Remember those funny little floating boxes in the old Mario Bros. Nintendo game that had a spinning question mark on them?  You'd hit the box with the head of your little Mario or Luigi character, and out would pop a surprise.  It could be anything, from another coin to a one up (and if that was your hundredth coin, then it was both a coin and a one-up!  Anyway . . .). 

Today, I've got a box sitting in my office.  It's almost the exact same size as one of those Nintendo game boxes with the spinning question mark.  It came in the morning mail, a "Special delivery," as Bill Henry said as he walked into my office carrying the thing.  And written across the top was the name of my dear friend Carol who sent it to me.  My first missionary car package!  I knew it was coming, because Carol asked me if there was anything special I wanted in it.  But I didn't know when it was going to arrive.  Oh, Happy Monday!  It came today at 10:00 am.

But I still don't know what in it!  It's almost 3:30, and I'm getting horribly curious!

See, I'm saving opening it for later, when I take it home and have supper.  Such a delightful thing to contemplate: eating a delicious salad and opening a present. 

Except . . . .

It's sitting beside my bag, with this huge question mark floating above it!  Okay, so the question mark is in my mind's eye.  But still.  It's just sitting there.  Looking all quiet and hopeful, tempting me away from my work on a video about SIM's recent SIMposium on Sudan.  If it had eyes, it would be like that stack of money from those Geico commercials . . .

*peeks over to look at her care package*

NO!  I'm not opening it yet!

On a side note, I'm walking home from work today.  I can imagine what a sight I'm going to make carrying this big cardboard box down the road!  Haha!

What a morning!  Yesterday the MediaGuyz were all involved in a SIMposium.  :)  Like the name?  It was an update on all that God is doing in Sudan through our team that is there.  It was amazing!  My job was to film little snippets of what was going on to be put together into a "don't you wish you came" sort of video teaser for the SIMUSA website.  There will be a couple more of these SIMposiums, so we're also going to use this as the promo for those next ones. 

The SIMposium ended before lunch.  Before sitting down to eat, I had loaded all the clips from my camera into the computer and labeled them.  Cool.  Over lunch the computer froze.  And lost all my work.  Grr.  Okay fine, so I put them back in and renamed them.  Again.  Got it done around 2:00.  Then Claude and I FOUGHT with our editing equipment for the next three hours to try and upload the rest of the footage we needed from the other camera.  That one had just been filming the speaker.  I managed to get something to upload by 5:00, but it didn't look like it went in right.  :p  So Claude and I left last night, completely frustrated and ready to call it quits.

Which meant that today was the start of Day Two in the Battle of the Editing Equipment.

I've been dinking with this whole thing for the past hour and a half, trying almost every computer in this place to just try to talk to the video deck.  That's the piece of equipment we use to play a tape and record it into the computer.  None of the computers would talk to it.  Okay FINE!  I started updating my facebook, asking people to start praying.  Then I thought of something.  My little camera talks to the Imac.  I KNOW this because I use it on the Imac all the time.  So I hooked up my camera to the Imac with the intention of using it like a deck to record the footage.  Except, it wouldn't talk!!!  That told me that the problem wasn't with the decks or with our firewire cables.  So I started hunting around in Final Cut, looking for something that controlled the audio/video capture settings.  AND BY THE GRACE OF GOD I FOUND IT!!!!!!!  I got my camera to talk to the Imac!  And because I knew that, I literally RAN into the other editing studio, and did exactly what I did on the Imac on the other computer.  :)  And now this deck is talking to the computer!!  PRAISE THE LORD!  I am literally dancing in here in the Office right now.  I popped on my soundtrack to the new Star Trek movie, and I'm bouncing up and down with the music, just celebrating.

This is really a huge thing this morning.  Claude and I wanted that video done and ready for the web at 5:00 yesterday.  Now we may be able to finish it today.  Huzzah!  God is too cool!

If you aren't on my mailing lists, either email or snail mail, you can also read and download my latest prayer letter here:

www.blip.tv/file/2108697

Enjoy, and keep on praying!



And for all of you waiting for the next video installment of "Through Rachel's Viewfinder," know that there is another episode in production.  Editing computers at the Office are very busy at the moment, and I haven't been able to stay late in a while to work on an extra one to get another episode finished for you all.  Pray for a laptop!  That would make my life easier!

No, I'm not dancing around the Office today . . . today its been more of a juggling act.

Today has been the National Day of Prayer here in America.  It's also Thursday, which is usually when I take the day and fast.  I like doing that for the simple reason that whenever my tummy tells me says, "I'm empty and I'd really appreciate some food now," I'm reminded to stop and pray. 

But I think God has had His own method of keeping me in prayer today.  It seems that for everything I went to do today, I've been taking one step forward, and falling two steps back.  It's been continually reminding me to ask the Lord to have His hands on my tasks today.  For example, this morning I was supposed to have DVD completed by 10:00am for Steve Knight.  Didn't happen.  Not only were the files burned last night un-readable by my DVD-authoring software, it was struggle to just to figure out what little quirky settings needed to be used in Final Cut Pro to actually create the file in the first place!  A lot of prayer, frustration, and help from Andy, I finally had the correct settings in place and I was able to re-compile the files for the DVD.  Praise the Lord!  At 4:00pm today, the DVD is done.  Steve?  You can come and get it now!

