All posts by Pete

That’s a Wrap!

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We are home: green salads, windshields that need scraping in the morning, a warm blanket at night, and no wondering what might drop down from the thatched roof after we fall asleep. It is good to be home. But the instructors and students are still in Ghana wrapping up their final projects this coming week. A week from today, on November 13, they will hold their final celebration: a chance to enjoy the hard-won fruits of their labor, share what they have learned with one another, and watch their short videos. We hope someone will find popcorn for them.

This post is simple. Below are some fun photos and videos of the team working hard with their smartphone kits. At the bottom, you’ll find a short explanation of what’s next — and something that will absolutely make you smile.

Yes, a bit of makeup to remove the glare from faces was very helpful.
Cyrus and Prince collect all the files and photos into a shared hard drive

Watch the video below to see how professionals start the action

Rolling!

Some highlight photos:

Beth and Irene (one of the instructors)
Steve meets with one of the teams to review their scripts
James our cook. He prepared everything from fermented corn porridge for breakfast and red red for dinner
Red red with Gari
Sarah, one of the students
Elijah, the Director of Photography for the movie, works late into the evening putting the pieces together.

Wrapping Up: Final Thoughts and Plans

It was a very different kind of trip for Beth and me. We are waiting with great hope and anticipation: over the coming weeks and months, we look forward to seeing new choir videos, testimonies, and short story videos.

Twenty-one students have worked for four weeks with the Create Mobile team to learn new skills. And while those new technical capabilities are important, we believe the real impact will be in how each of them uses media to bring love and the Good News to dozens more people groups and languages across Africa, from Chad to Côte d’Ivoire. More than skills, they now have a vision of what is possible and of what hard work and big ideas can bring to their mission work.

Please pray with us that the students who will receive the six recording backpacks will create exciting, impactful ways to introduce people to Jesus.

The six backpacks: Antioch, Bethany, Corinth, Damascus, Ephesus, and Galilee, in our living room before going to Ghana with us.
The team

Watch the video below to see cool drone video of the Philip Centre North

The huts, classroom, kitchen, and new event hall that can hold 1500-2000 people.

Tomorrow is Sunday.

Tomorrow we will go to church, and life for us is returning to normal: cold weather, to-do lists, family plans, and waiting to become grandparents.

In a month or two, we hope to share one final post with links to all the movies and projects the students have created with their six backpacks. Stay tuned.

And while being back here in the suburbs of Chicago is comfortable, we miss our friends in Ghana and the long days of hard work, from dawn until our cold bucket showers at night.

We also miss the exuberant Sunday worship the students organized in Ghana. Yes, our local church, Crossroads, has wonderful music and worship — but really, can it compare to this?

Hey Crossroads, have you considered adding some West African color and dance to Sunday mornings? :-) 🇬🇭💃🏾🕺🏾

Enjoy the video below.

Even after watching it 10 times, it still makes me smile.