Hey guys!
Just wrote another blog in "The Scribbles", or Scribbled a little bit about my experience flying over the Arctic. Hope you enjoy it.
In 2009, I told the guy who lives in the cloud (God) that I wanted to live a life of adventure with Him, and He showed me a scripture, Jeremiah 29:11, "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for." - The Message
Little I knew what was I to expect since then.
Since I gave my life to God, I always had this curious question, how does God answer to prayers when there are billions of us mini tiny living beings on earth? How does He prioritize from responding to the most urgent need to the least one? Does He even prioritize prayers? Don't get me wrong any prayer is as important and valuable to the other ones...Does He have a call centre type of thing? Perhaps He hires immediately those who just landed in Heaven...sorry, I shouldn't make that kind of joke...He might be watching me write now...but still for me, these questions make me more curious about God...
God is omnipotent and omnipresent, that is, He's his got unlimited Power and can be present Everywhere. That sounds like a super hero! I wonder why no one has made a movie about God yet...
In 2009 alone, I was privileged to travel to 3 countries, Reunion Island (attended Nations 2 Nations Conference by YWAM and was introduced to YWAM), Madagascar (jumped out from the plane to get onto the next one the following day), then landed in South Africa in September. Winds of winter was still blowing over South Africa, especially in Muizenberg, where I did the DTS (Discipleship Training School) with the international missionary organisation, YWAM (Youth With A Mission). YWAM was founded by Loren Cunningham, and is currently operating in more than 1,000 locations in over 180 countries sending out at least 10,000 missionaries to the fields. The DTS is a 6 months school where we are taught about the foundations to become an effective vessel to reach out to the world. To know God and Make Him known.
YWAM Muizenberg - September DTS 2009
The DTS consists of 3 months of lecture phase, then 3 months outreach. During my school, we had 5 outreach teams; 2 teams in South Africa/ Swaziland, another team to Kenya, India and Thailand/ Cambodia in which I was part of.
Thailand/Cambodia Outreach team 2009
Outreach has been a great learning curve, very enriching in many ways. We had some great hosts, we did community works, reached out to prostitutes, performed at the local airport and in the local community, taught english to refugees...wished i had pictures to show you but someone dropped the hard drive in which i kept them...had to be one of the worst day of my life...anyway...back to the story...
During my DTS, I kept asking God, what was my next step after DTS, and He directed me to do SVP (School of Video Production), provided by Media Village (MV). Media Village is a branch of YWAM and as the name speaks for itself, is a Media Focused ministry. Media Village has got a Training facility but is also a Production house and is being lead by Graham and Diane Vermooten. One of Graham's wishes for Media Village, is not to become the biggest YWAM base, but to be the most influential ministry. Recently a team was sent to record the World Prayer Assembly in Indonesia where hundreds of thousands gathered to pray for the world, and was broadcasted to millions of people around the globe. We sent one of the tv inserts broadcasted during the event regarding the Global Day of Prayer throughout the years since it began. I was privileged to edit that insert.
The SVP used to be a 3 months school but has now become a 6 months' school. I was taught pretty much all of the basic skills needed to be ready to work in the media industry; from camera skills to editing, via scriptwriting, producing and directing. Lots of hard work and long lasting working hours was required but were worth it. Our lecturers were all from the industry, and shared quite a lot of their skills and techniques to us, but above all, they shared how much they need God to be able to make a difference in the media industry.
I shared the room with one of my best friends, Cha Cha. He is South Korean and is very talented when it comes to camera works and editing. We made a deal that he would share his technical knowledge and I would help him with his language barrier. We would wake each other up, either to be on time for class or to revise for the tests. There was such a strong brotherhood bond created between us. He is a real brother to me. Today Cha Cha is helping out a YWAM base in India. As talented as he is, he mentioned to me that God was calling him to reach out to people, and India was his field. We're still looking forward to meet up someday in Korea.
School of Video Production 2010
Location shoot for our 'Best' Music Video, Zamar, Take 5
From left to right: Cha Cha,
Butho (D.O.P*/Post-Production Sound engineer at Media Village)
Butho (D.O.P*/Post-Production Sound engineer at Media Village)
*Director of Photography
By the time we were graduated, I was awarded for the Best "Soft News" piece and I was part of the team having produced the Best "Music Video" for the class of 2010. Overall I think I came out 2nd or 3rd in class.
After my SVP in 2010 I did my internship with Media Village and since 2011, i've been doing my apprenticeship with Media village Productions. Since then, I've been to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Hawaii, Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda, alongside with the production crew; been part of various production projects from producing Media Village schools' podcasts to Transformation documentaries, to live concerts, conferences, corporate events, an award winning short movie ("Dear Sister"), a featured movie ("Baroudeur", not with Media Village Productions). In the production of Dear Sister, I was the Key-grip and the Offline Editor. Being at Media Village has provided great opportunities, learning curves and skill development.
Media Village won the Redemptive Storyteller Award
for "Dear Sister", and was also part of the Durban Film Festival finalists' selection.
So basically I travelled to 9 countries since 2009, and doing what I love doing, Media.
All of this has happened just because I told God that I wanted to live a life of adventure with Him. How about you? What have you asked God for? Ask Him for anything, He'll make it happen..Just Trust God and be patient.
"Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn't a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in." Matthew 7:7 - The Message
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" Matthew 7:7 - NIV
Just Trust God and be patient.
No comments:
Post a Comment