Crazy, crazy weekend. I think I'm about recovered from it now, though a good night's sleep tonight will help.
I'll try to give full-fledged production updates again at some point soon, but at the moment there's simply too much to tell. I'll try to give you some information.
Friday night. Filming after dark, trying to get two campsites finished (there are three in the film; the first one we did two weeks ago, as you'll remember from my production updates). Dark is, oh, about 9:00, say. We had to wait on Daniel, who had had to work every day of the week, and who was also going to pick up Tony. They pulled in at about 10:30.
Ouch. Already an hour and a half behind, right out of the gate. By the time Daniel had showered and we finished applying makeup and studying script and got out to the location to film, it was midnight.
Tip for budding filmmakers: If you can help it, don't ever start shooting at midnight. If you finish at midnight, that's okay, but it's not fun to begin and know that the clock already reads AM.
Five and a half hours later, after multiple delays (which were pretty much beyond our control), we finally picked up our stuff and pulled out. Yup, you've got that right, 5:30 am.
Incidentally, the most beautiful part of the day begins at about 5:30. Lying in a sleeping bag on the ground, facing the lightening sky, trying to decide whether to get my two hours of sleep or just stay awake through the whole thing, I was awestruck. It's such a gorgeous sight as the light continues to creep into the sky, the stars slowly disappearing. I felt like I was in some movie. Or like I had just finished filming part of one.
In the morning, we had three more scenes to do. Feeling pretty miserable (at least, I was; I don't know about everyone else, but I can pretty much guess), we got them done and pulled out for home.
All in all, I was happy with the weekend. I felt like we were able to buckle down and work hard and together. We weren't perfect, but you're not going to be when it's late at night (or is it that early in the morning?). I was proud of my fellow troopers, all sibling pairs: Daniel and Hannah (who are of course my own siblings), Lana and Tony, Trevor and Tara. They faced a night even more difficult than the last night shoot we did, never complained, worked hard, and got stuff accomplished. I will definitely do my best to think of an appropriate way to honor them when we get to the end of this whole thing. "Good times gravy."
Sunday was a difficult day. There were classes to teach, songs to lead, lessons to prepare, band practices to conduct, slideshows to run; and I wasn't running on a full tank. At several points during the day I responded with anger and frustration, then had to ask God to forgive me and help me.
And now? Well, it never rains but it pours, as they say in Bree. In the next two weeks, I've got a magazine, a movie, and a youth event to work on. School starts a week from today. Work. Church. Other things in my personal life.
But I'm kinda looking forward to it. Some fun stuff coming up. When I get engulfed in the sea's depths, I simply have to suck in the water and trust God to allow me to breath it. He always does.
One thing I've kinda rediscovered (by the grace of God) in the last couple of months is how exhilarating life truly is. When you give your everything to the Giver of life and put your trust in Him, He makes everything that much more fun. And I guess that last statement is an unconscious paraphrase of Matthew 6:33: "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Not that I have done that perfectly, or anywhere close to perfectly. I have still messed up, still failed, still rebelled, in ways that shame me. If I were in my Heavenly Father's shoes, looking down at my life, I would probably be continually yelling, "Why can't you get it?" Thankfully, He continues to show grace and mercy to me beyond what I deserve.
And so yeah, life is fun. It can be kinda cool to put stuff in God's hands, not having any idea how He's going to work it out. Hunted, for example. Will we even have filming done by the end of September? I have no idea. But I know it belongs to God, and He's going to work it out the way He sees fit -- which is infinitely better than any plan I could conceive.
One of my goals is that throughout my life, from youth to old age if God allows me that long, I would live passionately. Passionate people change the world. Passionate people experience true happiness and fulfillment. Passionate people don't just say they know, they truly do know that nothing is too big for the God they serve. Passionate people inspire others to be passionate. Passionate people don't get hung up on the little things of life, but focus on stuff like faith and hope and love, and let that filter through into the little things. Passionate people are fun to be around. Passionate people get movies made about them.
Not that I want a movie made of my life. And not that I can say all of those things about myself, even though I am trying to live passionately. But there are so many people on this earth who don't live passionately, and it shows. They may not have a care in the world, but they also don't have anything genuine to care about. They may never try to do something big and fail, but that's because they will never try anything big in the first place. They may never have their hearts broken, but that's because they're unwilling to allow their hearts to love. They risk nothing and gain nothing; they put nothing in and get the same thing out.
Life is not about money. It's not about cars or clothes or sports or music or even church or family. No, I think when it all boils down, life is about passion. A passion for the Creator that fills everything else we do.
If you have that, you are a shining star in His universe, and you will find happiness because you're seeking it in the right place. If you don't have it, no matter how many other great and wonderful things may be in your life, they count for nothing.
Well, I could keep going, but I'll stop for now, though I daresay I feel a magazine article coming out of this. But it's 6:00 and time for me to leave work. Till tomorrow.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Uh-oh, here we go again
No, the title doesn't signify bad news, merely that it's back-to-back with the previous post. So if you haven't read that one yet, go do it and then come back up to this one. I feel like I owe multiple posts after a long silence.
