Go Beyond

“You don’t have to wait until you are a grown-up to change the world. God can use you today to make the world a better place for kids who live in faraway places.” This is a message we want for our kids at Kingsland to understand and embrace.

Every year we challenge the kids who attend our Vacation Bible School to do something big and audacious to make life better for kids around the world. This year we asked our kids to raise funds to support showing the new Jesus Film throughout the Australian Outback.

Earlier this year, my friend Jay Lowe and I traveled more than 10,000 kilometers in Australia to distribute 10,000 copies of Luke’s Gospel and to announce the coming of the new Jesus Film. We visited dozens of small communities throughout the Outback to announce the coming of the new animated version of the Jesus Film.

The original Jesus Film was released by Campus Crusade in 1979 and has been viewed more than 5 billion times. According to the Jesus Film website, “Every two seconds — sometimes in the midst of global chaos and conflict — someone indicates a decision to receive Christ as personal Savior as a result of seeing the Jesus film.”

The Jesus Film Project is now working on a new animated version of the Jesus film. They state that this animated version is “designed to reach families, new generations, and people of all ages with the story of Jesus.” The film is still under production and, when released, will appeal to a generation growing up with Pixar quality animated stories.

Every year I write a rhyming book for the kids attending VBS at Kingsland to tell them about the recipient of their gifts and to inspire them to raise funds. This is a fun way to explain to our kids about the impact their gifts will have on making Jesus known among the nations.

In the month of June, the kids attending VBS at Kingsland raised $19.441.39 to invest in showing the new animated version of the Jesus Film throughout small towns in the Australian Outback. Kingsland’s missions ministry matched the offering brought in by the kids and added an additional $30,000 in gifts to this project for a grand total of $68,882.78.

In the two weeks since VBS we have had additional gifts given to round up the total to $77,781.30 USD or $118,282.33 Australian Dollars at today’s exchange rate. We will send these funds to our friends at Power To Change (CRU) in Australia. Our partners Geoff Folland, National Director, and Young Goh, the National Project Director for the Jesus Film in Australia. They will direct these funds to maximize the showings of the new Jesus Film in small towns across the Outback when it premiers.

I am proud of our kids at Kingsland for once again showing that God can use them today to make a difference in the lives of other kids. So many of our kids came up with creative ways to make money to invest in the offering. They are learning what it means to give selflessly and generously to kingdom initiatives. In the words of missionary martyr Jim Elliot, they gave what they cannot keep to gain what they cannot lose.