hello again. one day i shall have news

 Hello dear friends and family! 

As you might know, I am currently in Australia, and just finished a filmmaking course.  I will be here at the YWAM base another eight months.

     For the next month I will be “mission Building”, helping in the kitchen, the new housing projects and kids ministry, and after that I will start a six month café internship. The internship focuses on business and how it works, as well as using it for God. The café itself is a donation based, community based meeting place, run completely by missionaries similar to me.  I will be doing a lot of community outreach during this. I really feel like God is placing me here, because my goal in life is to be able to reach out to inner city kids by giving them a safe place to come if home isn’t safe, and teaching art and life skills. The café will help reach this.

     However, I am technically and literally a missionary, and as much as this is God’s work, I have no way to support myself, and I would like to ask for your help. God always works through his people. You can donate at goywam.com and donate to a staff. Thank you so much already for your support in prayers!

My apologies for the length between posts

SDF is over. I'm graduated, with a huge wealth of knowledge, friends and memories.
Since i have talked you you last, we have ad special effects makeup training, advanced directing, distribution, spiritual warfare, shot or directed  11 short films, edited, did Foley, studied movies, did many many stories, essays and reports, had a premiere, and a sleepover. I shall expand on only one of these points.

The premiere: The night before, we were still frantically editing, and decorating, and deciding what to wear. the night of the premiere was wonderful! red carpet gig, everyone dressed up, watching all the hard work, sleepless nights and frustrations culminate into something we are all proud of. just seeing the passions of the staff, film students and actors was beautiful. I of course, have a favourite, but it's not mine. We celebrated by staying out all night, watching movies and chilling. we were up till the sun joined us.  The next day, uss girls went to our friendly neighbourhood Aussie actress' place and again, watched movies, swam in her pool (+42 degrees!) and basically had the best sleepover. the hardest thing was to say goodbye. half of our room and both boys left for home, some coming back, others not. I miss'em already.

The next couple months I need to really focus on fundraising, because, as you might know, I'm staying here with the cafe, learning to make coffee, reach out to the community, run a business, and one day, plant a youth outreach cafe of my own. (Maybe Vancouver?) I'm so glad for your prayers, and I wold be very appreciative of financial help. I still find it really hard to ask for help, but i'm sucking it up because God works through his people.  thank you again for supporting me.
https://secure.goywam.com/home/donations/donate-to-a-student/

Long time coming

Ok. I haven't been updating like I should, but I have valid excuses. ( nope, excused are not accepted here) last week we shot seven short films in nine days, and we were stressed, exausted and exhilarated. Then we came in to class, and boom! Instead of classes we have a 48 hour film to write,shoot, edit and produce! Life here is always an adventure, and I live on the learning curve. Most recently I've done sound. It kind of became my baby... I've done it on 7 sets now. The sas and sdf may possibly be sleep deprived, and our moods are way too heightened than normal. Bad jokes, flirting and gaff tape are staples. I have also been thinking of plans. The typical what's gonna happen after this kinda stuff. But right now I am content to hide under the table with the sound mixer. 

Quiche.

       This week has been a little different, with Charis talking about Greenlighting, which means getting all preproduction ready. Script, paperwork, people, paperwork, and everything else that needs to be done before we can actually start on the movie. it's been good, but it means although we have less reading homework or editing/practical homework, we rewrite our scripts at least once a day until it's perfect, or as close as it could be. We went location scouting as well, which was sweet. I'm trying to avoid using a hospital, and Proby and a bunch of others gave me such outrageous ideas, i did a mock rewrite for fun and sent it to them. I'm also working on two extra scripts and that kid's book. I still draw, it's my own personal time. 
       This weekend we  went to see the giver, and it was absolutely amazing. Highly recommended by me, even though it wasn't much like the book. The ones that went decided to try to put the word Quiche in our short stories, and convince the others to as well, so almost all of the SDF/SAS students tried to hide the word Quiche. At least one staff, possibly more, figured it out. Just the fact that we collaborated and created very differently on one key word, made it work and were inspired by eggs was awesome. What made it more awesome is the coincidence that that's what the kitchen cooked the day after we handed them in. I'm still not sure they weren't bribed.
       For industry connect we Skyped one of the speakers from the first week, but with a twist. Last time, His connection was super bad, and so as he was saying he hoped it would work this time, it cut out. One of our staff started playing with it as we roared with laughter of what we thought was irony, and then our speaker came in from the back door! We as students were totally not expecting out staff and speakers to pull that, so it was perfect! Poor guy got bombarded with questions though. Maybe thats not all a bad thing though. 
I've been pretty busy, but learning all this stuff has been good. I can't believe it's been a month!
      God's been teaching me a lot about loving hurting people, as well as relying on him for strength. Another really important thing is to spend time with him. Yeah, my schedule is crazy, but if I can make time for coffee, I can make time for God. He keeps me going even more so than caffiene ;)
No, honestly. God is the only reason I can keep going. there are days I'm just done and he finds a way to encourage me.  
   Thank you guys so much for your prayers! I will still need finances for some things, and I need clarity for what's next, but right now, I'm here, and I'm in God's hands and his will. I will revel in it and learn and be strong. That's what I'm good at. ;)

week three insanity

SDF is insanity. We have been learning story parts, formatting, camera parts, mic, lighting, tripod setup, worldview, lens , composition, focus, story writing, script revisions, editing, time management, and living off caffiene instead of sleep. I love it.

