One of my best pals, Chad Phillips, is a missionary in Cambodia. He and his family have been working working at Good News Baptist Church in Phnom Penh for almost 2 years now, and it is amazing to see how the Lord has blessed their ministry. I have often thought about trying to go and visit, and Chad and I had even mentioned the idea a few times, but no serious plans were ever made. That is - until the past couple of months!
About 5 weeks ago, I got a call from Chad telling me about some adjustments they were making to their furlough plans. They had an exciting ministry opportunity that would be coming about next summer, so they were going to reschedule their trip home before that date. Chad also began telling me about a project he wanted to do before he came home, and he wanted me to help him out. He was wanting to make a short video to kind of show his life and ministry there in Cambodia during their first term. Somehow in a few minutes he had talked me into trying to get to Cambodia ASAP and get this done.
Well, we worked out the details. I got my Passport and Plane tickets (which include 20 hours in the air, ughh!), I cleared my calendar during Thanksgiving (Turkey diet), and very soon I will be heading to Cambodia.
I am very excited about this opportunity, and humbled as well. Six weeks ago I never would have imagined that this would be possible. Please pray that the Lord would help me and protect me on this trip and that He will bless the work we do.
Cambodia Packages!
As we began to see the details come together that I would be able to go to Cambodia, I decided that I wanted to do a fundraiser to help pay for my trip and project. Chad was already working on some new things including a new website. I thought what better way to do a Cambodia trip fundraiser than to create a promotional packet to help promote this. Over the past few weeks I have ordered and created a few items and put them together into a cool Cambodia packet. I got a Pray for Cambodia T-Shirt made complete with Chad’s new website on it. There is also a wristband with the new website on it. I made a vinyl decal that you can put on your car or mirror to help you remember Cambodia. And finally, I made a tag to go along with the package. It has a picture of the Phillips family and some other info. What’s awesome is that my family members put all of these items together for me in a cool looking bundle! Check it out.
Lastly today, I wanted to mention Chad’s new website. It is not complete yet, but you can check it out at www.living-fields.com.
The name he chose for his website is very significant. A quick Google search of Cambodia will show you why. Probably the most notable event in their recent history is the brutal Khmer Rouge regime which ruled from 1975 to 1979. Thousands were murdered and even more died of disease and starvation. There are several burial sites within Cambodia that are simply know as “The Killing Fields.” While this is just a history lesson to most people, it is still very real in the minds of most Cambodians, including Chad and Linda’s family members.
The things associated with “The Killing Fields” makes the name of Chad’s new website overwhelmingly powerful. The darkness and death that came in Cambodia’s past will give way to the light and life that the Gospel brings to the Cambodian people. With Christ and laborers like my pal Chad, the future of Cambodia is “The Living Fields”.
I recently finished another business card / prayer card project for my good friend Dallas Brown. Dallas is going to be heading to Africa in September for a six month adventure. He is going to be assisting one of our missionary friends from Victory Baptist Church, Keith Shumaker in Burkina Faso, West Africa. It has been a great joy to get to know Dallas over the past several years, and to see him develop into a great leader. He is truly a special individual and a nonpareil servant. He has a special heart for missions, and has been working like crazy to save up for this trip to Africa. Also, his work at Victory is invaluable, and he will be missed. I hope you will subscribe to his blog (Here) as well as consider helping him both prayerfully and financially.
OK, OK, enough of the sentimental thoughts. In this Adios post, i really wanted to reflect on my personal experiences with Dallas, and show everyone how vital he has been to many of our projects at Victory Baptist Church. You see, Dallas Brown is probably the funniest, most talented, and craziest person I have ever met. Whenever we have an idea for a new skit or video, most of the time it involves Dallas doing some silly stunt or making a fool of himself. (Which he is always happy to do) It has been said that Dallas would be a perfect act with a circus or fair. He is adroit, adept, and able to learn about anything. I have seen him do a rubik’s cube in under a minute, ride a unicycle along a cliff, and juggle knives in a church service, just to list a few things on his resume. And I wouldn’t doubt if he could do all these at the same time, haha!
So I had this idea. What better way to send Dallas off than with a Dallas Brown Top 5 moments list. Here are my 5 favorite pictures or screenshots from projects working with Dallas. I hope you enjoy them. I will post some links to the videos at the end as well as a special SURPRISE!!!
Top 5 Dallas Brown Moments
5 - Thanksgiving Bus Ministry Flyer
4 - Dallas as Drill Instructor (from The War commercial “The Basement”)
3 - Dallas climbing Stone Mountain
2 - Dallas on Fire (from 2011 Youth Explosion Video)
These are a few of the reasons why Dallas Brown is so …….. special. hahah! Several of these images were captured as part of video projects we were working on. If you would like to see some of these videos, I have a surprise for you! In my last blog post (see here) I showed a few of our Missions Conference commercials and behind the scenes videos and mentioned a new project that I may try to work on. We have created many videos at Victory Baptist Church over the years and many people often ask me, “Hey, do you still have ___ video somewhere?” Well as of today, Vics Video Vault is under construction! And i figured what better way to celebrate Dallas than uploading several Dallas Brown videos for you to enjoy. Click the link or pic below to check it out, and stay tuned for more videos from the Victory archives!
