The Sandwich Zipline Timelapse

Doing a timelapse with the GoPro Hero2 is so fun. I started with almost 4000 pictures! Taking a picture every .5 seconds really starts to add up after a while! These are all 5mp images shot in the late morning on March 11, 2012, just about 30 yards East of the zipline tower.

After figuring it out a bit, I whittled it down to just about 400 pictures.

Proshow producer makes it easy to drop them in, time them correctly, and publish.

2012 Summer Camp Promo Video

2012 Summer Camp Promo Video

Support MBC video

Here is my latest video - I made this to encourage everyone in our Maranatha Bible Camp family to continue to support MBC. Hopefully churches will show this for their "Treat the Camp" Sundays. I recognize that it will be nearly impossible to get a 7 minute video shown in any Sunday morning church service (unfortunately), so I did make a 3.5 minute version, that I have aptly named the "Too Short Version."

This video had all kinds of challenges and opportunities for growth and learning.

Equipment/software - I used the trial version of Sony Vegas 11 on the kids HP laptop (my computer does not have the "horsepower" to do such things, sadly). Other than making a short experimenting video, I had not used Vegas before, and was relatively satisfied. I still have a lot to learn about it. Using Sony DVD Architect was a challenge, because just simply clicking the "Make movie" button to render a DVD directly to Sony DVD Architect won't render audio correctly. Go figure that Sony's video editor and DVD authoring program won't play nice. It can be done, but not by the simple one button click. Another challenge was that my Panasonic DV camera had bitten the proverbial dust just days before we began working on this. (It actually had smoke coming out of it!). I was very thankful to Penny for letting me borrow her Panasonic DV camera, but we had to charge the battery every 20 minutes or so of shooting. So, considering that I used trial software and had to borrow the kid's computer and a camera, I was pleased in general with the result.

Content - I have never made a "documentary" feel video of any kind, but I thought that this might be the best combination of explaining how important MBC is and showing summer highlights. I wrote a basic script of what I wanted to say, and then talked through it with my team of helpful "Critics" (Jenette and the four older kids, all of whom love to argue and pick things apart!) Their input was very helpful. Then I began the arduous task of sorting out video content from all the various sources. There was DV from my own camera (RIP) this last summer (all shot only in June before I broke my leg). There was quite a bit of good video from HS1, JH1, and JR1 (again, June camps) because Phil Weece had spent a lot of time shooting. And then there were many clips taken mostly from camper's and volunteer's digital cameras on our camp hard drive. Some of the clips were horrible, poorly shot, and useless but a few were pretty good. This was the biggest challenge of making this video, and now is the time for me to repeat the thing I have said to myself the last four summers in a row:

"Next year, I am going to get great video shot all summer at every session of camp of lots of happy campers and adults doing fun and meaningful things with one camera that has a consistent look, quality, and format. If I don't do that, once again, I will go bananas trying to make highlight videos."

Shooting - all the highlight video was already shot, but we did the interview parts here at my home office. Jonathan set up two of our lamps from the house so that there was light on the background, (which was actually a blue bedsheet hanging on the wall) and light on my face. I thought he did a brilliant (HA!) job setting up the lighting and I honestly did not even think about setting up lights the way he did. He said that he had those lighting ideas after he watched "Divided" and noticed how lighting was set during interviews. I was very impressed with his vision for the lighting. We also experimented with a "Franken-microphone" thing that somehow ended up working with the borrowed camera. Jonathan ran the camera and Jordan was the self appointed "director" and franken-microphone pointer. She was actually very helpful by insisting that I do each section several times. I think the end result was much better because she gently pushed me to make it better.

Other - The background music was provided by Announcing the Apocalypse (That's Joel, with Jason and Jonathan). I thought it was pretty awesome and added the right feel to the video.

