What I want to say…

What I want to say, perhaps I should not.  Deep thoughts, high ideals, but the world does not want to hear it.  Perhaps I will become more bold in the future – perhaps?  But for now I hide much of what I believe and hold dear for fear of others shunning it, shunning me.  Perhaps I will take more seriously to my private journal, telling what I have within my heart there.

We are all marvolous.  All brilliant.  I fear we will never know it, though, unless we free ourselves.  Unless we let Jesus reign in our hearts.

Anyhow, a post everyday, so here’s the post.  More tomorrow?  Perhaps.

God bless!

-b

P.S. Day 2 of this post writing escapade.

The Morevna Project

Yes! Finally! Praise God! My first real article has been accepted to BlenderNation (BlenderNation is the central news site for Blender, the free open source 3D content creation suite.[1])

Read the article now!

I am so glad and highly appreciative that my article as been accepted. I have been endeavoring to get an article submitted for some time now, and had somewhat given up hope (for a time) that I would ever get something submitted. But Bart (Bart Veldhuizen, BlenderNation’s primary contributor and founder) has been cleaning out the backup of article suggestions that the Blender open source community has been sending in. A recent addition to BlenderNation has been the “Rapid Fire” articles, shooting off multiple, short article suggestions and links. A wonderful idea!

So, I am very thankful for Bart accepting my article! And I am also thankful to Zelgadis (Head of the Morevna Project) for leading the open source community of Synfig in an endeavor to create this open source animé film and for letting me know my article had been submitted (I hadn’t found out yet!) Also many thanks to the Morevna Project open source community contributors and all the open source developers, artists, and enthusiasts of many kinds spanning the globe.

See the Morevna Project official website
See the project wiki

God bless and best wishes,
-b

Gustav – Another Hurricane Katrina?

Gustav is a hurricane currently in class 3.  Perhaps it will reach a number 5 by the time it has landfall.  Is this another hurricane Katrina?  Maybe not, but still the same, let us pray that God will save those who are in need.

To find out more about Gustav and where it’s headed, see here:

News search

BBC News | In Pictures

Hurricane Gustav – Wikipedia

Weather.com

Thank you for praying,

-b

P.S. Side note: Robin Hood the show is an inspiration to me.  Evermore I feel an urge to film something couragous … I hope we can do it!  😀  BTW, please pray!

Progress made – editing

Well, the conversion of the .tod worked.  Praise the Lord!  I have converted it through Power Director Express, to the resolution of 720×480 (.avi).  Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0 can’t handle HD, so with this lower DV resolution I can edit my interview of Dr. Singh!

Dr. Singh Interview 08 - in Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0

This is great news, because it means I can start working on video with what I have now, even though I’m not doing HD yet.

I hope to learn more on how to use Blender (www.blender.org,) the open source 3d content creation suite.  I may work on something in Blender soon.  If mastered, I would be able to do title effects, 3D animations, compositing, and CG FX for my films.  But until then, my options are somewhat limited, at least in the area of 3D animations and beautiful CG FX.

Once again, any film ideas are very welcome.  We’ll see what comes…

Ciao,

Thanks for listening,

-b

P.S. I have also found out how to handwrite subtitles for Adobe Encore.  Now I can work on the subtitles for MIG (Miracle In Gansu play to DVD,) and work to complete the project.  (Previously I had tried to write the subtitles in Encore, which caused the Encore file to get corrupted.  I recommend writing subtitles in a third-party app (like Notepad,) by hand, and then import them.)

Soon

The Super Nintendo game “Illusion of Gaia” is quite fun!  You can check out the rom.

Just found out real recently a way to do the subtitles for “Miracle In Gansu” (filmed play to DVD) by hand!  This is great!  Finding some LOTR subtitle files for The Fellowship of the Ring (check out this subtitle site, Subscene,) I opened one up in GVIM, and I can edit it! Yahoo!  That means I can do the MIG (Miracle In Gansu to DVD) subtitles and work to finish up the project. (I may post more about MIG later.)

