The past two years of production have been difficult and at times even heartbreaking. There were moments of elation as we saw people catch the vision for the film, and moments of discouragement as we saw doors shut. There were even times when we wondered why we even made the film. But God was faithful to bring us encouragement when we needed it through fellow believers, through prayer, and through His Word. Through this process, we have been forced to trust God, to believe that He wanted this film to be made and used for His glory. Along the way we also learned invaluable lessons about documentary filmmaking, marketing, legality, and storytelling. Some have likened film production to giving birth, and we feel that to be true. (Actually Jenny is the true judge of this analogy.) Now our labor pains are over, and we are almost ready to show you our darling new baby. (Awwww!) And like our children, we pray that this film will have a mighty impact for God.

DVD copies will be available for order in April. Online viewing will be available soon as well. In the meantime, you can enjoy some of the film’s artwork and download a sample of the original music.

Church Planting Theme Music

The packaging for the DVD.

At the end of the year, we did a serious evaluation of our ministry. During this process, we discovered a major flaw in how we’ve been doing mission filmmaking. Last year we were involved in production on over 18 video projects, four of which we would classify as major productions. We’ve been so busy making films that we haven’t given proper attention to the distribution of our films. If we really want our films to have an impact on hearts and lives, we need to make sure that they are distributed as broadly as possible. Our goal for 2013 is to gain a better grasp on how to help more people see our films.

Although this evaluation process was extremely helpful, it was not painless. In the midst of one of our most discouraging weeks, God gave us a wonderful bright spot. The Hancocks are recent appointees with Biblical Ministries Worldwide. You can watch their video below. They posted this video on their Facebook page, and one of their friends posted it on MissioMishmash, a popular missions blog. Since it was uploaded in December, it has been watched over 550 times! You can read the MissioMishmash blog entry here: http://www.missiomishmash.com/2011_12_04_archive.html

We also completed our work on the Fostering the Harvest Evangelism training that will soon be available for ordering.

For the last two weeks, we served at BMW’s candidate orientation. We had over 20 candidates this year. Among that number were two new appointees who share our burden to advance the gospel and missions using film! Dennis and Linda Schermer are a delightful couple who have been involved in Christian film production for over twenty years. Dennis is highly skilled in the area of sound production and dubbing, and has dubbed many gospel films into other languages. We’re thankful to have the Schermers on board, and look forward to working together with them to proclaim the glorious gospel through film.

Dennis and Linda Schermer

Please pray with us as we seek God’s will in determining our vision for the next few years.
Please pray for our children to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. Isaiah is especially concerned to find out how he can go to heaven. Pray that we can have wisdom in teaching him the truth, and be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is doing in his heart.

Last week, the BMW missionaries from Utah and Idaho met for their semi-annual field conference. They at last were able to see a completed version of the film. Here’s what one missionary wrote:

“We just watched the video here at field conference. The group was quite overwhelmed at the quality and impact of the video. The word I have been hearing most is “wow”. It is obvious that hundreds of hours have been put into the editing and planning for production and promotion. I just want to express my own gratitude for all you have been doing… May God bless and expand your ministry!” Chris and Patti Allinger, BMW Missionaries, Provo, Utah

Please pray with us as we prepare for a final release of the film. Before we can do that, we need to have the film legally vetted to protect us from any conceivable liability. We also need to design cover art for the film. Below is sneak preview of what the menu will look like!

As we wrapped up distribution for the film, we also produced a short video for our colleague here at the home office, my wise and humble supervisor, Steve Louie. Included in this video is a short testimony from a BMW couple who joined the mission because of one of our videos.

Another huge project that is nearing completion is the Fostering the Harvest evangelism training series. On Last week I mailed the masters for this DVD set to a duplication house. Once they are duplicated, BMW will be making this product available for churches across the U.S. This series is so inspirational. I believe it can have a huge eternal impact as people become energized about evangelism.

We are thankful for our family. We’ve been blessed over the past months to watch our three children growing and learning. Lily is very close to walking, Keith is starting potty training, and Isaiah just started riding his bicycle without training wheels! Please join us in prayer that they will one day come to know Jesus as their Savior.

The Brothers

Jenny wearing one of her new sweaters

We have been also working feverishly to complete the documentary about church planting in Utah and Idaho. We want to enter it in the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. Please pray that we can get a clean copy of the film in the mail by September 23.

Please pray for us as we stretch ourselves to the max to meet this deadline and prepare for an upcoming trip.
Pray that our kids will thrive at Jenny’s parents for the two weeks they will be watching them while we are gone.
Pray for us to have strength, good health, and safety while we are filming a new project in the next few weeks.

