I am the tour stage manager and I also get the blessing to be part of the drama team for the tour. I never imagined being an actor for my job! God has blessed me richly with fun opportunities like this. We’ve done conferences in three of the ten cities that we’ll be in this year. …so much more to go: tens of thousands of more teens to learn how to share their faith, hundreds more to accept Christ, and much more planning, preparation and travel to undertake. J · I don’t know how to call this a highlight, but I think when all is said and done I trust that it will be. Just days after I finished typing this letter, my boss’s wife, the CFO of Outside the Box, Sandy, finally went home to be with Jesus. She spent many days and nights lying motionless in a hospital bed under hospice care, just waiting for the moment when she would see her Savior. I was in Detroit for almost two weeks, working and answering calls from a familiar leather chair just wanting so badly for her to be in glory. These past weeks have been filled with some of the hardest experiences I’ve been through in my life, and I’m trusting our LORD to use this for His glory. I can tell you from my time having known Sandy and my time spent here answering calls and emails for Rolly and the family, Sandy’s life and ministry has impacted thousands of lives. She is an amazing lady who finally has her new body--that cancer can never touch, who has her new name--given to her by her LORD, and she is finally truly home--and with her Savior. She is one who embraced and modeled the abundant life that we believers have in Jesus, and along with so many, I miss her so very much! May this short account of a blessed saint draw you to live more fully for HIM…this day and every day. Here is my travel schedule for the next two months: · January 25-29, Columbus OH for Dare 2 Share’s REVOLUTION tour · February 9-12, St. Louis MO for Dare 2 Share’s REVOLUTION tour · February 22-26, Atlanta GA for two Dare 2 Share preview events · end of Feb, Phoenix to see friends before a March event |