Bloggy on my wayward son

Too busy to blog, so that's usually when I come up with something profound. I realized that there is a whole plethora of things to blog about, but I have been too busy with camp stuff to get to it. Here's what I have been thinking about and doing:

The 2011 Camp Season - and all its blessings and difficulties. Zip lines are going great. Leading worship for kid's camps is an awesome, incredible privilege. Keeping a close watch for hazards and difficulties keeps me ever vigilant. I have some incredible helpers this summer, some of whom were sick or gone this last weekend, so I missed them even more. I can't help but be amazed at what has happened the last two weeks.

I am guessing we have done over 400 zip line rides in the last two weeks. This week I need to finish preparing the ground for Nathan Smith to bring his horses here for JH1.

While up on the zip line platform on Friday morning, launching multitudes of delighted 2nd-4th graders down the lines, (hundreds of yards from the highway) I heard a terrible squeal of tires and then the unmistakable sound of loud crunching metal. I and everyone around me knew we had just heard a vehicle crashing on the road. Since I was up on the platform launching campers I knew I could not leave, but I saw people literally running to help, not knowing what they would find. In the Lord's providence, we had at the camp (for demonstration purposes) a highway patrolman, and a life flight helicopter, as well as several firemen and emt's.

It was a hard moment for me to not run down and see what was going on, but all those folks were professionals who dealt with the crash and the poor driver instantly. How often would that happen out on the back roads of rural Missouri? I was so blessed to know that there are so many wonderful, capable, professional, caring people who are volunteers at this camp.

I am also so impressed with my three sons. They have done so much hard work these last few weeks to get ready for camp and to get the camp season started. All three were high school campers for HS1, and then they started working again. Jason got sick, and Jonathan stepped up and did many things that he did not plan to do, including playing the drums while I led worship. Truly those three young men are a blessing to me and to the camp. Few people realize how valuable they are to this ministry.

I am so thankful for my brother in law Jeff working here this summer. What an amazing man, hard worker, faithful servant, and all around fun guy to be with.

How great it has been to see Blake growing up some as he has taken the role of lifeguard - more police work than anything.

And all the others - Adam, Kenan, and the girls, they have all done great. The kitchen serving thing is the best we have ever done it. At this point, I think I can honestly say that now at the beginning of my 5th summer doing this, I am beginning to finally feel like I actually know what I am doing. I don't always get it all done, but I know what I am supposed to be doing.

What amazing teaching and preaching I have heard. I haven't been able to hear them all, but they have been outstanding. These last few days, we have had Matt Proctor teaching the 2nd - 4th grade camp. Here is a Bible college president teaching little kids, and doing a much better job than many children's ministers and teachers I have heard over the years.

I am glad to be serving the Church by making the Church better by helping the Church extend its ministry.

Excited to see what tomorrow brings.

jc

Bring me your tired, your weary, your filthy....cell phones.

MBC wants to ask YOU to donate old cell phones! This effort is simple, easy, and it's a win for everyone!

1. You clear out the old phones sitting around in your sock drawer.
2. Ask your cousin/mom/grandma/next door neighbor to do the same.
3. Send in the phones to MBC or give them to your church youth leaders.
4. MBC sends them in.
5. MBC receives a check.
6. MBC buys new furniture for our canteen area!
7. Campers at camp this summer say "Wow, that is cool! You mean I don't have to sit on rusty metal chairs anymore at canteen?"
8. Guys/gals in oversea countries get refurbished phones.
9. Your sock drawer is no longer plagued with useless junk.
10. God is honored and glorified at MBC!

1. 
   

Why you should encourage students to come to Yourlife 2.11

Yourlife 2.11 is an event hosted here at Maranatha Bible Camp. It is put on by area Campus Ministries for High School Seniors and Juniors. It might be the most unique and the most important event we have at MBC - although all our events are unique and important.

First of all, I have never heard of any other event quite like this anywhere. So for the youth worker wanting something fresh for their students, this is it. It is led by Campus ministry leaders and the students. Real interaction and leadership happens from those who are "in the trenches" to those who are getting ready to step into that arena.

