Long time, no write

To read this blog you would think it's been since January that we've done anything with aCross Creation. But no, no, no, no that is not in anyway true. Since January of 2011 we have...

1. Filmed in New Orleans
2. Self-published our first three volumes of the small group curriculum
3. Filmed in Hawaii (what a tough gig!)
4. Sold 170 discs or so to 60 or more churches
(anyone can buy them at http://www.acrosscreation.org/, spread the word!)
5. Filmed in San Fransisco
6. Kept our paying jobs and families relatively intact

So you will forgive me for not updating the blog so regularly? yes? Thanks.

Here's a picture from one San Fransisco shoot. I'll try in the next few weeks to give you more glimpses into the past few months.

Greg gets a close up of the fresh Tuna for sale

We filmed at Pillar Point Harbor as I talked about Jesus telling the disciples they would "be catching people." We couldn't talk about fishermen without having a real fisherman in the shot! So Greg made friends with this guy and we filmed on his boat. He was so nice to let us and even acted a little to get the footage we wanted. It's amazing what people will say yes to when you have a camera in hand.

Wade in the Water

After the adventure of filming on Cheney lake, the Film Crew took a few weeks off before reconvening for a shoot in early November.

---yes I realize I am two months behind in sharing this story with you but the episode I am about to describe will be used in worship THIS SUNDAY! January 9th. So in a way, I am right on time---

Every year since beginning my pastoral ministry in 2002 I have wanted to create a river inside the Sanctuary on the second Sunday of January. Every year I have failed.

The second Sunday in January is when we remember baptisms, Jesus' and our own. What better way to do celebrate the waters of grace than with a real, wet, flowing river? No better way, I say! But I have always had to settle for something less. One year I made a waterfall out of fabric. Another year I had everything lined up from a landscaping professional to make a garden waterfall inside but then we had an ice storm and all his rocks were stuck to the ground outside.

This year I decided that if I couldn't have a real river in the Sanctuary, I would at least have one on film. Greg and Janet suggested we go to Butcher Falls near Sedan, Kansas to film the episode. We had been talking about it for months so I don't know why it took until the first of November for us to get out there and film it....

oh, probably because I didn't write the episode until the end of October. So I have no one to blame but myself.

What was the problem you ask? There were two. First of all, Kansas is very dry in November so Butcher Falls wasn't actually falling. We had a lovely pool of water and a trickle of a river but no falls. Summer would have looked much different. Secondly my director, Mr. Sullivan, goes for authenticity above all else. So he was not satisfied with me talking about baptism near the water. No, no, no. Standing safely, dryly, warmly, on the bank was not good enough. I had to be in the water.



Our Paramedic hard at work

 Greg continues to remind me that the scene we filmed where I was standing in the cold, cold, cold water was very short. I keep reminding him that we shot the scene 8 times. Mark Smith was nice enough to hold my hand and warm it up after I had dipped it repeatedly in the chilly water. No one offered to do the same for my feet, though, after I waded out from the pool. Thank goodness Anita brought towels.

Other than some cold toes, it was a great day. Beautiful and sunny, calm and quiet. The fall colors were still on many trees and except for the minutes we had to wait for the ranch owners to herd some stray cattle through the area, we had no interruptions. Susanne Smith won an award in my heart for "Best Picnic Lunch Ever." It involved Starbucks. That is all I am going to say.

Janet and Anita at Prairie-henge

Special thanks to Jean Schodorf and other members of the Bill Kurtis family for use of their property.

You too can visit the Red Buffalo Ranch to see Butcher Falls, Prairie-henge, herds of buffalo, go deer hunting or simply enjoy the prairie.

If you are in Wichita this week, come worship in Daybreak at 9:30 on Sunday to remember your baptism. If you aren't in Wichita, find a little water in some beautiful place aCross Creation and do the same.

Aye, Matey!

Egad, am I behind!
Months, since I've filled you in on the adventures of the aCross Creation film crew. Months, I say!
So, let's catch up.

