Filed under: Film | Tags: American Bike Race, biking, Emilysfilms, RAAM, Race Across America, racing, Team 409, world's toughest bike race
This is the trailer for my upcoming documentary, Team 409: Oceanside to Annapolis.
The film follows the 3,000 mile journey of four bike racers who are out to reclaim their coast-to-coast speed record in RAAM (Race Across America) 2010. Aside from setting the record and finishing safely, the team’s main goal is to finish “the world’s toughest bike race” as friends.
This feature-length documentary will be released to the public in Spring 2011. For the most recent news on production, please visit team409.com.
Rolling over, I pushed the snooze button on my alarm clock. It was late. I needed to get to school. I got dressed, grabbed my books, forced down some cold cereal, and headed off…to the living room.
This was the beginning of a normal weekday for me. I was home-schooled through all of high school. I didn’t experience the daily routine of riding the bus, going to class, and engaging in afterschool activities. However, I learned lessons during those years that I never would have discovered in a classroom.
Although the words “home schooling” seem to indicate that learning must take place at home, this isn’t always the case. A growing number of families are discovering home-schooling as a way to maintain an active and adventuresome lifestyle on the road.
Studies conducted by The National Center for Education indicate that while the number of home-schooled students in the U.S. is rapidly increasing (up from 1.7 percent of students in 1999, to 2.2 percent in 2003), the reasons families choose to home educate is greatly varied. For instance, most families had multiple reasons for choosing to home-school, the greatest reason being concerns about the school environment. A smaller number of home-schoolers said they did it for greater flexibility over schedules and curriculums.
This flexibility was what made home schooling appeal to me during my high school years. It fit my lifestyle perfectly. As an on-the-go person, I spent the majority of my time working, traveling, and pursuing my dream of making films. The flexibility allowed me to intern for local TV companies, including Real Bean Entertainment, and work on film projects in the middle of the school year, with companies such as DAC Films in the Quad Cities.
While I used the flexibility as a way to practice my films, other families use the flexibility as a way to take children on one-in-a-lifetime adventures. Sheila Sherwin is a mother from Wisconsin pulled her son out of the 5th grade to hike the Appalachian Trail.
“My son…was not yet totally swept up in the rebellious behavior,” Sherwin writes, “but knowing him, knowing that he needs to move his body a lot I felt certain that as he got a bit further into this adolescent shift he too would feel increasingly frustrated by the confines of the classroom.”
Sherwin says that her son Will asked her to spell out what the trail would be like, verses staying in public school.
“‘It won’t always be fun.’ I said. ‘It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be challenging.’
“‘I want to hike the trail’ he replied.
“‘But wait, we haven’t even talked about what it would be like if you stayed in school!’ I protested.
“‘I want to hike the trail,’ he insisted… ‘I want a challenge.’”
So Sherwin and her son and his friend Jakob set out on their adventure in September. The first challenge they faced was climbing to the peak of Mt. Katahdin.
“Though we set out enthusiastically, the weight of the packs (filled with 10 days of food) quickly sobered the boys into recognition that this journey would be a far greater challenge than they had anticipated,” Sherwin writes. “Days turned into weeks, and we quickly found our rhythms: hiking, eating, purifying water, setting up camp and dismantling it the next day.”
Sherwin describes the educational activities that kept her and the boys occupied on their trip. “We studied geology as we watched the composition of the rocks we walked upon change by state. We studied math as we calculated times and distances, and played many rounds of cards. And we read stories about Roman kings and warriors in the evenings. But the simplicity of these rhythms was matched by the challenges of weather, terrain, and logistics, all of which pushed our patience and stamina to the limit more than once. After six weeks of walking, we had covered nearly 500 miles, and come away with a profound experience.”
My personal experience was similar in that my family took frequent “fieldtrips” across the country during the school year. We purchased a large, slightly used popup camper and took our school on the road. When we stopped in towns, we didn’t just sightsee – we explored them and learned their history. I saw images from my textbooks come alive in places like Gettysburg, Philadelphia, the Smithsonian in Washington DC, Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home, and San Francisco.
I studied science in places like the Baltimore Aquarium, the shores of Lake Michigan, the Grand Canyon, and the Redwood Forests. Instead of reading about these places one minute and forgetting about them the next, they were engrained in my memory.
