“…ONCE YOU MEET CHRIST, YOU CAN NEVER STAY THE SAME.” JOY EDJEREN.
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Can we meet you?
My name is Joy Edjeren, I live in Texas USA and I’m originally from Nigeria and a citizen of United States of America. I have been residing in Houston Texas since I was 13 years old. I had an early start in the entertainment business through acting, singing and writing movies. I was known as JJ bunny. I had my personal production company called JJ bunny movies and I produced and directed several Nollywood movies before I had an encounter with the Lord in 2012. Since then I stayed out of the spot light until my recent move to evangelize.
It was such a remarkable transformation from a front liner in the movie industry to a life of relentless pursuit for God’s kingdom. Can you tell us about it?
Well, once you meet Christ, you can never stay the same. After I encountered the truth and was set free by Christ, I now have a deep desire to expose the truth of Jesus to as many people as it is possible. It’s like when a person finds a hidden beautiful island and you don’t want to keep the place to yourself alone, you want the whole world to come in and enjoy the Island with you. So my pursuit is the desire to see people set free and be connected to the creator Himself.
How has the experience been? For you and those around you.
It started as a huge shock, when the Holy Spirit convicts you; He turns your world upside down with the truth. For instance, what you think is sexy becomes sinful, what you see as beauty becomes ugly, what you used to value becomes worthless and what others run after, you run away from. The bible says that as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are the ways of God. His ways are truly not our ways and when you become a child of God, He imparts you with His nature and your ways will definitely be changed. The Bible declares that “if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Can you tell us more about your recently published book, The Birth and Death you of JJ Bunny?
The book is a very personal book that details my life in the entertainment business few months before my encounter with Christ. The story seems like a movie itself and the story entails not just life before encounter but the transitions and interactions that took place between me and The Lord while I was trying to make sense of my new reality and to stand as a Christian.
Is this your first publication?
Yes, my prayer is that more books will follow but with less personal accounts.
Are there tales of tremendous impact already?
I bless God because people expected the book to be a “thou shall not do this or that” but they were so surprised by its contents that people write me that they could not drop the book once they started reading it. The adventurous content keeps the reader so engaged that they can’t wait to read what would happen next and at the end of the book, most of my readers were so shocked on the information they found out that they write me and resolve that it would be hard to remain nonchalant about the secular entertainment industry after reading my book. So yes, God is really using the book to transform lives.
What’s your philosophy of life and advice for aspiring story tellers around the world?
As a star actress, you are often praised and admired by those without spiritual understanding yet the spirit realm is what controls the physical realm therefore my life declaration is “who is in control of your life”? What spirit are you being lead by?
Young artist and story tellers need to be aware that there is no middle ground. You are either with God or with the devil, and if you think you can play both sides, you deceive only yourself. So it’s important for you to discover where you stand in Christ and live by His words so that when your life comes to an end, you will not be shocked that you are going to Hell fire. You see, the world can celebrate you as a star, place your face on magazine covers, present you as an important person and many people both young and old may want to be like you. However, such a person can be an enemy of God all along and spend eternity in Hellfire because they have been working for the devil all their life but blinded by the fact that they were being celebrated by the world.
Are there any new projects we should be looking forward to?
Well, many things had to be shutdown because of the corona virus pandemic and so I have no big project in the works right now, but evangelism messages and videos will continue until this pandemic pass by then I can begin to book different projects again.
I believe that God gives us kingdom responsibilities. What’s the one thing you have resolved to do in pursuit of leading people to Christ? How have you set about achieving it?
I feel very drawn to the evangelism of young people especially those who are mesmerized by the secular entertainment industry. I realize that this group of people find it difficult to sit and watch a boring sermon so the Lord has given me the wisdom to make videos that are entertaining and engaging, videos that seem funny or silly or just crazy but all the while preaching and warning this group so that hopefully they can be converted and saved from the chains of darkness by the Holy Spirit.
What’s the drive behind your passion?
May the Lord strengthen all true Christians around the world to arise and be fierce in snatching souls from the pit of hell through various means of evangelism. The kingdom of darkness is relentless and fierce in their hellish pursuits, so why should Christians sit back and watch souls being deceived into Hell? I was one of those souls being lead to the slaughter and thanks to the mercy of God and prayers of true born again Christians, the Lord saved me from such great destruction. It’s only fair that I work relentlessly to see that others can have the same opportunity that I had.
Where do you see your Ministry in the next five years?
Before I became a born again Christian, I could have easily answered this question with ambitious answers such as, I will have large Christian studio, large congregation etc but the truth is that I cannot tell where my ministry will be in the next 5 years because we walk by faith and not by sight, so wherever I am in the next 5 years, as long as I am in the Lord, then I am where I should be.
Thanks for your time.
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