After the Labor Day fun of Sunflowers we scheduled a trip with my colleague and friend, Rev Larry Greenwood, on his boat at Lake Cheney. Perhaps it is obvious to you that when a preacher wants to talk about water/sailing/boats there are many scripture passages from which to choose. What with the disciples mostly being fishermen and the majority of Jesus' life centered around the Sea of Galilee there is plenty of lake-related material in the gospels alone. I had planned to write and prepare two episodes for our day with Larry. Life (and a month old worship service) intervened and I was lucky to get one script done. That turned out to be for the best as one episode was all the film crew could stomach that day (call that little pun foreshadowing, if you will).

We chose a day in early October and arranged things with Larry. I had been on Larry's trimaran (like a catamaran but with three hulls, not two) several other times and expected a very pleasant day. Every other time I had been out with him on the lake it was summer, always very warm, often very calm. Once we didn't even put up the sail there was so little wind. Well...our day in early October was of a vastly different quality. It was cold. And windy. Oh my good Lord was it windy. And did I mention cold?

Because Greg takes secret pleasure in making me preach the scenes out of order, we started by filming everything we could on or around the dock. Which was cold. And windy. Larry was amazingly patient, explaining everything I wanted to know about his boat, letting us take and retake all we wanted while he did "sailing things" in the background for action.

Eventually it was time to go out on the water. Because I had only ever been on Larry's boat in the warm summer, and because I don't really have to deal with motion sickness, I was not at all smart enough to anticipate what a trial this would be for the film crew.

Larry's boat is small, which means it is fast, and very low to the water. Everyone except Larry, Greg and me climbed into the main cabin because they anticipated it would be even colder on the lake, which it was. It was also windier. Greg crawled out toward the bow to try for the best shot as we sailed along. Thankfully he had on a life jacket. Not that he fell in, but there were plenty of moments it looked like he might. And also plenty of moments that I wished we had a life jacket for our camera. Greg would have survived a dip in the lake. The camera? Not so much.

Once we got onto the lake with the sail up I realized how amazingly choppy the water was. It was a little like a roller coaster ride. Except windier. And colder. And with more water spray. Sorta fun for me sitting with Larry at the stern. But for the crew, who were a few feet lower than me in the cabin, sitting at water level and unable to see the horizon, it was cause for serious motion sickness. God bless them they didn't even complain as they were turning green and losing their breakfasts. What a crew! Poor Janet had to choose between battling sea sickness below or being up top and watching her husband struggle to hold on the camera and the boat, if only he had three hands!

God has given us (especially Greg and me) serious amounts of determination (You say stubbornness, I say determination) so there was nary a peep to suggest trying again on a calmer day. Honestly since I was talking about Jesus stilling the storm in Mark 4, the setting was about perfect. We managed to get all the footage we needed on the water (we think) and we filmed the final scene back on dry land as Larry sailed by behind me. From the shoreline the boat looked amazingly peaceful. Though still not warm.

Looking back a few months later I can say it was a great day. I'm thankful for Larry's hospitality. And I am interested to try for that second episode on another day. One that is warmer. And calmer. I hope I can talk the film crew into joining me again. If not, I may be recruiting, from people who have not read this blog, obviously.

Next up the film crew encounters more water, though of a much more tame variety. Yet not much warmer for me. I'll blog about that shoot soon.

Remember you can see aCross Creation episodes live many Sunday's at Woodland United Methodist Church during our Daybreak Worship at 9:30. We are also moving toward release of our first small group DVD. Stay tuned!

Shiny Happy Flowers

Sunflowers are trickier than you might think.
A year ago, when we first started to film the aCross Creation series, we had the idea very early to use the setting of a sunflower field. Very Kansas of us, I realize. I wrote a meditation based on the story of Jesus Transfiguration. It was only the second script I had written. (What's the first you ask? You'll never know because it will not see the light of day). By late August of 2009 I had the script done, Greg and Janet had spent hours scouting out the perfect sunflower field in rural Sedgwick county, the weather was ideal and then...I took a few days vacation.

Silly me.

By the time I returned from a visit with friends the sunflowers were past their prime and we were out of luck.

Fast forward one year to August of 2010. We had in mind for weeks to film the sunflower episode, however, we began to notice a great absence of sunflower fields near Wichita. The perfect field from last year was planted with a different crop. Most of the fields we did find looked like this...

Janet, undaunted, got on the phone to the extension agents in a five county radius. We asked other church members and family to be on the lookout. All over south central Kansas a massive search was on for a field of bright, blooming sunflowers. And....the search paid off. A week ago we heard of a field that was in its prime just east of Udall and when we arrived on Monday morning it was indeed glorious.

