Been a while since I have blogged and done some video editing. Finished my second year of apprenticeship training and was very busy with a lot of homework. Now that is done and Christy and I got back to our hours of video footage from Malawi and it was great to come at it with fresh eyes.
This particular little boy was a unique visit for us as he had no sponsor yet when we visited his home. They are a beautiful family and I was glad we made the effort to get out to their home on a rainy muddy day. Their house had a few leaks, the Father had worries about keeping his family fed, yet they welcomed us so warmly. After meeting them and knowing he did not have a sponsor yet, we really felt responsible to share his story and get him sponsored. Christy blogged about him the next morning from our guesthouse in Malawi, and later when we got home posted about him on Facebook. I am happy to say that as soon as we got home, a couple from our Church contacted us, stepped up and decided to sponsor him. Mission Accomplished!
When you hear the words gospel or Christian, what is your reaction? Old memories of boring Church? Lots of rules to follow? A group of people who judge? Many people will not even step foot into a Church for fear of being judged, or fear of feeling guilty. The troubling thing to me is, this perception or reaction is brought on by a misunderstanding of what the gospel of Christianity actually is. Unfortunately this has often been perpetuated by many well meaning Christians and Churches.
The message of the gospel contains no judgement at all. The truth is that the gospel, or good news that Christians are supposed to be sharing is the gift of grace. The gift of grace means that we are accepted and loved by God no matter what. Simple, yet so profound and so misunderstood. To live this out in practice means that since God has extended love and grace to me, I should extend the same love and grace to everyone else. There is of course all kinds of theological things discussed and debated, but if you boil down Christianity to one truth, it is that God loved the people of the world so much, that through Jesus he extended grace and freedom for all. So the gospel is really just the good news that God has taken care of us all- we don’t have to achieve anything or follow any rules to receive the gift of grace. Sounds to good to be true, but it is absolute truth. Living with the understanding of that truth is what motivates change in the life of a Christian. I am very thankful for the gift of grace and it motivates me to help take care of Gods people in the world whether they are poor and needy, poor in spirit, across the world or across the street. I am not a big believer in trying to “convert” people, but I am a believer in extending Gods grace to others. After all, grace is the great message of the gospel and it is what he extends to all of us. Christianity to me, is just living in light of this truth, and in a way that says thank you to God for being so gracious with me. If someone wants to understand my motivation, I will happily explain. The same love acceptance and grace that we all crave, has already been offered to us. This Easter, ponder this truth. It may surprise you.
Who is my neighbor? The answer to this question that has been redefined for me over the last couple of years. People across the globe use to seem far away and strange to me. They dressed differently, sounded differently and I didn’t think I had much in common with them. However after actually meeting them in person, they don’t feel as strange and far away to me anymore. Yes they have different languages, customs, clothing and way of living- but in many important ways we are exactly the same. They value and want to take care of their family and friends, give their children the best possible future, and even have some fun and tell a joke from time to time. We are all much more alike under the surface than we first expect, and the more I travel, the more this has proven to be true. So now to me, I define neighbor is people I come into contact with whether by location, interest or travel. So this next video is a cool connection for me, as our next door neighbors decided to sponsor a little boy through World Vision in Malawi named Talindila. We then got to visit this cute little boy and his family in his own neighborhood, and even got invited inside their home as part of our World Vision destination life change trip to Malawi. Next door neighbors, helping out a little boy not so next door, but a continent or two over. How many of us actually even know who our neighbors are, much less visit inside their house? Really makes you think about who really are our neighbors in a world becoming so connected and smaller every day. Imagine if every home in a Canadian neighborhood sponsored a child in developing countries neighborhood- what a huge impact that would have! Time to meet Talindila and his family!
