Quarterly Update for Supporters
Dear Supporter,
We have replaced our weekly updates with a more detailed quarterly report. We feel this is the best way for you to have some small idea of how God is using your contributions. We are grateful for you and for your continued support of Media Gratiae.
Our team is small. Along with me, we have Acey Floyd, who handles our accounting, customer service, and shipping; Teddy James, who is also in charge of all filming and podcasts; and Courtney Brewer, who handles our social media presence, marketing, donor relations, design, and a host of other details. We are encouraged and guided by a dedicated board.
We trust that God will continue to give us all we need to produce content that will help God's people grow in a vital and transforming knowledge of Him.
With our filmmaker and former director Stephen McCaskell accepting a job with Ligonier ministries, we will be focusing on Bible studies and podcasts rather than full-length documentaries. We do still plan to do a Behold Your God study on the life and labors of Jesus Christ.
I recently asked Acey to give me some idea of the reach of the first Behold Your God study. In the last 6 years, Media Gratiae studies have been shipped to 58 countries around the world including the UK, Kenya, New Zealand, Japan, Italy, Russia, Zambia, the Philippines, and South Africa.
Sometimes we are allowed to know the details of how God is using the studies, and we have been amazed by these reports. One example is an email that I received from the Attorney-General of South Africa telling us that he had gone through Behold Your God, Rethinking God Biblically in his church. Soon after that, I received an email with a photo from a group of men in South Africa who were also doing the study. It was encouraging to see that God had unified a group around Himself that otherwise may not have come together.
Often, we receive letters from ordinary Christians who went through the study prior to some extraordinary tragedy in their lives. They write to tell us how 12 weeks of seeking a more biblical view of God helped prepare them for such losses.
The study has been used within prison systems (Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Philadelphia, PA). I have been able to visit some of these, and it is always humbling to see the men and to speak to them of the realities of living with God even in difficult situations.
Perhaps the most encouraging kind of letter that we receive is from older pastors, who have found the studies helpful. They write that they are willing to rethink God biblically and willing to change the way they approach ministry.
Recently the first Behold Your God study was translated into Russian and Dutch. A few believers are currently looking into a German translation.
Other current projects include our podcasts: The Whole Counsel, Ransom for Many, Hymn Stories, A Word in Season, and From the Heart of Spurgeon.
The Practical Guide to Family Worship, an eight-week, video-based study, with a new workbook is complete and being manufactured.
(If you have pre-ordered this, we apologize for the unavoidable delays with the manufacturing. We expect them by the end of this month, and as soon as we have them in hand, we’ll send them to you.)
Several of you have asked about purchasing the Puritan film only, as opposed to the entire study. In response to your request, Puritan, All of Life to the Glory of God will be available in two new ways. One, the documentary alone, and two, a special collector's edition that contains five hours of interview footage not included in the original. So, if you are interested in hearing a much fuller account look for the special edition this fall.
We are also nearing completion of the first of a new series of smaller studies, a seven-week study on the book of Judges. This study will include a weekly video lesson and a weekly workbook lesson. We hope to do several biblical studies by various authors using this format. The authors will primarily be contributors to the Behold Your God series. These studies will not include interviews or onsite footage like Behold Your God, and they will be shorter (6 to 8 weeks each). This will make the studies more affordable.
Finally, we are in the editing process of a new 26-lesson children’s curriculum entitled: Behold Your God, Seeking Him Early. We have been working on this for nearly two years, taking the key lessons from the two Behold Your God studies and putting them on a level that children can understand. The material will be available for three different age groups covering the same truths for each.
These projects require a lot of wisdom and patience. We ask that you often remember Media Gratiae at the throne of grace. Plead with God that He would help us walk very near Him.
Again, thank you for whatever way you have been able to be a part of these things. We don't take that for granted. Financial gifts are helpful. Without them, we couldn't do the things we do. But please hear me: The nearness of God is essential. Amy Carmichael, missionary to India once told her fellow missionaries:
“All we want, all we need, is God's ungrieved presence with us always.”
Pray that this will be more than a nice slogan for us as we go about the many little tasks in front of us.