We were afraid that it would be hard to film the size and scope of the sunflower field from the ground since the flowers were close to head high. To solve the problem we brought my dad's truck thinking we could film from the bed. This is a truck only a farmer could love: 1986 Chevy, mostly red (except where the paint has faded away), finicky to start, seat falling apart, no AC or power anything, you get the idea.

We make such careful and thought out plans. And then they change. Usually for the better, thankfully. Instead of an aid to filming, the truck turned out to be a prop in the shoot. We didn't need the truck bed because Steve-so-prepared-Martz also packed a ladder, one of those that can be folded into 200 configurations. I may be estimating there. The ladder and the bungee cords Steve packed provided the perfect platform to get camera and director up in the air so I could preach from the middle of the field. (you will notice the cord Janet is holding aloft, so we don't lose Anita who has the microphone, among the flowers)

On Labor Day morning the weather was ideal except for the wind...over 20mph gusting to 40mph. Kansas authenticity, I guess. And except for the large number of bees, who were all busy doing their bee-duty of pollinating the flowers, we had no insect trouble, which is a reason to praise God.

I was pleased to have in our company for the morning, film crew newbies, Julie and Kurt Baergen. Kurt was very good at carrying things, and holding up the diffuser high enough to block the sun. Julie proved adept at folding up both the reflector and the diffuser, matching only Mark Smith's skills in that area. Considering how much trouble I had in folding those things once, I hereby vow to never touch them again.

With a great crew, a sunny sky and a field of beautiful flowers, the shoot went very well. About three and a half hours after we started filming we were headed back to Wichita to return the red truck and get some lunch.

Though we had to wait a year to film this episode, I am aware that it will be much better than if we had filmed in August of 2009. I rewrote and rewrote and rewrote the script and we are better at capturing the beauty of a place than we were 12 months ago. Sometimes things just work out, don't they?

btw, THIS SUNDAY IS THE LAUNCH OF DAYBREAK!

Sorry to yell, but it's pretty exciting. If you are in Wichita, join me for worship at 9:30 at Woodland United Methodist Church. We will be using the "Daybreak on the Flint Hills" episode which I blogged about here. If you aren't in Wichita or have another church home, pray for us.

Next up for the aCross Creation Film Crew? A visit to Lake Cheney!
Peace,
rev Amy

Where's my blackberry?

Saturday morning required an early start for the aCross Creation film crew. A 5:00 a.m. wake up to be exact. We knew we needed to arrive at Bridal Veil Falls close to first light because by mid-morning, especially on a Saturday, it would be packed with people. As much as we like to share with others about aCross Creation it really is easier to film without an audience. The early wake up along with our scouting work on Thursday afternoon created great success. We didn't see another hiker until we were wrapping up the shoot about 10:00 a.m.

Amy and Nannette Berg were troopers and joined us for the early morning start and we, of course, put them to work. They also brought their dog, Jackson. I don't think he made it into any of the footage on Saturday but he was also around the shoot at the O-Zone Friday afternoon (sorry I forgot to mention that Bubba) and he was probably caught on film there. You can look for him when that episode is used in worship at Woodland on February 27, 2011.

Bridal Veil Falls, though only an easy 1/3 of a mile hike from the parking lot, is a wonderfully secluded and lush locale. It looks like Oregon is supposed to look with a rocky river, a pounding waterfall, ferns and moss covering everything, plenty of shade and cool. Along with being an ideal spot for the episode it was a great place to hang out for the morning. An extra bonus was the name. The meditation was about the nature of love and I used a passage from the Song of Solomon which tells the story of two enraptured lovers. Greg couldn't get over how appropriate it was that we were at a place called "Bridal Veil."

As has become the custom, filming went very smoothly (not that it's fast, you understand, just smooth. This is still at least 3 hours of work on location). We found a good way to tell a short "story" with the video footage even while I was making the preaching point. When we filmed our first episode on the banks of the Arkansas river a year ago none of us really understood how important it would be to have props or interactive elements. We are learning. I can see now that in order to capitalize on the power of using video for preaching we need to have more than me standing still and talking in front of a beautiful backdrop. Because of the medium we can tell the viewers things without having to say them. The better we do that, the more impact the episodes will have.

