Culture

How Stories Traveled from Texas to Antarctica, Colombia, and now South Africa

Doug Bender

March 03, 2022 | 2 minute read

When I Am Second began in 2008, we thought it would be a local thing. Our team was in Dallas, TX. We loved our city. We knew we had life changing stories we wanted our city to hear. So we made some films, built a website, put up some billboards and lots of ads. We thought– we hoped– that our community would be inspired and even changed by what they saw in these stories. But what we didn’t expect was that the stories would go global.  

At first it was anecdotal. Old friends from college began sending me links to I Am Second films–not knowing that I actually worked at I Am Second. But we saw the same thing when we dug into the web analytics. The site was getting traffic from all over the country and the world. I remember even seeing a visit come through from Antartica! 

But in recent years we’ve seen people from around the world take what we started and go even further than we have. As I write this I am visiting with a team in Colombia, South America. I’m meeting with them because they took just one part of our website–the film discussion guides– and rolled it out into a nationwide campaign to share the good news of Jesus to everyone.

Our film discussion guides are designed to be really simple. They introduce a film. Connect that story with a story in the Bible. And then through a series of simple but powerful questions they lead people to discover the deeper truths of life, relationships, and God. Here in Colombia they use these discussion guides to facilitate conversations with people who know the name of Jesus but never felt like they ever had a real conversation about him. I Am Second is having an impact here that we could not have dreamed about back in 2008.

South Africa is another place where people are going even further than we thought possible. Dave and Donna Kruger have been longtime fans, partners, and advocates for I Am Second in their native country of South Africa. But recently they came to us with an opportunity to get I Am Second on television across the continent of Africa. 

The Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) Africa began in 2016 and now broadcasts to over 50 countries across Africa. Their programming is varied, but all of it is aimed to help people better understand Jesus and what he is doing in people’s lives. Starting this Sunday, part of that programming will now be a 12-part television series developed exclusively for African audiences that features a powerful compilation of some of I Am Second’s most inspirational films. 

The program is hosted by Hans Ndam from Cameroon, Grace Nelly Tshitoko from The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Lucy Allen from Dallas, TX. And yes, people will even get to meet Dave and Donna Kruger who say that their greatest hope is that they “are able to effectively share the unconditional love and transformative power of Jesus.”

The show launches this Sunday, March 6. If you happen to be reading this from a place that gets TBN Africa, then you should definitely check us out. 

If you are one of those people who has been using our films, stories, or other online tools, to inspire people to live Second, then let us know. We are always excited to hear how people like you are making a difference. 

 
Doug Bender

Doug Bender

Doug Bender is an I Am Second writer and small groups coach. He developed many of the small group tools found at iamsecond.com and has coached churches, organizations, and individuals to use I Am Second groups to share the message of Jesus with their friends and family. He also works with I Am Second's parent organization, e3 Partners, as a church planter and pastor in countries such as Ethiopia, Colombia, and the US. Doug and his wife, Catherine, have four children: Bethany, Samuel, Isabella, and Jesse.

Search for what you’d like to read about