Generation Impact has had an exciting 2011. Our readership has doubled, new writers have joined the team, and we’re starting 2012 with vision for the future. Thanks to you, our readers, for continuing to support this ministry through encouraging comments and emails and through prayer.
Generation Impact’s goal has always been to encourage young people to spend their lives for Christ. One of the ways we do this is by sharing the stories of others who are using their God-given talents to impact the culture and generation He has placed them in. In 2011 we were blessed to interview a wide variety of people: filmmakers, actors, musicians, writers, teachers, and missionaries to name a few. Take a look back with us at a few people who impacted the world in 2011. Here’s the editors pick:
“There is no more effective weapon against a faithless heart than the Bible itself,” Joshua Steele says. He and his wife, Kelsie, have devoted themselves to full-time mission work in western Ukraine. Originally from Texas, the couple now lives in L’viv with their three young daughters. There they developed a Bible study series to help communicate the gospel to the people of Ukraine. They serve with Euro Team Outreach (ETO) to teach God’s Word to Ukrainians. Read the interview.
As he worked to sharpen his own writing craft, Caleb discovered that solid encouragement and loving instruction make great writers. Besides working on his own writing ventures, he founded an online community for teen writers. Using the power of encouragement, Caleb is striving to refine teens into the next generation of great writers. “I hope this generation searches for truth until truth itself becomes their heartbeat,” he says. Read the interview.
Director Nathan Webster is on a mission to create morally sound, professionally produced films featuring well-told stories from a Biblical worldview. He and his fellow team members at Filmweavers recently produced their first feature film, the award-winning drama/thriller, The Penny. To make God-glorifying films, he says “You need to present a grounded worldview where moral things are right and immoral things are wrong.” Read the interview.
Ben’s acting career began in a kids’ theater troupe. Little did he know he would one day perform on Broadway. When he decided he wanted to act for the rest of his life, Ben devoted himself to studying the art and eagerly walked through doors as they opened in front of him. This eventually landed him the role of “Pumbaa” in Broadway’s famous musical, The Lion King. But Ben doesn’t take himself too seriously because of his success. He remembers the up’s and down’s that led to the fulfillment of his dream and acknowledges God’s hand in every step of the journey. Read the interview.
Hannah is a girl with a cause – one Cause worth living for. Her enthusiasm for Christ and for discipling young women culminated in her debut book, Uncompromising: A Heart Claimed by a Radical Love. In this remarkably encouraging book, she shares her journey through the roller coaster called the teen years and motivates her peers to seek God’s call for their lives. Hannah’s passion for ministering to young women has led her on a nationwide tour. “I want other girls with their own secret sins to be found by the same hope that found me,” she says. Read the interview.
We are thankful to everyone who shared their stories with us over the past year. Their testimonies to God’s faithfulness as they served Him are an inspiration. In 2012, we hope to bring you even more interviews from this generation’s impactors.
The volunteer staff behind Generation Impact are dedicated to encouraging you, and any input we receive from you helps us do that. We need your help. You may know someone who has inspired you to live more fully for the Lord. You may have been blessed by someone’s story and believe your peers would also benefit from it. You may be the only way we at Generation Impact will ever hear about it and be able to share it with others. Speak up and nominate someone you believe would encourage this generation in the Lord. Simply send an email about him or her to contact@generation-impact.com.
True impact takes all of us working together. “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58b). May we continue to magnify Christ in 2012.
In Him,
Grace D Williamson, Editor
for generation-impact.com