Kenya: Day 4

Day 4
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Pray for:
- Wisdom in how to do Bible study
- Confidence for shooting the Mt Kenya trip

What happened:
- breakfast: kenyan sausage and host
- spent the morning journaling, and just spending time w/ God
- lunch at home: kenyan sausage, fresh cut home made french fries, and cabbage
- went to Pristige Plaza to pray and enjoy some MTV music videos
- went to Kibera with Ken; had the class split into two groups, they shared their loglines with each other, deciding on 1 that they would shoot; taught about character and character development; homework: what does the character want? what is the character's wound, character bio
- talked to Ken about the second class and the issue of equipment
- went home

It turns out that my morning class is going to be morning morning. We're going to run class from 7-10. And I am NOT a morning person. I have the rest of the week to adjust my schedule again so I can wake at 6 and get to Kibera by 7.

We also started talking about the issue of doing Bible Study with the kids. Both groups have some Muslims in them. I've been considering doing Life Exegesis with them, but we'll see how it goes.

Kenya: Day 3

What happened:
- went to Prestige Plaza; class doesn't start until Thursday
- helped Ken set up Wordpress
- went home for lunch
- went to Tom's place with Ken and Gwatila; talked about her music video; did some recording
- went to Kibera; taught loglines
- it started to rain, a lot
- went home

I thought I was supposed to teach a group of post-high school kids this morning, but it turned out that the class wasn't approved yet. The thing they were waiting on were how many students were interested in the class. Originally, 20 kids signed up, which is great! But by no means do I have the capacity nor the equipment to support that many kids. If everything goes well, I'll be starting this other class on Thursday.

I may also have a chance to climb Mount Kenya and shoot something for them. I still need to meet with the people who are organizing it, but that should be pretty fun.

Kenya: Day 2 (5/17)

Pray for:
- building relationships/report with the kids
- that these kids will gain the skills and the vision to stand up from their situation

What happened:
- meeting with ken to talk about the curriculum and the next 3 months
- meeting with Tom, Effy, and Ken about Rwanda
- Lunch with Ken; talked about curriculum
- went to Nakumatt to buy new power strip and journals for the students
- went to Kibera to teach my first class
- rode my first matuta (bus)
- asked the kids (9 students) to tell stories; then asked them which story they liked best and why; if they could make the story better, what would they change
- went home

I'll be running 3 classes simultaneously. 1 group is college aged students. 2nd group is high school aged students. 3rd group is Ken and Gwatala so they can continue the work after I leave. These classes are going to run Monday through Thursday, and then another class that I'm not teaching on Saturdays. Each class runs for about 2 hours.

Kenya: Week 0 - Day 0

Pray for:
- Building relationships
- Planning the time I'll be in Kenya

What happened:
- 7 hr flight from Newark to London Heathrow Terminal 3 (the sucky one)
- 12 hr layover
- 9 hr flight from London to Nairobi
- total travel time: 28 hrs
- arrived in Kenya around 7am
- met Ken's GF, Eva
- went shopping for some essentials
- went to Java House, the Starbucks of Kenya
- went to Kibera; the Nairobi Kibera Academy
- watched August Rush
- went home and met host family
- watched new friend in TV commercial (she's the girl at the end)

- went to high school rugby game
- went to dinner, had ethiopian food; met Rachel, Tom, and his wife Debra
- home, showered, blew out voltage converter + charger
- sleep

Kenya 2010

Last summer, I went to Wisconsin to work with InterVarsity’s 2100 Productions. During my 3 month internship, I produced 2 videos (http://www.vimeo.com/8324397) for the Urbana 09 Missions Conference which were viewed by over 18,000 people. I also met my fellow intern, Ken.

This summer, I will spend 3 months with Ken and Filamu Juani (http://filamujuani.org/) in Nairobi, Kenya. I will be working with high school and college aged kids out of the garbage slum of Kibera; teaching screenwriting, video production, and video editing.

Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi and the second largest slum in all of Africa. It has a population of 600,000-1.2 million occupying an area about the size of Central Park.

One of the visions is to develop “Slum TV”. Projectors and screens would be set up in different parts of Kibera showing programming produced by and for the community. It’s a way to build community within the slums by gathering people together.