The other make-up work involved some stuff completed yesterday . . . and then deleted by the computer.  Yesterday, I had a friend volunteer to digitize audio files from the Global Leaders Gathering back in March.  She got through three hours of tape, which was a huge blessing!  She and I left the Office last evening, letting the computer finish out its task of digitizing the last file.  It was perfectly capable of handling that task alone and unheeded.  This morning I came in to find that the computer had logged itself out after it finished.  But idiot me had used the Guest account on that computer when I set my friend up yesterday.  All settings and changes made on that account are stored in a temporary folder.  That gets deleted when the computer logs out.  Which happened last night at some point.  Which deleted all of my friend's hard work from yesterday!  I was determined not to make her have to repeat all that work tomorrow when she comes in next, so I fought with the system (on a different, permanent account!) to relog and digitize all the files from yesterday.  Having to reset the whole editing system, reset the capture settings, fighting dropped frames, and then having computer logg itself out of Final Cut Pro on three different occasions . . . God has been reminding me to keep in prayer about the whole thing all day!  Praise the Lord, I believe all the work from yesterday has been redone, and she can keep going tomorrow when she comes in.

Sometimes I have my own ideas about my life and what I control.  Just as God has been teaching me to let Him have control of my future, I think He's also trying to teach me to let go of my present.  Even right down to the next keystroke my fingers will take on this keyboard.  Jesus, help me to always let you be in control.  :)

The group of little children crowded up against the wall seemed happy enough.  Two adult leaders were trying to get them to sing a song, clapping their hands and bouncing up and down.  A few of the little black faces lit up with delight.  Some of the children, not more than two or three, were crying, lifing up their arms, hoping to be picked up for a few moments.  The noise of the singing and crying echoed off the concrete walls of the church.  Little by little, the group of children moved away from the wall to dance and bounce to the songs.  There had to be at least fifteen kids in the group.  Some continued to cry for attention.  It must have been tough for those two leaders!  The noise, and the crying, and keeping an eye on all those kids . . .

Yesterday, as I watched this scene unfold on the footage from Sani Church in Malawi, I was smiling . . . at first.  There are no names to the clips of raw footage.  That's the big reason why I was watching them; so I could identify what pieces of video were there.  Pulled up on a Word document was the film log, with some descriptions of what I was watching.  But I was too busy watching the kids.  In the past, I've done childrens' ministry at church, singing songs with them, playing games, and teaching them about Jesus.  Watching those kids in Malawi brought back a lot of memories: Getting hugs from my "little friends," being given pieces of "artwork" created with crayons and markers, giving piggy-back rides.  

Finally after a few minutes of watching, I decided I needed to actually rename the clip files so everybody else could find out what was in them.  After all, this was my main reason for watching the footage!  I skipped down the film log, finding where on the tape I was.  Finally I found the note about what I was reading: 

"13:53  Orphan day care at Sani church, many children crying."

These kids had either lost one parent, or both because of HIV/AIDS.

Little toddlers, young boys, pretty girls . . . all of them were orphans.  The Sani Church was running this daycare for them, giving them love and affection, and teaching them about Jesus.  I thought a moment about the kids I used to teach at church.  What if one of them was in that group of children?  What if one of them lost a parent to HIV/AIDS?  

There are more than 3, 100,000 HIV/AIDS deaths a year.  Those numbers aren't just from immoral sexual behavior.  Because of the way HIV can be transmitted through contact with infected blood and body fluids, there are many who are infected accidentally.  Children get it when they use their father's bloody razor blade, babies get it from their mother when they are born . . . That's just two of the many ways this disease is transmitted.

The western world is all concerned about swine flu at the moment.  While it is something to be concerned about, there are far many more who are dying of HIV/AIDS.  And leaving behind orphans like those cared for by Sani Church in Malawi.

As I thought about those little kids growing up without their parents, I started fighting tears.  They were so small.  So small to have to suffer the loss of a parent.  So small that they need somebody to look after them and protect them.  Somebody who would tell them about Jesus and give them a hope for their future.

Huzzah!  God does listen to the prayers of His saints, and He provides in exactly His timing!

Many of you know of my prayer requests for a car, and a permanent place to stay here in Charlotte, as well as my continued need for full financial support.  I know I'm over the half way mark in my financial needs.  Praise the Lord!  God has opened up many doors for me to share about my ministry, and to raise up prayer support.  It's been such a blessing to get people excited about what Jesus is doing around the globe, and to see it because of my work here at SIM USA.

Last week, I was tweeting about my need for a car.  I've got missionary friends in Upstate New York who are heading to Ethiopia this summer.  They read my tweet, and got back to me saying, "Hey, we've got to get rid of our two cars because we're heading to Addis Abba . . . we could probably give you one of them."

