Introducing the Team

Hello Friends & Partners with The Truth Project--

This is my first post, so if I may, I would like to introduce myself, and more importantly, our team to you (though you have already met Gary Alan and Grant through their previous postings).

I hope by learning more about each of us, you will see more clearly the hand of God in The Truth Project. That is one of the important goals of this blog--to tell the story of what the Lord is doing in the lives of many people through The Truth Project.

My name is Marc Fey, and I am the director of Community Impact Programs for Focus on the Family, the area within which The Truth Project resides. More importantly, I started in April 2004 with Del as the first team member, following the Focus on the Family Board's decision to commit staff and resources to the vision of putting Del's teaching on DVD. It was the genesis of the program as many of you have experienced it.  I hope to tell you more stories of those early days.  Since that time, I have traveled with the team to 20 of the 21 conferences, privileged to be a part of this special team. 

And that, really, is why I write today--to introduce you formally to our team.

Dr. Del Tackett, of course, you know. He is the teacher-- "tour guide" -- and the visionary of The Truth Project. I will tackle some longer posts later on Del's story since it goes further back!

Gary Alan Taylor has been with The Truth Project since April of 2005, joining the team just before we filmed The Truth Project. Since that time, as program manager he has been the key leader in the day-to-day management of the program. He is a gifted speaker and wise leader for our "on the ground" team, working to provide our conferences, communication to our leaders, and other areas of oversight to keep the program moving.

Kathy DeMattee is our senior coordinator who was our first team member to join me at the beginning of this adventure. With a sharp understanding of processes and organization,she serves as our "air traffic controller."  Kathy is highly administrative, a person who always has the "wise word" at just the right time for our team.

Grant Cheney has worked on The Truth Project in three different roles. As a recent grad of the Focus on the Family Institute with a background in film, he joined the Cold Water Media team to help with the production side of the project. During filming, as many of you know, he was a student in our classroom. Then, after filming he joined our Focus team as associate editor, which he has been doing now for the past two years. His responsibilities are hard to summarize--he works on media, creative projects, and does some of the speaking at our conferences (regarding how to use the web site).

Robert Velarde is our online editor who manages the web content and message boards. A published author in his own right (see TrueU.org to read some of the articles he has written on worldview).

Janet Sperry is our administrative assistant par excellence, who takes care of many behind-the-scenes details, no less important than anything else we do.

So, as an overview, that is who we are, the core team for The Truth Project.  However, look forward to additional postings, when I will tell you more about our team...the larger, extended team of many others who support us to do what we do-- to serve you the best we can. It takes many people at Focus on the Family to accomplish what at times seems like "the impossible."  For that reason, at every opportunity, our desire is to give thanks to the Lord for what He appears to be doing through The Truth Project. It is a deeply humbling thing, to serve all of you as you risk yourselves in serving and caring for the Body of Christ.

Let me pause there, to write more later, as we attempt to tell the story of what God is doing.  At the end of the day, that is our goal-- to give Him credit--all the glory--for the wonderful things that He is doing! What a privilege it is to be a part of His team!

Comments

[Tom]

Marc,

Thanks for the intros and background information. I look forward to your posts about the "back pages" of the project.

Just a small suggestion on format: I noticed that although the comment postings bear mm/dd/yyyy dating, the blog postings themselves do not. It would be useful to add the date to the blog posting "footnotes" (probably added by typepad) to allow the reader to easily orient the comments being about conferences and other events, since dates are generally not part of the content of the blog entry itself. Your webpage person will probably know how to do this.

We look forward to getting to know you and the team better! Thanks for all you do.

[Michael Pierce]

Marc,

It was a pleasure meeting you in Houston. The material Del presented is truly deep and logical. Thank the team for a job well done.

Mike Pierce, Tulsa, OK