Mercedez-Bendz Fashion Week 2008

Fashion Shows we were at this Fashion Week:

(either in the Audience or as Dressers)

Jason Wu (Dressers) Zang Toy Jason Brunston Rock&Republic(Dressers) Akiko Ogawa Benjamin Cho(Dressers)

Reem Acra Dennis Basso Diesel

Cynthia Steffe Vera Wang G-Star (Dressers)

the Blonds(Dressers) Bill Blass Christian Cota(Dressers)

Carlos Campos(Dressers) Chris Won(Dressers) Phillip Lim

Temperly London Herchcovitch BCBGMaxAzria

the Heart Truth’s Red Dress Marc Jacobs Lacoste

Micheal Kors Project Runway

February 1- 8th Bryant Park in New York City becomes a village of Tents, where every major US clothing designer comes to showcase their collections for the following Autumn/Winter. For one week the whole of Fashion Culture is concentrated in a space the size of a football field, a culture that is largely un-reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Throughout their three months of Outreach, our Community Transformations teams are ministering into the Fashion Industry, working with Paradox MFC ( a Christian Ministry to Fashion professionals for more info: www.modelsforchrist.com ). Our students are interning and assisting Christian Professionals in the Fashion Industry- Photographers, Directors, Models, PR professionals etc. learning from them and ministering with them. The doors the Lord has opened during this Outreach are really quite astounding!

We want to tell you about Fashion Week 2008! We arrived in NYC just in time for Bethany to lead students on a week of focus outreach to Fashion Week. Each day, our teams prayer walked Bryant Park sharing with people along the way. Many of us were able to actually see the Fashion Shows, sharing the Gospel with other Show-goers.

Bethany led a group of students in ministry backstage, where they worked as Dressers for the Models. In the Fashion Industry, Dressers are a specific breed of people with an eye for detail...it is their responsibility to dress the model in up to three looks per show,adjusting the clothes to fit correctly and accurately reflect the look the designer is presenting. It is a wonderful place to minister! Most of these models are very impressionable young women, many of them from Eastern Europe. An incredible amount of pressure is put on these girls, who work long hours often for not much appreciation or pay. For years, Bethany has wanted to minster value and the hope of Jesus to Models, so this was particularly exciting work!

At the end of each show we asked our Models if there was any way we could pray for them. Many of them were thankful and we were able to speak out our prayers over their lives. An interesting story: A few of us asked Models from Russia if we could pray for them, their response? ‘What does that mean? What is ‘prayer’.’ We realized that these girls have grown up in a country still largely un-reached for the Gospel, and work in an Industry that is very un-reached for the Gospel. This opened our eyes to the huge amount of need for missionaries to the Fashion Industry.

We saw tremendous fruit this week! Between us and our team members Vera Wang, Beyonce, Jay-Z, the ‘Temperly London’ Family, Models, Designers, Show-goers and Security Guards all either received a ‘Word’ from the Lord through us, the complete Gospel Message, or had one of us pray for them. We are so thankful for your prayers for this week, watch the news for stories of top-designers coming to Jesus!