Hope and Hopelessness, promotional videos, envelopes and further encouragement

It’s been a while since our last news blog, so it’s time to send you a further update on how things are going with HOPE Animation. Over the last few months we’ve been sending out hundreds of DVDs (mainly to the UK), but there’s also an increasing demand from countries abroad, especially Asia where churches request the DVDs as teaching material for their churches.

Many thanks to everyone who has pledged a donation as your support has helped us to cover postage for the parcels, which is critical as we operate as a very small start-up organisation from a livingroom in Canterbury.

The slumber of Christianity

In light of HOPE 2008 there’s an excellent book that I would like to recommend to you as I believe that it is critical to understand and apply its principles before we as churches are able to share HOPE with our nation. Whilst its title “The slumber of Christianity” or as initially proposed “The hopelessness of Christianity” sounds rather depressing, I must say that there have been very few books that have encouraged and uplifted me in such a profound way as the truth that’s depicted in its pages.

Author Ted Dekker explains the incomparable great power that we as believers have if we are firmly grounded in HOPE. By understanding the dynamics of HOPE and HOPELESSNESS we will be able to distinguish where our feelings of happiness and deep discouragement come from and learn that HOPE (of all things) is the single most influential element in achieving happiness: “Without HOPE our faith is dashed and our love is empty.”

Starting with his own life story of worldly success, Ted describes his journey of seeking happiness and earthly fulfillment. The narrative, reminding a great deal of King Solomon and the book of Ecclesiastes, tells about Ted’s upbringing as a missionary child, his entrepreneurinal spirit, early success within a Marketing firm, his highly lucrative set up of a multimillion dollar enterprise, the acquisition of further companies, his ever growing hunger to consume luxuries and wealth and eventually his total collapse after disappointment and frustration when all his riches failed to deliver the happiness that he had hoped for.

Only after months of depression, the loss of his business and the death of a loved one, Ted discovers a true and living faith that he recognises to be founded in a deep and longing hope for heaven. Whilst the book is a surprisingly honest resume of Ted’s life, he also describes a slumber that he encounters within the lives of most of us Christians in the western world. It seems like we have fallen asleep to the HOPE of heaven that is mentioned on nearly every page of the New Testament and eternity has become more of a crutch in Christianity than a prize.

We are far more occupied with this life than the next, which is mirrored in our surprisingly worldly attitude towards death, our profane aspirations for success in this life and our faded vision for the future. Christians are not much happier than the rest of the world (which is reflected in divorces, depression and burn-outs) and misguided theology often burdens us with an expectation for more earthly fulfillment and satisfaction than we manage to realize.

Now there is also real Christianity that we were saved for. A kingdom so rich in reward that our HOPE for that kingdom causes us to groan! HOPE is imagination put in the harness of faith, being driven by a compelling motivation, a persistent preoccupation with an idea that is beyond our ability to reason: an obsession with God, a desire for the heavenly bliss that awaits us and a passion that will make us to go to unthinkable lenghts to find ways to communicate the Gospel.

So, the question to us as the church is this: If we ourselves do not have much HOPE in our own hearts and lifes is it possible to share HOPE and demonstrate it through word and deed? Maybe HOPE 2008 will be less about telling the world about our HOPE in Christ and far more about the church rediscovering its lost sense of HOPE?

Well, let me encourage you to read the book, let’s rededicate our lives back to God, fully sell out our churches to God’s eternal HOPE and then get stuck into preaching the word of HOPE through our lives, words, actions and deeds!

Promotional Materials & Jiffy Envelopes

Coming back to HOPE Animation, some of you have asked previously whether there are any promotional materials for the HOPE Animation website that you could use in your churches. At the moment, we only have a short DVD with all our film trailers set up in a menu but might be producing further materials in the future. Let me know if you would like a copy of the promotional DVD. Whilst I can post a copy to you, you can also download the DVD file and then burn yourself your own copy of the trailers.

Oh, and by the way, if you have any spare Jiffy Bags that we can recycle and use for sending out DVDs please get in touch too! :)

Some final comments

Ok, it’s time to finish this rather long newsletter with three comments that we have recently received about the animations. I hope they might inspire you to use the films for whereever you see fit.

“My 11 year old son and I saw Noah’s Ark and we were captivated. Thank you again. It’s brought to life this story for my son and I know your DVDs will impact my students in such a positive way.”

“Once again, many thanks for my copy of the Pilgrim’s Progress. It is a wonderful resource which has enhanced my understanding of my Christian journey, my youngest son has been watching the DVD almost every night since it arrived in our home, which also means that he is watching less of the Disney channel and the Simpsons.”

“We have shared the DVDs with a church leader (a person who is a biblical scholar) and he thought they were suitable for any age group and made no criticism only praise as you covered the areas where people usually nit pick.”