While our plans for Friday and Saturday were restored by the grace of God, our Thursday plans fell through. We had been planning on using a couple of homes of people in our church. Well, they weren't sure whether they'd be available on Thursday because they were supposed to help somebody move, and then Jordan, my contact who also happens to be in our band, never told me for sure. Then he temporarily dropped off the face of the earth (which he does sometimes). By Wednesday night, I had to make the decision to call the filming off. It was okay in a sense, because I had kinda felt from the Lord that Thursday wasn't going to be a good day to film anyway.
We were able to use Thursday night for band practice. Daniel, Trevor, and I, that is. That's the guitar, drums, and vocals in our band, respectively. We also have Billy the old one (he's like, 30, I mean old) on bass and Jordan the young one (he's like, 15, I mean young) on congas. But they weren't able to make it, Jordan's reason of course being the whole helping-move thing, so the three of us practiced together and made some progress. There's a little Chris Tomlin ditty called "Let God Arise" that is going to ROCK at Fan the Flame. If the Lord wills. We're all pretty excited about playing that song.
In the last couple of days, sitting at home because I was off work, I was able to get various stuff accomplished for FtF. I have finally finished our skits, the ones we were originally scheduled to begin practicing three weeks ago, and I'm fairly happy with them. The last one, a take-off on "This Little Light of Mine", is the best; it has a type of humor I haven't used in a long time.
And then, Wednesday. (Notice how I kinda keep going back in time here? That's not intentional.) God has really blessed our youth group and allowed us to grow quite a bit in the last few months. We now run a solid 30-35 on Wednesday nights. I think we can easily have 40 every time if we can get a few more people that are "on the fringe" to start being faithful.
At any rate, on Wednesdays we usually start getting together at about 4 or 4:30 at the church. We hang out, maybe play some basketball or Ping-Pong, talk. Then we eat (our food being cooked by Dusty's wonderful wife Amanda and Chris' wonderful wife Dadrian, with help from some of the youth girls). And for about a year now, instead of having "class" on Wednesday nights, we basically have a full-fledged service in the fellowship hall. I lead the worship time, assisted by Daniel on the guitar (and lately we've added Caleb Melton and Jordan on the guitar as well), and then either Chris or Dusty preaches.
It's something we decided to start doing while we were at church camp last year, and I think it has been awesome, no question. I would estimate that we've seen close to thirty youth pray to receive Christ on Wednesday nights since we started doing the service. Not all of those decisions were genuine, sadly, but many were, by God's grace.
Anyways, it's straight-up awesome to be able to lead worship every Wednesday night for a group of young people. I highly encourage that all my readers do it sometime (wink). We have had some great times of worship, and the Spirit had really been moving lately. But in the last couple of weeks, we leaders have been noticing something a bit alarming.
It wasn't something earthshattering, just a small difference that we probably wouldn't have picked up on if the Spirit hadn't told us. While everything perhaps looked okay during our worship times, we began to sense that the group wasn't totally united, that a lot of the kids were holding back during worship.
That's never a good thing for a youth group. When you've got Fan the Flame, a huge event that you want God to bless mightily, coming up in a few weeks, it has the potential to be deadly. So we and some of the older guys in the youth group prayed about it before the service on Wednesday, and we came to the service ready to address the issue.
Dusty started, butting in to the announcement time (just kidding; it's always cool with me when he or Chris does that) and stating concisely that we had noticed the group as a whole hadn't been as focused lately as it should be. Then, after giving the announcements and taking prayer requests, I let loose on the group.
It wasn't pleasant, for me or for them. I nearly always try to be upbeat and positive at the beginning of the worship service, but not this night. I shared the story from Joshua about the Israelites' defeat at Ai and how the sin of one man, Achan, was responsible. It was uncomfortable. Several of the youth, especially ones who hadn't been coming for very long, were glancing around as if to say, "Is this guy off his rocker?" I began to worry that none of it was getting through, that the whole service was going to go down the drain, that I was saying too much.
It's hard not to say too much in a situation like that; there was so much I wanted to say, but it has to be God speaking to them, not me. Finally, I quit talking and started singing. We usually start with an energetic song to get going, but this time we kicked off with the prayerful "One Thing".
And we had worship. It felt wonderful. For me, it was passionate worship. I sang a lot louder than I usually do; hopefully that didn't throw anyone off. The Spirit fell upon us.
Chris then gave a hardcore message about witnessing; good stuff and convicting, for me (I think) as much as the kids. As the service wrapped up, I felt a lot better about the unity of the group. I'm not naive enough to think it was all resolved, that everything's now perfect. But I know some kids got right with God on Wednesday, and our group is better off for it.
I just pray that we'll be ready for what God has for us at Fan the Flame. Fifteen days to go.
While our plans for Friday and Saturday were restored by the grace of God, our Thursday plans fell through. We had been planning on using a couple of homes of people in our church. Well, they weren't sure whether they'd be available on Thursday because they were supposed to help somebody move, and then Jordan, my contact who also happens to be in our band, never told me for sure. Then he temporarily dropped off the face of the earth (which he does sometimes). By Wednesday night, I had to make the decision to call the filming off. It was okay in a sense, because I had kinda felt from the Lord that Thursday wasn't going to be a good day to film anyway.