Tomorrow the Everio GZ-HD7 camcorder should arrive, and in the evening I will test it out on a service with guest speaker Dr. Singh, a man of God from India.  He risks his life for Jesus Christ, and he will not back down!  Glory to God.

God bless,

Thanks for listening!

-b

Stories of the “Ex-Amish”

Below are two recent accounts from Christians who have come in contact with the “Ex-Amish”, Amish who have been excommunicated from their communities because of their faith in Jesus Christ the Savior.

NOTE: Names from the exceprts have been changed to preserve the privacy of those involved.

We were with the ‘ex-Amish’ last night.  They are an amazing people.  Jesus is doing amazing things.  All of the couples are younger than us.  At their service the other night with over 120 people, there were no older people.  They have large families.  Five or six years ago, there were just a few families who were saved and meeting together.  Now there are at least 20 families, I think.  They have a passion for Jesus.

The Amish believe you do the best you can and you might make it to heaven.  You won’t know until judgment day.

Hannah told how they lived in a house on the same property as her parents.  When she and her husband got saved, her parents sold their house and moved away because they couldn’t stand to be near them.  Others have been officially excommunicated.  Some of their Amish families keep contact with them hesitantly.

Mary told what a big hurdle it was to drive a car to her parents for the first time (as opposed to a buggy).  She was afraid they would be very angry.  Jesus had softened their hearts and it wasn’t a big deal.

Rebekah shared how angry she was as an Amish young person that she wasn’t allowed to continue her education past 8th grade.  She talked to me excitedly about how much she is looking forward to homeschool her son in the upper grades.

Joseph told how he is from an Amish family in Pennsylvania.  His brother got saved and started reading the English Bible to Joseph.  The Amish are only allowed to read the Bible in German (an old German) and the Amish use some German in everyday talk, but not enough of the vocabulary that the Bible uses to understand the reading of it.  Joseph then got saved once he knew what the Bible really said.  Their family was so mad and so persecuted his brother that his brother became depressed and put in a mental hospital for awhile.  That is when the believers in PA moved Joseph here to Indiana because the family began to persecute him as well.

The spirit of these people is so sweet.  They are very open and active in evangelizing the Amish community.  I suppose that is why they are growing so much.

Even while we were with them last night, a teen relative of one of the men called him on the phone.  This Amish boy was at an Amish drinking party with his friends and he was challenging his relative to come over and talk to them. They find the saved ex-Amish entertaining.   The boys even agreed to listen to a sermon CD.  So, all the men at our gathering packed up in a van and headed over there.  Looking forward to hearing the rest of the story!  Even though the saved know that these youth don’t always take them seriously, they know that seeds are being planted and some do get saved.

Karin Litchfield
www.shadrachyouth.org

Karin writes: Another story of an Amish conversion.  This is my mom writing about a couple that was at an RFOD Sunday School class in Clare Michigan this past weekend.

But there was an Amish couple there.   She still dresses like our Amish

in Grabill… no buttons, long dress, and white bonnet.  He has changed

to where he wears shirts with buttons and even a little color in his

shirt.

In the class I was trying to really figure them out.

I wish I could remember all the story, but evidently he would drive by

the church there and every time the Lord will tell him to call Pastor

Paul.   He said himself that he was very stubborn and wouldn’t do it.

He evidently was very sick of the Amish way.

One day he was so depressed that he took a gun to his mouth.

I think it was then that the Lord spoke to him in an audible voice,

and essentially said, “Put that gun down and call Pastor Paul.”

So he finally did and that started a wonderful relationship.

It took another year or so until his wife started coming with him to the Clare Christ Fellowship.    I guess they are very regular in their attendance now.   They have been rejected by

family and the Amish church.    Even his own grandmother will not talk with him now.

I guess he is a wonderful wood craftsman, and can make about anything, and does it very well.  I got to talking more to him at the meal, and he is quite a talker and interesting to listen too.  Very different in many ways, but interesting.

Marcia Schultze
www.schultze.org

Praise the Lord for how He helped!  I appreciate the standards of the Amish communities, but I greater appreciate those who are willing to break free of anything that holds them from doing what God wants them to.

Thanks for listening and God bless!

-b