New Facilities Calendar!

We are happy to kick off this year with a new online calendar tool. If you are interested in booking the center for an event, or just want to drop in and see if a TV area is available, check our online calendar first. If your timeslot and area is available give us a ring, and we'll add you to the schedule!

Ten days…It feels like three. Though this was definitely a missions trip (my first, as well as being only the second time out of country, Cananda being the first), it was also part vacation…seriously, running around an Caribbean isle with fancy expensive electronic toys all day? That is play, not work, even on the long days…I love my major.

I am really sad to be leaving the beautiful isle of St. Croix. It is a beautiful testament to God’s handiwork. We just finished the last shot this morning: I shot Pastor Prince in his office, and then again outside looking at the architectural designs in front of the church building. I can’t wait to see the church after it is built fully, and I also can’t wait to see the finished product for this final project.

Please pray for both the church and the video. This sunny isle in the midst of the beautiful Caribbean, submerged in a spiritual darkness. Several people have mentioned that the main place that young men are located in St. Croix is either in the cemetery or in prison. Our own observations seem to confirm this. A beautiful people, in a beautiful island that need your prayers and support.

Today, we are flying back, with massive sunburns upon most of our backs. Water resistant=evil…water proof=Good. I am the reddest, but Mel and Ben blistered today…I am incredibly stiff, and sore. I move gingerly., partially due to pain, partially, because I can’t move faster. The plane ride will be fun…I am sad that the trip is nearly over…

I have Latin tomorrow, and I forgot to bring my book in order to study and not fall behind…whoops! I am nearly 25% behind in summer school Latin…bad juju…It will
Be hard to catch up…se la vie or sic viam est.

Some highlights: Snorkeling….hanging out with Carl and seeing the sharks…
Shooting children and getting yelled at…
Genetically enhanced cows…
Erika with the behind the scenes cam…
Sea Urchins…Ben, need I say more…
Shooting the ruins…
Eating with a vegetarian…
Picking on Mel and causing her to clean the house to vent stress…hehehehe…
Learning about some great pranks from Nathan…dry wall….

That’s all for now… It has been good.
Later

JimBob

Well today is a sad day of sorts…. Today we leave Melissa behind in St. Croix as the rest of the team voyages back to Lexington and then on to our summer residencies. Ben staying in Wilmore to take summer classes, JimBob at home in Wilmore, Kristen driving ten hours home to Pennsylvania, Nathan rejoining Cydil and Ellie, Melissa staying in St. Croix until June 6th and then going to WGM headquarters for her internship and me flying home to Alaska. So one can see how today is a bitter-sweet day.

Yesterday, in the morning we logged our last footage as Ben and JimBob both fell asleep…. Both are burnt really badly. Ben has blisters on his shoulders and upper back and JimBob is a very pretty color pink… just not for a skin color. After lunch we packed up the van one last time with our camera gear and traveled the shot distance to the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base here on St. Croix. Melissa and I were in heaven, we both have really close friends involved with YWAM and so it felt like we finally got to experience a little bit of the YWAM bliss ourselves. After we got some footage from the base we went to Christiansted and Fredricksted to get some last shots of the island and get souvenirs. Nathan (for Cydil) , Melissa and I got the only found in St. Croix Cruzian knot bracelet. On the way back we were going to try to get footage of the kids getting out of school… however we were too late and so in the way to drop Ned off at the house we picked up Carina and a friend. After that little adventure we traveled to the other side of the island to Fredricksted to get the rest of our souvenirs at Jeffery “Sonny” George’s shop. We (Kristen, JimBob and myself) then proceeded to go down to the beach and pick up some shells to bring home…so ask to see them! J

On the way back to the apartment we stopped at K-Mart to print some photos for the Princes and since it was a one-hour photo kiosk we went and had dinner at the McDonalds in the “mall” or lack there of. It was by far the saddest mall I have ever seen, and trust me I’ve been to a lot of malls. The only thing that was still opened in the bottom part was the McDonalds we ate at. After our yummy dinner with Ronald we went and got the photos and came back to the house and iced and aloed everyone up just in time for the Princes to come over of a visit. It was a beautiful time together, from the very first night to last night there was such a difference. We think we all felt like we belonged and were apart of the family. We were able to give them some hospitality gifts and in return they surprised us with gifts for each of us to remember St. Croix. We were able to joke, laugh and play with Carina………