We were able to use Thursday night for band practice. Daniel, Trevor, and I, that is. That's the guitar, drums, and vocals in our band, respectively. We also have Billy the old one (he's like, 30, I mean old) on bass and Jordan the young one (he's like, 15, I mean young) on congas. But they weren't able to make it, Jordan's reason of course being the whole helping-move thing, so the three of us practiced together and made some progress. There's a little Chris Tomlin ditty called "Let God Arise" that is going to ROCK at Fan the Flame. If the Lord wills. We're all pretty excited about playing that song.
In the last couple of days, sitting at home because I was off work, I was able to get various stuff accomplished for FtF. I have finally finished our skits, the ones we were originally scheduled to begin practicing three weeks ago, and I'm fairly happy with them. The last one, a take-off on "This Little Light of Mine", is the best; it has a type of humor I haven't used in a long time.
And then, Wednesday. (Notice how I kinda keep going back in time here? That's not intentional.) God has really blessed our youth group and allowed us to grow quite a bit in the last few months. We now run a solid 30-35 on Wednesday nights. I think we can easily have 40 every time if we can get a few more people that are "on the fringe" to start being faithful.
At any rate, on Wednesdays we usually start getting together at about 4 or 4:30 at the church. We hang out, maybe play some basketball or Ping-Pong, talk. Then we eat (our food being cooked by Dusty's wonderful wife Amanda and Chris' wonderful wife Dadrian, with help from some of the youth girls). And for about a year now, instead of having "class" on Wednesday nights, we basically have a full-fledged service in the fellowship hall. I lead the worship time, assisted by Daniel on the guitar (and lately we've added Caleb Melton and Jordan on the guitar as well), and then either Chris or Dusty preaches.
It's something we decided to start doing while we were at church camp last year, and I think it has been awesome, no question. I would estimate that we've seen close to thirty youth pray to receive Christ on Wednesday nights since we started doing the service. Not all of those decisions were genuine, sadly, but many were, by God's grace.
Anyways, it's straight-up awesome to be able to lead worship every Wednesday night for a group of young people. I highly encourage that all my readers do it sometime (wink). We have had some great times of worship, and the Spirit had really been moving lately. But in the last couple of weeks, we leaders have been noticing something a bit alarming.
It wasn't something earthshattering, just a small difference that we probably wouldn't have picked up on if the Spirit hadn't told us. While everything perhaps looked okay during our worship times, we began to sense that the group wasn't totally united, that a lot of the kids were holding back during worship.
That's never a good thing for a youth group. When you've got Fan the Flame, a huge event that you want God to bless mightily, coming up in a few weeks, it has the potential to be deadly. So we and some of the older guys in the youth group prayed about it before the service on Wednesday, and we came to the service ready to address the issue.
Dusty started, butting in to the announcement time (just kidding; it's always cool with me when he or Chris does that) and stating concisely that we had noticed the group as a whole hadn't been as focused lately as it should be. Then, after giving the announcements and taking prayer requests, I let loose on the group.
It wasn't pleasant, for me or for them. I nearly always try to be upbeat and positive at the beginning of the worship service, but not this night. I shared the story from Joshua about the Israelites' defeat at Ai and how the sin of one man, Achan, was responsible. It was uncomfortable. Several of the youth, especially ones who hadn't been coming for very long, were glancing around as if to say, "Is this guy off his rocker?" I began to worry that none of it was getting through, that the whole service was going to go down the drain, that I was saying too much.
It's hard not to say too much in a situation like that; there was so much I wanted to say, but it has to be God speaking to them, not me. Finally, I quit talking and started singing. We usually start with an energetic song to get going, but this time we kicked off with the prayerful "One Thing".
And we had worship. It felt wonderful. For me, it was passionate worship. I sang a lot louder than I usually do; hopefully that didn't throw anyone off. The Spirit fell upon us.
Chris then gave a hardcore message about witnessing; good stuff and convicting, for me (I think) as much as the kids. As the service wrapped up, I felt a lot better about the unity of the group. I'm not naive enough to think it was all resolved, that everything's now perfect. But I know some kids got right with God on Wednesday, and our group is better off for it.
I just pray that we'll be ready for what God has for us at Fan the Flame. Fifteen days to go.
But that's not all...
Well, I have left my readers in the lurch, and I do apologize. Circumstances beyond my control (namely an unintelligent hunk of plastic and metal by the name of DELL) prevented me from posting. And honestly, I don't know how long it'll be before I can post again after today. Oh well, here I am for now.
If you've read sunshine princess (Lana)'s blog, then you've heard the rrrrrrest of the story, as Paul Harvey calls it. But I'll describe it anyway in case you haven't.
Let's see, where were we? Ah yes, Tuesday, everything falls through. I was trusting in God and doing good by His grace, but silly me, I never stopped to think about the possibility that He might go ahead and let us film on Friday and Saturday anyway.
Which is exactly what happened. Trevor (the "source" of all the "trouble", bless 'im) called me back later that afternoon. Of course, being Trevor, his call was not about the cancelled filming, but about some irrelevant topic. He mentioned as an aside, "Oh yeah. I was gonna tell you, we're not going on vacation till Monday."
A bright light shone down as the heavens opened up and began to rain pizza rolls. Oh blessed T-Rev! What a joy divine!
Actually, at this point I was beyond being surprised, and since I was already HAPPY (see previous post), I couldn't get a lot happier than I was. I do wish the sky would rain pizza rolls sometime, though.
