Bruce Snook has posted a wonderful story with audio and photos about our first adventure in hosting an educational program at Huss School. Rob and I are working in Grand Rapids this week, so we can’t be on site in Three Rivers to help host the students until tomorrow evening, but the process of getting things set up and watching them go smoothly from afar has been so exciting–what we were hoping to do and what everyone is chipping in to help achieve is actually happening!
Witness the ripple effects… A class of 10 film students, three actors and one professor are in Three Rivers for three days and nights. For fourteen people who have probably never been to Three Rivers before, suddenly our town is on their radar. They’re not only making a connection with a place, but with people: journalists who are recording the story of their project, community organizers whom they’re interviewing for their films, and pastors and other friends who are providing food and accommodations. Though students subsist on little, the money they have been able to collect for a food budget has been distributed to local grocery stores and farmers. Their work at the school is bringing artistic eyes to the neighborhood and laughter and creativity to the building. The fruits of their work–a promotional film for the future projects of the school and an original piece written and produced by the students–will eventually be seen by hundreds, maybe even thousands more people. Beyond the films themselves, the adventure of filming on location in such a unique town and building will be a story the students tell over and over again for the rest of their lives.
And it all started with a conversation. Then a few e-mails and a lot of prayers. Then a group of over 150 people around the world, all contributing what they were able to give to help meet a preposterous goal.
To be continued…
January 14, 2010
