About 3 or 4 months ago I had this script for a short sermon video hit me like a freight train.

I’m not sure who first said the line, if it was something I thought up or something I actually heard one of our boys say, but “I still don’t know if there is a God…” became the seed for a video idea that blended the true life stories of two of our street kids (never went through the foster agency) into something that I felt that captured the true meaning of why my wife Trisha and I got involved in helping teens both through the local foster agency and a few kids right off the street. There is an anonymous author that said “People always come into your life for a reason, a season and a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.” Trisha and I feel that these kids come into our life much the same way. And the one thing we hope to share with them is our love, but if they happen to realize that God loves them too in the process; well then that’s not bad either.

About a week later we were discussing the upcoming series at our planning meeting and I knew we had a ringer. The series was looking at the mission statement of Lakeside and the team felt that the video truly captured the essence of of “… Helping Others …” so we finished it off and put it in the service.

Since then I have also submitted it to a few film festivals. Although it didn’t win anything it gave me a great opportunity to get some constructive feedback. Combine that with some reading I’ve been doing and I hope some day to re-shoot it and apply all that I’ve learned. A special thanks to Brad Zimmerman for giving me some honest and constructive feedback.

Here it is in it’s original form. I’ve learned that the shaky shoot thing didn’t work the way I thought it would and the importance of doing some post work. But the story is still strong and I feel it still does carry the message.

Enjoy

Special thanks to Matt and Tyler for giving me the stories that make up this film, Without them it would have been nothing but a great one liner.