Second, it is really important. There is arguably no more dangerous time in a person's spiritual life than the young adult years - right out of high school and thrust into the chaos and unbridled freedom and lack of accountability that is found on the college campus.

Yourlife 2.11 is all about challenging students to think through those issue before the day they face them. It's about realizing that campus ministry should be their first thought in going off to college, not their last.

My question to anyone reading this is, if you have not encouraged someone to go, why not? it might be one of the best things you could do for that young person.

Finally, these guys that do campus ministry are truly the front line of this battle for the next generation. Anything and everything should be done to support them.

Just a glimpse in to what we have been up to....

Camp Ministry life has it's seasons of busyness - and the last few weeks have been one of the busier seasons. Many Church ministry people are really busy leading up to Easter. We are looking forward to Easter weekend so we can have a little breather! Here are some of the many things that we have been doing in the last 5 -6 weeks. (Not just me, but Penny as well)

• Finished up the process of remodeling the Multi-Purpose building Kitchen.
• Continued work on completing the Retreat Center basement!
  
• Hosted YOURLIFE 2.0 – Led and taught by six area campus ministries – challenging High School students to continue their walk with Christ as they head to college.
• Hosted THE SANDWICH for Jr. High Students. What a great, challenging retreat for the students who came!
• Sunday Church visits by Penny and Jim included Southland, Oswego, Fir Road, College Heights, Christ's Church of Oronogo, and Carl Junction Christian - doing everything from Children’s Church to preaching.
• Set up displays and handed out information at the Preaching Teaching Convention at OCC and the SMCEF meeting at Son Rise Christian in Marshfield.
• Hosted three marriage retreats at the Retreat Center.
• Hosted over 100 people staying at the Retreat Center and Camp Buildings for a whole week. These great folks, from Wichita, were involved in a national Homeschool Basketball tournament in Springfield. What a privilege to have them stay here at MBC!
• Worked with SIX different volunteer work groups – from Countryside Christian (Nixa), College Heights Christian School (two groups of 50 each day!), Central City Christian, FCC Kimberling City, and Glendale Christian in Springfield). WOW!
• Planning and preparing for our next great event: JR. BASH for Grade School kids! Check out the website for info!
• In addition, we have mailed out summer camp information to all of our mailing list and distributed Church packets to nearly every Church in our database!
  

I'm tired now!

jc

Mark 4:26-29

²⁶He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. ²⁹As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

This parable is the only parable that is recorded by Mark alone. It's almost a part 2 of the sower parable - for the seed is surely the Word of God. The focus on this parable is not on the how receptive people are, but on the growth of God's kingdom, and here's the big news flash: you and I are not needed to make it grow.

Are you kidding me? I, who have worked in Christian ministry for all my adult life? The Churches I have worked at, and now the Camp - won't they crumble into ruins if I am not there doing my part? How can God grow His Kingdom without me? Well, pretty easily.

What is more powerful and unstoppable than growth? Sure, a plant can die if it does not get the proper nutrients, but if it is alive, it is growing. I looked back at my blog here from a while back and read some of my postings about my "extreme gardening" project behind our house. I started last fall (2008)- taking down the "Roman Barricade" as Jenette called it - dismantling the huge pile of logs and ice storm debris so that we can have something close to a yard back there. After I did so much work last fall and winter, clearing and cutting and removing a million rose vines, the spring and summer happened. I got busy with camp, and the roses popped up again, and the weeds grew more happily than ever. The Spring of 2009 was the first in three years that we did not have a major late killing freeze, so everything grew, well, like weeds.

It seems just yesterday that I had three baby boys. Now I have three young men. (and some young ladies as well!) - Growth is amazing and unstoppable, and it all comes from God. Night and day, whether I sleep or get up, the Kingdom of God is growing, just like the seed, and I don't know how it works. It seems to me that these days are destined to have the Kingdom diminish - because of the evil that has run amuck and how our country's leaders are trying to lead us further and further away from God. But it just this type of situation that Kingdom advancement has always been seen in the Bible and in history. What is more powerful than the growth of God's Kingdom?

