By Brooke Helder, GACX Content Creator
When I was in high school, my dad and I sat down to watch Dead Poets Society, one of his favorite movies of all time. He wanted to watch the movie with me, a published poet, in hopes that the movie would hit a heartstring. And it sure did. As a budding high school poet buckling under high expectations, the movie gave me peace of mind, inspiration, and excitement to “carpe diem”! This movie, with all the highs and lows, fallout, and moments of redemption, invited me to reflect for days after I watched it.
A film can change lives. A well-told story of redemption can profoundly impact us. That’s why the Jesus Film Project exists: to transform lives by visually telling the story of redemption in Christ.
Jesus Film Project (JFP) was started in 1979 to reach the last, the least, and the lost through media. This effort began by producing the Jesus film and has led to over two-thousand additional films being produced. These films have been used by over eighteen-hundred organizations in the missions community.
JFP prioritizes collaboration and partners with almost every member of GACX, including East-West, International Missions Board, and Biglife, by providing training, film series in different languages, and supplies like projectors, tablets, and WiFi boxes.
“GACX is an incredible platform, bringing the body of Christ together for strategic collaboration.” reflects Damtew Teklemariam, Africa Team Leader for Jesus Film.
Teklemariam’s team is responsible for supplying resources in Africa. They are working extensively with The Timothy Initiative (TTI), meeting their request for over two thousand projectors in Africa. These projectors allow TTI to show Jesus Film’s videos to mass audiences in remote areas where the Jesus film cannot be digitally streamed over wifi or cable. Renew World Outreach supplies the projectors for JFP, which then sends them to TTI.
This team also works with the Coalition of the Willing (COTW) in Afghanistan and Ethiopia. Working together, COTW and JFP mapped the whole country of Ethiopia to identify where the church does and does not exist. After discovering locations needing to hear the Gospel, JFP sent two-thousand tablets to Ethiopia pre-loaded with the Jesus film and other evangelistic and discipleship materials.
Teklemariam shares, “It’s a joy. That’s what excites me every day when I get up. What do I get to do to resource our partner organizations? Our work is for the glory of God. The Lord has given us this opportunity. We don’t take it for granted.”