Thursday, November 18, 2010

Turns in the Road

We have a GPS. It is a strange instrument. I do not have any idea how it works and I am convinced it has a mind of its own. Most of the time, it is a wonderful invention but sometimes it leads me to places I do not want to go. A couple of weeks ago I was in East Atlanta and needed to go to Dawsonville, GA so I punched in my destination. I followed the sweet voice of the lady in the box. She had me turn one way then another. Soon my internal GPS was in unfamiliar surroundings with no idea where I was. As she directed me to take one more turn, I ran right into a gate…of a gated community. I was no where near Dawsonville! It took a stop at CVS and a kindly man to get me on the right track.

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Following God can indeed take us places where we didn’t think we were going. Sometimes I think He is simply asking us to trust even when we end up in a place which was not our planed destination. And that happened to us often as we followed “THE LEADER” while producing The Amazing Collection.

One such time was in the summer of 2003. I had gotten the name of Katherine Helmers, a literary agent in Colorado Springs, from wonderful Nancy Guthrie when I had attended the CBA convention in Orlando Florida. I was sure she would be able to help us find a publishing company who would take on our study. However, after a brief conversation she declined saying she was working with Philip Yancey on his newest book and didn’t have the time for anything else. I was disappointed but then she recommended John Eames, another literary agent, who was spending the summer in Colorado.

Shortly after our conversation I received a call from him! He was excited about the project and wanted to know if he could be of some assistance to us. It seems he was in Colorado Springs that day having lunch with a friend when Katherine walked in and proceeded to tell him about us!

I was elated! Even more exciting was that I was on my way to Colorado for a wedding so we made arrangements to meet that Friday on August 15, 2003. On Wednesday I sent him a couple of videos then left for Colorado. On Thursday I talked to him again eagerly looking forward to “God’s appointment” on the following day. Friday morning I got a message on my cell phone that he had to cancel. To say the least, I was devastated. We did not talk again for several months.

In November I got a call from John and we agreed to meet together on December 3, 2003. He was coming to town and just thought it would be a good idea if we could get together. I agreed and so we met. I was so pleased to find him to be a most friendly, warm and delightful man. Thus began a wonderful relationship that continues to this day. Little did I know then how mightily God would use him in many different ways as we traversed the muddy waters of contracts, ministry legalities, business decisions and other times we needed a wise counselor. He was and is a God-send. …not as we thought…but even better.


Isaiah 30: 20-21
He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself , but your eyes will behold your Teacher. And your ears will hear a word behind you,, “This is the way, walk in it, whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

It’s Just A Call Away

One phone call can change a lot of things. Most recently we received a phone call from our son-in-law and he simply said, “He’s on the way. Gotta go” and with that life did change as we welcomed into the world our seventh grandchild. Or there was the one from Jenna years ago that announced that she had a ring on her finger and a wedding proposal! Life changed wonderfully with that call, too. Throughout life it is not difficult to remember the changes that came with a simple call. Sometimes those calls being about drastic changes and some times bring just small ones. None the less, one call can make all the difference in the world.

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Mid October, 2003 I got a call from a Mr. Dan Rich. He was not at all familiar to me but he introduced himself as one of the publishers at Navpress, a publishing company that was well known to us. He went on to say he had heard about The Amazing Collection and would love to meet with me and find out more about it. I was absolutely shocked. To this day I have no idea how he found out about us and how he found my name and number. That will remain with one of God’s mysteries.

Two weeks later, on Wednesday morning, October 22, 2003, Robin Rosebrough and I met Dan at one of the local restaurants. He had flown into Atlanta to meet with us because he heard that “God was up to something” and he wanted to hear all about it.

There is nothing we enjoy talking about more than all God has done for us as we have pressed on to produce the Amazing Collection: The Bible Book By Book. We had more stories than most people want to listen to when it came to all God was doing for us as we pressed on to produce the Amazing Collection. I feel certain we talked his ear off but he was most gracious and listened carefully and asked wonderful questions and all in all sealed a friendship that continues to this day.

The meeting lasted three and a half hours and when we parted we had no idea what those three and a half hours would bring but we felt God had something in mind and indeed He did.

Later I not only heard from Dan but we were offered a short term contract with Navpress. In it they committed $180,000 to the continued development of the product including packaging and marketing. It was beyond anything we could have ever imagined.

During the next few months, they would change the design of the covers, hire a professional developmental editor and a proof editor, design a continuity program and market it through their catalogues. This was the professional help we so desperately needed but had no idea how to go about getting it. But God did and He provided abundantly more than we could have ever thought to ask. He provided excellence!

But the best part was the friendships that developed through this brief partnership. Dan, Kathy Mosier, Leigh McLeroy, Pat Reinstein and Terry Beheimer all proved to be not only greatly talented but people who gave so generously of their talents and their hearts! Though seven years have passed, they are still friends of the ministry and continue to help us out on every new project.

And it all began with one simple call.

Psalm 17:6
I have called upon Thee,
For Thou wilt answer me O God.
Incline Thine ear to me
And hear my speech.


Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Caught on Film

I got my first camera when I was nine years old. It was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, a model few people will now remember. But for me it was a gift of enormous value, for now I could look at the world thru lens and actually capture what I saw as a permanent record. It was astonishing, a miracle, or at least I thought it so at the time.

But it also made me a lot more conscious of what the eye sees and what I really wanted to capture. I took a picture of my sister’s shoelaces by accident. And then there was the photo of Mom as she was turning her head quickly…well I think it was my mother but then who could tell? It was simply a blur.

Taking a picture is not easy, that is if you really want a good outcome. And in those days before computer every single print cost money. I spent all of my allowance more than once on a series of goof-ups that ended up in the trash. So two things are needed for a fool-proof picture. You need a good camera and a good camera man with an eye to know what to capture and what to leave.

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Lani Rae Hughes called me on the afternoon of September 23, 2003. She had been hired a year earlier by our “partners” Soteria Productions as producer for all of The Amazing Collection programs and had proved to be a competent, capable young woman. Besides, she was just a lot of fun and encouraged all of us and for many reasons I had learned to trust her and her judgment.

On this particular day she was asking for the big bucks. She wanted a boom camera for Soteria Productions to film All Rise with Babbie Mason for the book of Ezekiel. A boom camera is a large camera on a long, stable arm that can be maneuvered up high and down low and can get into a lot of places a lone cameraman cannot get into and it does it fast. She said they wanted the best and this kind of camera would do just that!

They had a vision for the song and as she described it to me it all sounded good. But then she ‘lowered the boom’ so to speak and told me the cost. It would be $800 for a couple of hours of camera time and an experienced cameraman I was shocked to say the least. This sounded like an enormous amount of money at a time when the bank account looked mighty low. Did we REALLY need to spend so much money just to get a little bit better view, a higher view? I thought of my Hawkeye that we purchased for a mere seven dollars in 1955. Surely the costs were outrageous. But instead of just saying NO (which I was inclined to do!) I told Lani to pray about it and if God wanted a boom camera than I knew He would provide for it.

I hung up and went to the mailbox. There was a check for $20,000 for Big Dream. By the time I got back to the house Eleanor was calling saying she had just gotten a check for $2,000 and that very morning she and her prayer team had asked God for $22, 000.

So I called Lani back. I guess God wanted a boom camera and indeed He did because to this day that is one of my very favorite music videos ever. It was a lesson for sure. We were trying to produce something that could bring glory to God. We were not to short change on those things of importance. We would use the boom camera time and time again and each time it would add beauty and interest to the film beyond anything a “still” camera could do and every time God provided .

Colossians 3:17
Whatever you do in word or deed it all in the name of the Lord.