In October 2012 I spent 3 weeks living in a village, recording and
producing a video of the book of Luke in the Ura language. Being a
video guy and wanting all those partnering with us back in the U.S. to
be shown what was going on, I shot a lot of video.
At the end of that video the translators I went to work with, expressed
their gratitude for my work, and gave a testimony of what my work meant
to their people and their project.
It was possibly the most meaningful video footage I've ever shot.
Being paranoid because it was on SD card only, and knowing that my
camera may go missing one day. I squirrelled the SD cards away for this
week. This week was the week I had planned to edit that video and bring
it to life and send it to churches and partners and supporters so that
they would feel the impact of what they brought to bear.
I took out my SD cards this week and the footage was gone. It was gone
from my backups, it was gone from all of my systems (work and home). It
was gone.
And I have mourned the loss. Not because I'll never get to relive what
I've lived, but because none of it would have been possible without your
partnership. I wanted to give you the next best thing to having been there.
But I can't, because it's gone.
If I would have been given the chance to stand up in front of a church
and speak for 5 minutes, I would have simply shown the video. It was
that communicative.
This is what you WOULD have walked away with:
-Kokopo is a beautiful place, but the people need God's Word.
-With your partnership, together we achieved giving them the experience
of SEEING Jesus Christ and HEARING Him speak in their own language.
-You would have seen people crying at the realization that Christ loves
them.
-You would have seen sweat and labor put into the process of making that
happen, hikes, heat, bugs, and small rooms.
-You have have seen and heard from people who have been working towards
this for decades tell you how our family personally has contributed to
the realization this video.
But you don't get to see any of that now.
I am upset about that.
I want you so badly to realize what is going on over in this country.
How God's Word needs to push back the spiritual war, and change lives
through saving souls.
HOW could I show you this spiritual battle? How could I explain how much
the enemy doesn't want to let go of people to God?
And then it hit me.
The loss of this video footage could be a simple oversight, it could
have been that I got too busy, lost concentration, put off the project
for too long, lost the footage.
Or,
it could be the result of spiritual warfare. I know that right now I'm
very much battling discouragement and anger at the loss of it.
BUT....
then I sat and prayed against it... and God's timing is crazy
wonderful. I got a very encouraging email from friends minutes from
saying 'Amen'.
God is at work here, and I'll find a way to show you.
Be prepared. This loss of the footage for this 1 video has inspired me
to being home with us in June a DOZEN videos!!! We'll have so many
videos to show you'll be overwhelmed with everything going on.
So next time you see me, ask me 'Hey Chad, can you show me one of those
videos of what's going on in PNG?'
and I'll say 'YES!'
I have 9 right now, and hoping to make more.