  I can't really say a whole ton about stuff I've been up to, mostly because I don't have time, and it's all running together.  Right now I'm working on the fourth revision of my script, and doing some practical shooting assignments. it's a regular occurrence i get to sleep late, but it's for a good cause. We also watch a lot of movies. 

Today was intersession and we prayed for Hollywood, and for the industry's  identity to be in God, not what they have or the amount of rejections they have been through. As much as we are extremely busy, we have fun too.  We watch movies, go out for coffee, laugh and joke around, ad lib, make bad puns, plan mustache nights and rename things.  I called a midwife for reference on my script, which is going to be crazy and awesome! 

I do have mydown moments, like the one where my email got hacked(which is now fixed) and the script I worked on till 2 didnt send. yikes! 

All in all it's been good so far. keep my energy and finances in your prayer! thank you all so much, and keep in contact!

Doing the thing

      A whole lot has happened the last week. As you may know, I came (went?) back to YWAM Brisbane to study digital filmaking and God in the movie industry. On my way there, a really cool thing happened and I met up with four others all headed to the same base! The trip was fairly uneventful other than that.
    This week I have been learning about Camera theory, physics and history of film, worldview portrayals and christian worldview in movies, working in the industry, high pressure jobs, story structure,aesthetics, proper etiquette, as well as pitching. Tomorrow I am pitching my first movie to the school staff, and if (when) I get greenlit I can tell you about it!
   This school is a very full, high pressure setting, but all the students and staff are hilarious and amazing. I'm beginning to learn which things to talk about in order to get certain speakers sidetracked, which is one of my favourite but ill afforded pastimes. Somedays we just get Jason to play short videos on the premise of camera or story styles. (check out Spider,should be on youtube) So many of us are full of ideas and silliness! There are days that we have a morning class, afternoon class, evening workshop, three chapters to read, a pitch to make, three short stories, two essays and various other duties, but we still somehow manage to watch extra movies and discuss worldview and the ethics of video.
  We also stil have movie nights, small group, 1on1s, coffee and somehow, food and sleep. it's an amazing experience so far. My favourite thing about this week is learning about how to be a christian in Hollywood and talking with Reba Rowe, who has worked on The Fringe, a few Peter Jackson movies etc. She posted a photo of us and a big name actor liked it, therefore provoking a few freakout sessions!  It's really important to know about the worldview portrayed in each film. I'm truly loving it, but it's a huge workload.
   It's good to see some of the people I really missed while I was home, but I do miss my family. I also struggle with only knowing part of the info. They got in a car crash, and now I know they are fine, but the first thing I heard were the words "head trauma" and I've been very occupied with those words since. It makes for good short stories though!
 In the next few weeks hopefully I will post a behind the scenes video and a short story. In the meantime, please pray for me! I'm going to be busy and tired, and I still don't have all the tuition. oh, and a bit of encouragement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao

Back to the future

Part one: The best and worst of times.
       My last week of camp was Friday, and as well as i did holding myself together while camp was going all summer, saying goodbye for possibly the last time was hard. Its so hard to tell these kids everything's gonna be OK when you know it won't.  I love those kids. One of my littles accepted Jesus saying she's been going through some tough things, and even if Jesus doesnt take it away at least she doesn't have to go it alone. She understands more than most of us, and I agree.  No one should go it alone.
        Yet at the same time, we had so much fun! I got to teach Arts and crafts (chalk graffiti and paper airplanes with the boys :), Drama and wilderness. My cabin reinvented a running acting game, where everytime someone yelled an actors name, you had to react and do whatever you're doing in the actors style. Funniest choices? Kristen Stewart and Johnny Depp. Ever tried singing a funny song completely deadpan? It's HARD! We painted kittens (painting horses is too mainstream) and ended up giving ourselves food names. I am the magnanimous Pizzapaint. Which is by far the best nickname ever.
   For staff party after the kids left, as a last hurrah for summer, a bunch of us went to the waterpark in West Ed mall. Apparently I'm an adrenaline junkie because my favourite included the floor falling out from under me and a 360 vertical loop?
    My siblings and I also gave my parents a surprise "'Kynya's going away present.' A photographer friend came out to Brightwood and took pictures of all five of us and printed them on canvas for them, and they turned out amazingly. It's kind of hard for all five of us to dress up and disappear without arousing suspicion, but we made it!
PART TWO:Back to the future.
    I am in for a harrowing adventure once again, and once again, I am terrified and excited.
The difference is this time I have had very little time to prepare and I am short of money, but I know how to travel .
The things that are the same are I have no clue what I'm getting into, and I'm leaving for an unforeseen amount of time, and that God is going to take care of me. He always does.
 I'm flying out tomorrow, to begin my School of digital filmaking, which is learning the ins and outs of media and how to keep my faith in high pressure circumstances. Later on I want to go in for the upcoming Barista school as well, learning customer service and business management. I am so excited to learn these crazy things, but I'm also really excited to see some of the friends I made while I was there last time. But I'll miss my family. I'll miss you guys so much!
As I said, I know God has my future under control, but I want to at least put some effort into it, so this weekend I hosted a garage sale as well as a fancy jewelry party. Hopefully a lot of revenue came in, but I won't know for a while!
I've also been selling my art, telling people to donate to https://secure.goywam.com/home/staff-and-student-payments/further-training-fees/school-of-digital-filmmaking-remaining-school-fees. Mostly though, I want to ask for prayer. Prayer is powerful. I also want to thank you all so much for being in this with me.



Bye bye Brightwood.

My sisters and brothers

Archery

Breakfast in bed

the crew

Mah littles!

I wonder, is it easy to seriously answer phones with a moustache?