A million witnesses on a virtual wall will aim to drown out the overwhelming malice and negativity in media coverage with stories that speak more to the glory of God.
Organizers say it's part of "the ultimate faith experiment."
OneMillionWitnesses.com was newly launched out of a desire to show "God actively at work." Developed by Jason Wenell, founder of Prodigal Son Magazine, and his wife Shanelle, the website features thousands of pixel-like blocks, each containing a user's personal faith testimony.
"It seems like all the negative things in the world drowned out the great miracles that are happening all over the world," said Wenell. "It is the concept of power in numbers....we have a much larger voice when we sing His glory together. Therefore, the dream is for people to be able to visit one site and be blown away by all the amazing things our God does every day. A non-believer can shrug off a story here and a story there to coincidence but what about 1 million stories? It will at least make them think!"
The first witness block is taken by Jesus with quotes taken from his words from the book of John.
To receive a block, users must donate a minimum of $10 which is directed to a partner mission organization. OneMillionWitnesses.com is only a vehicle to help raise money for missions, Wenell articulated. Funds from the first 100,000 witnesses will go to mission partner Living Water International which will use the donations to build water wells, providing safe drinking water to communities in need. The international ministry has reportedly completed more than 4,200 water solutions which serve 6 million people everyday. The goal with OneMillionWitnesses.com is to build at least 100 wells.
The witness wall initiative will also partner with nine other mission organizations to help provide food, shelter and medicine to those in need across the globe as the other 900,000 blocks are filled.
Wenell launched the project after feeling discouraged from his father's death which was caused by cancer.
"I asked God 'Where are you? Where are all the great things you are doing? I needed encouragement and OMW (One Million Witnesses) grew from that. OMW is really my question to the world, and I hope to get 1 million answers," he said.
With YouTube drawing millions of visitors, Wenell is hoping 1 million Christians will share their story and build an "online monument to God."
"There has to be 1 million Christians in the world that are willing to build this legacy," he said, noting the website is very viral. "I guess in my experience, most Christians have a story ... some small or big thing that God did in their life, when they thought to themselves, ‘Man, God is not only real but truly awesome.’ I am hoping the site will have that snowball effect once we get it out there."
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Hey guys, I am the creator of One Million Witnesses, and just came across this article. I would like to clarify for the posters earlier. The money raised goes directly to Living Water International's account, they are a 4-star charity on the charity navigator and if you research them over 75% of their donations actually make it to the field, which is awesome! Check them out at www.water.cc. They are the first organization we are working with....we are hoping to raise $1 million dollars for them to build wells in Liberia, and then we will partner with 9 more organizations and aim to rasie $1 million for each of them as well. It is a web 2.0 fundraising experiment. We are planning a trip to Liberia to see where the first well will be built, the cool thing is, as the blocks get added, the wells on the right of the page will fill up once they are paid for and we can actually provide people with the location coordinates, pictures and info of the village you helped provide water for. I hope it is also a tool for encouragement, as you can search the testimonies by keyword, so if you are stuggling with something, such as "cancer", you can type that in and see all the testimonies that have to do with cancer. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing everyone's testimonies! Email me if you have any questions at jasonwenell@gmail.com
Ok, after thinking about this... they are tithing 10% of their profits from this 'experiment' which is insane and dishonest considering that the money is being given to them... anyone else see an issue with this???
'Funds from the first 100,000 witnesses will go to mission partner Living Water International which will use the funds to build water wells, providing safe drinking water to communities in need.'
What is going to happen for the other 900,000 witnesses $10? 100,000 x 10 = 1,000,000... what are they going to do with the rest of the 9,000,000 raised from this? Great idea for the ministry... just wondering where the rest of the money is going...
Sounds... Fishy...
What an awesome ministry! I will definately particapate.