While we were working away, Nannette took Jackson for a little exploring and found bushes full of wild blackberries. Never mind the fact that they were on property owned by the railroad and access required scooting around a locked gate. Never mind, I said! When Amy Berg heard the words "wild blackberries" she was off like a shot with a small pan in hand to go picking. I followed her and braved the thorns to collect enough blackberries for a post-filming treat for the crew. They were sooooo good. So good in fact that we had to go back for a second pan full to take home. Berg promised me she would make blackberry scones later. And those scones were worth every scrape I got picking the berries.

The work done, the berries eaten, it was time to take a photo of the whole crew and then part ways. I was off to have a few days of vacation and a few more lattes with my friends. Martzes and Sullivans were off to explore Oregon for a bit before heading home to Wichita. It was great to have time to relax and do important Portland things, like visit Powell's, before returning to Kansas.

It has been a great year working on aCross Creation. We have filmed 19 usable episodes (and three unusable ones). I have grown creatively, personally and spiritually by working on this series. I have been repeatedly surprised by grace and bowled over by the support we have received. And I know the best is coming because starting Sept 12 we will finally be sharing aCross Creation with the people we have had in mind all along, congregations and those exploring Christian discipleship. To that end, pray for Greg, would you? He has hours and hours of editing work ahead of him in the weeks to come to deal with all this footage we have been collecting in the past 12 months. Better pray for Janet too, while you are at it.

If you are in Wichita, dear reader, I invite you to come worship at "Daybreak" (starting Sept 12 at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday at Woodland United Methodist Church, 1100 W 15th St N) to see aCross Creation for yourself. If you can't come to worship, stay tuned. We still have quite a bit of work to do to get the episodes ready for distribution to other churches and small groups, but we are working on it! I hope we will have our first release by February.

Thanks for reading all about the Oregon trip, please pass this blog address on to anyone you know who might be interested. Next up, tales of me standing in a sunflower field Labor Day weekend.

Peace.

Belay On!

Once again on Friday we had a slow start to the morning. It was so odd to sleep past sunrise two days in a row during aCross Creation work that I began to wonder if I was still working with Greg Sullivan...

We took our time because the business of the morning was riding in a float plane on the Willamette River, docked just half a block from where we were staying. Steve Martz, our accomplished pilot and flight instructor took a turn in the plane first, getting a lesson of his own and logging the new experience of taking off and landing on water. After Steve's lesson was done Greg and Janet had an aerial tour of Portland. We had hoped to get some footage from the air to add to the Oregon videos but cool weather and a less than cooperative pilot made that difficult (not Steve, the owner of the plane). After the plane business was complete we drove into Portland to meet up with my dear friend Amy Berg. For lunch she had promised to take us to "all the latest rage in Portland" which proved to be a parking lot full of food carts. There were too many good choices and it was easy to see why the picnic tables between the carts were full of people.

Full of good food we headed off to the filming location for the day: a rock climbing hot spot called the O-Zone. It was on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge and not too far outside of Vancouver, WA. We met up with two friends of Amy's (Amy Berg's that is...don't get confused by multiple Amys) Drew and Karen who were more experienced rock climbers.

It's a good thing that I had planned in my meditation to talk about how poor my rock climbing skills are because, guess what? They are REALLY poor. To be fair the climb Karen set up was a 5.9 (That's on the Yosemite Decimal System, translation: hard for a novice). I had never even attempted a 5.9 route before. I've had limited success on 5.6 and 5.7 climbs and this one was, obviously, a lot harder. I asked Greg to try and make it look as if I was high in the air by adjusting his camera shot. I hope he managed it because truth be told, I never got above 5 or so feet off the ground. Even when Drew showed me how he made the first 4 moves up the rock, and he showed me in flipflops without a rope, I still couldn't get past the first few holds.

The setting was beautiful (do I even need to say that any more?) and Karen and Drew were excellent climbers, providing us with good footage of people ACTUALLY rock climbing. Amy Berg wasn't too shabby herself.