I put my video skills to use by documenting and editing these trips for future reference. In addition, I wrote, directed, shot and edited numerous short films during high school. A few of these films went on to win national awards at film festivals around the country. I made a historical film about the Holocaust called The Light of a Candle that won the award for Best Production Value at the WYSIWYG International Film Festival in California. My parents, my four siblings and I piled into the camper and drove halfway across the country to attend the festival and accept the award.
Home-schooling has opened my eyes to the learning that takes place on a daily basis. Learning means going places, absorbing information, and truly understanding it. Sherwin explains how taking home schooling on the Appalachian Trail gave Will and Jakob more than just head knowledge.
“[The boys] learned that we sometimes need to rely on the kindness of strangers, and they learned that they are many kind people in the world,” writes Sherwin. “They learned the value of cooperation and the importance of kindness and patience – even when you don’t feel like being kind and patient… Though I doubt that Will or Jakob will be able to articulate what they learned on this trip for quite some time, they came away changed.”
And isn’t the goal of all learning to come away changed? My goal is to pass this form of learning down to my own future children. Not only do I want to teach them in an innovative way, I want to create memories with my children that will last a lifetime.
Sources:
Sheila Sherwin (Christopherus Homeschool Resources)
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) – nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool
http://www.letshomeschool.com/articles39.html
Filed under: Feautres, Sample Writing | Tags: edward crim, photographry, st louis, wedding
Choosing a wedding photographer is one of the biggest decisions you need to make before your big day. Many factors affect which photographer you should choose. Style, personality, and price are just a few of the factors to take into consideration.
Edward Crim is a local expert on wedding photography, as he has been one of the leading wedding photographers in the St. Louis area for over 20 years. Crim invites you to come along on a wedding in order to learn about wedding photographers and what you can expect on the day of the event.
Today Crim is shooting a large wedding in downtown St. Louis. “What I do on the day of the wedding depends largely on what the bride wants,” says Crim. “The bride is really my primary client.”
The wedding is at 1:00 p.m. Crim’s day begins with coffee and donuts at his home studio.
10:55 a.m. – Crim packs up his gear. “I always pack two,” he says. There is two of everything—two cameras for him and his assistant, two flashes for each camera, etc.
11:16 a.m. – Jenny, Crim’s assistant, arrives. She has her long hair pulled back, ready to work. She grabs a cup of joe from Crim’s kitchen counter.
11:20 a.m. – The gear is stowed in Crim’s brown sedan and ready to go. Crim’s overweight cat is on the front porch, bidding him farewell.
Crim says he will usually arrive at the ceremony site about an hour and a half before the wedding. “Typically in St. Louis what I will do is meet at the place where the wedding is going to be – typically a church – and get photos of the bride and her parents individually and together. Usually [I get] individual photos of the bride with each of her bridesmaids. And I’ll do the same thing with the groom before the wedding.” Bringing his assistant makes this process much easier, says Crim, especially if the bride doesn’t want to be seen by the groom before the wedding.
11:30 a.m. – The groom and his men are having brunch at the groom’s house. They are dressed and ready to go. Crim dons two cameras and snaps some candid shots of the boys.
11:45 a.m. – The sedan pulls up to the church, which is just barely beginning to fill with energy. Crim and Jenny grab photographs of the church exterior and the close-up shots of the flowers when they arrive.
12:00 p.m. – The bride and her family arrive, apologizing for their tardiness. Crim snaps photographs of them coming into the church with their dresses and accessories in tow.
12:12 p.m. – Jenny follows the bride and her bridesmaids to the changing room to capture candid shots of them getting dressed.
12:14 p.m. – More family members start to arrive, and the energy in the church builds. Crim takes some posed shots of the groom and his men in the church.
“I know when to step up and take charge to get the photos and when to fade into the background,” says Crim. “That’s very important.” As more guests arrive, Crim steps back and lets the groomsmen relax and get into place. Crim smiles, “You do not want a camera Nazi on your wedding day, thinking that it’s all about him and getting photos. Your photographer is your servant. He’s there to get what you want.”
Greg and Katie Berger chose Edward Crim to shoot their wedding back in November. Katie Berger says that they chose Crim over another photographer primarily because of his personality. “We’ve been to weddings where photographers were totally in the way,” says Katie. “But even my mom said ‘I didn’t even notice he was there unless we needed him to be there.’”
Katie Berger’s husband Greg Berger nods, adding, “We decided early on that we wanted to go with an independent because Katie had had some experiences at other weddings with conglomerate companies who were relatively rude and impersonal… And I wanted someone who was independent because I knew they were going to care about it—it was their product.”