Excitedly, but not wanting to manipulate things the way how I thought they should work out, I started asking questions and trying to find out if that was a possibility.  My friends told me that if somebody wanted to stop by their house to look at the car, that'd be fine.  Now, I'm in Charlotte.  And yes they are two and a half hours away from my parent's house in New York, I still wasn't sure how that would work unless somebody like my Dad went for a long ride.  Except . . . he already was going for a long ride!  He and my sister Emmalee were to travel out to Boston for a dance festival.  And they would be passing RIGHT BY my friends house!  So . . . a couple of emails and phone calls later, Dad planned a stop at their house to check out the car.

Yesterday I got an email from Dad saying that other than a few repairs, which won't cost more than $500, I'll have a small car with 90,000 miles on it, and it should last me about five years. 

A car!  For less that $500!  I was shocked, blown away and thankful.  I still am.  It too cool!  God has answered our prayers for a car for me!

HUZZAH!!!!!
 

Shortly before joining SIM, I began video blogging.   As I pursued my new-found hobby, I quickly found a vlogger by the name of Josh Leo.   I'd read about his work in a book called "Secrets of Videoblogging," and was fascinated by his ability to take even the most mundane and simplest of subjects and turn them into interesting videos.  Over the past two years, it's been fun getting a peek into Josh's life via his blogs, his videos, and now--in recent days---his presence on Twitter @JoshLeo.  I know many of you watch the vlog posts I make for my mission work, as well as my other video projects.  One of my biggest inspirations and encouragements has been the excellent work that Josh produces.

So today, like any normal day a the office, I've got my Twitter account up, tweeting every so often about what I'm up to, answering questions, and commenting back on off moments.   But one of the people who replied to me ended up being Josh Leo, saying "Hey, you work for SIM right? I work for WOH.org.  We used to work with you I think . . ."

I quickly checked www.woh.org/ to see who WOH is.   I've never heard of it, so I was curious.   Two clicks later, I've found out that WOH is Words of Hope, and its a Christian Radio ministry that seeks to broadcast the Good News to anybody who can tune in a radio.   It partners with HCJB and Trans World Radio among others, as well as working with SIM!   While 93% of the worlds Christian broadcasting is happening over American airwaves, WOH uses most of it's broadcasting to reach the "rest of the world," especially closed countries where radio is the best way to reach people who otherwise have no chance to hear the Gospel.   Josh works for a joint venture between WOH, FEBA Radio and Back to God ministries called Spotlight.   It's geared for those who are learning English, and need simple English programming to practice listening to English.  But among the simple sentence structure and limited vocabulary, the Gospel Message is spread. How cool is that?  Josh told me in another tweet that he writes, voices and produces programs for www.spotlightradio.net/.  Sweet!

I never would have thought that two years into my vlogging and missionary work, I'd be having a "conversation" with one of my vlogging heros.  And neither did I imagine that we'd be working for partnered agencies seeking to spread the Gospel. God is too cool!

What an unexpected blessing today!

When I was here in Charlotte last November, right before Thanksgiving, I had an awesome opportunity to meet a wonderful young lady named Katie Thornton.

Katie hails from Texas.  She was here in November for her short term training.  We hung out for a couple of days, went to the movies together before she left, and got to know one another.  When she came down with a cold the day before leaving, I gave her my bottle of asprin to take with her on the plane so she wouldn't have to worry about trying to find that in an airport, or in Kenya when she arrived.  And when she left the Residence in Stuart Baliles' van, I sent her off with an "African Goodbye," running behind the car and waving.  She was heading to Africa, so it seemed a fitting send-off!

For the past five months, Katie has been working my friend Lindsey Wilson (who was in my SIM-Start way back in September of 2007!) caring for orphans in Kenya.  Having hung out with her at Thanksgiving, I can see how Katie would be a blessing in there.  Her sunny spirit and enthusiasm are infectious!

So imagine my delight when tonight I found out that she was coming home!  And arriving TODAY!!

Katie arrived here at the Residence around 7:00pm.  I was waiting outside when she drove up.  As she stepped out of the van, we both gave each other a big bear hug!  She was glowing with the joy of the Lord, and a golden tan from months spent in the African sun!  Later, we went for a walk around the block, and I had a chance to hear how the Lord has been blessing her, and using her in Kenya.  She told me about living there, shared with me some words in the language of Swahili, and laughed with me about memories of when we were together in November.

I never thought that I'd ever be able to send somebody off, and then be around when they returned.  The feeling is indescribable!  I know that this little story isn't exactly "Media-related," like most of my ministry.  But being here when Katie left, encouraging her then and hanging out . . . and now being able to welcome her home, hear some of the first stories, and enjoy her company once again . . . it's been such an incredible blessing!

To all of you who are supporting me, thank you for your gifts of encouragement and prayer and finances.  They are what have made tonight possible.  Praise the Lord!