At any rate, I called Lana back to tell her that we were back on for the weekend. And there was much rejoicing. And now it's Friday, and I'm gearing up to leave in about six hours for the filming we weren't supposed to be able to do.
I think God must laugh at us sometimes, in a good way. Not to say that He wadded up my plans and threw them in the trash and dug them out and gave them back to me just for the fun of it, but I bet it was a little bit funny to Him. Probably a little bit sad, too: "How hard is it for him to trust Me?"
Hopefully, a little less hard after Tuesday. In the meantime, I still feel good. Have I fallen on my face since then, messed up, wasted opportunities? Yeah, and that hasn't felt good. But I know He's with me, always ready to pick me up, dust me off, and set my feet in the right direction again.
I love you, Father.
If you've read sunshine princess (Lana)'s blog, then you've heard the rrrrrrest of the story, as Paul Harvey calls it. But I'll describe it anyway in case you haven't.
Let's see, where were we? Ah yes, Tuesday, everything falls through. I was trusting in God and doing good by His grace, but silly me, I never stopped to think about the possibility that He might go ahead and let us film on Friday and Saturday anyway.
Which is exactly what happened. Trevor (the "source" of all the "trouble", bless 'im) called me back later that afternoon. Of course, being Trevor, his call was not about the cancelled filming, but about some irrelevant topic. He mentioned as an aside, "Oh yeah. I was gonna tell you, we're not going on vacation till Monday."
A bright light shone down as the heavens opened up and began to rain pizza rolls. Oh blessed T-Rev! What a joy divine!
Actually, at this point I was beyond being surprised, and since I was already HAPPY (see previous post), I couldn't get a lot happier than I was. I do wish the sky would rain pizza rolls sometime, though.
At any rate, I called Lana back to tell her that we were back on for the weekend. And there was much rejoicing. And now it's Friday, and I'm gearing up to leave in about six hours for the filming we weren't supposed to be able to do.
I think God must laugh at us sometimes, in a good way. Not to say that He wadded up my plans and threw them in the trash and dug them out and gave them back to me just for the fun of it, but I bet it was a little bit funny to Him. Probably a little bit sad, too: "How hard is it for him to trust Me?"
Hopefully, a little less hard after Tuesday. In the meantime, I still feel good. Have I fallen on my face since then, messed up, wasted opportunities? Yeah, and that hasn't felt good. But I know He's with me, always ready to pick me up, dust me off, and set my feet in the right direction again.
I love you, Father.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
I Feel Good (NA-na-NA-na-NA-na-NA)
Last night, I found out that my plans for this weekend had been utterly crushed. Crumpled up into a little ball and tossed into the trash can. Not what I was wanting to hear.
These weren't the oh-here's-what-I'll-probably-do-if-I-have-time-and-don't-just-decide-to-sit-at-home-and-read-a-book type plans; these were the life-or-death-and-i-can-already-sense-suffocation-setting-in-if-they-fall-through type plans. Uh, yeah.
Our movie is far behind schedule. We were hoping to have the filming finished by the end of July. It's August 7th, and we're only approximately halfway done. We had planned to get some major stuff done on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday -- to the tune of 10-12 scenes.
And I found out last night that we wouldn't be able to do it. And I found out this morning that the next weekend was not an option for our Friday-Saturday stuff.
Sometimes I wonder if God has any purpose for this movie beyond making it an exercise in trust. I know He does, but so far He indeed has used it as a major test of my faith. I failed it initially. When my brother broke the news to me last night, I was hopping mad. It wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and it very well may not be the last.
But today I have realized again that God is the one who crumpled up my plans and threw them in the trash can. It was His plan, His perfect will, for me to have my weekend plans fall through. It was always His plan, and He's not one bit worried or concerned or angry because He knows exactly what He's doing, and it's far better than what I try to do. Makes it kinda hard to complain, huh?
The weekend fall-through is, of course, not the end of the world. Or even the end of the movie. There are other options, other ways, other paths, and somehow we'll still get this thing done. If it's God's will.
After discussing the failed plans with my parents, I went into my room for my daily quiet time. My reading just "happened" to be Philippians 2; this made it very difficult to focus inward (try reading it sometime and then focusing on yourself; it's hard). Then I remembered a passage that my dad had referenced in a sermon several weeks ago, one that I had reread and found especially applicable to my own life. I read it again, and was struck once again by the clear fact that God wrote it for me. It's Psalm 37 if you want to go check it out, which I recommend.
Verses 23 and 24 were especially poignant:
A man's steps are established by the Lord, and He takes pleasure in his way.
Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord holds his hand.
How cool is it to have "the King of the universe hold your hand", as a song by Pocket Full of Rocks says? Those verses lifted me up, gave me a firm swat on the bottom, and made me feel better; you usually do after a spanking.
Then I talked to Lana about the filming ordeal. She was such an encouragement, taking the news calmly (unlike me), helping me look through options, and voicing encouragement. The combined effort of my quiet time and my friend made it impossible for me to feel bad anymore.
Nope, by the grace of God, I'm hoppin' HAPPY! It was such a weird feeling as I got off the phone with her, because I knew it was a happiness that didn't come from myself. I had given the movie completely to God, letting Him know that He can do with it what He wants. If He doesn't want it finished, that's okay with me, because it's what He wants.
