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!

-Stephen

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…

-Stephen

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…

Speaking of, I guess there’s a game on, this weekend? Someone told me about a game… You know, out there. On the gridiron.

I don’t actually know anything about football.

Anyway, two weeks until the premier! That’s pretty scary. I have to be honest: I have a lot of work to do in the intervening days. But by God’s grace, it’ll be there. We’re really excited about it. As you probably know, we’ve got the page up: bedouinsinternational.org/caribbeangold. Tell your friends.

In other news, I don’t have a voice for narration. It’s just so bad. I do twenty takes for one line of dialog. Maybe I should sing the voiceover parts? That would be unique…

Edit: Actually, scratch that. We’re supposed to be a worldwide, collaborative media organization, right? So, does anybody out there on the webs want to donate their time and talent, narrating our Haiti documentary? We’ll supply the copy, and you supply the strong, clear voice. There’s no money, but we’ll give you a professionally sharpied Bedouins International t-shirt, one of our fabulous buttons, and credit in the… well, credits.

We had a board meeting this weekend, peeps in town from all over. It was fun, but more importantly it really set the tone for the next year, and I’m excited to see what’s coming down the pike. Biscuet led it from China(!) which was interesting, and occasionally funny, as the movin’ picture streamin’ box had to catch up with itself, leaving the top half of his face on the left side of the screen, and the bottom half, misplaced and horribly scrambled.

I need coffee.

Still digging through footage… Here’s Stephen and Jessi, enjoying a relaxing drive through the savanna. Standing up. In the bed of a chartered death trap. At 60 MPH.

For this project I’m having to learn Color and Motion, industrial-strength applications for color timing and motion graphics, respectively. It’s fun, but it’s a lot of work. God is helping me absorb this stuff at an accelerated rate, which is great because I already need about 30 hours a day.

And, back to it. Whee!

As we made our way through the market, negotiating for fifty pounds of rice here, a dozen peppers there, we secured the services of a man with a wheelbarrow. This is different than saying that he was a man who owned a wheelbarrow, as the man and the wheelbarrow were a matched set: where the latter went, the former followed, and never were they parted. I feel confident saying that the wheelbarrow comprised the better part of his livelihood, and his possessions.

It wasn’t until a half hour into our acquaintance that I made a closer examination of the bright designs covering his barrow. MERCI BONDIEN, or bountiful thanks, was emblazoned on the sides and front, and the handles and wooden frame were covered in scripture references, painted with a careful hand.

The one that stuck with me, long after we’d paid him for his help and struck out for Coco Beach, was 1 Rois 18:39, which decorated the right handle: When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God!”

Awesome…

The trailer for the movie is coming along nicely, and very soon we’ll have the Haiti page live… I can’t wait for you guys to see it. Josh brung it, for reals.

Thanks for reading! God bless your smiling faces…

Paul