Our Car Rocks

This time we're trying something a little different. Today, we're going to take turns writing the blog, so you'll hear from each of us.

First, here's a pic (finally) of Tim's recent tattoo you may have read about. He just got so caught up in the island ways that he couldn't resist:

Okay, on to what's happened in the last few days.

Wednesday - We woke up and went to C.H. Reeves Junior School where Mark spoke at an assembly. This was the first time we had to navigate ourselves on our own to the school in the morning without our trusty native guide. We actually made it okay, stayed on the right (as in correct, or left) side of the road on only got honked at a few times on the roundabouts. Then we went to C.C. Sweeting Junior and Senior Schools, where we filmed a bit more, including a national champion basketball player who Mark is trying to convince to go to college. The only reason he didn't want to go was to stay near his grandmother to make sure she's okay, so Mark offered him a support system to help keep him in touch. He's now thinking college in the states could really be an option.

Then we meant to come back early to capture, but we got sidestracked going to the mall, where we finally picked up pillows. Then, on the way back, the car stalled about 1 million times. We have to put it (even though it's automatic) into neutral every time we stop so that it keeps running. We should have seen what that would come to. We ended up driving the Honda and Mark took the car to the Mechanic. Then, we arrived home only to remember that The Kia's key ring also had the keys to the apartment. So we had to make our own way in, since the door was deadbolted. Take a look:

Then, to make the last hour even crazier, Stefan dropped a carton of eggs from the fridge, which turned out to be rotten. The kitchen smelled all night. We went to see Pirates of the Carribbean (sp?) 3, and got ourselves throughly lost trying to get back to Kennedy Sub. We eventually made it.






Thursday -


We went to first find a gym for the program to operate in. However, when we went to pick up Stefan, the Kia would not start for 45 minutes or so. We tried the standard rocking of the car violently back and forth to get gas to go down, and we also pushed it farther than a block and over a speed bump. We finally decided to let it sit for 10 minutes and it started up, finally. Back to looking for a gym. After getting turned away at Lola Hall, we went to a community center owned by a church, which mainly uses the facility on Sunday mornings. Other than that, there are a lot of other groups that have it. The church is also focuses on the arts quite a bit, which is great to see.



Then we went to C.H. Reeves and C.C. Sweeting. The car wouldn't start for another 15 minutes between schools. Then, on the way home, we got lost and the car wouldn't start, so it took forever to get back again. Eventually we'll get the hang of it.



I (Tim, still writing, Jason and Jonathan never stepped up so you had to listen to me the whole time) stayed back to capture footage while Jason and Jonathan went back to the community center to interview and shoot a program similar to Mark's, which we will cross paths with later. They said it was great.



That about wraps it up for those two days. Now I know why we try to blog each day, because there's so much to remember.

Also, here are some photos from our last few days:

New Car/Old Car

Well, on account of the fact that last time we gave you not only a lengthy post but a video as well (along with the fact that I tend to be a bit more brief than either Jason or Jonathan), tonight's entry shall be a bit more concise but not lacking in its eventfulness. Or so I hope.

Today we went to C.H. Reeves, where Mark continued to work with the kids from the school. There we met Jeffrey, a student who lost both of his parents, his brother was murdered in January, and his cousin was shot 5 times and died in the last week. Mark stressed to him the fact that he can be a leader, and that he just needs to channel that in a positive direction.

After lunch, we went to get our "jeep" aka Kia Sportage registered to drive. We got that taken care of, and I got my chance behind the wheel. Less than 2 or 3 blocks later, we thought we ran out of gas. But apparently, the car still has kinks, like you have to put it in park or neutral when not moving or it dies. Mark took it back to the Mechanic, and hopefully a few new spark plugs will fix it.

We had a few more laughable/crazy incidents, hopefully we'll post pictures of some of them tomorrow. But then we just worked on editing and eating. We also met Christian Massive, a local culture (a genre) music artist whose music might end up on the film's sound track.

Ok, we're getting up at 6:30 am again, so I'm going to check out for the night.

Take it easy.

Tim (and Jason and Jonathan)

Blown Tires, Random Visits, and Fart Noises... Day 7, Nassau Bahamas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3FVoXMsLNc

We woke up today planning to pick up a few things and run to the beach for a quick dip in the clear waters of the Atlantic. Six hours later we made it to the beach and may or may not have found a buried pirate cannon/rusted steal pipe. The day continued with a visit to a local church fair and a blown tire on the ways to Mark's house.