12:45 p.m. —Edward Crim and his assistant are in their places at the front and back of the church while the guests are seated and the wedding party begins to line up. A live string quartet begins to play.
“As the bride and her bridesmaids and the others are coming down the aisle, normally I’ll cover that,” says Crim. “My assistant is in the back getting last-minute shots of the bride and her dad, and the bride from the back as she’s coming down the aisle. We try to cover the event, pretty much from all of the angles.”
1:00 p.m. – The ceremony starts, and the guests quiet down to watch the processional. Crim takes photos of each person coming down the aisle, while maintaining a low profile.
1:15 p.m. – The vows are read and the rings are exchanged.
Crim says that during the ceremony, he is careful to follow whatever rules are put forth by the ceremony site. “Depending on where the ceremony is held, I may be able to take a couple of flash pictures during the ceremony,” says Crim. “So we’ll get close-ups of the bride and groom during the ceremony, usually without a flash. And then pictures of the ring exchange with flash if it’s allowed.”
1:55 p.m. – The recessional finishes up and guests start to leave the church. “After the ceremony we’ll get photos of the bride and groom coming back down and the interaction that happens,” says Crim.
2:07 p.m. – In lieu of a receiving line, this bride and groom have opted to take family photographs in the church. Crim steps up and takes command to get the shots as fluidly as possible. Photo after photo is taken in rapid succession. Jenny helps coordinate relatives and tell them where to stand.
After the church, Crim says the bride will usually want to go somewhere else for photos – maybe Forest Park or Keener Plaza. “There are a number of great places to go in the St. Louis area that make for very attractive photos,” says Crim.
3:40 p.m. – The wedding party piles into their bus. They follow Crim’s sedan to Forest Park.
4:10 p.m. – The party and photographer arrive at the park. Since it is Saturday, there are numerous other wedding parties taking pictures also. The first stop is the Grand Basin in front of the Art Museum. Crim and Jenny direct the wedding party on where to stand, and then let them have fun.
“We try to organize some brief things that photograph well with the wedding party that are fun to do,” says Crim. “People are sometimes amazed that I will get down, in my suit, on the ground to get the angle that I want. I’ll climb up on something (that I’m not too likely to fall off of) to get the angle that I want shooting down. We really, really work hard to get the photos that look great.”
4:30 p.m. – Crim leads the wedding party to a more isolated gazebo in the park where they take more photos, without the hustle and bustle of the Grand Basin.
4:45 p.m. – Everything is packed up and the caravan heads to the reception site: The City Museum.
Crim explains that by this point, he is shooting mostly candid shots. “We try to capture things as they’re happening,” he says. “The bride’s dress being bustled. All the things that go on in a party of happy young people.”
5:00 p.m. – The reception begins and the bride and groom are introduced with their wedding party (sans one 16-year-old bridesmaid who consumed too much alcohol on the bus ride over).
5:16 p.m. – Everyone takes their seats for the toasts and the dinner. As a courtesy, the bride and groom remembered to assign seats for both Crim and his assistant near the center of the room by the head table.
6:00 p.m. – Dancing begins with a live band a colorful light show. Crim maneuvers around the dance floor with his camera held above his head, snapping lively photos of the dancing. Jenny is nearby, prompting the flower girls to strike cute poses.
6:46 p.m. – The couple cuts their cake, while smiling for the dozens of cameras in the room, including Crim’s camera.
“The whole idea about the photos on the wedding day is to show the whole event,” says Crim. “It’s a private record for you to keep. To show all of the family, there are my friends from college. Things of that sort. And then the record of the day as it goes on—where did we go? What did we do? What did the cake look like?”
7:15 p.m. – Crim does one more impromptu photo shoot with the bride and groom as the reception and dancing continue in the background.
7:35 p.m. – After capturing all the photos that the bride wants, Crim says goodbye to the couple and prepares to leave. He has the large task of uploading and reviewing photos ahead of him.
“After the wedding day, my schedule is this: I try to have all of the photos done and a proof book ordered by the week following the wedding,” says Crim. “Once the proof book is in, I notify the couple that it’s ready to pick up. If they’ve purchased the rights to the images on a disk then I have that disk ready and a written release letter for them so they can have them printed wherever they want.”
8:10 p.m. – Crim comes back to his studio and unloads his gear. The overweight feline greets him with a nuzzle. Jenny collects her paycheck and goes home, still full of upbeat energy.
