Big News For Holy Ghost Stories 🇮🇪🇬🇧
We're hiring, we're traveling—all the things.
Hello! I have six questions and six exciting answers for you:
WHY?
Four years ago my wife and I quit our jobs, sold our cars, rented (and eventually sold) our house, and moved abroad to start Holy Ghost Stories, but even back then, when HGS was barely an idea, we knew it was about more than one project. When people asked, “What are you going to do?” I didn’t say, “I’m starting a podcast.” I said, “I want to lead people into fresh encounters with Yahweh.”
That’s the why behind Holy Ghost Stories. And it’s the why behind everything else we’re up to at Hazefire Studios.
WHEN?
Today’s Giving Tuesday. It’s an absolutely arbitrary appellation—a made up holiday. But (like many holidays) it has become a day when people do a certain kind of thing, and so today’s a great day to let you know how you can help further the work of Hazefire Studios. There are so many things to do, so many ways to get involved and make dreams into real things. Specifically, our goal today is to raise $15,400 to fund a 5 city Holy Ghost Stories tour of Ireland. More on that in a minute.
WHO?
For the first three years, Hazefire Studios was mostly a one man band and a one trick pony: Justin Gerhardt and Holy Ghost Stories. But in the last year, thanks to your generosity, we’ve grown into a team devoted to multiple projects, all with that same purpose of leading people into fresh encounters with Yahweh. We have (praise God!) four staff members, four board members, and more than a dozen collaborating artists around the world who come alongside us for live and recorded storytelling. Over the course of the day we’ll be introducing the team on Instagram—follow along there for videos, job descriptions, and more.
WHAT?
In January we’ll be rolling out a brand new offering from Hazefire: The Happiest Saddest People. It’s a fully scored audio memoir told over sixteen chapters, delivered into your podcast app over thirteen weeks. It’s completely free, and you’re going to love it. Why will you love it? Because it tells the story of God’s faithful pursuit of His children, and because it will lead you into a fresh encounter with Yahweh.
That’s all we’re about at Hazefire–true, beautiful stories that take your hand and put it in His.
The Happiest Saddest People is written and narrated by Hazefire Partner, JL Gerhardt. It’s gorgeous, bingeable, and bound to make you cry sad and very happy tears.
WHAT ELSE?
This year you can also expect more ways to use Holy Ghost Stories in the context of your church, school, small group, or organization. We’ll provide HGS Bible reading plans, small group discussion guides, classroom curriculum, and even host one-on-one meetings to help leaders and teachers make the most of every episode.
We’re also eager to continue working with like-minded organizations (churches, schools, nonprofits, etc) in the form of live events, training, and consultation.
Which brings us to Ireland. In 2023 we brought Holy Ghost Stories to Ireland (the North and the South) for the first time. We planned to reach four cities but once we did the first couple of shows, word got around and we added another stop on the north coast. When we left we had churches asking, “How did we miss this?” and “When are you coming back?”
One of the folks who asked these questions was Lucy Hill, the national director of 24/7 Prayer Ireland (24/7 Prayer is the organization that created Lectio 365 and helped to start 24/7 prayer rooms across the world. The movement was started by Pete Greig and is headed up in the U.S. by Tyler Staton.)
This Spring, we’re partnering with 24/7 Prayer Ireland on a leg of the tour and we couldn’t be more excited.
What will we be doing, exactly? Together with Adam Montgomery and a handful of Northern Irish & American musicians, author JL Gerhardt (who happens to be my wife) and I will travel to five or six cities across the emerald isle to tell the story of the week of Creation. (Creation! I could not be more excited about this—I’ve wanted to tell this story HGS-style for years.) Adam will be writing original songs for this show (and co-writing one with Eve Adeline, who many of you will hear again at this year’s Christmas show), JL will save the day (as usual) with her logistical and prayer gifts, and the musical flavor for this show? Definitely a traditional Irish vibe. (So happy about this.)
Here’s a quick message from Adam for you:
WILL YOU?
More soon, but now’s your chance to give! We’ll be able to pull off this entire endeavor (travel, lodging, artist compensation, etc) for $15,400. That’s the amount we’re prayerfully trying to raise today. Can we do it? Absolutely. In fact, if each person reading this email gave just $10, we’d have it covered.
So jump in. Many of us in the West have Irish believers like St. Patrick to thank for the seeds of our faith. For a long time, a shadow stretched across Ireland but now so many of those wonderful people are hungry for an encounter with the Almighty.
That’s what we’re going to give them. Help us do it.
Gratefully,
Justin