1/16/2007

Just Doing The Job: Missionaries remembered

I have been trying my hand at simple reflections using Powerpoint and putting them on video so that they can be uploaded to You Tube. The learning curve is high and the results are still a bit choppy, but the effort may eventually lead somewhere. This is a new effort, trying to combine a bit of video and slide show.

My first, "A Question" has gotten a bit of play and yesterday made Ruth Gledhill's TimesOnline blog. So, all in all I felt it was a good first try.

Here is my second.

UPDATE PLEASE NOTE: I HAVE BEEN ADVISED THAT (i) IF YOU USE DIAL-UP IT TAKES FOREVER TO LOAD...SO DON'T, (ii) I SEEM TO BE A SPEED READER, SOME ARE HAVING TROUBLE READING THE FULL FRAME BEFORE THE NEXT COMES UP (I WILL TRY TO REPAIR), (iii) IT WOULD BE NICE IF I COULD SPELL CONNECTICUT. Corrections follow.


I began my ministry as a missionary, and I have continued to be very aware of the many people throughout the world engaged in mission. Johnathan, the Mad Priest, wrote a piece on people doing mission , and his essay gave rise to this experiment. One of the things about his post is that he recognized that mission is done by people from all sorts of ecclesastical contexts, but they put the work first. So in this slide show / video I reference someone supported by the Moderator of the Network, the Church of Nigeria as well as The Young Adult Service Corps and the Appointed Missionaries and a range of people whose mission is to "just do their job." Again, this is an experiment in a new medium for me, so forgiving the bumps in the road, I hope you find it useful.




8 comments:

  1. Mark, thank you so much. This is lovely, challenging, prayerful, sustaining.

    Wonderful to see Bp. Ramos, formerly of Connecticut, in the slide show. And Patsy and Todd McGregor were at seminary with me at S-WTS in Evanston during our shared final year - Todd, a reluctant priest, who was taking orders literally - his bishop in Madagascar said he was to be a priest because he was needed. And now a bishop.

    Again, thank you for reminding me of people I have known and only wish I knew. Bless them all.
    Lois Keen

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  2. A very beautiful and touching message Mark.

    Now for the critical stuff. I think you have to get rid of the bi-focals. They force you to tilt your head back and it makes you look like you are 'looking down your nose' at your audience. You must be a speed reader. The frame slides go too fast to read the content. For people with dial-up, (me), it takes an hour to download a 6-7 minute video clip and you will lose a good part of your audience.

    Grrrr, I hate being critical.

    Thanks again for a great message.

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  3. I pray that the current ecclesiastical nonsense that is ongoing in the AC creates in all an urgency for mission.

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  4. The great thing about missionaries is that they are so fully persuaded about the Gospel that they are willing to sacrifice their comfort and convenience for its proclamation -- as opposed to constantly qualifying and hedging oneself to make sure all viewpoints are accommodated respectfully at all times for the sake of good fellowship.
    -- D. Farrell

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  5. Mark - Very, very touching. You are my blog hero of the day!

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  6. Mark, Great Stuff! Thank you for the reminder of what's truly important.

    Just a quick technical note:

    You might find the video fits, format -wise better in your blog if you go in and edit the html (through the blog editor, towards the end of the code of this post) so the "embed" code reads thus:

    height="350" width="400"

    (instead of width="600")

    This will prevent the video from scooching over and making a mess of the right side of your great blog page.

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  7. Very nice. Thank you.

    I want to mention here the Rev. Tracy Longacre of California, now working in Cameroon.

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  8. This was marvelous. As long as nits are being picked, on the frame with the misspelling of Connecticut you also misspell Suffragan.

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OK... Comments, gripes, etc welcomed, but with some cautions and one rule:
Cautions: Calling people fools, idiots, etc, will be reason to bounce your comment. Keeping in mind that in the struggles it is difficult enough to try to respect opponents, we should at least try.

Rule: PLEASE DO NOT SIGN OFF AS ANONYMOUS: BEGIN OR END THE MESSAGE WITH A NAME - ANY NAME. ANONYMOUS commentary will be cut.