[2.] AP Media MISSION / apmedia.org
Letter from
Bill
BILL & KIM SNIDER ASIA PACIFIC MEDIA DIRECTORS
HELP US INFLUENCE
THE NEXT GENERATION Welcome to 2019! It’s both a time to reflect and a time to ask God, what’s next? A few months back, I was introduced to a thought from Ravi Zacharias. He is a Christian apologist, author of many books and speaker in conferences worldwide. He is quoted as saying: “How do you reach a generation today that listens with their eyes and thinks with their feelings.” I’ve reflected on that thought and what it means to our ministry. The emerging generation grabs ideas from many sources. They are “digital natives.” They know how to access and use technology and have grown up attuned to the visual world. How do we reach this group? What Zacharias is implying is that our communication of truth needs to engage them where they are through visual storytelling, truth packaged not as propositions but closely tied to real life. That is the challenge and the opportunity we have with Asia Pacific Media in 2019. We are visual storytellers. On our own Facebook page, we have over 20,000 followers. The majority are between ages 18 and 25. We have an open door to the next generation with the gospel! The open door we have is for outreach and to influence, but also the open door is for equipping the next generation to tell His story, to multiply His message through video, social media and drama. Would you pray with us that in 2019 we will see new storytellers emerge, churches catching the vision for media and that our team will creatively seek to see HIs Message, Multiplied? Please partner with us to walk through the open doors to the next generation. Winter 2019 e-issue [3.]
EQUIPPING THE CHURCH
IN ASIA PACIFIC
—insights from a Vietnamese pastor on media missions— Asia Pacific Media is going into 2019 with the goal of training media missionaries in Vietnam to create Stories of HOPE. In fact, in the month of March we will have our first official session with media missionaries and pastors in the country.` Christians in Vietnam have been fac[4.] AP Media MISSION / apmedia.org
ing heavy trials, with many bloggers and pastors facing harsh penalties. However, even during this time ofuncertainty, doors that were previously closed are being opened through the Internet. AP Media is beginning to teach local pastors the importance of using this tool fully to reach a younger generation with the Good News
One Vietnamese pastor said, “Many young people are using social media. The church can use the media to share the gospel. Many people have accepted Christ through sermons and testimonies on Facebook or YouTube.
“As the church, we need to learn how to use this tool to reach out to the lost.”
“YouTube is an especially useful tool, with people preferring to watch a short video rather than read a long article. We are not allowed a television broadcast,” says the Vietnamese pastor, “but we can have it [videos] on YouTube.” AP Media Living Free series is a model for these stories.
He believes that one of the best ways that anyone can help is by learning how to use the media. “ “Right now there are many good testimonies from people delivered from drugs, broken families ... and many watching those stories have been touched,” he says. Producing quality videos with good content is the most effective way to reach people near and far.
To meet our new project needs in Vietnam, we will count on steady, monthly support to enable us to engage this huge mission.
If you would, please consider giving to today to jumpstart 2019. You can give online at apmedia.org/give. Winter 2019 e-issue [5.]
[6.] AP Media MISSION / apmedia.org
-pray for AP Media as we prep the workers-
FOR THE HARVEST
IN VIETNAM
Vietnam is a nation on the brink of great awakening to the good news. Even though only 2.3 percent of Vietnam’s population of 97 million people are believers, we are seeing a new generation of workers rise up to share their stories of faith. For the first time, your partnership is allowing Asia Pacific Media to walk through open doors in this country. In just a few weeks, our trainers will team up with churches to provide Vietnamese church leaders and workers with instruction on how to Multiply His Message with the power of media. Every $50 of support helps offset the operational costs of our ministry for one hour. Approximately $100 of support helps us train one more media missionary. Thank you for taking the time to pray for AP Media’s media training ministry around the world, which is preparing the Church in Vietnam for this great salt harvest — of workers who will go to the fields and multiply HIS life-changing Message. • Pray that the church leaders will passionately embrace the value of using media in their churches and for outreach. We also want to pray for the protection and favor for every leader and worker so they can share the Message of Hope. • Pray that the church participants will not only learn skills, but also catch the vision of reaching the lost through creative story telling. We want them to leave this training with the introductory skills to creating short films like DigiTracts and social media tools to especially reach the many unreached people groups in Vietnam. • Pray that we will see believers sharing short films like DigiTracts and social media stories to reach the many unreached people groups in Vietnam. Winter 2019 e-issue [7.]
[8.] AP Media MISSION / apmedia.org
HIS MESSAGE, MULTIPLIED Through AP Media’s digital ministry tools and training, we are expanding our reach into Indonesia, Mongolia, Cambodia, Taiwan, Philippines and Myanmar. Most of these resources can also be accessed by Filipinos living in many nations of the world, including the Middle East and Europe.