Not that I really believe He doesn't want us to finish it. It would be a hard pill to swallow if He gave it to me. But ultimately, if He were to tell me that, I'd be torn up, but it'd be all right, because He's in control.
I feel like singing. Ah, maybe not "I Feel Good" (the title of this post), but perhaps one of the new songs we'll be playing at Fan the Flame. Part of it goes:
God above all the world in motion
God above all my hopes and fears
No matter what the world throws at me now
It's gonna be all right
'Cause I know my God saved the day
And I know His Word never fails
And I know my God made a way for me
Salvation is here
Yeah, baby! Do we serve an awesome God, or what? Hey, please come to FtF on August 25, because you're gonna hear one pumped-up dude leading the songs! God is awesome! I feel good and I'm praising Him!
These weren't the oh-here's-what-I'll-probably-do-if-I-have-time-and-don't-just-decide-to-sit-at-home-and-read-a-book type plans; these were the life-or-death-and-i-can-already-sense-suffocation-setting-in-if-they-fall-through type plans. Uh, yeah.
Our movie is far behind schedule. We were hoping to have the filming finished by the end of July. It's August 7th, and we're only approximately halfway done. We had planned to get some major stuff done on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday -- to the tune of 10-12 scenes.
And I found out last night that we wouldn't be able to do it. And I found out this morning that the next weekend was not an option for our Friday-Saturday stuff.
Sometimes I wonder if God has any purpose for this movie beyond making it an exercise in trust. I know He does, but so far He indeed has used it as a major test of my faith. I failed it initially. When my brother broke the news to me last night, I was hopping mad. It wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and it very well may not be the last.
But today I have realized again that God is the one who crumpled up my plans and threw them in the trash can. It was His plan, His perfect will, for me to have my weekend plans fall through. It was always His plan, and He's not one bit worried or concerned or angry because He knows exactly what He's doing, and it's far better than what I try to do. Makes it kinda hard to complain, huh?
The weekend fall-through is, of course, not the end of the world. Or even the end of the movie. There are other options, other ways, other paths, and somehow we'll still get this thing done. If it's God's will.
After discussing the failed plans with my parents, I went into my room for my daily quiet time. My reading just "happened" to be Philippians 2; this made it very difficult to focus inward (try reading it sometime and then focusing on yourself; it's hard). Then I remembered a passage that my dad had referenced in a sermon several weeks ago, one that I had reread and found especially applicable to my own life. I read it again, and was struck once again by the clear fact that God wrote it for me. It's Psalm 37 if you want to go check it out, which I recommend.
Verses 23 and 24 were especially poignant:
A man's steps are established by the Lord, and He takes pleasure in his way.
Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord holds his hand.
How cool is it to have "the King of the universe hold your hand", as a song by Pocket Full of Rocks says? Those verses lifted me up, gave me a firm swat on the bottom, and made me feel better; you usually do after a spanking.
Then I talked to Lana about the filming ordeal. She was such an encouragement, taking the news calmly (unlike me), helping me look through options, and voicing encouragement. The combined effort of my quiet time and my friend made it impossible for me to feel bad anymore.
Nope, by the grace of God, I'm hoppin' HAPPY! It was such a weird feeling as I got off the phone with her, because I knew it was a happiness that didn't come from myself. I had given the movie completely to God, letting Him know that He can do with it what He wants. If He doesn't want it finished, that's okay with me, because it's what He wants.
Not that I really believe He doesn't want us to finish it. It would be a hard pill to swallow if He gave it to me. But ultimately, if He were to tell me that, I'd be torn up, but it'd be all right, because He's in control.
I feel like singing. Ah, maybe not "I Feel Good" (the title of this post), but perhaps one of the new songs we'll be playing at Fan the Flame. Part of it goes:
God above all the world in motion
God above all my hopes and fears
No matter what the world throws at me now
It's gonna be all right
'Cause I know my God saved the day
And I know His Word never fails
And I know my God made a way for me
Salvation is here
Yeah, baby! Do we serve an awesome God, or what? Hey, please come to FtF on August 25, because you're gonna hear one pumped-up dude leading the songs! God is awesome! I feel good and I'm praising Him!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Singing, Filming, Looking Forward to College
Pretty good day today; lots of singing. Our song leader, one of the pillars of our church and a great man of God, has moved to Clarksville. I am filling in for now (and now could last for a long time, which is perfectly OK with me), leading the songs on Sunday mornings and evenings.
Also, we had band practice this afternoon between services. It was a good hour-long session. We're going to mix in some new songs for Fan the Flame to go with some of the ones we've played for (seemingly) forever. I'm excited about the opportunity to teach Chris Tomlin's "Let God Arise" to our FtF audience.
Filming yesterday went pretty well; filming for tomorrow fell through. I'll try to provide a capsule of yesterday's filming at some point tomorrow. The movie's production continues to progress well, but a lot more slowly than any of us want. It has become a real test of my faith to trust God that we will be able to get this all filmed in His time.
It's been good, though. I continue to be amazed at the sacrifices that so many people have made for the film; and we're still adding new people to that "list". It's not only the ones who are actually involved on the film; often their families are forced to sacrifice time with them so they can be part of this project. It's humbling to me, and it also motivates me to try to do as good a job as we can and also get it done as quickly as we can. The latter is difficult, but again, I have to trust God that He'll work it all out.
