A Movie We Made

For those of you we haven't seen recently, here's
a family picture of us from last Christmas.

Note: The link I posted for our movie that went out on the emails starts the video part way into it. Here is the link to start it at the beginning. I also corrected it below. I learn something every day!

Hello All. About our movie . . . and how you can watch it . . . in a moment. But first . . .

The Future of This Blog: I haven't posted in well over a year, and have been asking God for guidance on my blog. People are inundated with information these days and I honestly don't want to be a part of more demands on people's time that might take them from time with family, time with God, etc. I recognize that in that 15 months I haven't posted nobody has asked about the blog or why it stopped (beyond basically immediate family) and I am fine with that. But it does tell me that it probably hasn't been a strongly valuable part of people's lives that they are missing.

Here's a teaser from our movie . . .

I originally started my blog for my girls. I wanted to record things that God had showed me that I thought might bless them down the line (I would never expect or even want them to some day try and wade through the collection of almost 50 teachings a year I do, now for 18 plus years). So, I thought I'd jot down the highlights of things God revealed to me in my quiet time, conversations, teaching prep, etc. Then I thought, "If it might bless them, then maybe it would bless someone else, and it's already written—I just need a vehicle to share it . . .". And thus came "A Great God and Good Coffee." As some people close to us started to follow it I thought they'd enjoy my sharing slices of our life since they knew us and cared about us (this is before Facebook and other social media platforms became so big and easy to use) so I started to share special moments in our life as well.

Over the years I battled off and on with wanting to build a following. With needing feedback and comments from people. With starting to feel like I really had something to offer and people ought to want to hear it. (This isn't to say I was posting things that weren't of value, but I started to feel like my blog became a place for me to be a teacher, not just a friend and brother in Christ sharing. I don't know if that makes sense, but there was a shift in me somewhere in the journey that wasn't what it all started out as.) Etc., etc., etc. All stuff, at the core, really about me and my needs, insecurities, etc.

So, all that being said, I don't know if the blog will continue or not. If it does I may strip out all the email subscriptions (after sharing that I will do it) and just see if anyone out there wants to resubscribe, but just go back to the heart of it. Of course, I don't know exactly what that means as I find that when God shares something with me or shows me something I just get excited and want to share it. But I also know that I take a lot more time polishing the writing, putting in pictures, etc., for a post than I would if I was simply jotting it down for my girls, so not getting comments, feedback, etc., you naturally start to wonder if anyone is reading it, anyone cares, etc. It is a strange circle. Your prayers for clarity would be greatly appreciated. I don't have time to waste on something He isn't leading on, and you don't have time or need to be bothered by stuff that He isn't bringing to you.

And, The Title of This Blog, Our Movie: Well, our family has really been getting into cinematography lately (we've always enjoyed making fun movies, but we are over the last few years starting to really study it and trying to make quality videos). At a recent film festival we attended we felt like God told us social media was the platform to make movies for that would impact His Kingdom as they can be shared and spread around easily with no cost for distribution, marketing, etc. Here is a link to the first we have made for an audience beyond our family and friends. We were stunned by the number of hours it took us, but excited about the results. We really were limited by the camera equipment we had (or didn't have, I should say) which kept us from picking a focus point and depth of field, and wasn't a high resolution or able to handle low light well, but we learned a lot trying to work within those limitations. This is the first time we've used separate sound recording and synced it to video, and so much more. But, I don't want to include any spoilers so I'll just post the link here and then in a few days do a post with the backstory to the film and some "making of" shots. Please, if you find this of value, share this video. We really want it to help people see how they think and cause them to maybe see things in a different way. I have also put this on my Facebook page and made it public so you can share it from there as well.

So, here it is: Driver's Ed, the movie