“If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.”
These are the words that Samwise the Brave utters in J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Fellowship of the Ring, whenever he reached the very edge of the Shire. He made this declaration and pressed forward.
I have never been outside the United States of America. In eleven hours we depart from Atlanta, Georgia to Guatemala to volunteer for four weeks at Agape in Action where we will work at a local, public hospital doing whatever is needed to be done for the days we are there.
I am gleeful.
I am neurotic.
I am enraptured.
The past 10 months leading up to this moment have been ones of victory and loss, pain and obedience, rebellion and begrudging submission at times. I am convinced that where I am is exactly where I need to be, and that the choice to take the road less traveled has made all the difference.
In the past week we went through film school boot camp. Within four complete days we slept on the floor and ate, drink, and bled information on how to operate high-definition cinematic cameras, how to treat people in foreign lands with the material and how to act within the documentary ourselves. The image that comes to mind is that of someone drinking from a fire-hydrant hose one gulp at a time. There were times I asked the camera to be turned off during confessionals for really sensitive information. There were times where I threw up a wall and felt uncomfortable with the situations we were put in.
For those of you who are just reading my blog for the first time, I am on K Squad. We are shooting a documentary and reality tv show simultaneously about the stories that develop on the World Race whether it be with actual Racers or the interesting and diverse people we meet around the world.
Two of our squad mates were going to be unable to go on the Race due to financial circumstance. At the time, they had yet to raise the preliminary amounts to leave for the trip. Within fifteen minutes various other squad mates all pulled together to collect over $4,000 dollars to help bridge the gap between what the two girls needed and what the deadline was. It was spectacular and encouraging.
Terin came up for the weekend and loaded me up with a good meal, a good beer, refused to sing karaoke with me, but gave me some last minute gear that I will utilize on this trip.
All the men on our squad, with the except of Ben (thanks Ben for being literally the only man who wouldn’t do this), shaved their beards or scruff into a mustache.
During one of the days of film school training we were required to shoot a video with a themed topic. We met this man, Gustavo, and heard his story. Our theme was to do a video on feedback (another name for rebuke). We thought the subject too touchy for a first time camera story, we rather made a satire of it. Here is that satire, although the lighting and sound is poor we still are proud from what we did within only a few hours!
Here is also some test footage from the documentary so far.
Please be in prayer for this next month!
Thank you for believing in me and this trip so far.
With love and respect,
-J
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