Wednesday Morning Blurb

I'm up a bit early this morning and thought I'd post a quick update. We're in a couple days of rain right now, local flooding continues to be minor and "usual" for this time of year. Karen conducted a rather "gutsy" demolition project in the basement yesterday which really improved conditions down there as she continues to develop her sewing area. Baby blankets and personal tote bags are her two current specialties. I think we've had ten babies born over the past ten months at our church here in Ohio...God's growing His Kingdom from the inside out at Fresno Bible Church!

Up at the mission I have two primary projects underway: 1) putting the April issue of the GroundCrew together (the MMS organizational newsletter); and 2) continuing to explore new areas of video/audio editing, production, and authoring. The new microphone has arrived and I had something of a DVD authoring/production breakthrough yesterday which cleared up several months of video related confusion and frustration.

In my office at MMS working on GroundCrew

With the GroundCrew, I spent Monday afternoon making a broad review the project photographs I've taken over the past four months. That gives me a feel for the direction the newsletter will take. Yesterday I pulled photos to "build" the issue. Today I'll crop, edit, and adjust each photo as necessary. Tomorrow, Lord willing, I'll write the copy and captions. And Friday I hope to put it all into a digital package, with preliminary layout, and attach it off to our graphic designer (Tammy, Karen's cousin!). With all that, you can look for your issue of GroundCrew to arrive toward the end of April.

On the video front, I finally stumbled onto the realization I needed an additional software package to deal with the VTS and ISO files generated by the DVD authoring process. I've been very happy with the AVS video editing software but didn't understand I needed an additional package to re-use the DVD files generated during the original authoring process. Yesterday while exploring the AVS website I found a question amid their "help" pages that clarified the problem and, after a quick download, provided the solution. I can now retrieve and re-burn previously generated DVD projects. The process of technical/digital self learning is unreal. Paul Jones, our latest apprentice mechanic to finish his training at MMS and an extremely talented videographer, describes the process of teaching yourself video/audio editing as "months of nauseating discomfort and frustration punctuated by a few moments of joyful creativity." I can relate.

I don't intend working with the new microphone, or venturing into an additional audio editing software package, until AFTER I have the GroundCrew finished. Amen? Amen!

At home, we're also working on our personal newsletter, Coshocton Flyer. Our goal is to have that in the mail before the end of this month.

Have a great week. Thanks for your prayers and your gifts which enable us to serve. There's so much going on at MMS right now it's crazy. Heavy restoration and reconstruction of airplanes. Heavy restoration and reconstruction of missionaries into Christ-likeness. Paul finishing apprenticeship. Ben & Caroline moving in from Missouri to start apprenticeship. Stay tuned. Be checking your mail box. Hard copy newsletters will be headed your way soon.

God's blessings upon you!