Filmmaking
Web and Social Media
Print Publication
Radio Ministry
Video Production
Media Training
REACHING ASIA PACIFIC Winter 2019 e-issue [9.]
Watch Michael’s Freedom Story,
[10.] AP Media MISSION / apmedia.org
OPEN DOORS TO HEALING TRUTH
AP Media’s Stories of Freedom were featured at a Bible Rally in Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, in celebration of National Bible Month in January. Michael’s video is one of five Stories of Freedom that you helped us produce in 2018. These videos alone have reached millions of online viewers in the Philippines and beyond. Each Living Free video costs our ministry about $1,200 to write, film, produce and distribute. This year, AP Media is planning to add three to four more stories to the Living Free series. These stories are also influencing media missionaries we train across Asia Pacific to create these short film formats to reach the hurting and lost in their home countries. As you support AP Media, you enable us to provide video and print materials like these to supplement drug rehabilitation workshops arranged by Global Teen Challenge in the Philippines in response to the national War on Drugs. Thank you for partnering with us as we continue to walk through open doors that allow our resources to be used as part of community events like this National Bible Month Rally.
Winter 2019 e-issue [11.]
Watch Renato’s Freedom Story
[12.] AP Media MISSION / apmedia.org
OPEN DOORS TO RECOVERY FOR RENATO Renato Fider is an addict. Growing up, he was materially provided for, but not emotionally. His journey to addiction started with tobacco, but he soon became curious about other drugs: cough syrup, marijuana, alcohol. “What would the effects be like,” Renato asked, “I needed to try them.” His worst addiction was meth. It was different, and Renato liked the effect it had on him. “I was consumed morally and physically, and relationships were destroyed” he says. He lost the trust of his family. He did not care about the pain he was causing other people. Renato remembers the stigma that surrounded him as an addict. No one wanted to talk about it. “The stigma kills more than the addiction,” Renato says. In 1990, Renato was put in prison for a buy-bust operation. The effect on his family was devastating. The family hired a lawyer who was a Christian and gave Renato his first Bible. Renato read it in jail and soon developed a hunger to learn more.“ The transformation was just beyond words,” he says. After his release, Renato relapsed and hit rock bottom when his mother died of cancer. Renato remembers crying to God to get him out and to send him help. Renato then made the decision to go to rehab. “I surrendered my life to God because He is the only one who can give me true comfort and happiness,” he says. “It’s only Christ.” After he left rehab, clean, he still had cravings to use drugs, but he now had something else to turn to. Now an international certified addictions professional, Renato shares the message of the hope of recovery to others. “Recovery for me will be my last breath,” he says, “and I will say, ‘I’m home, Lord.’ That’s recovery.” Winter 2019 e-issue [13.]
Watch DigiTracts “Love Is.”
OPEN DOORS TO HIS MESSAGE OF LOVE What does the Bible say about LOVE? For our latest DigiTract to celebrate “Love Month” in the Philippines, we took to the streets to open the discussion about what LOVE is. Some of those interviewed associate love with pictures: Love is Blind.... Love is Complex.... Love Hurts.... Love is Dangerous. The message then turns the discussion to the qualities of love defined in 1 Corinthians 13. Many are surprised to learn that their picture of love is not an accurate picture of what God intends love indeed to be. God’s heart of LOVE in Jeremiah 31:3 caps the video: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Millions across Asia Pacific have viewed DigiTracts, which are short-format, lesson-based films for students that engages them with the significant questions of life. They are designed for viewing online and on mobile devices and then shared with friends as discussion starters. The format is used as a template to teach media missionaries to produce relevant content to reach their people with the love of Christ. Your partnership helps us produce each $800 DigiTract — an eternal investment in reaching students across Asia Pacific with the love of Jesus Christ. Thank you for partnering with us to see His Commission, Multiplied in the lives of each person who sees this video and even more to come. Winter 2019 e-issue [15.]
Thank you, Partners!
FOR HELPING US MULTIPLY
MEDIA MISSIONARIES IN ASIA PACIFIC For every missionary that we train, we want to put tools in their hands to help them multiply the impact of the gospel in their homeland. Every day, as you faithfully partner in prayer and financial support of this ministry, you make this possible! As you help us equip media missionaries to reach their community through Multiply Training Seminars and the upcoming Asia Institute for Media Ministry, what we are seeing is just the beginning of a greater mission! This month we require as many scholarships as possible to cover students coming in across Asia Pacific to our AIMM training in Baguio, Philippines. For students outside of the Philippines it cost approximately $185 to supplement expense of a media missionary’s travel and training we conduct at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Your gift can make all the difference to a media missionary in need who cannot attend this training without your support. Thank you for giving your best gift this month to help us multiply the workers across Asia Pacific — so we can walk through OPEN DOORS TO THE NEXT GENERATION with the good news.
[16.] AP Media MISSION / apmedia.org
Winter 2019 e-issue [17.]