Crim says that before choosing a photographer, a bride should see samples of complete weddings that a photographer has done. “My recommended way to start, and the internet really helps with this, is to look at different photographer’s work,” says Crim. “What’s this photographer’s style? Do you like this style? Does it capture the things that are important to you?”
By viewing entire weddings a photographer has done, Crim says you can see if the photographer leaves things out. For example, did he fail to get pictures with Grandma? “You may not think about that when you’re looking for a photographer, but it’s going to be important to you later,” says Crim.
Secondly, Crim says it is important that you meet the photographer in person before deciding. “What’s he like? Could you stand to spend a whole day with her?” Crim asks. “The personality of the photographer that you’re going to have is going to affect your day for better or for worse.”
Crim says that price should be the last thing a bride looks at. “Price tells us a lot about the quality of the work that you’re going to get,” he says. “A really inexpensive photographer probably is not going to give you really what you want. But it’s not necessary to go to someone who charges what a new car costs to have fantastic photos that you’ll always love.”
Knowing what to expect from your photographer and taking the factors of style, personality, and price into consideration will give you peace of mind on your wedding day. With the right photographer, you can rest assured that the memories will live on forever.
Sources:
Interview – Edward Crim
Interview – Greg and Katie Berger
Web – http://www.edwardcrim.com
Filed under: Feautres, Sample Writing | Tags: Christine, Service Dog, small nerve fiber neuropathy disease, St. Louis Community College Meramec, STLCC, Student, Wheelchair
Christine Salamone, 43, is a tough cookie. She gave birth to her now grown boys at home, completely naturally. “And I can say from experience that I deal with the pain of childbirth every day,” Christine says.
This is the side that Christine usually hides. All that most other Meramec students see of her is a petite, smiling woman in a wheelchair, with her service dog Peetie pulling her from class to class. But the real Christine is a powerful woman who has dealt with more than her fair share of pain, abuse, and depression.
As a child, Christine says that she was abused by her stepfather. She helped prosecute him and then admitted herself into the hospital. After originally studying for years to be a nurse, Christine says she left college without a degree. “I dropped out three months shy of graduating because I had a patient die,” she says. It was shortly after this that Christine was diagnosed with small nerve fiber neuropathy disease. The disease affects Christine’s mobility, energy, and even her eyesight. She says the diagnosis led to another season of depression in her life.
“I don’t want people to see the chair; I want them to see me,” says Christine. She says her husband also worried about her using a chair because it would hinder her talents. However, Christine finds ways to let her talents to teach, create, and tell stories shine through.
“I’m more in touch with who I am and what life is about,” she says. “I have to monitor my energy.” She picks up her Pepsi Zero bottle to help illustrate. “I have a limited amount of energy each day, and I need to decide where to use it.” Any given day Christine chooses to devote her energy to things like driving long distances to come to class, leading one of her study groups, or creating works of art – like the giant Easter Bunny toss game she made for the Meramec Student Activity’s Council Egg Hunt.
Christine says she believes in being invested in her school. She began attending Meramec in 2006 to achieve a degree in Human Services. After the first meeting of her first class, “I caught the bug,” Christine says. “It’s a bug of worthiness.” During the time that she has been on campus, Christine has voluntarily helped tutor her fellow students in study groups every semester. She also started the Human Services Club, petitioned (and succeeded) in having electric doors installed in the Meramec gym, as well as brought attention to previously overlooked drainage issues in the handicapped accessible restrooms.
“I was never a good student growing up,” says Christine. But after attending Meramec and seeing her grades take off, she says she realized her potential. “I’m a 4.0 student,” she says. “I don’t say it to brag…It’s surreal.”
In May Christine and Peetie will walk the stage to receive a hard-earned diploma in Human Services. Christine has been granted several academic scholarships, and most recently, the Chancellor’s Transfer Scholarship from Meramec. “I don’t try to be a role model, but what’s happened to me has happened for a reason. And if people can see me succeed while feeling like I’m in a trash compactor, then that will give them hope.”
Christine says that the downside of many scholarships, including the Chancellor’s Transfer Scholarship, is that they require the awarded student be a full-time student with a minimum of 12 credit hours a semester. With her condition, Christine says this is impossible. “It doesn’t come easy. It’s 10 times harder for me to study than anybody else.” It took Christine four years to achieve her Associates’, and even that was a stretch for her. In spite of the great honor, Christine is unable to accept the $7,000 transfer scholarship because it has no alternate options for disabled students.
