THE URGENCY 

After 25 years of hosting Acquire the Fire stadium events all over North America, Ron has heard from many leaders that there is a vacuum when it comes to mass evangelism of America’s youth.  He says it’s time to disrupt this trend that has stolen the hearts of our young generations from the Gospel. “It is undeniable that in the past five-ten years the culture has declared war on the youth of North America. When we look to all the carnage in the values that social media is immersing our young people in, as well as the LGBTQ influence in schools, and pervasive binge-watching Netflix series with debased morals, now more than ever our youth need a cutting-edge experience that will help them encounter God in a fresh way.”  The vision of the October 15, 2025 SURGE event is to have 1000 churches across North America stream it to 100,000 teens versus meeting in individual stadiums, as Ron did for many years.  The idea is that teens from youth groups will bring unchurched guests to experience Jesus for the first time.  
 
THE THEME 

Ron and his wife, Katie, are working on a book called Navigating the Media Jungle, coming out in September 2025, which will serve as the theme of the night.  “During the event, as we use high-tech tools, connect to their phones, and feature celebrities, musicians, comedians, we’ll deliver a heart-wrenching message,” Ron says. “We will help young people come face-to-face with how social media is intentionally aiming to get them addicted to endorphins, compel them to be selfie-driven, and shape their minds and hearts with values and lifestyles all in the name of entertainment.  Because of the very real slavery to media of many forms, youth workers and parents will have great motivation to bring their youth.”

THE GOALS

Ron has set very clear-cut goals for the SURGE event:

• Equip 1000 churches with PROJECT 13 tools to reach and disciple the next generation.

• Train 10,000 young teen leaders in advance to be disciple-makers in these churches to engage all the new followers of Jesus after the event.

• Host up to 100,000 youth in churches nationwide, seeing many thousands come to Christ that night.

• Coach churches after the event via Zoom to help them implement the Deep Dive Disciple-Making tools for the next 6 months, using assessments every 4 weeks to measure the effectiveness of the discipleship process

PROJECT 13

Ron studied churches all over the world and found that the ones most successful in bringing youth to a saving faith used similar methods.  “At its core, PROJECT 13 is a transformational process of reaching and discipling the 

young generation, containing four best practices that any church can implement no matter their history of youth ministry.”  He has developed a master class, which teaches the best practices and trains both youth and adults how to become disciple-makers.  The best practices are:

• Train young leaders

• Hold epic events for 13-year-olds, who are the most likely age group to come to Christ

• Implement “deep-dive” disciple making 

• Building an ecosystem for the entire church 

For more information on SURGE click the LINK! And to learn about his latest projects click the LINK! as well! 

CREDITS

Co-Founder, Generation Next ministry / event speaker / author of 30 books on teen culture / Founder, Teen Mania and Acquire the Fire events, 1986-2015, during which he worked with 100,000 churches, and hosted hundreds of arena events attended by three million young people in North America / Executive Director, Jesus Global Youth Day in Manila Philippines, 2019, hosting 50,000 youth in 30 nations / writer, Project 13 Masterclass, teaching church leaders a transformational process in youth ministry based on vast research of churches globally/ PhD in Strategic Foresight / Married to Katie for 40 years, three adult children 

“I had come home one night and came in, you know, got my pajamas on, and was getting ready for bed. Then all of a sudden, my eye, my right eye, start twitching really fast,” Eve recalls. 

In April 2018, Eve Perry Washington began having stroke-like symptoms. She called 911, then she called Judi, her small group leader. “At that time my speech was already, you know, leaving. It was hard for me to get the words out so you could understand.”

“Her words were slurred,” Judi adds. “Very slurred. And that was unlike her. I prayed for her on the phone and then headed to the hospital--prayed all the way to the hospital.” Eve was rushed to the emergency room, where friends and family members were waiting. “When we got there, we actually prayed for her, laid hands on her, prayed for her because we were able to see her in the emergency room,” Judi says.  

Eve says, “I asked God when I got there, I said, ‘Listen, if I have to be in here, use me for your glory.’ I said, ‘I'm not gonna just stay here and not have you use me. I said, because I know this is not you.’”

