Houston, TX and Richmond, VA

Hello friends,
In the last two weeks I have been in Houston, TX and Richmond, VA doing camera for ATF. Some of the best times since being in Texas so far.
Let me set this up a bit first. The months leading up to Christmas I had been working towards becoming a producer. But I was not sure what exactly I wanted to do, I wanted to learn it all. It was during my break that I really took some time aside to think about what God had been telling me about my future and where I need to start focusing on. And after praying about it, I felt like camera and editing was where I needed to start focusing on. So when I came back from break, another DP left and I knew that God had provided me with an opportunity and I ran with it and I went to Doug and told him I want to learn camera (I plan on learning editing during spare time). And to make a long story short I am in a trial period where I am learning everything I can and proving to him how much I want it and how good I can be. Here’s the cool thing. This was about three weeks ago and since then I have been to two ATF’s since starting. I got to go to Houston, TX (last week), and a few days later I found myself in a bus on my way to Richmond, VA (this past weekend).
Before I go into my experiences, I want to say how important I have found the process of communication to be. I went to Doug and told him what I wanted to do. A few days before the Houston event I was talking to one of my friends about how I would love to do ENG crews. ENG stands for Electronic News-Gathering. It usually consists of a three man crew and has someone doing Audio, another camera, and another is a producer, who asks the questions, etc. And my friend tells me that I should tell my manager or supervisor so that they know. This conversation was happening on a Tuesday and I was pretty sure it was too late but I went to talk to one of my supervisors and I let him know that I was interested in doing ENG for Houston or any future event and I let him know the benefits to being able to develop both my camera and producing skills. And the next day I was called into the office and found out I was going to Houston the next day! Communication is key. Let people know what you want to do. One of the biggest things I’ve learned since being here is learning to be in constant communication because a lot of the time people need to know what you are thinking or they can take things the wrong way or misunderstand.
Anyways.
Houston, Texas.
It was a Wednesday I got told that I, along with two others would be going to Houston with Jared, the Director of Photography (DP) to Houston to be trained in camera. We are the three that will be travelling to the ATF’s for the spring tour I believe. So I get to Houston with Swat & Support and we (Logan, Josua, and I) spend the majority of the day getting interviews of the Ministry Team and School of Worship and broll of people getting set up. Evening rolls up and we go outside and start talking to people, getting some group interviews. And so starts a weekend of lots of conversations, practice, and fun. I say this without hesitation: that weekend has been one of my favorite since getting here. I prayed a lot for the event before. I asked God for conversations, opportunities to minister, for great content, for favor. And I can say that God has been so faithful! I got lots of great content out of people while producing and I really enjoyed being able to be on camera. There was one girl who shared her story with us about how she had been beat and raped by a father figure and has been with lots of guys and on Friday night she really realized God’s love for her and that his love is enough. Abi and I got a chance to pray for her after. It was one of my favorite moments. We got a chance to see the drama Friday night and it was one of Ministry Team’s best performances yet. I also got to see most of Lecrae and TFK on Saturday. I love the atmosphere of MT. It has such a family feel to it. And I love the meals. I had coke all weekend and it was amazing! We finished load out and had a team meeting and were on the bus by 2am and I had a few hours of uneasy sleep. I had only had about 12 hours of sleep since the Wednesday. (That’s like out of 97 hours) Then I went to bed at like 7:30am till 2am. It was great.