So that was basically a quick summery of our last day in St. Croix….. OMG I almost forgot!! This was hilarious! Last night we were doing confession cam for the behind-the-scenes footage and Ben was the first to “confess”. Well Ben didn’t realize that it wasn’t actually confessing this and he proceeded to confess to us all that he lied to JimBob about why he needed to borrow his needle. Ben had asked to borrow JimBob’s needle to “sew his underwear” but what he was really doing was popping a zit! Poor Ben he thought we were actually confessing! It was great fun hearing all the memories and random things from the trip…..Behind-the-Scenes Footage of the St. Croix 2008 Media Mission Team come soon to a Asbury WGM Student Center near you and across the global at youtube.com!

Today Nathan, Kristen and Melissa are off doing the laundry and JomBob, Ben and I are at the church getting footage of the blue prints of the building, working on on-line Old Testament classes and writing the blog. In a few short hours we will be leaving our island home of St. Croix to return to Kentucky. We have so many stories and lessons learn from our adventures and I know each one would love to tell them to you… so ask and when you ask make sure you really want to know because we will let you know! Thank you for all you prayers and support as we were here in the Caribbean, it really is appreciated.

Love one last time from the beautiful island of St. Croix
Erika

Monday- The day of a thousand fish and aloe bottles

Today we assumed the role of tourists and took a snorkeling trip out to Buck Island. The beaches and snorkeling were fantastic. Our journey began on a large sailboat with two wonderful hammocks that we all took the time to lounge in. After numerous days of hard work we all enjoyed the time to take in the sea breeze and sail on the ocean. While underwater our eyes were delighted by the sight of nurse sharks, sea turtles, sting rays, and blue and yellow tang, along with many other colorful species of fish. We also enjoyed some picture perfect beaches while on the island. If you question the fun in the sun, we all have the sunburns to prove it. For lunch we had delicious local favorites at the Deep End Bar and Grill. Not only was the food wonderful, but the view of the marina and ocean shoreline was to die for. This afternoon we went to complete our final interviews with Ned and Marie Prince, and to our pleasure shot indoors. Then we came back to the apartment and logged Sunday’s footage. Until tomorrow it seems we’ll be rubbing on aloe gel.
Signing off,
Melissa

Full Sunday

Normally Sunday is a day of rest, but for our team, it has been a very full day. It started with Sunday School at 10:00 AM. There were three sections (adults, youth, and children) and since this is the only Sunday we will be here in St. Croix, we were busy documenting each of these. The service followed in a pretty full makeshift sanctuary (the full sanctuary is not completed yet). The trick for the service was to get good shots without getting other members of the team in them! Melissa and JimBob gave short testimonies during the service that were both well received. After the service we interviewed several of the members of the church under a very hot sun.
Marie Prince cooked us a great Sunday lunch which was the first home-cooked meal for at least one of our team since January! We fellowshiped and swapped stories until I noticed that the girls on the couch were starting to fall asleep (good food+warmth). We were able to squeeze in a 20 minute nap before heading to the outside Sunday school in one of the projects nearby. About 12 kids came to sing songs, learn scripture, hear a Bible story, color, and eat snacks. Erika shared about blind Bartimaeus. They really were into her story and followed along with motions including fake-spitting into their hands to make the mud for Bart's eyes.
We had less than an hour to get supper and be back for the evening service. Ben and Kristen both shared tonight and did a wonderful job! There are more interviews scheduled for tonight. We will be more than ready for bed when the time comes tonight.
We will be hitting the road early tomorrow morning, but it will be for our day as "tourists". Tomorrow we will be spending the morning and early afternoon on Buck Island, the first underwater national park! Snorkeling will be new to some, but I am confident that all will enjoy it. Not to mention, Ben will be glad to move past the "farmer tan" jokes as the rest of his torso catches up to his arms. :-)
Sorry there are no pictures with this post. We will have lots to post tomorrow.
-Nathan

