Adventures with my Father

I finally got our website up. Recently, Au and I initiated a new Digital Storytelling enterprise. We are excited about the opportunities open to us.

It’s been a big step of faith, launching out into the unknown. Some of the challenges can sometimes feel daunting. Had I all the facts, I might have chosen to stay in my safe zone. But, well I am here now. The grace of God has more than matched the challenges I face.

This past week, we are teaching our second batch of primary five students. One of the joys for me is seeing a shy girl come out of herself as she threw herself into making a digital story. Yesterday I quietly watched her.

We had asked the girls to take their turns to read out their scripts in front of the class. This 11-year-old was whimpering, nervously giggling, hiding her face behind her script.

Yesterday, while her classmates were out for a break, I saw her go to their computers one by one, put on the ear phones, adjust the microphone and read their scripts. She read it complete with  clarity, complete with expression! She didn’t know I was watching her. My heart celebrated.

Today, a classmate of her didn’t turn up for the class. She took over and put together her friends video after she had completed her. God knows how a technical workshop like this could bring a stirring of a young life to dream and to pursue their dreams.

The girls wanted us to come back again so they could make more stories!

I’ve taken a big leap on a road not traveled. I’m in the process of leaving my job as Communications Director of the Navigators after doing it for 12 years. All in all I have been with the Navigators for 20 years!

My adrenalin is pumping with excitement as I go into Digital Storytelling. I stumbled on in in 2007. I thought I had signed on for a three-day hands-on workshop that would help me communicate more effectively ain my work. What I learned turned out to be something that would increasingly consume me.

I have received a lot of encouragements and support.

There are moments I feel like a longing for the Shire (home). But there’s also a streak in me that wants to venture, to learn, to make a difference.

In July-August, my colleague Aurelia and I will be making a trip to the USA.

1. SAN FRANCISCO
Visit the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) where Digital Storytelling (DS) started.

2. DENVER
CDS has centres in various parts of the US and Canada. We have been accepted by CDS for their five-day Facilitators Intensive Training (FIT) workshop.

3. COLORADO SPRINGS
We will be going to Colorado Spring, an hour drive from Denver to attend the Via Affirmativa conference. This is an initiative the Navigators to encourage people in the Arts. Via Affirmativa has been going on for some years. This year, the theme is “Unfolding Stories.” They have a track for those who make videos.

We have been invited by the director of Via Affirmativa to give a two-hour presentation during the conference and also to run a full three-day DS workshop prior to the Via Affirmativa conference.

So Digital Storytelling, here I come!

In January this year, I got a phone call from a lady asking to buy “How the Moken Sea Gypsies got their Book,” the biography of missionary Aunty Say Bay which I had written. The lady sounded in a hurry, desperate almost, to buy a copy. I suggested that I could have the book mailed to her but she insisted that she wanted to come down to pick it up as soon as possible.

June came to my office with a friend. She was shy and seemed in a hurry to leave. I was absorbed in what I was doing. It didn’t occur to me that I had missed the opportunity to talk to her until after she left. My curiosity got the better of me – why didn’t I ask her, get to know her. After all, it isn’t everyday that any one gets a call from someone so desperately looking for my book (yes MY book). I sent an sms to June at Au’s encouragement.

“Would you like to meet?” I sms.
“Meet?” The reply sounded surprised.
“Yes meet.”
We fixed a time and place. She was as excited to meet as I was.

June told me that she was feeling depressed and was searching for a song on the internet when she stumbled on my blog. She said that an article that I had written really spoke to her. It had answered the very question that she had been asking God. She said she began reading my entire blog. (And I always wondered if anyone ever reads them!) After our first meeting, the seventeen-year-old asked if I would mentor her.

In 1998, I left the student ministry after being involved with teens for eight years. The Lord called me then into media and communications. I wasn’t at all unhappy about pulling out of the teens ministry as I had started to feel ineffective and the need to relate to young adults or people my age. The world of teens had grown too alien for me.

Then in 2008, the Lord spoke to me about getting involved with youth again. I wasn’t the most thrilled about the idea but I realised that if he had called me into a media ministry, then I would HAVE to relate to “digital natives”– and that means youth. God was serious about wanting me involved with them — he sent one right at my door step without my even looking for her.

It has been about two months since I began meeting with June. It has been fun. I am excited about coaching June in her exciting journey of life that has barely begun.

I was telling someone how God had answered a prayer for some big thing that I had asked God for.

She boldly said to me, “Of course lah! The signs were there what.” What she meant was, “I already knew he was going to answer your prayers, so I don’t understand what you were getting so worried for.”

The funny side to this is, when I made my decision to take leaps of faith, she was the one that panicked and not in favour of my decisions. She felt I was taking too big a risk and asking me to find other ways so as not to risk what I have.

Faith is only good when the answer has arrived. LOL.

Musings of an almost 50-year-old

Once in your life, you wake up and realise,
If not now, when?

You ask yourself,
What can I see myself doing for the next phase of my life?
What can I not see myself not doing?

You see the opportunities before you.
You know they will not wait.
You know ten years from now, you will wake up and say,
Now why didn’t I give it a go?
What did I have to lose?

For the past year or so, I have been getting job offers – I didn’t take them.
I’m travelling not the road LESS travelled,
I am travelling the road NOT travelled.

You know it’s going to take all of you
You know it’s not going to be easy.
But it makes you feel alive.
You hold your breath.
Your heart skips a beat.
You live it, breathe it, dream it.
The vision, calling, passion takes you.
And you can’t help but let it lead you.

You know the learning curve is steep.
You know that if you stay where you are, your heart dies.
The dreams wants to break free.

You know there are those who say, “Why?”
“Stay safe.”
“This other way will work too.”
And you pause and wonder for a moment.
But the voice inside you whispers, speaks, screams.

There are those who say,
“Go for it!”
“I saw it coming for a long time. What took you so long?”
“You go girl!”

Oh what have I got to lose?

Lord you are the wind beneath my wings
You are the voice
You are the strength
the call
the goal
the prize.