Christine has been accepted at UMSL, and says she plans to start attending in the fall. “Leaving Meramec will be hard,” she says quietly, with a glimmer of tears in her eyes. “[The UMSL] campus isn’t as accessible as this one. And it’s 70 miles away from me…it’s a hell of a drive.”
Christine says that it’s possible she may end up getting to another plateau in her life, only to find that she still can’t achieve her goals. But she chooses not to dwell on that possibility. “There’s so much in life and I don’t want to miss out,” she says. “Every day I like to feel like I accomplish something. I will push to get something accomplished.”
She says that an 81-year-old woman once told her: “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle—but your plate is just too big.” Christine says that one thing she’s learned from her experiences is that “When it rains, it pours, but after the sun there’s always a rainbow.”
Christine smiles and pats Peetie. “I live in the enchanted forest,” she says. “I live at the end of the rainbow.”
Filed under: Sample Writing | Tags: cash for clunkers, environment, green, president obama, recycle
The ability to turn a virtually useless scrap of metal into $4,500 toward a new, fuel-efficient vehicle sounded almost too good to be true. It was.
July 27, 2009 marked the beginning of a one-of-a-kind effort President Obama called the Cash for Clunkers plan. Now, nearly a year later, the question remains: Was Cash for Clunkers a success?
In addition to its $3 billion price tag, Cash for Clunkers carries some less-obvious costs. Ironically, the most disturbing data in the Cash for Clunkers debate is not the effect on either the consumers or the economy; it is the effect that the program has on the environment.
In the case of Cash for Clunkers vehicles, “recycling” does not equal “green.” In San Francisco Weekly, Matt Smith writes, “automobile recycling is one of the filthiest toxic-waste-generating industries there is.” When cars are recycled, they are stripped of their non-metal components and placed in a giant metal shredder where their structure is torn apart, and eventually melted down to become “green steel.”
This recycled steel is then used as the basis for new appliances and automobiles. However, over a quarter-ton of non-metal material from each car (seats, bumpers, dashboards, etc.) is not recyclable. These materials simply become highly toxic garbage, far too often containing dangerous levels of lead, PCB’s and zinc.
Smith goes on to write, “According to a 1997 Ford Motor Company report, each shredded automobile produces 500 to 800 pounds of unrecyclable waste. That means the nearly 700,000 additional cars recycled as a result of Cash for Clunkers produced as much as 276,000 tons of toxic garbage.” In addition to this form of waste, automobile recycling plants have a track record for producing toxic tailings and dangerous emissions.
Experts are now saying that the best answer for both the economy and the environment is to maintain your current automobile. Over a period of four years, the Car Care Council says one person can save $10,000 by maintaining a car instead of buying a new one. The Car Care Council says that by scheduling frequent tune-ups and having the oil filter changed every 3,000-6,000 miles, car owners can save money and help preserve the environment.
As much as it claims to help the environment, the Cash for Clunkers program has done more to help the auto scrap industry. By supplying them with 700,000 extra cars to destroy, Cash for Clunkers has fueled an industry that takes useable machines and turns them into toxic waste.
As Stewart Gosswein, used parts spokesperson, puts it: “The bottom line is that [Cash for Clunkers is] taking perfectly good cars and crushing them for no good reason.”
Sources:
• Associated Press. “Key Dates for Cash for Clunkers.”
• Car Care Council. “Caring for Your ‘Clunker.’”
• Smith, Matt. “In Environmental Terms, Cash for Clunkers is a Jalopy.”
• Zeller, Shawn. “Keeping Clunkers on the Road, or at Least in the Junkyard.”
• Gosswein, Stewart quotes from Zeller.
I love the changing of seasons.
They always serve as a reminder of new beginnings and transformations.
I’m already starting to feel this sense of transformation as the wramth of summer fades, and the crispness of Autumn is just around the corner.
I had an increddible summer of working hard, particularly on the set of the indepedently-produced film Logan.
I think everyone on the crew of Logan did a fantastic job, and I learned a lot from it.
I won’t forget the early mornings, coffee runs, ice pickups, late night callsheets, five-minute powernaps, freestyle rap sessions, movie premieres, the snack table with amazing cookies, the on-set photography, the dogs, guinnipigs, and pet duck on set, all the extras, or my favorite words: “day wrapped.”
