Some were asking where they could find the video we used to post that shows what happens when a big brother comes home from college and teaches his little sister how to suck a spaghetti noodle up her nose.

Young directors usually start by making short TV spots for non-profits called PSA’s (public service announcements). a 30-60 second PSA may take five days to shoot and produce. In the exercise you learn most of the fundamentals of telling a story well in the least possible shots which is good practice for later when you work up to longer pieces. I have a team of four (Lucky, Elzet, Chris and me) at Media Village, here in Cape Town, South Africa. We shot this over two nights. The first night we got caught in an unexpected winter rain. It was cold and we all got soaked (camera too). We ended up with great footage of the robbery and arrest (about 20 seconds worth). Then the rain stopped and we were faced with a problem. Half of our sequence would be wet and half dry. We didn’t want to reshoot everything so we decided that we had to learn to fake rain like Hollywood does. In half the shots it wasn’t really raining (maybe I will tell you another time how we did it). Hope you enjoy it. We won an award at the Cable Awards in Cape Town for this short video.

At the Cable Awards here in Cape Town I won the award “best producer” for the video above. This was a win for all of us on the team. Nobody makes a good video alone. This one was the true story of a lady we met patrolling the streets at night while shooting our other video. Her name was Gwen Holmes. She had a 13 year old son gunned down on the playground four years ago and consequently joined the Neighborhood Watch program. She began patrolling the streets at night armed only with the authority of a mother. Gutsy woman. Then a month ago, her 22 year old was exiting a grocery store when he got caught in a drive-by shooting between two gangs and was killed. She thought about it for two weeks, cried and had some hard talks with the Lord, then she went back to the streets and began walking her nightly beat again. Our family got to know hers pretty well and we spent about 30 hours on the streets of a dangerous township filming this 8 minute video. It may take you a few minutes to stream this video so please be patient. this was the most advanced thing I had ever attempted in video. Hope you enjoy it. Please post your comments.

Rwanda–nowadays most people only think of genocide at the sound of that name. They grow great coffee and have lots of gorillas roaming free also, but mostly we know Rwanda as the place where people killed their neighbors for 90 days until one million bodies were littered across the land. One of the students here was there. He watched his uncles gathering around the house talking. Then they started out across the yard to the neighbors with machettes in hand. They chased his playmate and his family up a tree and told them that they might as well come down. Then they killed them all. Children first.

The student said, “This killing was caused by stories. None of us have ever experienced cruelty from the Tutsis. That was over 100 years ago. But our grandparents told the stories over and over so that we hated them and said they needed to die.” One thing that tells you a lot about a person is the stories they tell and retell throughout their lives. What stories are you telling?

I had a fellow student at Media Village tell me today about an event that happened during criminology class he took. As the students were focused on the teacher working at the board, a man came in from the hall and snatched her computer bag and ran away. Some of the guys got up to chase him and the teacher stopped them, “You are all eyewitnesses. Write down exactly what you saw.” Some had the man black, others white. He was somewhere between five and six feet tall. Some said he took the purse. The point was that human perception is always affected by emotion and is unreliable as a source of “truth.” I notice that I trust the factual nature of my memories less, especially when I revisit my journal entries, made just after the events, and find that the details are often vastly different from my memory. As Dr. Phil puts it, “Perception is reality.” I think that’s why we need to give each other extra grace, especially in times of stress and conflict when we are all certain that we are right. this is true, as individuals and as nations.

Recuperating today from what turned out to be a much less minor surgical exploration than I had thought. I.V. sedation, full O.R. (I was in a holding pattern on the stretcher for an hour till the same doctor finished a brain surgery on the guy next to me). The doctor went in through the ear canal, lifted the tympanic membrane and repaired a probably fistula at the end of the middle ear. Filled the middle ear with “caulk” (my word) then closed the lid. Three weeks to heal completely. Quite a bit of pain and some bleeding yesterday.

It was a 12 hour day (but less than one hour in the actual surgery). Grateful to my dear friend, Jorge Silva, who came to the hospital at 5PM and found me just coming out of surgery and back into my room & too tired and looped to leave. He sat patiently watching me sleep off and on for the next two hours. The doctor said he has now done all there is to do. Gives me a 50% chance of recovering some of the lost hearing (but no estimates on how much). I am adjusting to the differences in hearing from before. The first week i was so disoriented that I could only notice how much hearing I had lost and how distorted everything was even in my good ear.

By now, i notice how much hearing I have (it is clearing up in the ‘good ear’ also) and am able to interact with people much easier although it requires sooooo much more effort than before due to having to read lips and look for other cues versus being able to listen and talk to people absent-mindedly. On the bright side, everyone is definitely going to have more of my attention when speaking than they ever got before.

I plan to fly back to Manila on Monday. It was really amazing that i could get in at the House Ear Clinic (reputed to be the best in the world) with 12 hours notice and get a surgery the next day. The hospital people along the chain throughout the day were amazed that the process all happened so quickly. I flew from Manila, met the doctor, was diagnosed, checked into my room, & got a surgery all in the space of about 48 hours including my flying time from Manila to Tokyo to LA. Wow! Thank you Lord! And thanks to all the rest who prayed for me all along this journey. It will be 4 months till I know how much hearing I have restored.

I am writing you today from the House Ear Clinic, in Los Angeles. I knew I was in the right place when I saw their motto, “That all may hear.” (Sounded like a missions agency). They are well recognized and i have confidence in their care. I am scheduled for a minor surgical exploration today. Trying to discover why my hearing in the right ear (my good ear) was suddenly lost 8 days ago. Looking around the room at those with total deafness and one with scars across his head I am again reminded that I have a minor problem. My life is so blessed. I would love to be able to live out my days without ever making another complaint about anything. I will try to start today.

Since the harvest is practically just a harvest of youth and young adults, it is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of using music and modern media to communicate to them. Today was an example. I am in Thailand with our team of four missionaries, all in their 20’s. We were invited to address 1,500 freshmen at the local University who were gathered for sort of an orientation. After others talked for over an hour our team stepped up and simply said, “We wrote a song just for you. Its about fear holding you back. This song says “This time I’m going to leave fear behind, cause this is my time!” They sang it twice and everyone knew it by heart. Then they were asked to sing it again at the close of the meeting.
The meeting was dismissed and about half the crowd just sat in their chairs. Imagine holding the attention of 700+ 18 year olds who had been there for two hours already. The crowd started shouting “More! Sing another song.” Our group sang Ronan Keating’s “When you say nothing at all” and the whole crowd sang along. Still they wouldn’t leave. We sang another and finally just had to leave the stage. Music is the language of the heart. Its message is trans-cultural and through it words are memorized. The Asian church has to be a singing church.