Jesus Video Project blankets O'ahu
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
Coming soon to a mailbox near you: "Jesus," the video.
If you take the time to read the detached address label, you'll know the title of the glossy packaged VHS tape. Estimated cost for each: $2.70, just for copying and mailing.
Send thank-you notes to the Jesus Video Project, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.
About 497,000 videos were mailed out to households, virtually blanketing the island. Distribution began April 4 and is expected to be nearly complete by Easter.
The video itself isn't really new, explained Keli'i Akina, local chairwoman for the project. The 83-minute video is a shortened version of a 117-minute movie produced in 1977 starring ... well, no big names, really. Brian Deacon is the title character; Deacon's next best-known role may well be as Allan Woodcourt in the British TV miniseries "Bleak House," based on a Dickens' novel.
The no-name cast was by design, said Akina, who added that all except the lead were people who hailed from the region of the biblical character they played. The "special Hawai'i edition" includes a message by Randy and Gay Hongo, two local Christian entertainers.
The total cost of mailing and reproducing the video for Hawai'i distribution: $1.3 million, most of the group's $1.67 million budget, raised through donations from and to the 185 participating churches.
The second phase of the Jesus Hawai'i project will be a more targeted campaign. Teenagers at the end of the month will begin receiving through their churches "student survival kits," which they'll then be encouraged to distribute to friends and classmates.
The kit, which wasn't available in time for Easter, includes a CD of locally produced music. About 80,000 will be made available in Hawai'i.
Hawai'i's is the third state to have such a mass mailing, after Texas and a "small state" which Akina couldn't remember.
Why blanket the state of Hawai'i? After all, the second-largest faith group in the Islands is Buddhist and the third-largest is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — not one of the participating Christian churches.
"The purpose of the Jesus video distribution is to share the message of person of Jesus, not to promote any particular religion," said Akina. "... If people do not want to keep it, we understand that. The majority will at least appreciate receiving it."
She said in the last few days, they have received e-mails and calls, most of which were to thank them for the video.
"A handful say they prefer not to receive it," said Akina. "The reason we sent it is times in which we live require good thinking about love, life, peace. Churches wanted to make that available to the entire state."
Inside the video is a list of churches that participated in the project.
"We realize some people may not want to watch it," said Danny Casey, Youth for Christ director of events. "Some might throw it away, or they could give it to someone, friend or family member, or to a local church. Our real hope is that they would watch it."
Those that are returned through the post office will be delivered to military chaplains here, who can pass them along to those without general postal addresses, Casey said.
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