Fostering the Harvest
During the last week of June, Steve traveled to Covington, Kentucky to film an evangelism seminar at the IFCA International Convention. The seminar focused on how to reach people by building relationships, and featured two speakers. Dave Brown, a veteran missionary to South Africa, challenged the audience to see evangelism as a believer’s personal responsibility—not merely relegating it to professionals, programs, or events. Rick Oglesby, a pastor from Alabama, complemented Dave’s teaching with practical, encouraging ways to apply these principles.

Steve videotaped 16 sessions at the seminar. He’s currently editing them into an evangelism training DVD that is scheduled for release at the end of September. We pray that this series will help encourage and equip people to reach out to those who need the Savior. You can read more about the seminar on the IFCA Harvester’s web page HERE.

Candidate Orientation

July 12 to 22 was BMW’s candidate orientation and field preparation seminar. Candidate orientation is an exciting time, as new candidates come to mission headquarters in Atlanta for two weeks of intense training. Field preparation is an additional week and a half of training for missionaries who are hoping to reach the field within a year. We were both very busy during these two weeks. Steve worked with missionaries to assess their video needs, made audio recordings of field prep classes, and in his spare time, edited sessions of the evangelism seminar on his laptop. Jenny worked in the nursery, caring for the missionaries’ children while their parents were in training. Though busy, it was exciting to spend time with these future missionaries and be inspired by their passion to reach people.

During candidate orientation, we received three new video requests! That brings our total project workload to twelve! Fortunately, we have two other videographers helping with this massive workload.

Utah
In all this hustle and bustle, the Utah project has not been forgotten. God has provided us with a wonderful composer. Joshua Spacht serves as minister of music at Grace Immanuel Bible Church in Jupiter, Florida, and he also has composed music for a number of commercial clients including Disney. We’re profoundly grateful to have him assisting us with original music and audio mixing for the Utah documentary.

Prayer
Please pray with us that we will have boldness share Christ with those we know.
Please pray that God will give us wisdom in managing such a large project workload.
Please pray that all the projects that we are working on will be used to the furtherance of Christ’s kingdom.

Leading Games at New Branch Community Church's Vacation Bible School

Project Updates

Sometimes a film has a way of taking on a life of its own. When we began the Utah / Idaho field video, we really didn’t set out to make an hour long film. But as we looked at the footage, we just felt that a fifteen minute video would not accurately portray the needs and challenges faced by the missionaries in this region. I believe God burdened our hearts to produce a feature length film that would afford us more time to inspire our audience to get involved.

The life of the film also has a way of absorbing the life of the filmmakers! The past month has been filled with the rigorous process of revision. Jenny and I work together on the film while the kids nap in the afternoons, and again after they go to bed at night. It is such a blessing to have a wife who is not only a great homemaker, but is also an astute filmmaker. But while we have enjoyed working together, the film has taken a toll on our physical and emotional strength. Pray that God will grant us the strength to finish strong.

The film (still untitled!) is now ready for scoring. In the following weeks, I will be working on the color correction, titling, sound effects, and audio mixing. We’re praying about going to Florida to do a final sound mix there. I’ll also be working on a distribution plan to present the film to Bible Colleges, seminaries, and churches across the country.

There have been many encouraging moments during our recent reviews. Josh Miller, the missionary who is our point man on the field in Utah and Idaho, reviewed our most recent cut, and was very enthusiastic about the project. Another reviewer told us that the film made him want to go to Utah to help the missionaries there. These reviews are helpful to let us know that our labors are not in vain.

We have taken a couple breaks from working on the film to help some wonderful BMW missionaries with their projects. In March I filmed Belinda Spilman, a BMW missionary to Uruguay. My colleague, Matt Bjerk used the footage to produce a furlough presentation for her. I recently filmed BMW appointees Phil and Helaine DeMarte, who are headed to Metz, France. Matt will be editing their presentation as well, and we’re praying that God will use it to help them kickstart their support raising. Finally, I shot and edited the presentation below for BMW Uruguay field leader Tim Willoughby.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for the swift completion of the Utah film.
Please pray for me as I travel to Kentucky later this month to film an evangelism training seminar at the IFCA International Convention.
Please pray for God to uphold our family through a very busy season.

