What is the Paul Project?

Those of you who were in chapel a couple of weeks ago may have heard about a new student project being mentioned. “The Paul Project.” Sounds cool, but what is it?

Basically, it is a video documentary led by Tyler Doornink, Callie Doremus, Adam Sutton, Torie McKay and Jessica Baughman.

Doornink explained, “We are creating a video to expose the homeless predicament by filming encounters we have with some of our homeless friends.”

The project started one Friday evening when Doornink and others met into a homeless man named Paul, who has great ideas for helping the homeless. He was thrilled when Corban’s students ran with one of his ideas. For the next few weeks, the crew met with Paul, who they started to playfully call Uncle Paul.

This project will hopefully be presented to churches and Bible study groups. “Through this project we hope to see Paul, as well as others come to know Christ,” Sutton said. “At the very least we would like for them to see that Christians (and the church) are different from the rest of the world. I feel like this goal has already been accomplished with Paul, now just for the rest of the world.”

“Our eyes have been opened to some harsh realities about homelessness through knowing Uncle Paul, but also to the truth that these are people created in God’s own image,” Doremus said.

“The biggest thing we need right now,” Doornink said, “is prayer, prayer, and more prayer. We cannot do this on our own power.”

The group would appreciate prayer that the homeless will be open to sharing their stories, that they will enjoy the relationship with the Paul Project crew, that people all over the area will be encouraged to respond to the calling to go out of their way to love people they wouldn’t normally love, and that lives will be brought to Christ through this project.