Slower Saturday

So today we got to sleep in a little, which was nice considering the fact that we were up viewing and logging time codes for all the footage we shot yesterday until 12:45. So yeah sleeping in was in the schedule…. Roosters to my knowledge were not heard at all so I think we all have pretty much gotten use to the St. Croix “farm”. So when we did get out and going we when to the church and dropped Mel, JimBob, Ben and Kristen to set up the JIB cam and Nathan and I went to Plaza Extra to get groceries and a piece for the JIB cam. (Editor’s note: Erika’s note ends here and Ben’s starts below)

The jib was an interesting experience. First, the most challenging thing about using the jib was piecing it together.

After lots of perspired clothing and attempts at getting it up and running, we decided to sit under the shade of a tree and wait until the crew came back with our 2 dollar Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgars. After the refreshment of food and a little chill time we all settled on a jib in which we thought was capable of doing what it was meant to do.

The results were great pictures. We were able to capture angles of the church property that we didn’t know existed. After the good results of the shoot, we ended up going back to the apartment to get suited up for a late day swim.

The shore that we decided to go to swim at was GORGEOUS. For once I was able to enjoy the scenery with my naked eye instead of through the lens of a camera. The girls were assigned to do some video and photography (to avoid "the who's that creepy guy with a camera on the beach" feeling).
The guys insdead were able to dip in to cool off a few minutes before the girls. To our quick dismay, we met a lively ocean floor of sea urchins. Professor Waggoner and I managed to avoid the well hid critters, but Jimbob did not. After a quick, “AH! sea urchant!” we knew he had been pricked. Poor Jimbob, it got him right underneath the toe nail. Youch. Anywho, the stay was great and the water was rejuvenating in the steady heat of the sun.

We ended up leaving the beach and had a delicious meal of Pizza Hut and now I am definitely feeling sleepy. Goodnight all. –Ben Corwin

Two blog authors = One full Friday

Hello again! Let’s see where we left off… Last night we sorta had ‘dinner and a movie’ or more like ‘dinner and dailies’. When the laundry team came back, we piled a ton of sandwich materials and snacky stuff on the counter and table and then proceeded to watch the days footage from our three different cameras. We finished up in pretty good time and then stayed up till about 11 talking. Our subjects included our favorite movies, Ben’s farmer tan and JimBob’s musings on how cow with human immune systems could be the downfall of mankind. Needless to say as amusing as our conversation was, we where running on low and all went to bed at a semi sane hour. We got up and after a long devotion conversation, we all piled into the van for the days work at around 10:30. Our destination today was Christiansted, back to the harbor we went to the other day. But on the way there, we stopped by some awesome ruins of an outpost and sugar refinery. It was partially on some private property so we ran around carefully getting some amazing shot of the ocean from the ruins.

After taking several group pictures and JimBob got a satisfactory amount lens flare shots, we piled once more into the van and headed towards Christiansted.

At the harbor, we got some more new shots there and re-took some stuff that was shaky from steady cam in about 15 mins. We meandered around the countryside for a bit looking for any promising shots, but after not finding much, we headed back to the apartment for crash time and lunch. Before we went to sleepyland, we planned to be up and ready to head out by 3:30. Well us girls were slumbering innocently, dreaming of perfect shots and how to get ride of the rooster, when suddenly, at 3:28 I might add, all hell breaks loose! They boys decided that it would be hilarious if they ran a stick over the metal shutters on our window and yelled at the top of their lugs “Wake up girls!”. It was so loud and scary and needless to say we were not to happy with the guys and immediately began plotting our revenge. A plot has not been formed yet.

Disgruntled and still in shock, we headed over to the Prince’s to meet Carina and her friend Akema from some good old Cruzan ‘liming’. We went to the local shopping area to get some ice cream, which Erika promptly dropped on the ground and involved some cookie dough ice cream which took Carina to ice cream land. We limed around for a bit until JimBob kinda got in trouble for shooting little children, so we headed over to a local playground to get film the interviews of the girls. While the guys where conducting the interviews, us girls were running around shooting kids (with permission : P) and managed to get some great stuff. At the end, before heading back, we all piled onto the merry-go-round with a bunch of kids and had a blast while Erika got some amazing shoots.