This featurette is a first glimpse at the BMW Utah Idaho Field Video. Just this week we completed a roughcut of the film. The run time on this “first draft” is 87 minutes! Our next step is to review this cut, making adjustments for length and clarity. While this is an exciting milestone, the film is far from complete. We still must add music, mix sound, correct color, and agonize over cutting scenes. The film will also undergo rigorous reviews by field leadership, missionaries, and filmmaking colleagues. We thank the Lord for your prayers. He has brought us to this point. Please continue to pray with us that we can release the film by June 20. Our prayer is that God would use this film to call more laborers to this needy field.

Pray also for our upcoming trip to Cincinnati, Ohio to produce an evangelism training video series. We’ll be filming at the IFCA International Convention June 27-July 1. Please pray for the details of this technically complex production to be ironed out in the next month. Jenny and the kids will be staying at home for this trip.

Lily and the boys are growing so quickly. Keith is a quiet guy, but his vocabulary is expanding daily. Lily is sitting up (with help) and smiles more than she cris. Isaiah loves watching movies and riding his razor scooter.

We are humbled by God’s provision through the faithfulness of our supporters. Your prayers and gifts make our work possible. It is the backbone of our ministry. May God richly bless you for your investment in his kingdom work.

Monster Project

The Utah & Idaho field video is a monstrous project. The field includes 30+ missionaries, 9 church plants, and a geographical area that is 450 miles from north to south. We recorded over 100 hours of footage that takes up a terabyte of space on our hard drive. The editing process is well underway, and some inspirational sequences are already complete. But how can I keep the film interesting, and focused? How can I provide a clear structure that will effectively communicate? These questions have been dogging me since the beginning of post production. I must admit to you that I don’t have very clear answers at this point. But we believe that God moved us to make this film, and we are praying that He will supply wisdom and creativity. Please pray with us that He will be our executive producer and help us create something that will have an eternal value–something that will inspire people to greater participation in the missions work in Utah and Idaho.

Adoption & History

Over one weekend, we made a brief video for our friends Mike and Pearl Aquino. The Aquinos featured the video at a gospel-centered concert benefiting international adoption. They used this as an opportunity to share about how Christ adopts believers into His family.

We also spent two weeks producing a video for Santa Rosa Bible Church. SRBC will celebrate 75 years as a church this Easter, and they hired us to to produce a short history of how God has blessed their church through the years. Proceeds from this video will be used to fund video equipment for our ministry.

Back on Track

Having a third child threw me for a loop. Your first baby is always a big adjustment, so we expected our second, Keith, to be a big deal. Surprisingly, the transition to two kids was easy. So we decided to add Lily. I soon discovered that having a three year old, a toddler, and an infant makes for a chaotic situation. After two months, I finally feel like I’m adapting to the situation and my life is back on track. Lily is sleeping through the night, and the boys adore their little sister (especially Keith). Listening to sermons while cleaning been encouraging. God has used them to supply the spiritual strength I need.

On Tuesday night we had a terrible fright. Jenny was carrying Lily down the stairs when suddenly she slipped and fell down four of our wooden stairs. In the process, she accidentally dropped Lily. Jenny watched in horror as her 11-day-old went head-over-heels down 7 more steps. Lily landed face-down on the tile floor. Hearing Jenny’s screaming, I ran to the front of the house. I picked up Lily, and we rushed to the E.R.
An emergency room x-ray did not reveal any broken bones. However, on Thursday morning we noticed some slight swelling on her head. We returned to the E.R. for a CT scan. This scan revealed a hairline skull fracture, which the doctors say should heal on its own. We will follow up with a neurologist in 8 weeks to check.

Throughout this ordeal we saw God’s hand. Aside from some minor bruising, Jenny is also doing well. God also blessed us with church and mission family who ministered to us and the boys during our time at the hospital. We know that your prayers for us had a profound impact on this situation. It is amazing that Lily could fall down the stairs at 11 days old and suffer no permanent damage. God has truly given infants’ bodies an amazing amount of flexibility!

On a different note, I made encouraging progress on the Utah film today. I was able to edit an exciting sequence which will set the tone for the film.

Our family has begun celebrating Christmas by reading the nativity story to the boys. It has been fun to watch Isaiah and Keith hear about Jesus birth. To illustrate Mary being “great with child”, we only need to point to Mommy’s tummy! Speaking of which, we appreciate your prayers for Jenny’s pregnancy. Both mother and baby have been blessed with overall health throughout, and little Lilly is scheduled to be born on January 11th.

Our Family

Mommy and Keith

The Cousins hanging out at Thanksgiving: Keith, Isaiah, and Landon