For the past several years, I've been part of the AV tech team that helps produce our annual OMS conference. One year ago I was asked to be a member of the planning committee for these conferences which gave me an opportunity to help determine how these conferences were going to look in the future. One of the ideas that has come out of our planning is the idea of doing short one night events at various churches across the United States as opposed to a single large event in Indiana. Tonight we started to see some of the first fruits of this idea.
We started with a road trip to the Northeast, visiting Rochester tonight. Tomorrow it's on to Houghton, NY then East Springfield, PA on Wednesday and finally Hudson, Ohio on Thursday as we make our way back to Indianapolis Friday.
The first event tonight was a grand way to get things started. We had a wonderful group of about 80 people turn out and there was a great enthusiasm amongst them to learn more about missions. Personally I had a great time working with a group of youth from the church to run the AV equipment. It brought back fond memories of my times working at my home church in Oregon running the videos, power-points, and sound. If the rest of our events are half this good, we will be incredibly blessed.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Haiti Earthquake Survivors
Watch the videos below as survivors from the Haiti earthquake tell their stories to an OMS missionary.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Lost and Found
I recently received an email from one of the universities that I attended, stating that I was a “lost alumni.” Fortunately, one of my friends was able to give the school my email address so I could be found again! As I read the letter, I laughed to myself because of the understated irony that statement contained. Indeed, to many people I have been lost for quite some time now. I assure you though, that I'm not lost!
June and July have proved to be very busy months. In the weeks leading up to the OMS conference I worked some very long days trying to get everything done. In the end though, our department managed to produce and edit 8 videos, several power-point presentations, and a host of other "small" projects within our deadlines. I've copied a few of the videos we created below for you to check out. Enjoy!
June and July have proved to be very busy months. In the weeks leading up to the OMS conference I worked some very long days trying to get everything done. In the end though, our department managed to produce and edit 8 videos, several power-point presentations, and a host of other "small" projects within our deadlines. I've copied a few of the videos we created below for you to check out. Enjoy!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Missionary Month?
If May is the month for speed in Indiana, June might as well be the month for Missionaries. At least within the world of OMS. Every year, during the month of June, OMS holds it's missions conference and many of our missionaries come home to represent the work happening in their respective countries. Added to all of this, the OMS board of directors always meets in June which means every department is responsible for putting together it's board reports. It makes for one very, very busy month around the headquarters.
The communications group is particularly busy with all the happenings. These days I find myself sitting in on planning meetings for the conference(we are providing all the audio, video, and lighting support), working on producing videos(6 of them) for the conference itself, along with continuing our "normal" work.
Speaking of normal work, I'm continuing to slowly process my video footage from my trip to Africa. As soon as the month of June is over, the next big task for our department is to begin focusing all our efforts upon getting a new DVD produced for OMS. We have been given a January deadline for this to be finished so there is a lot of work ahead.
The communications group is particularly busy with all the happenings. These days I find myself sitting in on planning meetings for the conference(we are providing all the audio, video, and lighting support), working on producing videos(6 of them) for the conference itself, along with continuing our "normal" work.
Speaking of normal work, I'm continuing to slowly process my video footage from my trip to Africa. As soon as the month of June is over, the next big task for our department is to begin focusing all our efforts upon getting a new DVD produced for OMS. We have been given a January deadline for this to be finished so there is a lot of work ahead.
Speed Month
The month of May in Indiana is commonly referred to as "Speed Month" among the locals and for good reason. Every year, hundreds of thousands of spectators turn out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the world famous Indy 500 race. I grew up watching the race as a kid and I've had an interest in racing all my life but one thing I didn't know was just how many events there are leading up to the actual race itself. As a new resident to Indiana I've been really surprised by it all.
One event I got to attend was the Pole day qualifications. I was given a free ticket by a friend to attend and I must say it was almost as enjoyable as the race itself. I did end up attending the race with a friend of mine from work. All in all, it was a fun month that lived up to it's name as it was here and gone in no time at all.
I made a little video of the race day itself. Click here to watch it.