My role is to empower and equip these students with skills, experience, and guidance. My purpose is to use this opportunity to build relationships with the students to share the Gospel with my life, words, and deeds.

Key Info
Dates: May 13 – Aug 30
Cost: $3,300

Checks to:
Filamujuani
1325 Glacier Hill Dr, Unit 4
Madison, WI 53704

** Memo: Wey Wang

Pray for:

• Power and boldness in the Spirit to advance the Kingdom of God
• Protection from the Enemy (physical, spiritual, emotional attacks)
• Compassion and Love
• Wisdom and discernment
• Fresh inpartation of the Spirit

Thank you for your support!

Requests and Updates for 7/14/09

Friends,

Pray for:
- Spiritual disciplines
- Times of rest and refreshment amongst the busyness.
- God would reveal what He wants me to do next semester and when I graduate.

Wow, a month's already gone by. I didn't expect things to fly so quickly.

Thus far, Madison has been really good to me. I've been plugged in to a great social circle which is composed of all girls, oddly enough. But they're so much fun to hang out with. My only stipulation to them, was that they don't treat me like a doll :)

I've had the opportunity to shadow some people and have really learned a lot through that experience. It's really good being able to see how professionals do it. They also talk through some of their thought processes so I get an idea of what they're thinking and motivation as they make their decisions.

We've been given a project to work on for Urbana. It's a piece about stewardship. For a few weeks, we've been wrestling with the concept. This past Thursday, we had a major break through with an idea that everyone seems to really like. It's given us a new burst of creative energy.

We've also been working on film project outside of work called, "The Intern Project". It's essentially an intern version of "The Office". The interns and I have been writing it and we're getting ready to go into pre-production and production soon. The whole process is more accelerated than I would like, but I think it's been a really good learning experience for all of us.

A few weeks ago, we had ONS (Orientation for New Staff) and NISET (National Institute for Staff Education and Training). While we were supporting them, I really got the sense that I wanted to do ministry. And as a matter of coincidence, I ran into my old IV staff worker from my days in undergrad. We talked a bit and I'm thinking about volunteering for staff this coming semester.

Thanks for you continued support!

Requests and Updates for 6/2

Yesterday, I started my first day at 2100 Productions as a Production Intern. It was a busy day of orientation, introductions, and just getting an idea of the culture. Today, we did some more training and did an Avid tutorial. They mostly have Avid stations to do their editing, but they do have one Final Cut Pro machine.

Everyone has been really nice and welcoming. A lot of people have stopped by our cube, which is tucked away in one of the back corners, just to say hi. I have 3 other interns here with me. Kristin, Jamari, and Valaree. It should be a lot of fun getting to know them and working with them this summer.

Avid is interesting. Until I get to work with it more, it's hard to say if it's better than Premiere or FCP. There are so things I find kind of quirky, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of them with more experience.

I'm still kind of getting used to being in Madison. Even though it's called a city, it's nothing like NYC, natch. And the pace is much slower. Still, I went home exhausted yesterday. A combination of meeting new people and just getting so much more information. The rest of the week is going to be different sorts of training, such as, lighting, editing, camera, etc. A lot of the practical production side of things.

I think the biggest difficulty has been transition to the new schedule. I'm so used to waking up around 9 or so, but now, I have to wake up at 7, if not earlier. Luckily, the commute isn't too bad. It's about 20~30 min with traffic. But waking up early means going to bed early. Which hasn't been difficult thus far, considering how tired I am at the end of the day, but I would like to be able to do stuff. I'm sure as I get more accustomed to the schedule and the pace, I'll find time and capacity for other things, such as writing and climbing.

One of the things I'm hoping to do is to shoot some video with my fellow interns. I brought my camera along, so it'll be nice to do some fun stuff. We still have 1 more intern on the way, Valaree, so I'm going to wait for her to arrive before beginning to brainstorm ideas.

My host family has been great. I made the mistake of telling them that too much cheese gives me gas. So, now, they're all cautious about putting cheese in food. I really enjoy cheese! And considering I'm in the land of cheese, Wisconsin, I really want to experience all that it has to offer. But they're great, generous people, and it's real blessing being able to stay with them.

So far, things are good, but you can pray for:

• Build strong friendships with the interns


• Build relationships with other co-workers


• Transition to new schedule