Doctors ran scans and x-rays and found a brain tumor behind her eye. Dr. Kaisorn Chaichana of the Gainesville Mayo Clinic, says, “She had a meningioma. So, a meningioma is a tumor that arises from the meninges of the lining of the brain. It was on the left side, behind her eye. I think it was around 4 to 5 centimeters, so it was on the larger side.”

Judi says, “My first reaction was that we just have to believe God. We have to believe God. We know that what He's promised us and we have to stand on His promises.”  

Eve recalls, “'I'm not sure. I'm not gonna ask you why,’ I said, but I'm gonna ask you, 'If I'm in the hospital and I have to have this brain surgery, I'm looking to you, Jesus, to totally heal me. There would be no negative side effects.'”

“If they are on the dominant hemisphere of the left side in close proximity to language area, it can cause speech issues,” Dr. Chaichana adds. “If it is nearby the motor cortex which controls the motor functions, it can cause motor issues. In her case, where it was located, usually what we worry about vision loss.”

She was released from the hospital and scheduled to return to the Mayo Clinic in August where the surgeon, Dr. Betty Kim, would remove her tumor. The morning of the surgery, Eve felt total peace. “This is exactly what The Holy Spirit said. He said, 'It's going to be like you went to sleep and woke up, like nothing ever changed except for the fact the tumor will be gone.’ This is what I said to Dr. Kim: ‘Can you agree with me that everything will come out fine? I will not have any negative side effects from any of this.’ And she said, ‘I agree.’"

Her family and church friends continued praying for her. When it was over, the doctors told them they could go see her in recovery, where she was awake and totally coherent. “That was a little strange to me,” Judi adds. “I was like, ‘Okay, we can go back to see somebody that just had brain surgery?’ Okay, good. And so we went back to see her and to my surprise, she was talking and wanting to get up.”

“I knew where I was and I could, knew the people that was in the room, and I just raised my hand and began to give God praise,” Eve says. 

“Any brain surgery is serious,” says Dr. Chaichana, “but here at Mayo Clinic we are very sub-specialized, so we always see a lot of the same types of lesions. And after the surgery she was doing great without any vision loss.”

Eve recently married, and today is fully functioning and perfectly healthy. She is thankful for the excellent job the doctors at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville did, and she has had no side effects or required follow up treatment. “I never had headaches before, and I never had headaches since,” Eve says. “No meds at all, no anything. So I was so grateful none of that happened.” 

“When I see her, I know that she's a testament of God's power at work,” Judi says. “It increased my faith. I would always say that my faith was strong, but this did increase my faith even more so.”

“We need each other so don’t be a lone ranger,” Eve emphasizes. “Always surround yourself with prayer, and people of prayer, and people of faith.  We need each other. Prayer is powerful.”

To discover encouraging scripture and insights, please visit Eve Perry's website: Revealing Moments with God. You can also reach Eve Perry by emailing her at eve.perry72@yahoo.com.

“I really had this deep wounding of feeling that there was something really wrong with me and that, ultimately, I was alone,” Hope Donithan said while thinking back on her youth. “’Why are you really here? Do you even have a purpose?  You should just end your life.’ I was hopeless.”

“I grew up in a household that definitely was Christian,” Hope said. “I got baptized around six. Growing up, I never questioned whether God was real. But I think it felt kind of far off to me. I never really experienced the love that people talked about.”

“From a young age I experienced rejection,” Hope said. “There was this kid, just in a moment where we were playing around, and he told me, ‘No one's ever going to love you.’ That, I think, really planted the seed inside of my heart as a child that people didn’t want to be around me, and maybe, if that's true, no one would ever love me. And if this is being said by people around me then, I don’t know, maybe God doesn’t love me.’”

“I also started having health issues,” Hope said. “ I was in and out of doctor's offices, sometimes even hospitals, just with random things. Eventually they found some autoimmune disorders. So, it really made me begin to feel like, ‘Wow, I’m being rejected, I'm experiencing this sorrow and depression, and I'm also dealing with these illnesses.’ It did make me feel that God was far away. That maybe He didn’t see me or care to change the situations that were happening.”