One event I got to attend was the Pole day qualifications. I was given a free ticket by a friend to attend and I must say it was almost as enjoyable as the race itself. I did end up attending the race with a friend of mine from work. All in all, it was a fun month that lived up to it's name as it was here and gone in no time at all.
I made a little video of the race day itself. Click here to watch it.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Reflections on Africa
I recently arrived back home in Indiana from a 5 week trip that I took to Africa and I've been struggling to process all that happened on my trip. I had intended to make frequent updates to my blog while I was gone but I should have known better than to think I could do that. After all, I was heading to Africa...a land that struggles to provide water and electricity, never mind the internet. Anyway, I kept a decent journal of my travels while I was gone, and I've gone back over them to put together the story of my trip. The blog entries are back dated so that they appear in the chronological order that I wrote them. If you want to read about my trip, take a look at the posts beginning in March 2009!
Friday, April 03, 2009
Heading Home
I've been in South Africa for 4 full days now. I reunited with Andre and Warren and they took me on a trip about 5 hours southeast of Joburg to the city of Howick to visit the ACAT (African Co-operative Action Trust) organization. ACAT has over 30 years experience working in South Africa teaching people about sustainable development. OMS has entered into a partnership with ACAT and we hope to being using their training materials to implement a program throughout Africa where we can train our church congregations how to care for themselves better.
One of the interesting aspects of ACAT's ministry is that they firmly believe that poverty is as much a spiritual condition as it is a physical one. I could spend a long time explaining the reasoning behind this but I'll save that for anyone who is interested enough to ask me. They also distinguish between a person being poor and impoverished...they are not the same thing. As a result of these view points, almost half of the training that ACAT gives to people is centered around the bible and it's teaching. This is an aspect that, while it might seem obvious to Christians, is lacking in almost every other organization that works in these types of projects in Africa. Time and time again, humanitarian organizations neglect to address the spiritual issues related with poverty and only try and treat the physical issues. ACAT (and I would agree) would say these organizations are only treating the symptoms of poverty, not the root causes of it.
From Howick we traveled on to the town of Ladysmith where we visited a Zulu area and see some of the ACAT training being put into practice. We visited a business center where a group women are making clothing and also selling food and have started a catering business as well. We then traveled up the mountain side to visit a village and an agricultural project. The couple who are running the agricultural project shared about how their lives have changed since getting training from ACAT. Both of them have received Jesus as their personal savior and their farm is producing wonderful crops. They have even had a surplus of crops that they've been able to sell to their fellow villagers. They have also begun to host a church in their home and are sharing what they know with those who are willing to learn. These programs were very impressive and I believe ACAT has a good program going. I'm excited for the day when OMS can begin implementing a similar program and can witness similar results throughout Africa where we work.
A women shares how her crops have improved because of ACAT's training
One of the interesting aspects of ACAT's ministry is that they firmly believe that poverty is as much a spiritual condition as it is a physical one. I could spend a long time explaining the reasoning behind this but I'll save that for anyone who is interested enough to ask me. They also distinguish between a person being poor and impoverished...they are not the same thing. As a result of these view points, almost half of the training that ACAT gives to people is centered around the bible and it's teaching. This is an aspect that, while it might seem obvious to Christians, is lacking in almost every other organization that works in these types of projects in Africa. Time and time again, humanitarian organizations neglect to address the spiritual issues related with poverty and only try and treat the physical issues. ACAT (and I would agree) would say these organizations are only treating the symptoms of poverty, not the root causes of it.
From Howick we traveled on to the town of Ladysmith where we visited a Zulu area and see some of the ACAT training being put into practice. We visited a business center where a group women are making clothing and also selling food and have started a catering business as well. We then traveled up the mountain side to visit a village and an agricultural project. The couple who are running the agricultural project shared about how their lives have changed since getting training from ACAT. Both of them have received Jesus as their personal savior and their farm is producing wonderful crops. They have even had a surplus of crops that they've been able to sell to their fellow villagers. They have also begun to host a church in their home and are sharing what they know with those who are willing to learn. These programs were very impressive and I believe ACAT has a good program going. I'm excited for the day when OMS can begin implementing a similar program and can witness similar results throughout Africa where we work.
A women shares how her crops have improved because of ACAT's training
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