Two weeks till school starts, at least for those of us who are enrolled in the esteemed University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. I'm kinda looking forward to classes at this point, which is pretty weird for me. I figure I'll enjoy the feeling while I have it, and it'll probably be gone in, oh, about three weeks. It may last through the first week, which is always pretty easy. I say always as if I'm an old pro, though I've only been through two semesters. Still, that's a significant portion of my higher education.
This year, my classes are
Advanced Composition - a writing class that I expect to be no more than the next-gen model of Freshman Comp II
Nonfiction Writing - a writing class that could be fairly fun and interesting, or could be a clone of Advanced Comp
Reasoning Across the Disciplines - a philosophy class which I know nothing about beyond the title
Europe: 20th Century - a history class that I'm taking because I had the professor in another class last semester and he was awesome; plus, the topic will be cool
Introduction to Theater - a, well, theater class that I hope will be a blast
I think I definitely am getting settled in to the whole college experience, though. I've always heard that the first year is the hardest, and I think it's true. Not necessarily in terms of the actual work, but in terms of getting adjusted and all that jazz.
And speaking of jazz: The biggest thing I'll miss about this semester is not having Don Bailey as an instructor. He is one of the many outstanding music professors at UAFS; directs the university jazz band; and taught my Music Appreciation class last semester. My verdict on him: If you go to UAFS, do everything you can to take him. He's an awesome teacher, if more than a bit unconventional, and his class is a ton of fun (and easy to boot!). OK, enough of my Bailey plug -- and this post. I seem to be getting pretty good at those long ramblings; the short ditties have mostly not yet materialized.
Peace out and go God.
Also, we had band practice this afternoon between services. It was a good hour-long session. We're going to mix in some new songs for Fan the Flame to go with some of the ones we've played for (seemingly) forever. I'm excited about the opportunity to teach Chris Tomlin's "Let God Arise" to our FtF audience.
Filming yesterday went pretty well; filming for tomorrow fell through. I'll try to provide a capsule of yesterday's filming at some point tomorrow. The movie's production continues to progress well, but a lot more slowly than any of us want. It has become a real test of my faith to trust God that we will be able to get this all filmed in His time.
It's been good, though. I continue to be amazed at the sacrifices that so many people have made for the film; and we're still adding new people to that "list". It's not only the ones who are actually involved on the film; often their families are forced to sacrifice time with them so they can be part of this project. It's humbling to me, and it also motivates me to try to do as good a job as we can and also get it done as quickly as we can. The latter is difficult, but again, I have to trust God that He'll work it all out.
Two weeks till school starts, at least for those of us who are enrolled in the esteemed University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. I'm kinda looking forward to classes at this point, which is pretty weird for me. I figure I'll enjoy the feeling while I have it, and it'll probably be gone in, oh, about three weeks. It may last through the first week, which is always pretty easy. I say always as if I'm an old pro, though I've only been through two semesters. Still, that's a significant portion of my higher education.
This year, my classes are
Advanced Composition - a writing class that I expect to be no more than the next-gen model of Freshman Comp II
Nonfiction Writing - a writing class that could be fairly fun and interesting, or could be a clone of Advanced Comp
Reasoning Across the Disciplines - a philosophy class which I know nothing about beyond the title
Europe: 20th Century - a history class that I'm taking because I had the professor in another class last semester and he was awesome; plus, the topic will be cool
Introduction to Theater - a, well, theater class that I hope will be a blast
I think I definitely am getting settled in to the whole college experience, though. I've always heard that the first year is the hardest, and I think it's true. Not necessarily in terms of the actual work, but in terms of getting adjusted and all that jazz.
And speaking of jazz: The biggest thing I'll miss about this semester is not having Don Bailey as an instructor. He is one of the many outstanding music professors at UAFS; directs the university jazz band; and taught my Music Appreciation class last semester. My verdict on him: If you go to UAFS, do everything you can to take him. He's an awesome teacher, if more than a bit unconventional, and his class is a ton of fun (and easy to boot!). OK, enough of my Bailey plug -- and this post. I seem to be getting pretty good at those long ramblings; the short ditties have mostly not yet materialized.
Peace out and go God.
Friday, August 3, 2007
On the Nature of Posts, and, Fan the Flame
As you read this blog, you'll soon notice that some posts will be outrageously long, while others will be short ditties. Some will be movie updates, some will be grandiose musings on life and God, and some will be quickie capsules of my life.
Right now, I'm sitting at work -- an AT&T authorized agent store in Charleston, Arkansas. It's been a fairly uneventful day of work, but I'm looking forward to getting off here in a couple of minutes. Tomorrow we have an afternoon and evening of filming lined up, all stuff involving the villainous Gang.
Picking up this post again at home now. I love Blogger, BTW; automatically saves your drafts so you can pick them up again any ol' time you want. Amazing Stacey.