I have always said, you can’t undo what you know. You can ignore what you know and do nothing, but you still know. It is knowing what we know about Africa that drives Christy and I to continue to make videos of what we saw in Malawi. Below is a filmmaker who saw and experienced something, and could not ignore what he saw and did something about it. Whether you sponsor a child with World Vision, or donate to TRY, many people making a small step in the same direction can create great change- watch and see what his passion ignited. And to the notorious Joseph Kony, in the immortal words of Billy the Kid from Young Guns -”I ‘ll make you famous!”
Another video visit has left the editing cutting room and made the final cut. We actually met this child by chance on another group visit that we didn’t expect her to be at, so we had to present her with the sponsors gifts the next day. She was so patient and gracious, and the look of thankfulness and appreciation on the mothers face is just priceless. Sometimes things don’t always go as planned, but in this case due to a mix up we got to meet this child not once, but twice finishing with a nice walk to see her village and home. This visit is a great example of how much the sponsored child and family so appreciates and treasures letters and photos from their sponsors here back in Canada!
This was a visit that took some effort. After all the traveling by plane and jeep to get the southern part of Malawi, the jeep had brought us as far as we could go. No more roads and paths anymore. We had come inland enough that it was time for a hike where no vehicles could travel. We were hot and exhausted, the temperature was +36C at nearly 100% humidity and the sun was like a laser. We were both given hats by one of our team members to keep us from overheating, and off we went. After over a hard half hour of brisk hiking in the heat, we were met on the trail by friends and family of the sponsored child. They greeted us with song and our spirits lifted. Not an easy visit, but one of the best and most memorable. It gave us new respect for the local World Vision workers who have to trek back and forth to bring letters from sponsors in Canada. Visiting Misheck was easily worth the walk.
In preparing for our visits in Malawi Christy and I realized something peculiar. Two of the children we were to visit, who had been sponsored by two unrelated families, had sequential ID numbers from World Vision. That meant that they had likely been entered into the program at the same time. They looked a bit alike, so we did some digging and found out they were indeed siblings. So Christy’s parents, and a family Christy had met at the preschool where she works, together are giving these siblings hope for a better future. Travel along with us in meeting Everyn & Stephano!
This video is a good example of the child visits we did in Malawi. The technical aspect of capturing these visits was challenging. Many days we were worried about batteries running out and memory cards getting full- so it was hard to chose what to shoot. We wanted to capture it all, but technically that was just not possible. We had to pick and choose what would be important. Sometimes we missed things, and sometimes we got lucky. It was very hard to predict what was going to happen. This particular day things were going well. We had full batteries, room on our camera cards and got great footage. This video also gave us some technical issues with the audio timing and took a great deal of effort to get it all fixed and up on the web- but I think it’s worth it. This is on my Vimeo account as well, but due to their file size limit, the resolution was reduced. So here is the sharper 720p version from Christy’s YouTube account. You may have to select 720p on the bottom to get the full sharpness as YouTube will probably default to a lower resolution. Enjoy!
I am through the holidays and feeling a bit unsettled. My brain has not wanted to create easily, not sleeping the best. I saw so much in Africa. At the end of my Christmas break from work, I was just beginning to feel like I was ready to write and edit more video footage. I begin to start, but then I feel like I want to sit on the couch, watch old movies and sleep. Why?
Well I am not really sure, but I suspect my brain is full and still processing. I chose to show the picture above with many faces and expressions and moods because in a small way, it encapsulates what I experienced. I feel deeply and have a sensitive tactile memory of their eyes, hands, face, energy, hope, and lust for life. The stories and videos will come, but for now it seems they cannot be coaxed out easily or predictably. Reflecting well and honestly is hard. It takes a lot of effort; but is worth the work. Africa is sweet and sour, simple and complicated. It is the best place in the world, and worst at the same time. It reflects the shiny brilliance of the children’s eyes’ and the grimy mud between their toes. It is soul filling and heartbreaking. It is worthy of reflecting, despite the dissonance.
Generosity is real and makes a difference. Whether its here at home, or on the other side of the world- it creates lasting change. My words will be few, the video is more than words…