So now we are back at the apartment, and in a little bit we will be heading over to the church for the youth group treasure hunt, which should be a lot of fun. We will only be bringing one camera and a still camera, because firstly it will be darker out and harder to get stuff and secondly, we really just want to hang out and get to know some of the kids.


Hopefully we won’t have too late of a night tonight, but if we do, it shouldn’t matter as much because we are allowed to sleep in tomorrow and might possibly be able to go to the beach! So excited! Well, that’s all from me now! There will be more up tomorrow and possible some random post on ‘The Joy of Lens Flares’ by JimBob. Or an essay on how we are all at risk because of the cows with human immune systems. Or I might tell the epic tale of the suicidal lizard. Who can tell what might happen?? Especially when it comes to our team.
~Kristen


Hello from the beautiful, sunny St. Croix! The island is absolutely beautiful. Today we drove thru the rainforest and explored some epic ruins of an ancient plantation. There was an old sugar refining furnace. (see below)

The vista was stunning. The colors come alive when the sun shines on the entire hillside. I got some beautiful lens flares. Yesterday, I ran a steadicam rig on a parade, and the day before that, I hung out of a van shooting a breathtaking vista. I would love to be a National Geographic Videographer…traveling around the world to exotic locations filming the people, flora, fauna, architecture, and landscape scenery. That would be a combination of many of my loves: beautiful cinematography, Nature, and travel. A favorite memory today: we took an afternoon nap (actually, I read apologetics and a biography of Alexander the Great) The girls were late getting up, so Nathan jokingly suggested that we tap on their metal window shutters to wake them up. Ergo, Ben and I grab cooking utensils and run them along the grates, making quite a clatter. The girls all arose quite distressed. Mel thought that it was a gun fight, much to our amusement! = D It was cause for much celebration and laughter (amongst the guys!) Good Times. I got yelled at for shooting little kids on a play ground at the mall…that was fun…(*sarcasm) One really cool thing that happened: An elderly gentleman was strolling along by the wall where we were eating icecream. He had an unlit cigarette, and gestured, as if to ask: Do you have a light? I nodded, and dug out my lighter and tossed it to him. He smiled and lit up. Then he popped my lighter back in a really cool way, sending it about 15 feet into the air. He nodded his thanks, and wandered on. Oh, yes, we went to the playground to shoot some interviews. After they were done, we all played on the swing set, and merry go round. It has been a good day. I am looking forward to hanging out with the youth tonight.l8t!
~JimBob

Thursday-Art and Conch Pate

Today we arose blessed being able to sleep in beyond the calls of our pet rooster. (He’s a noisy fella.) After having a team devotional and preproduction meeting we headed out to meet with Geoffry George, a local artist and board member at the 3-CU church. We went to his shop in Frederiksted and walked to the seaboard a block a way.

We set up in a green area, capturing shots of him painting a scene along the harbor. We hope to use this footage to continue to tell the story of the church in St. Croix. After this shoot, we proceeded to interview Geoffry about the past of the church, as he has been apart of its growth since 1985.

While in the downtown area we captured more beautiful scenery and to our surprise a parade, which Jimbob thoroughly captured with his Steadicam. Erika began to build her photography collection with young faces of St. Croix particularly those in the parade.

After filming in Frederiksted we ate lunch at Villa Marsales, a local favorite. While there we dined on island specialties such as salmon balls, conch pâté, fried plantains, and Johnny cakes, all of which were delicious. Some even tried local habenero hot sauce. Muy caliente! After eating we went to capture footage of the oil refinery, one of the largest in this hemisphere. We then went to get some more groceries, and now we are waiting for the others to return from laundry duty in order to log footage.
Things learned on the island of St. Croix today:
1) You not only drive on the left side of the road, but also walk on the left side of the aisle in stores.
2) Give JimBob a camera and don’t expect to see him for at least an hour.
3) Erika likes to take pictures of many children. She’ll be a great mom, someday.
4) Johnny cakes=doughnuts without holes+ fish in the middle

Signing off,
Melissa and Kristen