First After Effects Project

I recently completed my first ever Adobe After Effects project for the Brethren in Christ Church. Before this project any motion video projects I needed to work on was done through Apple’s Motion application. I have an old version of Motion and rather then upgrading I made the switch to AE and it was a pleasure to use and create the following project celebrating 2009 in Cooperative Ministries. The project is done, definitely some things I have learned this time that I will change for the next project but I think it is a good start. Let me know what you think of the video!

I have a new Job!

Well, kinda…As of Sunday’s church council meeting vote my full time position at Pequea Church has now been approved. Previously I had served as the technical arts director for both Pequea Church and the Brethren in Christ Denomination. Now I am full time with Pequea Church as the director of technical arts and impact ministries (young adults) and all the praise goes to God!

While I am really sorry to have to leave my position with the BIC general church I am excited about focusing my work and ministry life. Over the last year, it became very clear that I was stretching my time too thin and it was effecting the quality of my work. I was spending lots of additional hours out of the office late at night working to complete projects in a timely manner. On some weeks I easily was working my two, 20 hour a week jobs as two 40 hour a week jobs. In ministry it is all to easy to get burned out and for me to loose focus on God’s plan for my life. In November my girlfriend of 4 years and I got engaged and we are now planning a June 2010 wedding. I had to begin thinking about my “Family or Church“.

Although my new position will still be filled with a lot of work and projects and even new responsibilities I am excited about where God has me and what he has in store for me in the near future. I thank God daily that I am able to have a job like this and get paid for ministry, doing something that I love.

A Disturbing Trend

I am sorry to report a disturbing trend that I am seeing in blogs, facebook, twitter and other social media and I wondered if it troubles you? It seems to me that more and more people are voicing opinions through new posts, status updates and comments that are filled with bitterness, envy, criticism, anger, and self-pity.

Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters.sIf you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. James 4:11 NLT

The bible is clear on this issue of criticizing and judging others. That is why I believe that using any social media platforms such as twitter, blogging or facebook to criticize others is a sin. So why do people do it? I think some do it for the traffic it generates to their blog. I also think that it is much easier to criticize someone online. We don’t often get into yelling matches in the hallways of our local churches. We don’t criticize or humiliate our neighbors or friends when we invite them over for dinner or small group in our homes. Because in social media online we don’t have to look the person(s) in the eyes, we can pretend that they don’t hurt.

I continue to wonder why other Christians look on and even support those who behave this way and don’t say anything. Do we not have the nerve to speak up? Maybe it’s that we don’t recognize what is happening, or that it is just happening so much. I just doubt very much that we would just stand by as a brother or sisters property was being vandalized? Why is it that we stay silent as someone vandalizes the sites and esteems of others?

“In the Epistle of James, the author says no one can tame the tongue because it is a restless evil (James 3:8). In our day and age, we could say the same for our fingers as we write blog posts and leave comments online. Fingers can tap out to their fair share of destruction, effectively tossing Jesus’ Golden Rule into the desktop recycle bin.” -Ed Cyzewski We each have a choice to make. Will we continue to attack one another online or will the next time we witness an act of e-vandalism we will respond by trying to bring peace, clarity, and inspire meaningful conversation, or keep our flamethrowers ready?

-Portions of this post were inspired & taken by reading Collide Magazine’s January/February issue.

Happiness Machine

My Monday morning was drastically improved after watching this new viral video from Coca-Cola. Maybe some of you have already watched it since it was added about a week ago. Already the video has over 1 million views. Way to go Coke, this is an extremely creative way of marketing, and an inspiration. Where will happiness strike next? Happy Monday!

Reflections on Haiti

On Monday night I returned from a short term missions trip to Nicaragua, more on that experience later. Last night at the dinner table my phone vibrates with a CNN push notification about an earthquake in Haiti. Last night the pictures and news was hard to come by, in fact you could find out more from twitter sources then CNN or MSNBC etc. This morning when I started to see the pictures, video and hear the stories I was totally wrecked. Because of my experience in Nicaragua I could so quickly identify with what was happening in Haiti and the crisis that was unfolding. Knowing how little these people live on and how fragile the economy is my heart is hurting for the people of Haiti.

CNN is now reporting that over 100,000 deaths are expected. The people of Haiti are experiencing massive devastation and despair.

Today I was so focused on trying to catch up on on my work, telling people about the successful trip to Nicaragua, creating message series graphics and even going out to eat (spending $10.00) and getting a cheeseburger at lunch. I didn’t need to spend money on that cheeseburger and to be honest I spent only a few minutes today praying for the people of this world who are in crisis. The fact is I need to recognize that I am selfish. I spend so much time focused on me and my life and the things that I need to get done. It’s really easy when you are serving in missions to focus your attention on the people right in front of you that need love. When I contrast that to the way I live my life today in the United States I become selfish. It’s way to easy for me to disconnect myself from people who need love and my attention.

My prayer is through my experience in Nicaragua and this disaster in Haiti I will be striving towards spending more of my time loving others and caring for the hurting in our world and less time on myself. I pray that God will work within me and stir within me a discontent and show me where I need to take action. My understanding is that there is a great need for water and supplies in Haiti right now. Money is needed to buy and transport those supplies. Join me in donating to MCC, Compassion or World Vision and helping these trustworthy organizations who are already on the ground bring aid to this hurting country and may we take our focus off ourselves and onto this immediate need. Remember also to set aside time to pray for those who are suffering right now.