Our first stop of the day was at a local convenience store called "Robbin Hood." It would be the equivalent of a Big Lots mixed with a Pottery Barn with a few high price motor cycles thrown in for fun. I am not even joking when I say that I was looking at a model ship style center piece and turned to see a Suzuki motor bike beside it.

We then headed for the beach... Or so we thought.
We stopped at a local convent where Mark's aunt is a nun. In the process we received a cookie. After we left we made more quick stops here and there as Mark tried to reconnect with old contacts. As we drove I caught my first glance of the tropical waters since I have been here. It was breathtaking. Several hours and many stops later we made it to the beach.
We swam around for a while and found a cool pipe that was so rusted and deformed that at first glance we were not sure if it was a wooden log or a pirate cannon. We attempted to convince several local children that it was indeed a pirate cannon. We even offered the special icon of the islands history to them for $100. For some reason they didn't believe us. We then returned the rusted pipe to its watery resting place.

After the beach we continued our journey back and forth across the island. One significant stop was at a local church fair where we drank some Gatorade and listened to gospel-reggae all while playing dominoes with several enthusiastic church members.

Later this evening we were on our way to Mark's father's house for dinner when we had a flat tire. By flat I mean it blew up while we were driving on it. We took some footage of our attempts to change the tire without a spare or a jack. This video will be posted on the blog in a few days.

After all was said and done we made it back to the apartment where I sit now. We discussed what we would do tomorrow and the types of interviews we would need at the local schools we will be visiting. In the process I discovered that by doing sit ups on our tile floor I can make rather convincing fart noises. This entertained us for at least ten minutes.

What we did today was somewhat hectic but not unnecessary. Before we can fully pursue the story for this documentary we must see what is happening here and understand it. Mark's trips back and forth stopping every few miles to talk to someone is the research. We are making contacts and scheduling interviews that will prove to be invaluable to us for the rest of the summer.

Please continue to pray for us as we pursue the production of this documentary.

For Tim, Jason, Stefan, and Mark this is Jonathan Saying goodnight from the Bahamas.

Moving to Paradise

I began my day in Batavia, IL after participating in my good friend Joshua Canada's wedding yesterday (Saturday). Now I am preparing to end the day in Nassau, Bahamas. I arrived safely after a relativly smooth flight. Tim, Jason, and Mark, picked me up from the airport and brought me to our house/apartment. We had about enough time to set my stuff down and run back out the door. We went to a basketball game where we watched the Bahamas National team play against the University of New Mexico. Afterwords we were able to interview the New Mexico head coach Steve Alford who played in the NBA as well as in the olympics with Larry Johnson and Charles Barkley. We also interviewed several members of the Bahamas National Team who were able to provide valuable insights into the benifits of organized sports for troubled teens.

All in all its been a pretty good day to begin my Bahamian Adventure. It was great to meet up with Tim and Jason and hear about the work they have done thus far. I was surprised to meet up with another taylor alum Stefan Davenport who will be working with Mark Beckford this summer. After the basketball game we all returned to the apartment for some pizza and laughter in the apartment. Below are several of our Bahamian Paradise.

Jonathan

They drive on the left side of the road here!

I don't know what all Tim wrote last time, but now I'm writing everything to tell you the truth. Tim got dread locks and is opening a cock fighting circuit down here. He got a tattoo of Bob Marley on his left pectoral muscle and ate a five conch stews this morning. I've been trying to film everything myself without him, so far so good. When i slap him around a bit, he comes to and everything's cool.

For those of you totally shocked about hearing all of this (Ron), you'll be glad to know that what I just said wasn't true. The Bob Marley tattoo is really on Tim's right pectoral muscle. But seriously, things are going really well. We just got back from Bamboo Shack, and we've been eaten alive by mosquitos. We're going to pick up some Alovera tomorrow. And sheets because I used my two hoodies as a blanket last night. As opposed to using one for a pillow and one for a blanket, i scrapped the pillow. But it was a nice sleep. Just glad we got the air mattresses so we aren't on the tile floor anymore.