I'm about to go work on a Sunday night lesson for my youth group. I part-volunteered, was part-enlisted, as "Sunday night coordinator" for our youth at First Baptist Church of Branch. It's been a pretty cool opportunity so far. I've been doing a series of lessons recently on the biblical monarchs of Kings and Chronicles. We go through each of their lives and pick up on the lessons to be learned from them. We started with Solomon, who took a while, and have finally moved on to Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
This week and in the next few weeks, we're going to take a break from our study of the kings and do some special focus lessons as we lead up to Fan the Flame, our annual youth event that will take place on Saturday, August 25. This week, the lesson is on fasting. It's not an issue we've addressed in our youth for a long time, and I think it'll be a neat chance to teach them. I plan on emphasizing that while putting away the eats is the most popular form (and one of the most effective forms) of fasting, it is by no means the only one. It's gonna be good.
And Fan the Flame, you ask? It's a pretty special day. I think it's fantastic that a church our size can put on a youth event like this each year. Of course, God gets all the glory for it; we're merely earthen vessels. It kicks off at 1:00 pm and ends somewhere around 9. We have two worship services, one in the early afternoon and one in the evening. I am privileged to be able to lead worship, along with the rest of the members of our youth group's band, Singled Out. Our speakers are my partners in crime in youth leadership, Chris Russell and Dusty Wright. It's an awesome day, and we believe this year's event will be the best one yet.
The whole point of Fan the Flame is to get a whole bunch of people together (they don't even have to be all youth, though that's our target group) and experience the moving of the Holy Spirit in a mighty way. We've seen some truly amazing things through this event in the past, and, again, we think the best is yet to come.
So yeah, I'm pumped about that. Band practice is tonight, and I'm really looking forward to what we can do as a band this year. We're going to introduce some new songs and hopefully branch out a bit musically.
Dude, I am getting seriously psyched just sitting here typing. To all my readers: Please pray for this event; we can do nothing without the effectual fervent prayers of the righteous men and women of God. Also, if you haven't heard about it yet, please plan on attending and invite some friends to come with you. It's going to be a phenomenal day. Go God!
Now I'd better go work on my lesson a bit.
Right now, I'm sitting at work -- an AT&T authorized agent store in Charleston, Arkansas. It's been a fairly uneventful day of work, but I'm looking forward to getting off here in a couple of minutes. Tomorrow we have an afternoon and evening of filming lined up, all stuff involving the villainous Gang.
Picking up this post again at home now. I love Blogger, BTW; automatically saves your drafts so you can pick them up again any ol' time you want. Amazing Stacey.
I'm about to go work on a Sunday night lesson for my youth group. I part-volunteered, was part-enlisted, as "Sunday night coordinator" for our youth at First Baptist Church of Branch. It's been a pretty cool opportunity so far. I've been doing a series of lessons recently on the biblical monarchs of Kings and Chronicles. We go through each of their lives and pick up on the lessons to be learned from them. We started with Solomon, who took a while, and have finally moved on to Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
This week and in the next few weeks, we're going to take a break from our study of the kings and do some special focus lessons as we lead up to Fan the Flame, our annual youth event that will take place on Saturday, August 25. This week, the lesson is on fasting. It's not an issue we've addressed in our youth for a long time, and I think it'll be a neat chance to teach them. I plan on emphasizing that while putting away the eats is the most popular form (and one of the most effective forms) of fasting, it is by no means the only one. It's gonna be good.
And Fan the Flame, you ask? It's a pretty special day. I think it's fantastic that a church our size can put on a youth event like this each year. Of course, God gets all the glory for it; we're merely earthen vessels. It kicks off at 1:00 pm and ends somewhere around 9. We have two worship services, one in the early afternoon and one in the evening. I am privileged to be able to lead worship, along with the rest of the members of our youth group's band, Singled Out. Our speakers are my partners in crime in youth leadership, Chris Russell and Dusty Wright. It's an awesome day, and we believe this year's event will be the best one yet.
The whole point of Fan the Flame is to get a whole bunch of people together (they don't even have to be all youth, though that's our target group) and experience the moving of the Holy Spirit in a mighty way. We've seen some truly amazing things through this event in the past, and, again, we think the best is yet to come.
So yeah, I'm pumped about that. Band practice is tonight, and I'm really looking forward to what we can do as a band this year. We're going to introduce some new songs and hopefully branch out a bit musically.
Dude, I am getting seriously psyched just sitting here typing. To all my readers: Please pray for this event; we can do nothing without the effectual fervent prayers of the righteous men and women of God. Also, if you haven't heard about it yet, please plan on attending and invite some friends to come with you. It's going to be a phenomenal day. Go God!
Now I'd better go work on my lesson a bit.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
The Four Rules of Writing
One of my absolute favorite authors is Ted Dekker. He writes daring, audacious stories that draw readers closer to their Creator. One of his best novels, Showdown, lays out four rules of writing. I don't know if he thought them up on his own or derived them from some other source, but I think they're brilliant in simplicity and they help me in my writing. Perhaps they'll help other writers out there.
