As another year draws to a close, it’s time for the annual review of the year, and look ahead at the one to come!
As the year began, we were roughly halfway through “Answers Season Two.” If you’re new to The Fuel Project, Answers is our apologetics series where we look at a range of topics from a Christian perspective and answer questions that are sent in throughout the year.
In this season, we covered questions around the deity of Jesus, suicide, dinosaurs, the unforgivable sin, coronavirus, civil disobedience, animals in heaven, and compared the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad.
If you’d like some information on these specific topics or would like to watch the series as a whole, the links are below. You can find the full list of videos at thefuelproject.org.
I’ve received a lot of emails specifically about a video from this season, where I used a PBS clip to show how God exists outside of space and time. It’s often being referred to as “the alien video.” You may remember YouTube kept removing it on copyright grounds so I’m going to try making it available on Rumble. However, if you would like to see it in the meantime, it is available in the download package.
Immediately after finishing the Answers run, we jumped straight into the main series for the year, which was called, “The Reason For Pain.”
If God is all-powerful and good, why does pain exist in the world?
That is, without doubt, the single biggest intellectual objection people have to Christianity.
By Far.
It’s not even close.
John Stott said it well: “The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and has been in every generation. Its distribution and degree appear to be entirely random and therefore unfair. Sensitive spirits ask if it can possibly be reconciled with God’s justice and love.”
In this series, we explored why God allows pain and hopefully debunked some myths along the way. If you’ve ever wondered about these things or if you’re a Christian who would like to know how to respond when this issue is raised in future, here are the relevant links.
THE MOVE / TRENCH (October 2021 - ????)
As many of you will know, the end of 2021 is bringing a lot of change! If you’d prefer a video update on this, click to the right.
In summary though, for the past nine years, I have been producing Fuel Project videos from a small loft space in a one-bedroom home. However, it’s been my dream for some time now to move to somewhere bigger where I could convert a room into a studio. I’ve mentioned this in annual Vision Reports for a few years now, and my hope has been that a studio would allow me to improve the quality and quantity of the videos, as well as giving scope to branch into different kinds of content.
As the year drew to a close and I looked ahead at the series I wanted to make in 2022, there was one in particular that stood out, now called “Trench - A Christian Guide to the Culture War.” And as I began to picture what I wanted “Trench” to be, a sense of urgency came upon me to finally make concrete efforts for the studio.
For that reason, although video output has dropped these past couple of months and you’ve not seen much of me, it’s been an incredibly busy time behind the scenes as I attempt to make the transition. As well as writing Trench, I’ve been going through the process of selling my home and moving out. I officially handed over the keys on December 13th, and have been scouring the market for somewhere new for some time. I’ve also been working on learning new After Effects skills, so that when I eventually get back into making the new series, there will be some noticeable upgrades to the content.
Which brings us to the year ahead…
The good news is that at this present moment, Trench is around 95% complete. The last three chapters and conclusion need to be edited, but apart from that, it’s done. It’s been a huge undertaking but I’m happy with how it’s taken shape, and it will be ready to launch in January.
It’s quite a long series so if I post the videos on a weekly schedule as per normal, it will almost certainly take the whole year to complete. Indeed, it’s a very simple forecast for 2022 - we’re going to spend most of it delving into the culture war, wokeism, cultural marxism, coronavirus, climate change, authoritarianism, China, feminism, communism, and a whole lot of other topical events from a Christian perspective.
The less good news is that I’ve still not found a suitable property to move into! And therefore still don’t have the studio space from which to present any of this from. There was one property in November that I found to bid on. The sellers had already converted their garage into an office space which would have been perfect. However, the house eventually sold for many thousands over the asking price and I was nowhere near winning the bid.
The lack of studio is very likely going to delay how quickly I can start presenting “Trench” and that’s presenting something of a problem. However, I think I have a solution for the start of the year that I’m going to talk about in a new video update very soon. Indeed, my immediate plan after posting this Vision Report is to finish “Trench” then look out the equipment I need to make that video update. We’ll talk about it soon.
And that just about wraps up the Annual Vision Report for this year!
Thank you to everyone who has prayed for this ministry in 2021, or for me personally. Thank you to everyone who has left a nice book review, or sent an encouraging email, or offered help for the move. And thanks to those who have subscribed to the social media channels, clicked “like” or left a comment. Even doing these little things helps in terms of the algorithms and makes it more likely the content will then become more visible to other users.
Thank you especially to those who have supported this ministry through Patreon or donations this year. Without you, this ministry simply couldn’t exist. And I’m especially thankful for your continued understanding and support during this time of transition while video output has dropped. If you’d like to become a patron in the new year, you can do so from as little as $2 a month at patreon.com/thefuelproject. Donations are also possible via PayPal at authenticfuel@gmail.com.
In conclusion, may you all have a blessed, happy, and peaceful time over the holidays.
Merry Christmas, and when the time comes, have a great New Year!
God bless
Mark Fairley