“Then those monologues began to be even more extreme to, ‘No one would miss you if you were gone,’” Hope said. “Which, ultimately led me to start to create suicide plans in my head.”

“In my bathroom one day, with it locked, feeling so much hopelessness that I had the razor blades,” Hope said. “’I don't want to be here anymore.’ Just crying, just wanting the sorrow to stop.”

“All of a sudden this presence entered my bathroom,” Hope said. “It was like an inner kind of voice in my head that wasn't my own. And it just said, ‘Hope, don't do it. I love you, and I made you for a purpose.’ I knew that voice was Jesus. It was like this rush of love and peace. I felt so seen in that moment. He actually did care whether I was here and, whether I chose to actually continue my life. I felt a love and a peace that I'd been desiring. It didn't matter to me if I didn't have that many friends anymore because I had Jesus.”

“I actually began to read the Bible,” Hope said. “Began to want to be at church. Got plugged in to serving. I'm very passionate now about reaching the next generation with the love of Jesus. So, that's what's led me to the work I'm doing now as a missionary. I've even had moments of suicide intervention for students.”

“I really did find a joy and a purpose that really made me feel loved and accepted,” Hope said. “Yes, I've experienced rejection. I've experienced moments of feeling sadness, but never to that extent where I would ever question my life again. I feel so confident in the love of God and His purpose and plan for my life that it wouldn’t move me and it wouldn’t shake me, because I just know that God is good. I now have a history of seeing His faithfulness in my life.”

“I would want to share with anyone that's experiencing suicidal ideation, though you might feel that those feelings of hopelessness or despair, the voices are telling you that you don't have a future, that your life is not worth anything and that you should end it – that voice isn't true,” Hope said. “There's a better voice speaking to you. It's the voice of Jesus. And he's saying, just like he said to me that day in the bathroom, I love you. Don't do it. I have a purpose and a plan for your life.”

This January, the small village of Retalhuleu in Guatemala was filled with excitement and anticipation as a special Superbook activity took place. Approximately 35 children were gathered as the event began with a heartfelt prayer, setting a tone of reverence and hope.

Following the prayer, the Superbook team introduced the children to the Superbook characters: Chris, Joy, and Gizmo. Since the children were unfamiliar with these characters, the team emphasized their names to help them remember. To engage the children further, they promised prizes for those who answered questions correctly.

The story of David and Goliath was the centerpiece of the event. The team asked the children if they knew the story, and while some did, most did not. They built suspense by explaining that it was about a very brave boy who faced a wicked giant, which excited the children. They eagerly agreed to watch the Superbook episode, “A Giant Adventure.”

As the episode played, the Superbook team paused occasionally to ask direct questions, ensuring the children were fully engaged. By the end, the children were captivated by the story. The team used this opportunity to emphasize that, despite our small size, we can accomplish great things when we have faith and trust in God. They also highlighted the importance of communicating with God through prayer to stay connected with him and face our problems and fears.

At the end of the activity, the Superbook team led the prayer of salvation, inviting the children to give their lives to Christ. Many seeds of faith were planted that day, as the team encouraged the children to pray about everything.

The event was supported by three people from the receiving organization, as well as a teacher from the school where the Mobile Medical Clinic was held. The teacher was provided with Superbook materials, including stickers, art supplies, and Superbook DVDs, to continue the children's engagement with the Word of God.

The Superbook activity in Retalhuleu is a testament to the transformative power of faith and community. By supporting this mission, you can help bring hope and transformation to even more children and families. Whether by donating to CBN Animation’s Superbook ministry through the link below, sharing this story, or accessing Superbook resources for your own family, your support can extend the reach of this incredible ministry.

Together, we can continue to spread the love and teachings of Jesus, one story at a time. Join us in this mission and be a part of the global impact of CBN Animation’s Superbook. Let's continue to reach more children for Christ together.

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