The Four Rules of Writing
1. Write to discover.
2. There is no greater discovery than love.
3. All love leads to the Creator.
4. Write what you will.
The Four Rules of Writing
1. Write to discover.
2. There is no greater discovery than love.
3. All love leads to the Creator.
4. Write what you will.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
The Great Production Experience - Saturday, July 28
Date: Friday, July 27
Location: My grandparents' property, Natural Dam, AR
Cast: Luke, Lana, Trevor, Daniel, Tony, Chris, James, Dusty
Crew: Hannah, Tara
*Yawn* Ah, there's nothing like waking up at 7:00 in the morning when you've been up working since two the previous evening. It was a lovely morning, but we weren't enjoying it terribly much, thank you. A couple of our group were up before me, but I managed to rouse the rest of them and even peek in and wake up Lana as she slumbered on a beautiful mattressed bed. OK, OK, so she was sick; is that supposed to be some kind of excuse? *Ducks*
Breakfast: Donuts and chocolate milk. Three cheers for chocolate milk! A truly wonderful way to kick off a day. After getting everybody up, fed, and dressed, we departed back into the woods to our set from the night before for a morning scene.
The scene went well. I cannot resist pointing out that a certain female member of the cast was not set to appear in the scene; her character is off-screen in Shawn and Travis' tent and only her voice appears. This esteemed actress did not need to enter the tent at all to play her role; she could have merely stayed off-camera, yet she somehow managed to stay inside the tent for the duration of the filming of the scene! I must admit, she delivered her one line beautifully during each take. If only I could have it this easy.
With that done, Daniel left with Trevor, Tara, and Hannah to drop off Tara at her abode and pick up our morning crew. Our morning crew being James and Dusty. While they were gone, well, what's a filmmaker to do but shower? It was a lovely shower, and I confess I took longer than usual. It was a bit disheartening afterward to put on the same stinky clothes, but I felt 500% better. Smelled 500% better too, even with dirty clothes. Old Spice is awesome stuff.
Because of various delays, Daniel and the others would end up being gone for about three hours, instead of the expected two. And they had already left a full hour late. The rest of us (myself, Lana, Tony, and Chris), after taking the showers, went off to scout locations along the sides of my grandparents' bluffs. Marvelous things they are, and they will look gorgeous when we use them in the climactic final chase of the film.
Here's one of the many brilliant sections of woods.
Pretty sweet view.
Could this cliff or another like it be important in the climax of the movie? I wonder...
Fast forward to lunchtime; the others had finally completed the trip up, and we sat down to a delicious meal of grilled-chicken sandwiches. Oh baby, these were awesome. The girls applied makeup to the newcomers while Chris ribbed Dusty about being so late. Ah, good to be among both of my fellow youth leaders again!
After lunch, it was time to go back to the original Shawn-and-Travis tent location from the day before, the one we'd done all the running around. This time, in a scene that takes place shortly after the aforementioned one, gang members Carl (Chris) and Barry (James) run into Shawn and Travis' tent. More running, but this time for the bad guys. Chris and James play their roles with the intensity of hunters in the midst of the hunt, while Daniel and Tony get to be laid back and cool.
Then Daniel had to take Tony back to Van Buren since his part in the acting had been completed. Meanwhile, we filmed a couple of scenes exclusively between Carl and Barry. My goodness, James had trouble with one of them! He could not stop laughing at a particular part. We went through probably about twenty takes but finally managed to salvage the scene. He did better with the next scene, and to his credit, you probably won't be able to tell in the finished film that he had such trouble. After a while Chris also got distracted and started laughing some too. Sometimes it's hard to keep yourself under control as an actor; in this case they needed to work quickly because both of them had to leave pretty soon.
At last the scenes were done. Exit Chris and James, both of whom did a fine job. We were now ready to do our final shooting of the day, all involving only one actor: Dusty as Clyde, the leader of the Gang and older brother of Eric. Only problem was, the first of these scenes happens near nightfall. We had to wait until the sun was nearly down to drive out to our road location (in my grandpa's nearly-brand-new Chevy pickup, which he graciously agreed to let us borrow) and film a brief scene where Clyde talks on the phone and then vents inner turmoil. One down, two to go.
Back at the house, we had a simple shot of Clyde sitting in a chair and staring into space. Really? you ask. What's that doing in a movie? Doesn't sound very dramatic. Well, time will tell, but I think it will be very dramatic when it's all put together. Anyways, it was difficult to try to light this scene; we ended up using some white Christmas lights (those come in very useful for night scenes) and a low-wattage blue light that Lana bought. It took a while to get them situated where the camcorder would pick up the light on Dusty's face correctly. To make matters worse, my grandparents don't have air conditioning, so it was like a sauna in the room. But we got it done, and it matched my vision for the scene very closely.
The final shot was just a brief look at Clyde in bed, unable to sleep. This one was easy to light; we got it and got the shot in just a few minutes. Then it was time to bid my grandparents goodbye, thank them heartily for their gracious hosting during the past thirty-two hours, pack everything up, and head for home!
Hannah and I finally made it home a little after 11:00. Oh, glorious shower and bed that I call my own at home! It's now Tuesday night (or Wednesday morning technically), and I think I'm almost physically recovered from the weekend. Pretty crazy, but we got a lot of stuff done.
I am so thankful for my fellow cast and crew on this project, who are willing to devote so much of their time and energy to a dream that was not their own. I love all of you guys and could not do it without a single one of you. Thank you also to all of our families, who have sacrificed much as well that we might be able to make this little movie. I pray that it is all worth it.
Here I go getting all sentimental. Can't let that happen yet; we've still got a lot of filming in front of us yet. Stay tuned once again for further updates!
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