Here is a blog entry I wrote on http://techstuf.wordpress.com. I believe that it is relevant here as well:

We have all been there, well maybe not all, maybe just those old enough , where our Church had an overhead projector. It was great wasn’t? And sometimes the songs were hand written on a transparency, wow. Sound was probably in a more acceptable  state with decent microphones for that age of technology. Seems that Sound and Audio was always just a few steps ahead of Video and Graphics. Which was probably because video cameras and digital projectors were just not practical and affordable a few decades ago. And I still think Video is catching up – and fighting for it’s place in a Sound and Audio centered Church Technology. Not a grip, a small frustration. Sound is and all encompassing factor in all aspects of a Church Service including Video and umm a mime.

But is it really all necessary? All that money thrown at the latest, greatest and best piece of equipment all for the pursuit of excellence. Thousands of people have come to know Jesus without the use of fancy speakers, projectors, video cameras etc. Jesus spoke to the 3000 and the 5000  and he did not need anything special. Ok there was not anything tech wise in that day, silly point. But how do we justify spending $100,000’s for items like the DigiDesign ICON, Barco or Christie projectors, RED cameras and insane Video and Audio editing equipment. I can put it down to excellence, to creating a comfortable experience, ensuring the message is clear, and enticing people to come back for more. But at the end of the day God can use anything, any person and any situation to connect with someone on a personal level. That could be in the awesome Tech Church experience or at a rural Church in the middle of Africa.

I guess at the end of the day it is about who you are trying to reach, how many people you are reaching and the relevance of the message. And so long as people are being reached as can be evidenced by Baptisms and amazing life changing stories.

I for one am all for excellence and Video , and I dream of the day when we have the Video Cameras and editing equipment that I believe is an extension of our worship and reverence of God and the message we bring to reach those that need to find Jesus. And until then and am happy that I get to be used by God with what I have at the moment. Not that I am content to be stuck at that level forever 

http://www.iamsecond.com
Real stories of real struggle where people share how they found hope on a personal level. As a volunteer at Stellenberg Community Church I film a lot of stories of life change, seeing a site dedicated to just that is fantastic. Not only that, I love the style and professional approach; really cool.

This is just the thing that makes the effort worth it, not that it is about the reward. I love spending the time to light the scene properly, film and edit stories like this. It would be so cool to be involved in this sort of thing; maybe I should put the idea to the leadership here in Cape Town hint hint.

Wah whoooo, Post 100, This a milestone for me; not that I was aiming for it. I just realized that this was my 100 post after about 7 months. In truth I will be more ecstatic when I get 100 comments because that means people are reading, people are interested and people are willing to offer their own opinion and knowledge.

So the question is what do I write about? What awesome topic? Well I have been meaning to talk about this for some time: Contentment vs Mediocrity.

I am a Christian and I am supposed to be Content with a capital C. While this may be true generally I do not believe that it means that I must wallow in mediocrity. The contradiction comes when we as Christians are expected to lead lives of excellence; excellence in all that we do for God and fellow man. Our Church services must be excellent  in honour of God and our effort to reach the lost. As Christians in the work place we must do our best as if we are doing in for Jesus. Considering what Jesus did for us we should at least give our best. Ok, it is not really possible to live completely at that standard and maybe that is where the contentment comes.

But from my point of view as a volunteer editor, compositor and cameraman, I find myself feeling discontent everyday with the way things are going. Technical things like lighting, image quality and sound seem to get sidelined with comments like “I am sure it will be ok”, “You can fix it on the Computer”, “It’s too much effort to set up the lights, lets film this outside where we do not need them”; it sometimes drives me nuts.

Anyway I get stuck in this quandary  between being content and the strive for excellence. Things like my Wish List are proof of that. While I; personally, or the Church will never be able to afford an item on that list (other than an act of God), I still believe that one day I will sit in front of that setup because I believe that editing someone’s testimony on how they came to Jesus deserves the best effort on the best equipment. Well that’s my opinion, I know that wisdom and reality will temper that but not my faith.

I finished the review with James Senior from Metro Kids Africa giving a great summary. At this stage I am struggling to find backing music to all the photos and video clips; Daughtry’s “What about Now” is a perfect song but quite obviously it is copyrighted and I can’t find an easy and quick path to obtain permission to use it. So if someone knows of a contact to obtain the rights to use the song in this Video or knows of another great Royalty Free song that would fit the video please tell me. I will add the video here as soon as I can without the music but it is just so much better with that song.

The guys from North Point Community Church did a fantastic job while they were down here. In spite of terrible weather and a few potential moments of conflict with the unruly kind, the 17 men and women from NPCC connected and enfluenced many kids from Guguleto.  Lots of backpacks were given out with educational tools inside (and a chocalate while caused the most excitement) and lots of effort was made to cleanup, fix and paint where there was need. However the greatest gift was the love shown by the visitors and those volunteers from Stellenberg Community Church.

