Baby Steps

Baby Steps
   One of my families favorite movies is “What About Bob.”  In it Bob, played by Bill Murray, is a obsessive compulsive with a multitude of phobias and disorders.  Bob follows his psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin played by Richard Dreyfuss, on vacation trying to get the treatment he thinks he needs.  Dr Marvin gives Bob the advice that eventually cures Bob and drives Dr Marvin insane.  Baby Steps.  When Bob meets an obstacle he quotes, “Baby Step out of the office. Baby step onto the elevator. Baby step get better.” 
   Right now I feel a little like Bob.  Going to Africa on this Video Production Missions project seems too big of a task for me.  But God is faithful.  He has been showing me the Baby Steps I need to take.  Here are just a few that I’ve done the last few months.

           Baby Step…
             Set Up Budget
             Set up Housing in Guinea
             Set Up Timeline
             Make Equipment List
             Research Countries
             Call Missionaries in Guinea

What's Next?
   There are a growing number of tasks that I must be finished before I leave, but the next one I’m focusing on is building a support team.  That means asking you to join me in this adventure.  I would love to have you as part of my team.  There are a number of crucial roles that you can play.
 
   Financial Supporters – My monthly budget will be $3,800 per month, and one
   time outgoing expenses of $15,000.
   Prayer Partners – This project has a lot of challenges foreseen and
   unpredictable. Adedicated team of people praying over each issue is
   absolutely necessary.
   Distribution Partners – These videos are no good if no one ever sees
   them.  I need people that will share the videos I produce on Facebook,
   Twitter, YouTube. The more people that see the videos the more people God
   can impact. 

Please prayerfully consider how you can join the team. If you have questions, I would love to answer them. Shoot me an email, give me a call, send me a tweet, post on my wall or do all of them. Thank you for considering this opportunity and I hope to hear from you soon.

Called To Chaos

CALLED TO CHAOS

Last Spring I attended the Mid Term and Short Term missionary training at World Venture Headquarters in Colorado. During the weekend of training, I had an experience that I have until recently been unable to express in writing. One of the sessions was lead by a counselor and the topic of the workshop was preparing for cultural transition and the issues that accompany Culture Shock. They explained the transitional process and what will happen to us as we move out of one place and settle into ministry in another. The five basic stages are Dis-Engagement, Leaving, Chaos, Entering, and Re-Engagement. Through out this session, I kept quiet. Knowing that my trip with the amount of travel and transitory nature of the project would have some unique challenges. It is possible that I could be in a different country every 6 weeks. So when the presenter opened the floor for questions I raised my hand. I explained a little about my project and then asked the question, “How do I expedite this process? How do I go through this these 5 steps every 6 weeks?” “You won’t.” She looked right at me and with tears in her eyes said, “You will spend most of your time in Chaos.” I was crushed. I had been hoping to glean some tip or trick that would make it easier to deal with the difficulties. Thank God there was a break, cause I had to leave the room and get outside. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Standing outside, looking up at the Rockies across the horizon, I cried out to God, “How can you ask me to do this? Do you really want me to leave my friends and family, my home, my church, all these blessings You have given me and knowingly walk into 2 years of Chaos, of loneliness, of stress, and trail, of homesickness, of darkness, and despair? Is that really what you want for me?” His response couldn’t have been clearer or harder to understand. “Yes. It will be the hardest trial of your life. You will experience hardships you can’t imagine. You will be in Chaos. But I will be there. Will you be with Me?” Tears were running down my face by now. There was no comfort in His words. No promise of His sustenance provision, or blessing. He assured me of hardship, pain, and suffering. Someone who doesn’t know Christ would think this trip fool hardy. That it is unwise to disconnect yourself from your support network of friends and family and knowingly place yourself in a place of danger, hurt, and Chaos. Why would I ever want to do any of this? The secret is in God’s question to me. “Will you be with me?” George McDonald’s poem Obedience beautifully expresses the struggle I felt and the decision I have made.

OBEDIENCE
 - By George MacDonald
(1824-1905) 

I said: “Let me walk in the fields.”
 

He said: “No, walk in the town.”
 

I said: “There are no flowers there.”
 

He said: “No flowers, but a crown.” 

I said: “But the skies are black;
 There is nothing but noise and din.”
 

And He wept as He sent me back –
 “There is more,” He said; “there is sin.” 

I said: “But the air is thick,
 And fogs are veiling the sun.”
 

He answered: “Yet souls are sick,
 And souls in the dark undone!” 

I said: “I shall miss the light,
 And friends will miss me, they say.”
 

He answered: “Choose tonight 
If I am to miss you or they.” 

I pleaded for time to be given. 

He said: “Is it hard to decide?
 

It will not seem so hard in heaven


To have followed the steps of your Guide.” 

I cast one look at the fields,
 

Then set my face to the town;
 

He said, “My child, do you yield?
 

Will you leave the flowers for the crown?” 

Then into His hand went mine; 

And into my heart came He;
 

And I walk in a light divine,
 

The path I had feared to see.

______ 

I will be in Chaos. I will be with Him.

Spanish Guitar

While traveling through Spain this summer, I wandered upon these local street performers. I was struck by the thought that simple stories exist around us everyday. What stories are you telling?

