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home Wednesday evening, God willing ... will try to post a trip wrap up before Hawaii.

thanks for reading, Steve

Mr Jones Retirement

my buddy Mark put this up on You Tube. Wonder if he can sell it for $1.65 Billion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b5VHw_jnWQ

Quick visit to the local "men's beauty parlor" ...

BEFORE

AFTER

The Work

Music: Gin and Juice by the Gourds


My dad wanted me to write about my video production work here in India. (But Dad, it’s boring!)

But I suppose I should since that is what all you wonderful supporters laid out your hard earned shekels to send me here for.

So, I’ve been editing, working with Sebastian and his wife—she has joined the production team since last year. We are working on another video promoting the summer team camp run by the organization that takes place every year her on the national headquarters. The camp is really something, 5-600 kids from all over India and the world, praising God, praying in small groups, listening to speakers and attending workshops.

So, some of you who read this thing last year may be thinking to yourself, “Self, isn’t that what he did last year?” Well, the answer is yes. We must have done is so well that they want us to do it again—this time generic. Last year’s videos were more theme oriented. The trick is trying to put something together that will excite teens and their parents about this camp. I don’t really understand the American teenage culture very well, much less the Indian one. Sebi means well, but I’m not sure how his ideas will come across.

Needless to say, I’ve been a little frustrated. I think we did a rather good job last year and could easily clean it up a little, make it generic and move on. I’ve also been a little frustrated about the pace of the work, putting all the pieces together and getting it done, but much of that may just be my American mindset.

I have about 7 days of editing left. Please pray we are productive and all involved are pleased with the product.

Roe versus Homocide?

Read a fascinating book called Freakonomics by a journalist and an economist. In the book they claim, some would say prove, that one of the main causes of the steep drop in the national crime rate in the 1990’s was Roe v. Wade (1973) legalizing abortion.

Chew on that two times.

Pipe Village

We went back to the Pipe Village last week. For those of you who don’t know from last years blog and pictures, here’s some of my post from November 10, 2005



"Yesterday we visited the Pipe Village, near our base. What’s the “Pipe Village” you may ask. I did. It’s called “The Pipe Village” because they live in pipes. They live in pipes. Gulp.

So we went out to this village where a community of Indians actually live in big old broken sewer pipes. The village is located next to a pipe factory and the pipes that these people live in (I will try to post some pics) are left over from the factory. The men of the village labor at the pipe factory on a contract basis. They may make $2 for 10 to 12 hours of hard work. Even these people live in such utter poverty, I was told they were happy to have the opportunity to work. (This is not just the white conservative in me, it is the truth J) "





We’ll we went back, this time to show a version of The Jesus Film in their native tongue of Telegue. And afterwards they served us dinner. Just another example of the extreme hospitality from those with practically nothing.

Christmas Eve in Goa

So we went to the beach for a few days of R&R over Christmas. On Christmas Eve we were having dinner on the beach. Now, we were definitely in a touristy area, though more popular among Europeans than Americans. What happened next made me grab a pen and scratch something like the following on a piece of paper, lest I failed to remember.

“On the beach, Christmas Eve, surrounded by palm trees dressed in Christmas lights, the ocean lapping soothingly on the shore nearby and what does the band play? Country Road (West Virginia), by John Denver.”

reminds me of last year when I bought a beach towel on the same beach that read in large letters “Florida”