This is by no means done and dusted, I mean you can’t just connect, smile and run away. This is an ongoing thing were relationships continue and need is meet over time. Unfortunately no amount of money will be able to fix all the problems but hopefully this first step will be able to help MetroKids Africa and the kids they reach to be inspired to take the next few steps to be closer to a life of greater opportunity.

MetroKids Africa  already does a great job in reaching the children but there will always be a contunious need to reach more and reach them more effectively.  James and Janet Senior sacrifice a lot to run this endevour and it is awesome to see the smiles on their faces and the kids when they are running their programs. But they can’t be completely effective on their own, help is always needed, in the form of money, prayer, hands and emotional support. So get involved – by whatever means and whatever amount – and see what God can do – and He can do so much.

I’ll be taking all the footage filmed during the time Intersect was run as well as all the photographs. Unfortunately I missed a week because of an inpromptu work commitment – But thankfully Pam was able to film some more while I was away. My biggest regret is not being able to interview the Kids, Leaders, Volunteers and key people; it’s a major loss and will be a huge gap in the final video I put together. But since this is not a once off there will be other opportunities.

I’ll post a video up as soon as I can but I think that this is going to take some time so please be patient.

Otherwise check out the MetroKidsAfrica Blog as well as the NPCC Blog for this endevour.

On Friday 7th November at 19:15 (Food, drinks and Fun from 18:30) and Sunday 9th November at 09:00 and 10:30am there will be a KIDstuf EXTRAVAGANZA at Stellenberg Community Church. It is going to be awesome. Video, Song, Dance, Drama, Jokes, Fun, Stuff to learn. A fully fledged production geared to not only entertain both Kids and their Parents but also to more importantly to equip them to learn together about God even after KIDstuf.

Here is a promotion I quickly put together using a Motion Template that I modified and retimed to suit the video.

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wDMPwHAhHKw]

Some of our leaders had the opportunity to go to Bali for a Global Partners meeting (for want of a better word). Man alive – my Wife could have gone, but other priorities were higher (priorities like our 14 month Stephen) *grin*.

Anyway I was tasked to put together a video to show a bit of what we do at our Church so I rummaged through all the footage I had from 2004 to the present (man that was a lot). The promo could only be 5 minutes long so I was a bit limited in what I could do, also what a battle it is to find the right Royalty Free music – I really have to get a better collection.

Also there were a few technical challenges; one was the poor lighting of the blue screen and the fact that the blue jeans that Morgan (the presenter) was wearing was not a good idea see my post here. Also because I made a bobo in the original shoot and had to re-shoot the shots after we had returned the KinoFlos I was forces to use ‘other’ lights that had a terrible hum I could not remove. Other than that it was a good learning experience.

Next I will re-adjust and re-shoot the presenter segments to make the promo more geared towards a new-comer or person wanting to know more about Stellenberg Community Church.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPM6mCTxgHs]

Thanks to my team for taking the opportunity to ask a few questions of three of the Metro Kids Leaders.

During the Intersect Community Project with Metro Kids Africa I’ll be setting up a filming schedule to ask more questions of more people; from the main manne to the kids on the ground – even the great volunteers that will be taking part in painting and fixing things up. 

And be sure that I’ll get some before and after shots, the change is going to be awesome.

A few weeks back I posted a short teaser for the Intersect Project that we at Stellenberg Community Church; together with North Point Community Church and Metro Kids Africa, will be be taking part in soon. It was posted in order to start a buzz about the whole endeavor. Well the time for buzz is over – so to speak – now is the time to commit and be a part of helping the community with the community.

Below is a longer version that shows more video footage of the area that Metro Kids works in as well as more photographs. Intersect begins in November and we’ll be getting people in to fix the facilities before hand and then we go in and paint etc, as well as connecting with all the kids and  treating the Metro Kids leaders to a great day of celebration for what they have been doing. It is going to awesome.

To me it is a fantastic opportunity to be involved in something so much bigger than myself. And the best part is that this will not be one of those get in get out – pat me on the back things; this is the start of an ongoing project in working with the community to assist were there is need.

One thing that is for sure is that I’ll be working to get as much footage as possible in order to put together  a really cool documentary that can be used even after all the physical location work has been done. Really looking forward to being involved and seeing the impact that this will have on the children’s’ Lives.

Later I’ll add a second video of some questions we asked three of the leaders during the filming of the promotion content.

Stellenberg Community Church together with a team from North Point Community Church will be partnering with Metro Kids Africa for a Community driven project. Intersect will be an ongoing effort that offers the community a chance to partner with organizations that work with the under privileged. In this first project we will be working with Metro Kids Africa. Here is the first promotion of that project that I have put together. It really only asks the question of what it is that I need to Get Involved for?  

“It’s easier to build boys and girls than it is to repair men and women.”

Bill Wilson, leader of Metro Ministries, New York.