This weeks story comes from a good friend of Deidox and fellow filmmaker Chris Sinclair. In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, Pastor Ronel Mesidor turned his church and home into shelters for aid. This short documentary tells how God used one man to offer comfort and hope in the midst of tragedy.
What is True Story Tuesday? Since the goal of Deidox is to tell true stories of how God is at work, very often we hear of powerful stories or situations that for one reason or another haven’t been made into a Deidox film. (Or, perhaps we should say they haven’t been made into films “yet.” You never know what the future might bring.) So every tuesday is True Story Tuesday where on our blog we post a quick story about how God is at work.
Deidox was recently reviewed by a really cool website called MyMISSIONfulfilled.com. If you haven’t seen their site before it’s worth checking out.
The purpose of the site is to help women fulfill their mission as followers of Christ. There are a number of articles, book/movie reviews, and other helpful insights to help inspire women to live missionally.
The website really resonates with our hearts at Deidox. Our vision is to provide films that challenge and inspire individuals to be used by God. It’s always encouraging to find like minded organizations. We hope you will take some time to check out the My Mission Fulfilled site.
This Tuesday’s story comes from our good friend Seth Barnes’ blog Radical Living In A Comfortable World. He’s in Haiti right now and we thought we would share this.
So many things have been crushed in Haiti, people, homes, and government buildings. You’d think that hope would be one of them. Today we saw where a building had tumbled down on a man, snuffing his life out, leaving his blood and his shoes behind in the rubble. You’d think hope was lost in the rubble too.
But what we’re seeing has defied all our expectations.
We drove to meet a pastor and found the road blocked. Ahead in the middle of the street a band was playing and hundreds of people were dancing. We stopped and our gang piled out of the van. It wasn’t any one church – it was just a bunch of people celebrating the kingdom coming to Haiti through their dance.
Our youth pastors dove in and joined with them – twirling and singing with the masses.
Coming back they raved, “Wow – that was awesome! It was a moment of pure spiritual joy.”
We drove through the city streets and came to a complete halt as a huge parade of people blocked our way. They were carrying signs, “Jesus for Haiti. Haiti for Jesus.” They were singing. They were chanting. They were marching and dancing.
You can go a lifetime and never see anything like this. We can sing “Rend the heavens and come down,” but God already did – it’s happening here in Port-au-Prince.
What is True Story Tuesday? Since the goal of Deidox is to tell true stories of how God is at work, very often we hear of amazing stories that for one reason or another haven’t been made into a Deidox film. (Or, perhaps we should say they haven’t been made into films “yet.” You never know what the future might bring.) So every tuesday is True Story Tuesday where we post a new story about how God is at work.
Yesterday, nominations for the 2010 Academy Awards were announced, and we were thrilled to find out the film Kavi was nominated for an Oscar in the short live action film category. Our friend John Harrison was the Cinematographer on the film. John is the guy who has shot all of our Deidox films. Also, the writer and director of Kavi, Gregg Helvey, is a friend of Deidox too. A few years ago Gregg even directed a behind-the-scenes film for us on a trip we took to Rwanda. We’re so excited for both John and Gregg!
Here’s the trailer for the fantastic short film Kavi. We hope you’ll be seeing a lot more of it and Gregg Helvey in the near future.
This week we received a really cool e-mail from a Pastor about how he used Deidox in the weekend services.
We’re humbled by the ways Deidox films are being used. It’s our prayer that the Lord moves through the films to challenge and inspire His people, so when we get an email like this it’s pretty exciting.
Dear Deidox,
I purchased your video bundle a month or two ago and used them this past Sunday for the first time. I saved them for an 8-week series I’m preaching called “On a Mission” taken entirely from Luke 10:1-12. My goal is to help our members understand that they are all on a mission and have already been appointed and sent to the place where God wants them to shine for him and spread his gospel.
I had initally planned to use one of your videos each week as a tangible picture of someone who recognized that they had been appointed and sent. But, when I sat down and watched all five again to figure out which week they would best fit I was overwhelmed with the collective impact of watching them together.
So… I did something that Presbyterian pastors are never supposed to do … I trashed the traditional sermon and began by reading the passage, but then showed all five videos this past Sunday making only brief comments inbetween (e.g. “Robert is on a mission… appointed and sent by God to serve in a clinic for the uninsured.” etc.) and then a couple minutes to wrap it all up at the end. The response from my congregation was absolutely overwhelming!!!
