Opportunities
to Use Your Artistic Gifts In
Partnership With Others in order to Help Support and Encourage Persecuted
Believers (and other potential foci)
by Grace Wiebe, 2005
Do you have a heart/burden for persecuted believers? A desire to see them increasingly prayed for, encouraged and supported - whether overseas or locally as well?
If so, if you have created art works or written songs/poems, dramas, created dances or video clips etc. which depict various aspects of this theme of suffering for Christ or various aspects of seeing persecuted believers reached out to and encouraged,
OR
if you are interested in creating some in the coming year or so, and would like to see your art works considered for potential future projects which could be used to help raise up:
+ awareness of the growing intensity of persecution
+ awareness of specific prayer needs for persecuted believers
+ as ways to help to raise funds for ministries that are working directly
to minister to persecuted believers (several of which are based here in the
Lower Mainland)
+ awareness of the need to help advocate/support and encourage in other practical
ways, etc., then please let us know. GCWAC@DiscipleTheNations.org
There are all kinds of possibilities…art shows/gallery possibilities, musical/dramatical/dance/photographic teams/troupes that go on tour across the country to help raise awareness for prayer and to help raise funds, etc. Or fund-raising concerts, multi-media presentations, CDs/DVDs, books, etc. - all of which would include that as a theme. All of these (and other ideas) could also be done in conjunction with the very closely related theme of REFUGEES and the awareness needed to support them as well.
SIMILAR JOINT PROJECTS could be done re other social issues
as well, such as for:
+ orphans/AIDS orphans
+ at-risk youth
+ disabled people
+ injustice
+ street people/homeless
+ refugees
+ non-readers
+ hearing or visually-impaired
+ poor/oppressed
+ war children
+ stewardship of the environment
+ abuse
+ addictions
+ seniors
+ HIV/AIDS
+ Racism/Need for Peacemaking/Reconciliation
+ Genetic Engineering
Etc.
If you are interested in potential involvement in ANY of these areas, whether artistically or in working together as part of a team that shares similar vision to bring some of these projects into being, please do let us know and let us know of ways you may wish to participate/contribute. See contact info above.
Once we receive feedback from you, we will have a better idea of where we're at and how to proceed with this and which projects to prayerfully consider as the highest priorities. We will then connect further with you with more details and for more input and see how the Lord develops this.
+ + +
PROPOSAL re CD PROJECT TO HELP RAISE AWARENESS, PRAYER, FUNDS, INVOLVEMENT to SUPPORT PERSECUTED BELIEVERS - are you interested?
For those of us working among multicultural peoples, we are increasingly aware of the growing trend of persecution of believers around the globe. Many of you, yourselves, are from nations where persecution is rampant - perhaps you yourselves have even been persecuted in your home country or here. As our nation also receives many refugees every year, we have the privilege of rubbing shoulders with those that have endured and persevered through persecution.
Of course not all refugees are refugees for religious reasons, but those are my particular focus in my proposal below.
According to the Scripture, we see this trend of persecution of believers only continuing to increase, and it has been my growing desire to find ways in which I could personally become involved in addition to praying - and to potentially encourage other musicians/artists to consider some artistic ways of also helping to raise up prayer, finances and personal involvement (advocating for them, etc., ministering to them overseas or locally) in helping to encourage our brothers and sister around the world as we stand with them in various ways as the Holy Spirit leads us.
In praying about ways to potentially take steps in this direction, some ideas have come to mind. I have felt to share an initial idea with you at this time and to present some other possibilities to you in the future. I believe that if this is from the Lord, He will bring others whose hearts He is also stirring to help to see this come into being.
The Idea:
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About 7 years ago during a time of intercession for persecuted believers,
I felt God put a song on my heart to encourage the Church to seek to put themselves
in the shoes of our brothers and sisters in order to help us to pray more
effectively for them. Since many believers do not personally know any persecuted
believers, it is hard for their hearts to relate.
I believe that God wants to use various art forms to help communicate some of these things to His people at a heart level.
