(Or, four. What day is it?)

Hey everybody!

So, we survived the CB : First Cut premiere, and we’re oh-so-slowly reassembling the Bedouins loft. We took all the folding chairs back to Avondale Methodist today, and packed up the projector and screen (but not before watching The Dark Knight, nach). About eighty people showed up on Saturday, thanks much to everybody, and even though we had an overflow room, everyone stayed in 508, so it was cheek to jowl all night. Mad fun.

In keeping with the theme, Jessi made about a thousand tiny vanilla cupcakes, and Mighty Leaf Tea donated a bunch of vanilla tea, which was really nice. So everybody had a snack and sat together in the flickering dark, while I paced around the back of the room. I’d never had a premiere before, and it was the longest project I’ve undertaken by about twenty minutes, so I had absolutely no idea how it would be received.

We had an overwhelmingly positive response, which was really gratifying, and most importantly, Anne and Stephanie really liked the movie. I talked to pretty much everybody, so I have a good idea of what works, and what I need to fix, and I’m going to take care of that… Right after the new year. I need a break.

Thanks again to everybody who came out, bought art, and gave feedback and encouragement. Thanks also to Mighty Leaf Tea, Urban Standard, and our other sponsors for the night, who I forget right now but I’m sure Stephen will remind me of later. We’ll have the remaining prints for sale on the site soon, and sometime in the new year, we’ll have a premiere proper, for the movie in its final form.

Merry Christmas from the Bedouins! God bless us, everyone!

I think the title about sums it up. It’s the day before. We’re almost there. Everyone’s fired up with excitement to get to share Anne and Stephanie’s story with the world. I hope that you’re going to be there. And you. Yup…You. Tomorrow…6:30. Be there…I’ll be waiting to meet you and tell you all about Haiti and what you can do to start changing the world less than 2 hours from your own backyard.

-Stephen

Tuesday! Which means… Yeah, I need two more of me, and thirty hours in a day, from here until Saturday.

God is good! We went down to the last-ever Encouter last night, which was pretty amazing. I haven’t been hoarse from worship in a long time. It was great to see everybody, and it was really great not to be sitting in front of Final Cut for an afternoon.

We also went down to kidnap some tech from the Encounter office. We have a projector at the house, but it’s kind of old, so we asked Matt if we could borrow Encounter’s super, super nice Christie projectors for our premiere. He said, “sure!” I love Matt. So if you’re coming up on Saturday, know that you’ll experience the mess I’ve made in full HD. The only snag was that we had to wait for the Encounter teardown crew to finish… well, tearing down, before we could grab the projectors and screens. We ended up leaving Auburn at about 12:30, got back to the Phoenix at close to 3, and here I am, back up and typing this at 8:15. Oh well. Philippians 4:13 is going to be my verse for the day.

Just want to offer up a prayer for Encounter as they get ready for this next phase… Lord, bless their efforts, clear the way for them, and give them favor with the authorities at every step along the way, as they make the move to Hong Kong. Your glory, Lord, all over Matt and his crew.

Amen! See you soon…

Those of you who read my personal blog already saw this…but for the rest of you, our first print came in today for the premiere!  It looks amazing…I can’t wait to see the rest of them.  Paul’s been plugging away at the movie and I’ve been sitting back waiting my turn to work, and now I get to cut mats, frame and hang…so my time has come.  I hope to see you all here on the 13th!

-Stephen

Between the day job and this here documentary, I think I’m as busy as I’ve ever been… Yet, here I am with a blog. You’re quite welcome.

I was talking with Stephen tonight about love, and specifically what it means to love, like really love, God. I’m paraphrasing here, because the conversation was pretty long, but if our relationships here are models, however flawed, for our relationship with our Father, what does that say about our ability to love Him? Put another way: if we can’t (and, we can’t) choose who we love here, on this terrestrial ball, how do we begin to love God? Sometimes it seems like all I have is a desire to desire Him. I meta-desire Him. I meta-love my Father, who gave me life, and all the authority and riches of Heaven.

Oof. I need a breath…