Acacia Projects Charitable Trust
Acacia Projects is a New Zealand-based charity (#CC54139), launched in April 2016, with a vision to see people immersed in the love of God. The name Acacia was taken from the Bible. The Ark of the Presence was a box made from Acacia wood and overlaid in gold. This speaks of God surrounding our fragile humanity with the gold of His love and making us a living Ark of His presence. This is our focus for the Body of Christ and all the projects we undertake serve this vision of all-encompassing love.
Freeslaves.org
A project that supports the persecuted Church in South Asia by redeeming enslaved Christian families.
www.onewithchrist.org
A devotional Bible study series for personal transformation
www.discoverjesus.nz
A 12-week introduction course for people interested in learning about God and His design for their life.
Our Team
Geoff and Mel Woodcock
Geoff and Mel have been developing resources since 2000. In 2012, they began work with HELPS Ministries on The Discovery Bible. In 2014, they began the freeslaves.org project. They live in Mosgiel, New Zealand with their four children.
Chris Latta
Chris started working with Acacia Projects in 2017, laying the foundation for the Acacia software project. He will lead the software development team. He and his wife, Claire, and their two children live in Dunedin, NZ.
Trust Board
Geoff and Maria Kemp
Geoff is the Chair of Acacia Projects and is gifted in wisdom, leadership, and strategy. Geoff carries a servant’s heart and is currently the CEO of Cargill Enterprises in Dunedin, NZ. Maria is called to prayer and intercession and is a renowned artist in the Dunedin Community. Together, Geoff and Maria share a passion for the love of God and are deeply invested in the work of Acacia.
Nikki Miller
Nikki has a heart of deep compassion for the afflicted and oppressed, which drives her involvement with Acacia Projects. She supports the development of Acacia Media resources and is a constant source of inspiration as she serves those around her with a willing and generous heart.
Donna Nicol
Donna is gifted prophetically and has been valuable in confirming and developing the vision for Acacia. She was a founding supporter of the freeslaves.org project and continues to provide ongoing vision and energy to the project. She is a full-time teacher in Dunedin.
Vision: To restore people into God’s design of selfless love and unity.
What we do: Acacia Media is a publishing project that will produce material and software to:
- Inspire people to fall in love with the Word of God
- Empower people to encounter God and be filled with His love
- Encourage people to express their faith in God through a life of selfless love
Why we do it: We believe that people are designed for love, transformed by love, and supremely fulfilled in love. Jesus said that all Scripture depends on the commands of love: to love God with all our heart and to love one another. Yet few Bible study tools focus the readers on this overarching context of love. Our goal is to help people read Scripture through the lens of love, to challenge readers to receive the love of God, and to inspire them to become a channel of His love.
How we do it: We are aiming to create a mobile phone and tablet application, designed to create a life-changing experience of the word of God. Once completed, this software will be unique by:
- Focusing readers on receiving revelation and experiencing reality rather than simply gaining understanding
- Enabling readers see the original emphasis in Scripture
- Enabling readers to understand and see the original verb tenses of Scripture
- Giving readers access to built-in resources that empower people to read through the lens of love and to personally experience the love of God
- Enabling readers to create personalised views of the Bible, e.g. reading Yahweh instead of the Lord, or Yeshua instead of Jesus
What we need: $400,000. This will enable a team of five people (plus sub-contractors) to work for 11 months. After launch, this team will reduce to two people, with ongoing income provided by micro-donations from users through the mobile software.
Outcomes: After one year, we will be ready to launch. Our success can be objectively measured by the number of downloads, and subjectively by the transformed lives of our users.
Future: As we grow, our goal is to channel donations made by users of the software to set free enslaved Christian families and help the persecuted Church through our freeslaves.org project.
Because Acacia Media works primarily in New Zealand, donations are tax-deductible.