The War at Victory is officially here. Check out the website and some of the sights and sounds we have seen so far on the Gallery page. This website homepage is probably the single most awesome graphic design I have ever worked on. I hope the kids like it. I will post an update at the end to share how everything went. As you can tell by the preview video here and those on the website, I have recently become addicted to time lapses. I will probably share more in the future on that as well. It’s so easy to do with spectacular results. I'm learning something new every time I do one. You can make anything look interesting. Who would have guessed that Loganville could be a photography hot spot. haha!
This Saturday afternoon, April 28th, make plans to head out to the Monroe Fairgrounds for Team Up Mentoring’s “Cow Pie Bingo” fund raiser. They have the schedule packed with lots of free and fun activities for your family to enjoy, followed by a very unique game of Bingo. I have only heard of this game recently, but have never seen it in action, I can’t wait to see what happens!
Cow Pie Bingo, or Cow Patty Bingo, is basically a field set up with numbered squares. Bingo tickets are sold with the corresponding numbers. Finally, a well fed Cow is released into the field to do his business. If a cow patty lands on your numbered square, then you are a winner! Sound pretty simple right? but who knows whats going to happen when you lead a nervous cow to a field surrounded by Bingo participants. It’s definitely going to be a sight to see. HaHa! You can get your tickets for a square for $20 and the winning square (or squares) will get $1000. You can get more info here http://teamupmentoring.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/cow-pie-bingo-faq/
Once again I have had the great opportunity to work with Team Up Mentoring for this event. One thing we wanted to do was create a fun cow T-shirt to make this unique experience even more memorable for everyone. This is what we came up with. Stop by and get one, they are only $12.
Also, we needed tickets to sell for the Cow Pie Bingo Event. I looked at ordering the typical ticket, but was very disappointed with the creative limitations. I then looked at the possibilities of creating our own tickets’s and I’m glad I did. We were able to come up with a stubbed ticket that is a lot more functional and fun. This is what the ticket’s look like. Complete with numbered Cow Patty Bingo numbers, haha!
It looks like the folks at Team Up Mentoring have really set up a great event and Saturday is sure to be lots of fun. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Cow Pie Bingo works out! If you live in or around Monroe you should come by and check it out. There will be lots of stuff for the kids: facepainting, petting zoo, etc. as well as a Silent Auction and Cow Pie Event. There will also be concessions (Chickfila Sandwiches, drinks, snacks) and Tshirts available. You can also purchase tickets for the Cow Pie Bingo game if they are still available.
The greatest part about this event is that it will help raise funds for Team Up Mentoring’s programs this year. If you don’t know that much about this group and the great things that are going, on I would encourage you to check them out. They are really making a difference in the community of Monroe. Director Anna Blount and her team have dedicated themselves to helping these kids in every facet of their lives. It’s exciting to see! Having been able to join the Team Up group on a few activities in the past it is easy to see the Lord’s blessing on this ministry.
I hope you will make plans to be at the event on Saturday. It will be a ton of fun, as well as help support Team Up Mentoring and Monroe. Also, if you would like to get more info or even get involved with Team Up Mentoring I would encourage you to do so. Here is a link to their site: http://www.teamupmentoring.org/
And to everyone who is participating in Cow Pie Bingo on Saturday, I hope you have a stinkin’ good time! HaHa!
One of the sites that I often check, Dealnews.com, had an article about tablets that was very interesting. They did a poll on those who were thinking of buying a new tablet, and had a lot of questions about the “new” iPad. What’s cool is they used a little creative design to make this way more visual than your typical survey. Way to go guys, this is what I call a survey!
Got some new software recently, just trying it out. This is a quick intro I made with one of the preloaded templates from Motion 5 and some effects from Final Cut Pro X. You can get a free one month trial for both of these at the App Store. So, even if you don’t really need the software, but want to create a few videos or intros like this for a project or website, it’s worth tryin’ out. The great thing is, this only took me a few minutes to do. I may put some more stuff up once I learn a little bit more about these programs.
I have the great privilege of working with the teens at Victory Baptist Church in Loganville, GA. Last month I decided to challenge my Sunday School class (7th - 9th Grade guys) with something that really turned out to be a lot of fun. We wanted to make sure that everyone in the class could tie a necktie. At first I intended this to be a one week lesson; however, I soon realized that was not going to happen. Thus “Knot November” was born. hahah!
