Cool story in today’s OC Register … Doug will be using it as an illustration this weekend as we kickoff 40 Days of Love. Love it! Here’s a clip:

He made the phone call late at night, when the sound of the generators died and the African village went dark.

“Hi, Dad,” Ian Kung said into the cell phone, the connection clear despite the 9,400 miles that separated Ian, in Rwanda, from his father, in Laguna Niguel.

The 17-year-old was going out on a limb — way out.

While on a church mission with his mother, he came to a monumental decision.

Gary Kung had spent $5,000 for his son to attend a science and physics course for gifted high school students at Harvard University.

While the eight-week class did not guarantee Ian’s getting into his dream school, the teenager knew it was a huge deal.

Now, he wanted out.

“Dad,” Ian said. “You’re going to have to trust me on this.”

JG

Excited to see that ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) of Star Wars fame is going to make its first feature animated film. While I’m not sure they can compete with Pixar out of the gate, they could give Dreamworks a run for sure. Here’s a clip:

Toon town just got more crowded. Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas’ legendary visual effects shop, is jumping into the feature animation business for the first time with Paramount’s “Rango.” ILM joins a small number of companies doing high-end motion-capture animated features, including Sony Pictures Imageworks (“Beowulf,” “Monster House”) and Animal Logic (“Happy Feet”).

ILM’s “Rango” team is headed by Oscar winners John Knoll and Hal Hickel, who oversaw the motion-capture animation for tentacle-bearded villain Davy Jones in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”

JG

Hung out with my friend Tony and he told me about something cool that LifeChurch.tv s doing with their internet campus called LifeShare. Sounds cool – if you’ve got a blog of your own, check it out and get involved.

JG

This is a bit scary – we’re not going to do a bulletin/program in our student ministry for 6 weeks as we run through 40 Days of Love here at Saddleback. We’ve always printed up the message outline for students to fill in, but we’re giving that a rest for a few weeks.

We’re still giving them something to take notes on – everyone for the 1st couple of weeks will get a small memo pad with a series sticker on the front, and then we drop in some labels and stamps throughout for them to journal, take message notes and write down thoughts. The idea being that they have a record of a 40-day journey, rather than 6 bulletins at the end of the series.

Just thought I would share the idea – hope it works!

JG

We’re working this week on a weekend service checklist – a quick rundown of the things that need to be done before the service is ready to go. If you’ve got one already for your ministry, drop it in the comments on this post, too. Here’s our starting point:

• Room clean
• Tables setup
• Copies of program sheet taped to cameras, backstage and given to speaker
• Sound guy informed of needs for service
• Any multimedia tested and soundchecked
• Someone assigned to take attendance
• Video monitor set up on stage
• Clock is set and visible to speaker
• Volunteer assignment sheets
• Pens
• Bulletins
• Stage cleared of bottles/cords/trash
• Stool ready
• Music stand for speaker
• Curtains pulled down behind drummer
• DVD/Bluray recording
• CD/MP3 recording
• Cameras white balanced

JG

Gary Eilts has a clone. Not really – I just liked this picture of our Wildside volunteer standing in front of the wall that honors him and our other student ministry volunteers. I should also tell you that several times alone at night in The Refinery I’ve mistaken his life-sized pinup for a real person and scared the craziness out of me.

JG

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Marriage and Ministry right now … the SYM podcast coming in an hour!

JG