Stories & News

HOPE Behind Veils and Masks

Posted: 2015-04-15

HOPE Behind Veils and Masks

Veils and masks cannot hide hearts from the Gospel.

Of the top 20 countries in the world where Christianity is growing the fastest, 11 have a predominantly Muslim population. They are all in the Middle East, Africa and Asia; 4 of them are actually governed by Islamic law. How do we explain the rise of Christianity in these countries?

Taking a page from recent history in China, we are reminded that oppression and persecution is actually the soil in which the Church grows. There are now thought to be as many as 100 million believers in China, with up to 10,000 people coming to faith across the country every single day. Researchers project that by 2030, China will be the most Christian nation on earth, with an estimated 247 million followers of Christ.

With the rise of highly published persecution and violence from Islamic groups like ISIS, an amazing thing is happening. God is using this wave of evil terror to cause Muslims around the world to re-examine their belief system. The most critical combat is not being fought with guns and knives, but with ideas and worldview; and on this battlefield, the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is prevailing! Through the ministry of The HOPE, Mars Hill is blessed to have a role in this mighty movement of God.

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HOPE on the Internet

Posted: 2015-04-15

HOPE on the Internet

TheHOPEProject.com is our website that streams The HOPE and provides help for seekers in many of the world's major languages. This graph shows our recent increase in traffic.

In the past few months, our traffic has climbed from an average of 300 visitors/day to over 600 visitors/day.
Over 70% of these visitors are coming from predominantly Muslim countries.
In the past month, we've had over 2,000 visitors from Indonesia, the most populated Muslim country in the world. And we don't even have an Indonesian version of The HOPE (but we're working on it).
3 weeks ago, we launched the Farsi version. Since then, we've had over 2,000 online visitors from Iran.
Regularly, we receive 3 types of emails from the Muslim world: 1) those who hate our message, 2) those who want to know more and 3) those who have come to faith after time on our site.

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HOPE in the Town Square

Posted: 2015-04-15

Two of our partners are streaming The HOPE video on micro Wi-Fi transmitters. These tiny units can be hidden from view and used just about anywhere: a town square, a market, a train, or a remote village. They send out a Wi-Fi signal transmitting only the content you determine; in this case, The HOPE video.

When people look at their Wi-Fi-enabled mobile device, they see that a signal is available, which is a big deal in areas where Internet service is poor and hotspots are few. When people connect, they connect to God's redemptive story!

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Updating The HOPE

Posted: 2014-12-12

Updating The HOPE

The HOPE was created over 10 years ago using state-of-the-art technology and broadcast quality footage from some of the most epic Bible movies ever produced. Much has changed since then.

Over the years, we’ve learned a great deal about what works (and what doesn’t) with different types of people. With these insights and some new tools, we’re now pursuing a plan to update The HOPE.

First we’ll convert all of the video in The HOPE (now in Standard-definition) to High-definition. We’re already well into that process and expect to have an HD version of The HOPE by the end of this year (2014). Next we’ll look at completely replacing some of the current scenes in The HOPE. For instance, we plan to replace the Super Nova scene at the beginning of the section dealing with the complexity and design of creation. Too many people have passed on using The HOPE because they think this scene represents the big bang. With all of these changes, we plan to maintain the overall timing of each existing scene so that previous translations of The HOPE can use the new scenes by simply laying in existing audio tracks over new video.

Finally we plan to produce two special edition versions of The HOPE, an abridged version (under an hour) for use in Church services and classroom settings and an indigenous tribal version that will replace current visuals to which people in remote areas of the world cannot relate. We believe this effort will result in an even more effective tool to reach nations with the Gospel!

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Reaching Soft Hearts in Hard Places via the Internet

Posted: 2014-12-12

thehopeproject.com_Arabic HOPE_screen shot Arabic Response

By the end of this year, there will be over 3 billion Internet users worldwide. Searches on Google are now reported to be as many as 6 billion a day. Factor in all the other search engines, i.e., Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, etc., and that number climbs to around 7 billion. As a pop musician once wrote, “Everybody’s looking for something.” Millions of them are on the Internet looking for truth and hope!

In 2007, we partnered with another ministry, Gospel Communications, to build an Internet portal for The HOPE in English and Spanish. Gospel put a link to this site on one of their sites, the Bible Gateway, and by 2008 we were receiving about 1,200 visitors a day. Later that same year, Gospel decided to close their doors and the Bible Gateway was sold to the Zondervan company who elected not to continue the partnership. The traffic dropped significantly. But within the past two years, God has provided the resources to completely rebuild TheHOPEProject.com. And while we’re still working to grow the traffic to previous levels (and beyond), evidence indicates that the Internet ministry of The HOPE is more strategic than ever, going places people can’t go.

TheHOPEProject.com provides The HOPE video, a 65 lesson study guide and a means to receive help if needed in 11 languages. It is available on desktop machines, tablets and mobile devices. We are currently receiving hundreds of visitors a day, nearly 80% of whom are coming to the site on mobile devices. But what we find really interesting is that the most used language after English is Arabic. Regularly we receive responses from Arabic speakers. Most of these fall into one of two categories. The first category consists of some of the most profane and vile emails we have ever received. They often conclude with, “there is no god but allah and muhammad is his prophet.”

The second category involves emails from people who are encountering the Living God in closed access countries behind the veil of Islam. Responding to what they’ve experienced on TheHOPEProject.com, they write things such as, “I just prayed to receive Christ,” “I want to grow in my faith,” “I want to share Him with others,” and “I am not a Christian and still have questions.” The most common kind is the latter. Our partner, Global Media Outreach, handles most of the response. Worldwide, unprecedented terrifying violence in the name of Islam is actually being used to soften hearts, open minds and turn many Muslims to Christ. These people are hungry for the God of truth, grace, love and forgiveness. And we are blessed to be there for them with an Internet ministry that is not confined by the powers of this present darkness.

In addition to the 11 languages on TheHOPEProject.com, we’re streaming an additional 15 languages on YouTube and Vimeo. For a full listing of The HOPE video streams, visit www.hopepartnering.com/hope-online. We’re consistently adding new video streams. Please pray for the online ministry of The HOPE!

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