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—From
Jim Au, IMM President
Close friends have encouraged me to share in this
newsletter as transparently and honestly as the
past months might warrant. Here is my
effort to do that. There’s lots of
news besides.The year 2002 was generally
very challenging and difficult for me.
Whereas I started it on an upbeat note with
fairly good health and was able to publish
several new presentations in the IMM website,
personal matters arose which broke my stride.
These included our son’s open-heart surgery,
two prolonged seasons of illness for me, and
financial difficulties. As a result, I
finished the year embattled to clearly maintain
the vision for ministry which the Lord had given
me in 2000 and 2001.
Regardless
of how the year 2002 turned out for my efforts
through IMM, the days following Christmas were
very encouraging as I spent time seeking the Lord
for help. He set my eyes once more on
Himself, and gave me renewed vision and inner
strength for 2003. As it says in Psalm 40:11-15,
distractions and opposition continue to surround
me. Yet I have this hope: God will
use this coming year to do greater things than I
can presently imagine. I walk in that
confidence to see this through.
Project 8·1·8
Preceded by a Flash
Out of my time of seeking the Lord, some basic
ideas were born for pursuing a youth-focused
project that had been proposed earlier in 2002.
This is Project 8·1·8, through which I plan to
develop an evangelistic media tool for churches,
youth groups and ministers of the Gospel.
It will be a series of CDROMs and DVDs, which
challenge youth to think about how the world sees
and treats them versus how God sees them and what
He has for them. It will be designed for
older children and teens, from about ages 8 to 18.
Financing for this venture is being sought.
As a prelude to this undertaking, I
am working on a 3-5 minute Flash animation, the
topic of which is abortion, to be posted in the
IMM website by early spring. This will
coincide somewhat with the thirtieth anniversary
of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, which
legalized abortion on demand in this country, (and
set an evil precedent for the entire rest of the
world to follow). One way we can show kids
that we really care for them is to stop killing
their friends and siblings en masse.
OM, Global Focus Take IMM to Sea
Nearly five years ago, Larry Reesor, president of
Global Focus, one of our country’s premier
missions mobilization agencies, contacted me
about upgrading their flagship three-day
Powerpoint presentation. The revitalized
presentation was enthusiastically received by his
organization and has been used numerous times
since then to challenge and train up leaders all
over the USA to be more decisive and effective in
their commitment to world missions.
Recently, an Operation Mobilisation (OM) news
article pointed out that Global Focus has been
invited once again to do their presentation
aboard OM’s Logos II ship. That means
that our IMM presentation is still being seen and
used out there to extend God’s kingdom to
the furthest reaches of the globe.
Videomaker 2002
Outside of our son’s successful heart
surgery, one most encouraging event of 2002 was
the Videomaker conference in Sacramento,
California. While it was only a one-day
seminar in which I learned lots about DVD
production, the best part was being accompanied
by my daughter Vivian and former IMM Secretary
and Incorporator Bob Ford. The three days
we spent together driving to and attending the
conference provided lots of fun, fellowship and
learning. As an added bonus, we got to
visit IMM co-Founder Scott Powell and his family.
To top it all off, I won the grand prize drawing
at the conference, a video editing and
compositing software package worth around $1,000.
You should have seen Vivian’s eyes light up
when we won that prize.
A Media Ministry Perspective
One way to think about IMM’s mission is that
of capturing on film and interactive media the
infinite, invisible God. For many people in
our materialistic, hedonistic society, God does
not exist practically speaking, even if they
believe in Him. There is a movement afoot
in the media industry to give more credence to
the spiritual. But solid, biblical truth is
normally lacking, such as who God is, who Jesus
is, what Jesus accomplished by coming to earth,
and what God desires and plans for mankind.
Thus, our mission to make the Living God known
through media is ever pressing. (This
thought comes from a daydream I had in July 2002).
Please continue to
pray with me that by God’s power and
resources, we may do just that.
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