I visited an interesting town last Sunday. I went to the Christian Church in Liberal, MO to share with the Church the exciting things that God is doing here at MBC. (And, this is a great little Church! We loved being there!)

Liberal, Missouri was founded as a town that was to being with God, churches, Christians, Jesus, and (oddly enough) without saloons. See this article for more information. It was supposed to be a "freethinking" society, without all the messy difficulties of religion. It didn't take long for the town to be in utter chaos, for Christian missionaries to seize the opportunities afforded by the chaos, and for God's Kingdom to advance in this small town. What is more unstoppable than the growth of God's Kingdom?

Even though the preaching of the gospel was crucial to the life of Liberal, MO (and to every other group of people on the planet), the point of the parable is that God is going to grow His Kingdom - if one person is disobedient in the call, God will use another. Verse 28 points out the way that the seed grows - "All by itself." The Word of God, planted in the hearts of people is like that seed that has a way of growing all by itself.

Paul talked about this same idea in 1 Corinthians 3:1-9. People were arguing about who was their spiritual leader and "father." Some said it was Paul. Others said it was Apollos (a NT missionary). Paul said, "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow." (1 Corinthians 3:6)

Finally, there is an end in sight - there will be a harvest, and it won't be the weeds that are harvested (as we see in other parables) - it will be the grain that is producing fruit. What is the fruit of the Kingdom of God? How about love, joy, peace, patience, etc... (I can say them much faster than I can type them). Not only will God grow His Kingdom with or without us, but He will do the harvesting.

So, to all my friends involved in ministry, here is my encouragement. Fear God, not the people in the congregation. It's His Kingdom - His power behind the growth - His holiness - and His harvest. Is no one being baptized at your church? Are the disciples falling away? Maybe it's because church leaders are aligning themselves with the world more than with God.

Why would God want to grow a baby Christian in a worldly, loveless, passionless, Pharisaical, lukewarm church?

Isaiah 55:10-12

¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Sabbath days

Ok, so it's been a few days since I have blogged, so if anyone thinks I fell off the edge of the planet for a while, I am proclaiming my return to the blunderblog. Blogging is something that I greatly enjoy - it's somewhat therapeutic - but I kind of have to be in a certain mode to blog. That mode is usually reflective and many times somewhat melancholy - I guess that's why many of my postings are deep and usually dark. At least, I think so, but I haven't gone back and read everything I have written in the last few years recently, either.

So I am sitting here watching a printer spit out 2000 camp newsletters, thinking about this, that, and the other thing, so it is a splendid time to blog.

First of all, the summer camp sessions were finished over a week ago, but I had the opportunity to represent the camp at two different VBS programs. One in the morning in Springfield, and one in the evening in Joplin. Even though it was a hectic and tiring week, I greatly enjoyed being a part of both VBS's. At the Northside VBS, they asked me to be a part of a lesson where I was Pharoah and all the kids were the plagues. I think they greatly enjoyed abusing Pharoah.

As for summer camp, it was another awesome experience. I like camp because all the adults who come (for the most part) are there because they want to be there. They are willing to serve and to show God's love to the campers and to others. I don't know the official number yet, but I am guessing that there were around 500 adults throughout the summer. When they come and volunteer at the camp, and they serve God and invest themselves in the kids, you truly get to see the best of the Church. It is amazing what God's people can do when they are willing servants.

Church people spend too much time majoring in the minors, and too much time minoring in the majors. I would like to call all my Christian friends and family - anyone who is listening, to get rid of all the petty bickering and whining and griping that is so destructive, and to be servants in their churches.

I have been convicted recently that I need to do more than I am doing to advance God's Kingdom and to help others understand God's truth. I have already begun part of that journey as I am teaching for a few weeks to the youth group on Sunday nights.