I’ll remember driving at least an hour and a half a day, picking up equipment from Bad Dog studios, and helping the guys squish it into the trunk of my van.
I’ll remember setting up meals and snacks twice a day, logging hundreds of shots, and meeting new and interesting people each and every day.
What a relief to be finished, and to know that it went smoothly.
Now I’m in a transition stage between shooting ending, and school beginning.
I’ve enjoyed a few wonderful days off with friends, given myself a chance to get back in the zone spiritually.
I’ve had the chance to catch up with my friend Faith, who has been living in Israel for the past year and a half. Conversing about the spiritual warfare, the fulfilling of prophesies, and the broken holiness of Tel Aviv has been enriching to my soul, and inspired me to delve even deeper into the scriptures.
I’m excited to have this week of Sabbath to refresh myself before school starts.
I got to spend a good amount of time with my best friend as well, loitering in Webster Groves, eating Middle Eastern food, listening to music, and making crafts over coffee in an empty McDonalds.
Whenever I get a chance to slow down, I realize how blessed I am. Which is a good thing to realize.
A blog about new beginnings wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the most significant and positive change: my dad was just offered a job. Another testiment to God’s perfect provision for us. After 8 months of being unemployed, today is Dad’s first day of work.
After a summer of filming and trips to Cornerstone and New York, Monday will be my first day of school.
Praise God for new beginnings!
Filed under: Sample Writing
May serving become as natural to you as breathing, that you don’t even need to think about it. -Kyle R.
I’ve realized several things this week, like how often I take simple things for granted…things like unlimited clean water, shelter from the rain, and bathrooms with toilet paper.
Community is also something I overlook more than I should. Most people in New York City seem very disconnected from one another. In a city so huge and so diverse, you would think this was unavoidable. The majority of people are friendly if you talk to them, but they sit on subways and streets with somber faces, clutching their belongings close, and listening to iPods. They look weary and disconnected from those around them.
And yet they are beautiful.
They are glamorous.
They are dirty.
They are human.
They are loved.
As different and as segregated as the bouroughs are, the subways are as diverse as it gets. There is no dress code. There are no minorities. Being crammed on a crowded subway with so many styles, so many languages, and so many ethicities was eye opening and beautiful to me.
The greatest sense of community that I got was at a prayer service we attended at Brooklyn Tabernacle. Hundreds of us gathered together and openly worshiped and prayed to our heavenly father. The people there were warm and genuine, and several of them came to our row and prayed for us, even though they didn’t know who we were or where we were from. It was a fantastic community. They didn’t discriminate or make me feel uncomfortable, yet the pastor didn’t sugarcoat the message. He spoke about rest, and what it means to allow God to move through us in order to accomplish more through him. It challenged me to make more of an effort in my daily life to rest in God’s strength. Right now I’m working seven days a week and I’m almost always tired to some degree. I plan to lighten my schedule when the summer ends, but until my commitments are fulfilled, I intend to take time each day to rest in God and allow him to renew my strength so that I may serve him better.
There was also a moment in the church service where the pastor showed a video from a missions group their church had recently sent to serve in Haiti. It was simple, but truthful. The video showed the needs of a family there, and how the church group had worked to build a church for them. All I could think of was how beautiful the work they did was, and how it was exactly the kind of video I could have made. I realized that the desires God gave me to worship him through video, service projects, and travel could be interconnected. That maybe just part of his plan for me was to go to those places and document what was there, to show people here the truth and encourage them that even the smallest things make a difference.
I also learned this week that in order to serve others, you must start with those close to you. I want to start serving my family and friends better, and then pass it on to the community. This is hard for me, because I tend to think only about the big-picture. But sometimes all you have to do is start it.
This week one of my favorite jobs was painting a mural on a gym wall for a VBS in Queens. I was into it. I felt like I was doing something big. However, we had to leave after only an hour and a half of painting. It felt like we had just started, and gotten nothing done. It was hard for me to leave the project unfinished. But I know that in a week or two another group of volunteers will pick up where we left off, and the project will be one step closer to completion. So even though it doesn’t feel like I’m doing much, even now, I realized that I’m part of something bigger. The body of Christ isn’t about me doing everything and getting all the glory. It’s about me putting in my best efforts, fully relying on the other parts to do the same, and trusting God for the fruit.
So in the end it doesn’t really matter what I do, but how much love I put into it. I pray the Lord would continue to mold my heart and my desires, and use me however He sees fit.