Today we shot some basketball footage and got to interview Jason who is one of the guys in our short video clip up, one of the guys who's been trying to turn his life around. So that was good. And we got some footage at A.F. Adderley gym and interviewed the senior master there. Other than that, we had some free time when we caught up with Captain Bruce and Miss Sheila working out when they can take us to the family islands to get some footage and chill back a little. We played some serious bahamian domino games. We got our TV today and water we needed. Tomorrow we should finish getting pretty much everything we need to be completely settled in. Except for the jeep we'll have, we should be getting that Tuesday. It's fixed, but we just need plates and stuff taken care of for it, and Monday is a holiday, so everything is closed on the weekend pretty much plus this Monday because of the holiday. It's Whit Monday or something like that.

Things are going well though. Today was a little more relaxed, not as stressful. We had some good laughs and enjoyed the nice weather. Stefan got really sun burnt and still refuses to wear sunscreen, but I think he'll come around sooner or later. Alright, I think I've babbled on enough, and I haven't read the blog Tim posted, so if I repeated something, don't worry about it. Hopefully we'll be able to put up some video blogs if we figure out why audio isn't working on the laptop for that.

Thank you all for your prayers, there's still much work to be done, but God is carrying us through. Still much work though, to see these youths. This morning at basketball, it was nice, Tim, myself, and Stefan got to play with a little kid CJ, and then i played briefly with a couple more after that before we had to leave. We'll have more pictures too once Jonathan gets here with his digital still camera. Then Neil you can have your PR shots for us, thanks for all your hard work.

It's nice though, because one thing when the kids saw us whiteboys in the school, the ones that we'll be following around more that are deemed 'uncontrollable' they asked us if we were there to tell them about Jesus and then laughed. they've heard all about Jesus, but they haven't seened it lived out as much. So we're glad to see Mark doing that and us being a part of everything, and already seeing the effects it's having on the kids and the hope it's bringing. God has a great work to do. Now we want to live out the call and show them Jesus, not come with lip service. We pray that this documentary will help in that.

Other than that, same old stuff going on. Everyone tries to sell us weed everywhere we go, but all the D.A.R.E. training in school is paying off because we haven't bought any yet. We've been safe though, and we're in a safe neighborhood where we're staying, and all the locals are starting to treat us like natives more and more, and if we keep soaking up the sun like we have been, we'll start looking like them too. Alright, I'm signing off. Until next time...

Jason

Shooting Begins

After arriving Tuesday evening, we began shooting on Thursday. We first arrived at R. M. Bailey High School, where a gym that the J&E used to use was badly burned in a fire 4 years ago. The gym still has not been repaired. and is an example of the need for a program like the J&E to give young people recreational time.

Today (Friday). we will continue shooting and hope to get permission to shoot on the campus of C. H. Reeves, a junior school where many students from the program attend. Yesterday Mark had to break up a fight there which gave one boy an asthma attack and nearly killed him. We were not able to get the fight on camera.

As for us, we've moved into our apartment, which means that we have use of half of a house. It's brand new and very nice, but it doesn't have any furniture for us except one bed. So the first two nights, Jason and Tim took turns sleeping on the floor. But yesteday we picked up some nice air mattresses, so we're in good shape now. We've bought groceries and cooked a bit, but we've already eaten at Wendy's, Dominoes, and KFC so far.

Last night we went to see Junkanoo practice down by the Fish Fry, which was great. Junkanoo is kinda like the Bahamian Mardi Gras, and it is a parade where huge bands play Junkanoo style music while dressed in elaborate paper mache costumes. Here's a picture of Jason in one of those costumes from last year:




Anyay, we've been having a great time. Our car's repairs are almost done, and Jonathan will get here on Sunday. We're looking forward to a great weekend.


Tim

Prayer Requests

I'll go ahead and add some prayer requests, I'm sure there are more, so we may update. Please send this on to anyone you know who's interested in this project or would be willing to pray for us. Okay, here we go:

Safe Travel
Luggag would arrive on time
Living Arrangements
Meeting the right people
Finding the storyline
Our health
Success for the J&E as they start up their program again
That we would stay healthy and rested
and most importantly, that we would be available to God to do his work and tell the story that he wants to tell.

Thanks guys.
Tim (for Jonathan, Jason, and Mark too)

Welcome

Hey guys, welcome to our blog. We'll be posting updates as often as we can for you. Check back soon for a list of prayer requests for the summer, as well as video messages.

Probably the best feature of the blog is the VLOG (video log) to the right where you can see messages and updates from the project.

For now, check out some archive footage of the J&E in action, and visit our site at www.jandefoundation.com.