Deidox

This week we received a really cool e-mail from a Pastor about how he used Deidox in the weekend services.

We’re humbled by the ways Deidox films are being used. It’s our prayer that the Lord moves through the films to challenge and inspire His people, so when we get an email like this it’s pretty exciting.

Dear Deidox,

I purchased your video bundle a month or two ago and used them this past Sunday for the first time. I saved them for an 8-week series I’m preaching called “On a Mission” taken entirely from Luke 10:1-12. My goal is to help our members understand that they are all on a mission and have already been appointed and sent to the place where God wants them to shine for him and spread his gospel.

I had initally planned to use one of your videos each week as a tangible picture of someone who recognized that they had been appointed and sent. But, when I sat down and watched all five again to figure out which week they would best fit I was overwhelmed with the collective impact of watching them together.

So… I did something that Presbyterian pastors are never supposed to do … I trashed the traditional sermon and began by reading the passage, but then showed all five videos this past Sunday making only brief comments inbetween (e.g. “Robert is on a mission… appointed and sent by God to serve in a clinic for the uninsured.” etc.) and then a couple minutes to wrap it all up at the end. The response from my congregation was absolutely overwhelming!!!

So, first of all, thanks for making such excellent videos. I usually pass these kinds of resources by because they’re just not made well enough. Yours are. Please keep making these kinds of videos… God will use them so powerfully. A request: I wished this past Sunday that I had one profiling a high school or college student and one that profiled a retired person. The addition of those two would have made the collection complete!

Thanks for your ministry. It’s been a great help to us here at Fletcher Hills Presbyterian Church!

In Christ,
Kevin Womack
Fletcher Hills Presbyterian Church

So cool! We love to hear how the Deidox films are making a difference.

If you are a pastor or church leader, please let us know how you have used the films within your ministry context!  If you are not a pastor or church leader, we’d love it if you made your church leaders aware of Deidox and encouraged them to use the films.

Greetings friends. Welcome to the first blog post from the new Deidox True Story Tuesdays, where every tuesday we’ll share a story of how God is at work in the world today.

This week’s story comes from an email from a filmmaker that has lived in Haiti for quite some time as a missionary…

“I’ve been meaning to write each of you. Some of you I have, some I haven’t yet. It’s been the most bizarre and awful 10 days of my life. The earthquake has hit me and my friends and family really hard. Our house may no longer be livable. It has a few cracks here and there, but the strong aftershocks keep happening and I’m sure they weaken the house in some degree every time. Some of my friends have died. One student of mine died. Her house collapsed on her and her mother. Dead bodies lined the streets, so many people had broken bones and smashed skulls. But the worst thing might have been the smell. You can literally smell the death in the streets and among the hurting. There seems to be little hope in the eyes of the Haitians.

But God is providing, protecting, and helping though. He has performed so many miracles. Well, miracles to us, but miracles are very natural for Him. I’ll tell you one quickly. A friend’s mission was giving out water from their cistern to whomever needed it. They gave all they could and in a few days it was gone. We all have cisterns to hold our only water in Haiti, it’s not like the US. So they went to sleep that night with an empty cistern. The next morning they woke up and checked their cistern and it was full to the brim! Awesome =) Check out Isaiah 33:15-16 to see God’s promise on that.”

True Story Tuesday is something new from the Deidox team. The goal of Deidox is to tell true stories of how God is at work, and very often we hear of amazing stories that for one reason or another haven’t been made into a Deidox film. (Or, perhaps we should say they haven’t been made into films “yet.” You never know what the future might bring.) So starting this week we’ll be posting True Story Tuesday updates every tuesday morning.

We’ve got some fun ideas cooking for True Story Tuesdays, so stay tuned. We hope you find them both challenging and inspiring.

Bonus for pastors: We hope some of these true story tuesday blog posts can help provide illustrations for your sermons. Both Dave and Brent are PK’s, so they hope is that at least one of these stories replaces an embarrassing story about your child that you were going to tell.

The Deidox team will be in Austin, TX on Feb. 4-6th for the VERGE 2010 Conference.  The VERGE conference is hosted by The Austin Stone church and focuses on the missional community movement.  Some of the speakers include Francis Chan, Alan Hirsch, Dave Ferguson, Hugh Halter, and Ed Stetzer. We’re pretty excited to be attending.

Deidox is the official sponsor of the Cafe/Coffee Shop. There we’ll have a booth and will be previewing several Deidox films.  We are also giving away free Deidox DVD’s. If you are attending the VERGE Conference, please stop by the Cafe and say “hello Deidox”.  Would love to meet you.

We have a video to share with you today, and we think you’ll find it quite inspiring.

For those who haven’t been following our tweets (Deidox), a former boss of Brent’s was in Haiti filming for Compassion International when the earthquake hit. For 65 hours after the earthquake hit nobody heard anything from Dan Woolley. His last known whereabouts was the Hotel Montana, which if you look at the picture below was completely wiped out during the quake. Yet miraculously Dan survived, pulled out of the rubble after 65 hours. In the above video you will hear of the ordeal firsthand, with Dan boldly proclaiming how God brought him through.

Extra bonus: If you’d like to hear more, Dan’s story was also featured on NPR.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122623093#

The Hotel Montana, before and after the earthquake

The Deidox team will be at Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA Feb. 9-12th for the Radicalis Convention.  Radicalis is really twelve conferences in one that makes it possible for churches to bring their entire ministry staff for individual learning experiences.  Several of the speakers include, Rick Warren, Mark Driscoll, Perry Noble, Andy Stanley & others.

We will be previewing several Deidox films and will also be giving away free Deidox DVD’s.  If you are attending Radicalis, please stop by our booth and say “Hi”.  We would love to meet you.