Be On The Rock

  Yes, That’s me standing atop a 200 meter (600 foot cliff) at 2330 meters (apro 7000 ft) above sea level. This adventure took place in Leysin, Switzerland. You can see more pictures in my Facebook Album. I can imagine the question’s that my friends and family will ask me when they see this picture.
   My Mom, will say, “Are you Crazy? Why would you do that?” She questions my motivations and sanity. Dad will ask, “Where is that? When did you go?” He wants the story. My brother, “How did you do that? What gear did you use?” He’s a climber like me. My friends in Chicago will ask, “Where you freaked out? What was it like?” They can’t imagine it.

   The sport is called Via Ferrata (Italian for "road with irons"). It’s a series of steps and ladders drilled into the side of a mountain and it’s probably as close to real mountain climbing as the average person can get. Check out the Wikipedia entry for more details about this emerging adventure sport.
   It is an entirely thrilling experience to put yourself so far out on the edge of security and the limits of human ability. When I started to put on my harness and approach the cliff face, my adrenaline started to pump. With each step as I rose higher and higher up the face creating more and more distance between myself and the ground beneath, I could sense my mind quieting. My mind becomes so focused on the task at hand, namely staying safe on the rock, that all other thoughts silence. By half way up I was at about 2100 meters above sea level, and approximately 100 meters above where I started. At this point there was only one thought in my mind, “Be on the Rock.” The billions of thoughts that run through my mind all day, some conscious others hidden in my sub-consious, stopped. Every thought was the same. Be on the Rock, One step at a time. Next hand hold, Put your foot there. Be safe. Be on the Rock. I wasn’t thinking about camera angels and how to tell this story, as I’m apt to do. I wasn’t thinking about my family and friends across the world. I wasn’t thinking about anything else. My mind was clear, focused, centered.
   It wasn’t until I reached the Top, looking at the panorama of the Swiss Alps with Lake Geneva spreading out from their base, that I even realized what had happened. It wasn’t until the voices, the other thoughts started to rise again, that I realized how rare it is to have such moments of clarity and focus.
   Rock Climbers know this feeling well. I have several friends that say that’s the reason they climb. “When your on the Rock, nothing else exists. The stresses of work, life, responsibility all fade beneath the all important task of climbing, because if you don’t focus on the rock you fall.”
You can’t climb and be thinking about all those other distractions. If you do, you’re putting yourself and sometimes even others in danger. It’s that danger, that essential knowledge that if I don’t focus, I’m putting myself in harms way, which brings my mind to clarity, to focus on the Rock.
   Have you caught the spiritual parallel? Sometimes it takes hanging off a cliff, out beyond the limits of my comfort and my safety for me to focus. Out there, Christ clearly reminds me to leave all the noise of the world behind and focus on Him, To Be on the Rock. (Psalm 18)

The Hood of Service

“Why are we doing this?” Sometimes there are questions that we respond to almost instinctually. Someone says, “How are you doing?” you respond with “I’m good,” even if you are sick and just got fired from a dream job after you girlfriend broke up with you and took the dog. But every once in a while we are presented with a question that knocks us on our heals, with the weight of it importance.

When Anthony asked me, “Why are we doing this?” it was one of those questions. We stood there in the quite sanctuary, waiting our turn to wash each others feet, and I struggled to answer. My answers didn’t seem to balance with the weight of those words.
Perhaps the question had added weight because of the way that Anthony asked it. His awkward bending teenage frame, trying to figure out how to hold itself to match the straight and formed décor of the stained glass sanctuary. His muscles pulling on each other trying to hide is sagging pants, oversized t-shirt, and general street thug appearance. Maybe it was because only a year ago Anthony prayed to have Jesus be the Master of his life and in the past 3 months had the Latin Kings, a local gang, try to recruit him. Perhaps the sincere and earnest way that he asked the question, truly not knowing and early wanting to, made me consider my answer more carefully.
The day, Maundy Thursday, could have added to the impact. We were participating in the evening service of prayer and remembrance of what Christ went through with his disciples the night before his crucifixion. We read the scriptures and sat in silence letting the memory of those events soak into us like drying laundry left out in the rain.
Maybe the question hit me hard because this was the second time in a week, I had knelt and washed some else’s feet. A week prior at the World Venture Short Term and Mid Term missionary training, I had the humbling experience of being taken out of the servant position and being served. At that same training, I heard this quote that as came crashing back to front of my mind with Anthony’s question.
“Servant-hood stems from a secure identity of who you are in Christ.”
“Why are we doing this?” It was almost as if Anthony had captured in his confusion the very heart of Peters protest. “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Why are we doing this?
It is only now weeks later, as I try again to study the verses and understand Jesus’ answer to Peter that I know how to answer Anthony’s question.
Jesus washed his disciples feet because he “knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.” (John 13:3) Christ was certain of His identity and out of that authority he knelt and served. When Peter protested that Jesus was too good to wash his feet, Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand… Unless I was you, you have no part with me… Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should was one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:7,8,14-15)
We serve one another because Christ has served us. If we are going to be part of the body of Christ we must follow his example and wear the hood of service.

Documentary Work in Africa !?

If you ever wondered what exactly Documentary work looks like in Africa, check out this awesome webseries.  It's a great Behind The Scenes (BTS) look at what Video Production entails.  I will be doing much of this type of work, and facing many of the same obstacles as I produce videos for my upcoming project.  Take a look.

http://www.zacuto.com/bts-webisode-1

Video Update #2

Check out these Links too.

Twitter: twitter.com/#!/CADVideo

Video Update #1: vimeo.com/22457837

WorldVenture: worldventure.com/​Home.html

Blog: cadvideo.blogspot.com/​

Donate: worldventure.com/​GiveNow.aspx?aliaspath=/​Give/​Give-Now