It was really quite interesting - I felt like a “real” teacher. I gave a simple assignment, and was then given a multitude of hilarious responses and excuses. A few examples for your entertainment:
“I know how but, my mom usually ties it for me“
“If I untie it, then I will have to tie it back again”
“Is this right....is this right....is this right...ughhh!”
“I did it exactly how you said, but look.”
“My dad doesn’t wear a tie, I don’t need to wear a tie”
We went over a few different knots, the 4 In Hand Knot, the Half and Full Windsor, and the Pratt Knot. We also learned some deadly sins for ties, one - NEVER leave your knot tied after its used. You should have seen some of their faces as they were forced to untie a knot that their mother had tied for them.....probably several months ago. To make the event more fun, we added a challenge and some incentive. The ties we were practicing with, I had collected from men at church. I told the guys, if on the day appointed they could tie one of the knots learned, they could keep the tie they picked. I also created them an official “Knot Expert” card with their mugshot.
All in all, a very memorable experience. Hopefully a learning one too. I want to congratulate every one in my class - they all were able to tie at least one of the knots we had learned! Knot November 2011 was a success.........through and through!
Here is a quick video recap of Knot November, Enjoy!
Team Up Mentoring - Monroe, GA
Personally, designing brochures is one of the most difficult items that I work with. There are several reasons for this, but I guess the main one is that you often have to focus most of your time on text structure and layout. When this happens, the creativity portion tends to fly out the window. Well, I just kinda rediscovered a way to creatively approach a brochure design and thought I would share the story. If your stuck with a boring layout, you only need one special ingredient - PICTURES!
Everyone has heard the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. I recently had a couple projects where those words rang out in my mind, and I am so glad they did. When I was asked to do a brochure for Team Up Mentoring in Monroe, GA I was not really sure which direction to go. At first I was just going to update the current design that they had with new pictures and a fresh look. However, when the director gave me tons of spectacular pictures to choose from, I knew I really needed to focus on these. The purpose of the brochure was to help create interest in their program and these pictures would be perfect for that. Really all I needed was a layout that “let the pictures do the talking”. I remembered a picture frame idea I had used several years ago on a flyer, and decided to give it a try.
With the abundance of great pictures, I think the Team Up Mentoring brochure design was a success. What’s funny is just last week I had another brochure design request. A friend of mine, Chris Waye, is helping set up a missions trip called the “UK Vision Tour”. He needed an informative brochure to hand out to those that might be interested in a trip to England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Your probably thinking what I was thinking! What better way to convince someone to go to the these special places than with some awesome pictures! Once again, I was able to get my hands on some spectacular images to use in the brochure. And what better way is there to get folks signed up for a “UK Vision Tour” than to simply let the pictures do the talking.
So remember, next time you’ve got a project where words just won’t do the job - let your pictures do all of the talking!
In Georgia, there is a staple every Fourth of July in Atlanta called the Peachtree Road Race. It’s a 10K race that has become the largest in the world even with a capped registration of 60,000. There are thousands more workers and spectators that also come each year. This is a huge economic boost for the city and brings in millions and millions of dollars in revenue. The race started in 1970 and its history over the years is very interesting. (Check it out here: http://www.peachtreeroadrace.org/press-center/history ) One of the things that captures the most attention each year is the official Peachtree Road Race T-Shirt. The main sponsor of the race is Atlanta Journal Constitution. Starting in 1995 they began to have a design contest for the shirt that was conducted through the newspaper. There is always a lot of intrigue with this. The design is revealed on raceday, when finishers of the race cross the line and recieve their goodie bags which includes the T Shirt. I have really only kept up with it for the past few years, but it is always interesting. They probably get hundreds of submissions, and then they narrow it down to a few. I know the past few years the AJC has put up a poll on their website to see which design is the most popular. Here is this years winning design - and a link to the 5 finalists: http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/sports/peachtree-road-race/2011-ajcpeachtree-shirts/
Anyway, now to the point of this blog post, hahah! I don’t know about you, but I love to read the comments on websites. There is no better place to find quality quips and one-liners than on these comment boards. For the past few years, it never fails that the days following the race there are tons of negative comments concerning the T Shirt design. I must admit, that I don’t really care for most of the design finalist, or the winning designs, but they are not terrible. Well, just a few days ago, I read a very good comment from someone that was obviously tired of the annual T shirt bashing. They suggested that all the “haters” are just jealous and instead of whining, they should send in their own designs. I thought that was a great idea, in fact I decided that I would work on a Peachtree T Shirt design myself. Below is a picture of what I came up with. It’s probably not “artsy” enough for the judges, but I tend to like things simple and sweet. What do you think? Maybe I will submit it next year. Who knows maybe I could be the one with 60,000 people hatin’ on my T shirt design. hahaha!
Team Up Mentoring - Monroe, GA
UK Vision Tour 2012
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