When Agapé staff member, Tim Moyler, first watched the new closing sequence on the current UK edition of the JESUS video, it brought tears to his eyes. “I was transfixed”, says Tim. “The way those six Christians told how and why they had made the decision to follow Jesus was so powerful. No jargon, just plain facts, and it all tied in with the story of Jesus as seen in the film”. But what got to Tim most was seeing Evelyn Witt tell her story.

Tim first met Evelyn when he was asked by Churches Together in Chislehurst to train the visitors for their Jesus Video Project (JVP). Evelyn was one of them. After the second training session, she said to Tim, “I must tell you this. I wouldn’t be a Christian today if someone hadn’t knocked on my door and given me a copy of the JESUS video”.

For Tim, encouraging Christians to sow the story of Jesus is one of the most exiting challenges of working with Agapé. But for him, there’s another equally important reason and that’s seeing ordinary Christians released from the fears that have held them back from doing it.

Before he first did the Jesus Video Project for himself in 1997, he was very fearful of getting into a conversation about Jesus with someone he didn’t know. Evelyn was no different. “I put up lots of objections at first”, says Evelyn, “silly objections, and I thought, no, I really have to go and do this, although I’m absolutely terrified of knocking on people’s doors! But when I came back… I think I was blessed more than anybody else, and it was an absolutely lovely feeling!”

When you next watch the JESUS video, watch out for Evelyn telling about her own encounter with Jesus. “When I watched the film”, says Evelyn, “I suddenly realised that Jesus did love me and that he did die on the cross to prove something to people like me, and there had to be a purpose in all this.”

“That makes me smile”, says Tim. “Someone watches the JESUS video, appears at the end of a new edition of it and then gives it away! I think God’s smiling too!”

26-11-04