I am also going to attempt a new direction with leading a small group - I'll write more about that another time, but that is also part of my conviction.

These days after camp is over for the summer are always a hard transition for me. I am eager to get back into a routine, but I am bummed out that the excited, eager servants of God are all gone for now from the camp.

But I can see the big picture better than I could the last few years. In many ways, I feel like every day serving at MBC is better than the day before. Like Penny said, we know we are growing because we have a new set of better problems. I am actually looking forward to the fall and winter, because I can see a better vision this year of my role in my family, the camp, and the church.

Although I have enjoyed several Sabbath days or rest throughout the summer, the days that I have advanced God's kingdom the most are the days that give me the most energy.

I turned 40 last week - and I feel like I am just beginning. I guess that's a good thing!

jc

Endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ

This has been an incredible week here at the camp. The high school youth group from Crossroads Christian Church in Grand Prairie, TX has been here. They were scheduled to go to Mexico for their spring break missions trip, but had to go somewhere else because of all the violence going on down there.

They ended up here because, I believe, God is blessing this camp. As we talked to their group leader, Matt Cameron, we all saw that God had his leading on the group coming to MBC.

One of the major projects that they did was to extend the basketball court - a project that needed to happen for our camper's safety on the BB Court, but was just not going to happen because we didn't have anyone willing to do it. When we first talked to Matt and showed him around the camp, he wanted to know if there was concrete work to be done!

Matt and his group were willing, and they worked hard on the basketball court and many other things.

Let me try to list the things that they did:

• Painted five retreat center rooms
• Extended the concrete all the way around the basketball court
• Painted the entire inside of the Mark Dorm (Left side)
• Cleaned windows and blinds in Mark and Luke
• Completed the framing for the Retreat Center basement laundry room & meeting room
• Cleaned up the burn piles at both entrances
• Moved the pile of broken cement rocks from behind the Retreat Center
• Painted the bathroom shower area of Mark dorm (right side)
• Raked up massive piles of leaves and burned them
• Cleared out areas of the camp that had downed trees and limbs
• Hauled piles upon piles of tree limbs out to the south property
  
• Finished clearing the white pine trail
• Raked leaves around 7 shelters and cleared brush around them
• Moved rocks and cut logs from area in front of Penny's house
• Cleaned the MPB kitchen
• Painted the ball shed & constructed shelves for balls.
• And several other "here and there" things

I am thrilled that this group has chosen to spend their time and energy and money on MBC. I figure that they accomplished almost 1,000 man-hours (and woman-hours!) of work. At just minimum wage, that is worth well over $7,000 worth of work.

I kept mighty busy running around trying to keep them all going. I enjoyed hanging out with Charles, who desperately wanted to chop down a tree. I gave him my axe, and he got after it. I encouraged him that, just as an axe needs to be sharpened in order to be an effective tool, his spiritual life was important to keep "sharp" through the study of the Word and through fellowship with believers. I hope and pray that he will remember the lesson.

I am pretty tired, but I feel like this was a desperately needed boost to getting us toward where we need to be for this summer. Now is the time to endure, and finish the work of preparation. I keep praying that God would lead 2000 campers to come to us this summer. I want the camp to be ready for every single one.

On the third day (Wednesday), I encouraged the group I was working with on the trail clearing that they were doing a great job, but they needed to continue and endure until the end of their time working. I reminded them of the Scripture in 2 Timothy 2 that says to "Endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Many of these young adults were delightful, diligent, and almost cheery about the hard work they were doing. I didn't want to slack off or give in to weariness, because they were being such a good example to me. What better reasons are there to do hard work than to glorify God and to keep up with diligent young people who are working their rears off to glorify God?

Next week, I am off to our Church's youth group missions trip to American Indian Christian Mission in Show Low, Arizona. I pray that I can be as diligent and faithful as the Crossroads Christian people were.