One exciting moment came when I was scrambling up to a ledge (not roped in, I might add. I got higher without being attached to safety gear) and dropped my part of the wireless microphone. Down it tumbled past the film crew and into the forest, down the slope toward the Columbia River as we all just stood and watched. A nearby climber must have heard the commotion because he sauntered down the path, scrambled through the trees and found it, pack, battery and battery cover in all. He acted like it was no big deal to help out, that's the ethic around rock climbing, it's one big community.

We finished filming in time to get cleaned up and grab a coffee before heading to dinner. Next time you see a member of the film crew congratulate them on getting down the trail to this filming location (and back out to the car). That in itself required some rock-scrambling skills, it was a 5.3 at the least!

Thanks for reading of our travels. But we aren't done yet! There is one more day of Oregon Adventure to come.

Coffee, Peaches, Flies.

Thursday morning of the Oregon adventure began sloooooowly, which seemed to be the preference of all the crew. Our task for the morning was to find a picturesque section of the Pacific Crest Trail to film. Considering the trail travels the entire length of Oregon from south to north and considering Oregon is BEAUTIFUL, it was not really a difficult task.

Janet (the travel guru) had found an access point for the trail near Lolo pass. It was indeed beautiful, with minimal traffic and a great view of Mt Hood! Like any high mountain, Hood can "make its own weather" and a few clouds obscured the peak all morning. But it was still a great backdrop for part of the episode.

Filming went well though it took a while as we hiked further and further down the trail for each successive scene. We also had several interruptions to reapply bug spray as the mosquitoes that had haunted us at the Chapel the Spruce in CO returned. And they brought their friends, the flies. Greg said at one point a fly flew so close to the camera lens that it looked like a bat. There were many retakes to try an get an insect free version of each scene.

Along with being insectville, this shoot was actually rather hot, probably because of the direct sunlight and lack of any wind. I was wearing a backpack for much of the time since I was talking about...well...backpacking. Backpack+hot day+no wind=sweat. Lots of sweat. My film crew kept telling me that my sweat stained shirt was a sign of authenticity. I just thought it was gross. I sure hope they were right. So with the sweat and flies, there will be no doubt that this episode was shot outside instead of in a cushy studio with green screen.

About half way through our work two hikers came down the trail, moving at a pretty fast clip. We asked how much of the trail they were hiking and they said the whole thing! They had started at the California/Mexico border 10 weeks ago and weren't going to stop until they reached the Washington/Canada border. Considering only a handful of people thru-hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail each year I was astounded that we were in the right place at the right time to meet them. Not that they stopped to chat or anything. You don't walk 2650 miles in one summer by dawdling.

We wrapped up filming by 3pm and headed to Government Camp for lunch, which was long past due. The Ice Axe Grill turned out to be a perfect place to rest and refuel. It also provided my first latte of the trip. How I made it more than 24 hours in Oregon without a latte is still a mystery.

Our original hope was to film a second episode that afternoon but time was quickly running out. We decided to head north and scout out the waterfall location we would need but wait until Saturday morning to actually film the episode. This turned out to be genius planning because we were able to get lots of bonus footage while having a little more time to explore the waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge without the pressure of needing to get an episode filmed.

Our drive north did provide a quick peek at Mt Adams and also the beautiful scenery of local vineyards and orchards. One orchard looked too good to pass up so we stopped to purchase some fresh fruit. The peaches were divine. And I say that as a religious professional.

After the snack break we headed west along the Columbia River Gorge, and turned onto the Historic Highway which is wonderfully maintained by the forest service. We stopped first at Horsetail falls, beautiful but much too close to the highway to be a good filming location. A short but steep hike up the side of the gorge took us to Pontytail falls, actually just an upper portion of the same river as Horsetail Falls. Ponytail is a unique waterfall though because the trail actually travels behind the water spray.

After leaving Horsetail Falls we took a quick stop at Multnomah Falls to grab some bottled water and then drove a few more miles to Bridal Veil falls. Hiking just a few minutes down the trail we knew that Bridal Veil was the perfect spot for Saturday's shoot. It was a great discovery since we were out of waterfalls and also out of daylight.

We drove home and after a light dinner of fruit (mmmmm peaches) and cheese we called it a night.

And to think, there are two more days of Oregon Adventure to come!

aCross Creation is in ministry with Woodland United Methodist Church. Episodes will be shown at Woodland's "Daybreak" service, 9:30 Sunday mornings starting September 12