So, first of all, thanks for making such excellent videos. I usually pass these kinds of resources by because they’re just not made well enough. Yours are. Please keep making these kinds of videos… God will use them so powerfully. A request: I wished this past Sunday that I had one profiling a high school or college student and one that profiled a retired person. The addition of those two would have made the collection complete!
Thanks for your ministry. It’s been a great help to us here at Fletcher Hills Presbyterian Church!
In Christ,
Kevin Womack
Fletcher Hills Presbyterian Church
So cool! We love to hear how the Deidox films are making a difference.
If you are a pastor or church leader, please let us know how you have used the films within your ministry context! If you are not a pastor or church leader, we’d love it if you made your church leaders aware of Deidox and encouraged them to use the films.
The Deidox team will be in Austin, TX on Feb. 4-6th for the VERGE 2010 Conference. The VERGE conference is hosted by The Austin Stone church and focuses on the missional community movement. Some of the speakers include Francis Chan, Alan Hirsch, Dave Ferguson, Hugh Halter, and Ed Stetzer. We’re pretty excited to be attending.
Deidox is the official sponsor of the Cafe/Coffee Shop. There we’ll have a booth and will be previewing several Deidox films. We are also giving away free Deidox DVD’s. If you are attending the VERGE Conference, please stop by the Cafe and say “hello Deidox”. Would love to meet you.
The Deidox team will be at Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA Feb. 9-12th for the Radicalis Convention. Radicalis is really twelve conferences in one that makes it possible for churches to bring their entire ministry staff for individual learning experiences. Several of the speakers include, Rick Warren, Mark Driscoll, Perry Noble, Andy Stanley & others.
We will be previewing several Deidox films and will also be giving away free Deidox DVD’s. If you are attending Radicalis, please stop by our booth and say “Hi”. We would love to meet you.
The 1st of December, World AIDS Day, is the day when individuals and organizations from around the world come together to bring attention to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Chronicle Project, the production team behind Deidox, has had the opportunity to produce several videos over the last few years to help bring awareness to this devastating issues.
In honor of World AIDS Day, Chronicle Project is offering a $5 discount on DVDs of their film Dear Francis.
For those of you who haven’t heard of Dear Francis, it’s a feature documentary the CP guys did in 2005 that has aired on Showtime television and been used by many non-profit organizations including World Vision in their 30-Hour Famine program. To learn more about the film, go to www.dearfrancis.org where you can view the trailer and find more information.
To buy Dear Francis click here and make sure you use the code “worldAIDSday” when you check out to receive $5 off.
Also, take a moment to view this video that was produced by Chronicle Project and see what one Pastor in Rwanda is doing to fight HIV/AIDS. We think you’ll find it inspiring. This short doc was done a few years before Deidox, but you’ll notice some similarities in the style of storytelling.
The Deidox team will be in San Diego Nov. 4th-6th for the National Outreach Convention (NOC). The NOC is one of the largest gathering places for like minded church leaders with a sole focus on outreach and evangelism.
We will be previewing several Deidox films and will also be giving away free Deidox DVD’s. If you are attending the NOC this week, please stop by our booth and say “Hi”. We would love to meet you.
We are pleased to announce that Deidox is now available on DVD.
To those of you who don’t do digital downloads, we’ve been listening. Starting this week you can own the Deidox films in a more traditional more format – DVD. We have done a limited edition DVD that contain the first three Deidox films (Lindsay, Robert, Deon)
Along with the films, the DVD also contains extra features and discussion starter questions for each film. You can order the DVD on-line now by clicking here. Shipping starts on October 31st. That’s the end of this week.
Li Yang’s film is on DVD too
But wait, there’s more! We are also taking pre-orders for the Deidox | Li Yang DVD. This is the newest film in the Deidox series and provides a personal glimpse into how the gospel is spreading in China.
The Li Yang DVD contains the film, extra features and discussion starters. You can order the DVD on-line now by clicking here.
Thank you all for your continued support of Deidox!
… I trashed the traditional sermon and began by reading the passage, but then showed all five videos this past Sunday making only brief comments inbetween (e.g. “Robert is on a mission… appointed and sent by God to serve in a clinic for the uninsured.” etc.) and then a couple minutes to wrap it all up at the end. The response from my congregation was absolutely overwhelming!!!