Richmond, Virginia
It was Tuesday at around 5pm. I went to my supervisor’s desk and I was talking to her and she lets it slip that I’m going to Richmond. And that the bus was leaving at 1am. That night. Now, I am excited that I get to be travelling to ATF’s, but the only one that I did not really want to go to was Richmond. I had just gotten back from Houston. Two of my friends were having their birthday, I was going out with a friend, and my supervisor’s last day was on Friday and then she was leaving forever. Over the past two months I have gotten closer to my supervisor and it has been pretty hard dealing with the fact that she was leaving. But I had all week to prepare myself for her departure. Until I got told I would be leaving in a few hours and then I realized that I wouldn’t be seeing her anymore and that was a bit difficult to deal with. So I get on the bus with Phillip (a new January who was going to do texting for the event) and a bus full of interns from the Honor Academy who I did not know. And let’s just say I was awake for probably 2 or 3 hours at the most out of our 26 hour trip. I don’t know what it is but I sleep like a baby on road trips. I sleep all night, and then I sleep all day. It’s wonderful. I don’t really know anyone but over the course of the weekend I get to know the majority of the people on the bus and it’s great. We get to Richmond on Thursday morning and help load in all day. Then we go to our host homes. Wilma, was the name of the lady who we stayed with. She’s from Brazil and she always smiles. Her family has a beautiful home and they were incredibly generous. Giving us lots of food, and they even made us some amazing Brazilian food. And I got my own room and bed and it was one of the most wonderful nights of my sleeping life. So fast forward to Friday night, Doug is at the Richmond event and I am supposed to be shooting Ron Luce for something and then he lets me know that I will be shooting a promo as well. Now the funny thing is that two weeks ago I was the PA (Producer Assistant) on this very shoot and now I am the DP on it. So I meet Ron Luce, he asks me what my name is and is really nice and since I am holding the camera in my right hand I give him an awkward left hand shake and I’m praying that I don’t screw this up, and that the audio is fine (which is did end up being thank God) and I shoot it and he thanks me and it was great. I’m hoping my boss thinks so too. Oh, in case you guys don’t know. Ron Luce is the founder and president of Teen Mania. He’s also one of the main speakers at the ATF events. After that, I go out to do my job as ENG and I interview a few people before the event but the interesting thing is as soon as the event is going on people are not in the concourse which is great, but that means I don’t get as many interviews. People didn’t have much to say before so knew I really had to step up my game during the fifteen minute breaks. I must admit though, that I was feeling a bit discouraged and worried because before the event started I was only getting “shallow” interviews. Last week was great and then I was getting nothing. So before the event started I had been praying hardcore. I was expectant. To me, this is not just about doing my job and getting interviews and great sound bytes. This is about being able to reach out to people. To bring hope. To be there for people. So after session, I’m walking around interviewing people and Phillip calls me telling me he talking to a girl who was going to commit suicide but after the session she decided not to anymore. So we met up and she’s this really sweet girl. She told me how she was a PK and was always expected to be the “perfect kid” and how she was so miserable and wanted to commit suicide and tonight everything changed. After seeing the drama and hearing Ron speak she recommitted her life. Afterwards I asked her if I could pray with her and she said, “yes!” And so I grabbed her hand and was able to pray and minister to her and it was so good to see God working in her life. It’s stuff like this that makes it ALL worth it to me. Even if it’s just one person who is affected. Being able to see this girl’s life changed made it all worth it.
Afterwards, I kept walking around the concourse. I had prayed that I would be very sensitive to God and who he wanted me to talk to. And as I was walking I felt drawn to this one woman. She was smiling. I think she said something to me and then I asked her if I could ask her a few questions about ATF. She was very willing. As she began telling me about the session she started tearing up. She told me how she recommitted her life to Christ. And she started telling me about some of her struggles. After we were finished I asked her I if could pray with her and she said yes. And I just began to speak truth into her life. God told me some things and I prayed them over her and when I opened my eyes after we finished she had tears streaming down her face and she thanked me. She told me how what I said made her week and that people had said some of those things to her. And she started going into depth about some of the things her family was going through and I was able to speak hope to her. She was encouraged.
Once again, this makes it all worth it.
I am amazed at the faithfulness of my God. How he uses me to bring hope to others and at the same time increasing my faith. It was a great weekend.
On Saturday, it began to snow. And it did not stop for a long time. The governor declared a state of emergency on Virginia. Now, let me explain a few things to you. Virginia rarely gets snow. And by rarely I mean like twice a year. They are not prepared for the storms like the one that hit on Saturday in any way. They don’t have nearly enough equipment to take care of all the snow that was coming down. When the last storm hit in December, the city of Richmond shut down for three days! So, we get between 12-18 inches of snow. The event ended at noon. And I went outside and rolled around in the snow because I was so happy to see snow again. There was a lot of snow. And so when we were all done with load out and ready to leave we were told we would be staying at a local church about twenty minutes away. Ends up no one could get out to open the church so we were going to drive to a truck stop and sleep on the bus there. I fell asleep on the bus (as usual) and completely missed us getting stuck and then someone woke me up because Phillip wanted to me record him outside trying to get the bus unstuck. So I went outside and see the bus tracks that went up a hill through two feet of fresh snow. No wonder we got stuck. There was also another car that was stuck and abandoned. So after being stuck for 45 minutes or so we finally got out. I would like to say this was a beautiful experience, and yes it was a great bonding experience but during this time I had to go to the bathroom. I have never had to go the bathroom as badly as I did that night. So, we get unstuck and then we make a few turns and low and behold we get stuck again! I still have to go to the bathroom and am seriously starting to consider going somewhere unseen by the world in the 2-3 feet of snow. And so the police actually end up showing up and watch us. And so when we finally get unstuck for the second time they (one in front, one in back) escort us to the highway and see us off. And we drive to the truck stop and sleep there for the night. And it was a great bonding experience for everyone on the bus. We experienced a trip like no other. This one will go down in the history books. And we left late morning because we were waiting for some people and it was a beautiful day. I walked outside in my Canada hoodie and my life felt complete. The sun was out, there was lots of snow and I was happy. So all in all this week was trying and challenging, rewarding and satisfying. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.