To that end, a song I felt that the Lord put on my heart at that time was FOR THE SAKE OF THE GOSPEL. The words are at: http://disciplethenations.org/Song_Gospel.html
If you are interested in potentially participating in this proposed project, and if you are interested in hearing the song, I can put it on a cassette for you and send it to you. It is just recorded roughly right now, but the idea is to have it professionally recorded in the not too distant future, if the Lord confirms the timing by bringing the prayer partners, team of people needed, finances, etc.
I would like to eventually have it recorded on a CD which ministries to persecuted believers could use as an awareness-raiser, prayer raiser, personnel raiser and fund-raiser as the Holy Spirit leads them.
What the CD could include:
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1. The song on the CD (or a whole CD of songs on the topic this could be a
project for the coming year)
2. The words for the song
3. Artwork for the cover - I have made a plasticine figurine of a persecuted believer in a cell with a ball and chain around the ankle, praying for his persecutors, which I think could be used on such a cover, perhaps
4. inside the CD put together some stats/info about persecution going on around the world
5. include some helpful links to ministries like Open Doors and WorldServe, etc. that minister to persecuted believers
6. include some ways that folks can get involved personally
7. include some prayer networks that pray for persecuted believers
8. include a listing of things to pray for persecuted believers.
In this way, it would be an inexpensive CD which churches, missions, ministries, etc. could make available to their contacts for a set price or donation to those that are interested, depending on what the project team believes the Holy Spirit is leading them to do. These finances could then help to support the various ministries listed on the CD, which we as the project team would be partnering with - and which we would decide as a group.
These CDs would then not only help to raise funds but also help to raise the awareness of persecuted believers, for prayer, finances and personnel - and could be given away as gifts as well.
Potential Time Frame for Recording the Project and Getting
it Ready for Release
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Since the Day of Prayer for Persecuted Believers is usually sometime in Oct.
or Nov., if a project team were to come together shortly and we started on
it now, it could potentially be ready to begin to be distributed to the various
churches, missions, ministries, etc. in Canada or beyond by late summer of
2006, perhaps?, which would give it time to be ready to be utilized by the
time the Day of Prayer is upon us.
Needs & Opportunities
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+ local Lower Mainland (Greater Vancouver, BC, Canada) Christian musicians/singers
that have a heart to help support this type of project as one of the ways
they can help to assist our brothers and sisters that are being persecuted.
My desire is that all involved would freely contribute their gifts, and that
God would provide for all of the expenses that are needed to see the project
to completion. I think those receiving the CDs as a tool they can use would
be responsible for distribution/shipping costs.
For this particular song I may only need a couple singers, musicians, and I will be contacting them, but I am thinking that perhaps next year a whole CD could be recorded by songs written by various other local Christian multicultural musicians/singers, as well, on this theme as a follow up once this other initial one-song CD has perhaps paved the way &
+ people who sense God wants them to potentially stand with us to pray about this project
+ people who would be willing to contribute financially to help with potential costs this would depend on how many of the needed services and packaging supplies, etc. God would provide through other means
+ godly counsel
+ local Christian recording engineer/producer who shares a desire to assist in these ways and is willing to donate their time and skills to these ends.
+ there would need to be several people that share this vision who would be willing to work together with a team to pray about this, to make decisions together about it, to help select the needed materials/resources/ministries to include, to help administrate the distribution, deal with accounting aspects, etc.
+ once the CD would be done, potential contacts for distribution would not be difficult to connect with. I would be able to let the various networks I'm involved with know of the CD and project/purposes, (or perhaps an initial feeler could be sent out at the beginning of the project even before the CD is made to find out the level of interest, etc.).
Would YOU or your ministry/mission/school/church, etc. be interested in potentially utilizing such a project??
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED - or if you know of others that may
be interested...
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Please let me know if you are interested in potential involvement in any of
these ways, or if you know of someone that might be. Please contact me at:
GCWAC@DiscipleTheNations.org
Great Commission Worship & Arts Center