Preparing a video and photo album for Australia

One of the big reasons we go back to Australia every so often for a significant slug of time is to report back to those who make it possible for us to be in Japan, and thank them for their part in helping us to do this work. We will be travelling around to different churches and other groups talking about Japan and what we do here. We'll also be spending time with individuals, couples, and families who we know well.

One of the photos I took in David's classroom.

That means that in this time before we go back to Australia we need to prepare things to say and show. We've been working on this. A couple of big things we've been working on recently are a photo album and a video.

Today I worked on the photo album. I'm using Blurb, a book-making website. It's easy to use and hopefully we will end up with a good looking product that won't cost too much. It's been fun looking at photos from the last four years. How my boys have grown! And I'm blown away by how much we've squeezed into those years too!

I also went to CAJ and spent time videoing a parent of one of David's students. He spoke about how important CAJ is to them being able to continue their ministry, as well as thanking our supporters for allowing us to be here. It took us quite a long time. Filming at a school risks lots of background noise, so finding a good location was a challenge (gusts of wind also made it challenging). Additionally, he was doing it without a script, so it took a several takes for him to be happy with what he'd said.

Then I went into three of David's classes and took photos and video footage of him teaching. 

On another day we have lined up a couple more people to video, and possibly some more class-time.

I felt very uncomfortable going into David's classrooms, even though he said it was okay. That is his realm where I never venture. I also felt uncomfortable making the students feel self-conscious because I was there with audiovisual recording equipment. I haven't managed to develop that seeming lack of self-consciousness that characterises photographers and videographers.

Nonetheless, it was necessary. It isn't easy to convey to people back home what we do and why that is important. Having parents testify on video that it is important to them will hopefully convey the message well.