Final Cut

Welcome to the final cut. There is a term in film making, “Final Cut”, which means you have taken a project, generally a film, to the furthest place it can be taken. The old school guys would say the project was “in the can.” I find myself this morning at the place of final cut other than a few interviews with Shawn, Damaris, and a community leader in Santa Maria de Jesus. I have taken some 1800 images, 200 or so keepers, and 15 hours of video. For the most part, I am confident that I have enough material to produce something useful for Shawn, his ministry, and the indigenous peoples of this area. Ultimately, usefulness will be determined by God.
I love this place and the people here. I wish I could share the movement and sounds of this place right here, right now, to get you connected to the experience. But that is a goal for the documentary and much time will be needed to produce the 6 or so projects Shawn and I are discussing.

I watched a team member last evening during the closing worship gathering holding a little boy in her lap, rocking him, and kissing his little head. It was a joyful look at the heart of what it means to love without condition or expectation. It is one of many reasons I do this work. People say that the world has grown cold and that love is something long since passed, especially in places like this. I tell you, they are blind. I have come to believe that it is the pace and pointless distractions of our lives that blind us to the reality of what it is to be human, to be settled into our creation, that wonderful and glorious image of God.

I spoke one last time with Karen last evening and found myself in tears as we watched some images of her kids on a small laptop screen. Her love for the children at the orphanage is rare indeed and serves as a true witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am blessed to know her, to have prayed with her, and to witness the selfless work of a servant of Christ in a place where service takes everything a person can muster. I believe she is, as are a handful I have met in desperate places, what Scripture calls Saints. She is pure light.

I am committed in my heart to help Karen feed the boys and girls at the orphanage as well as many children in the village. Protein is always the key to healthy development and protein remains elusive in places like hers. She told me of a desire to have chickens and a coupe at the orphanage to provide eggs, a solid source of protein, to the kids there. Add protein to their diet and brains will develop normally as well as the entire body. I checked out the costs for the entire project of 100 chickens, the construction of a secure coupe for them, and enough food to get them started and it comes to $1200 U.S. It is a small price to pay to provide the bare minimum nutrition to over a hundred of God’s children. This will also provide the kids with an ongoing project of responsibility in working with Karen to raise and care for the chickens. They will also be able to sell some of the eggs to purchase materials for the school. It is truly teaching people to fish. I will be shamelessly working to raise funds to make Karen’s dream a reality as soon as my feet are back in the country.

I thank God for bringing me to this place and for the lives He mixed with mine while I was here. The world is a small place really and each of us is connected by the Hand of God by His creation. I believe we can do better, lots better, at stepping out of our comfortable lives and into the reality of how two thirds of the world lives daily. Christ commanded us to look after the widows and orphans and provide we should with love, with joy, and with an openness of heart that secures lives of all to the fullness of His creation. Amen.