So What Happened This Year Again…??

I have ‘um’ed and ‘ah’ed about doing an overview of the year, and although I find that it will be long, and so not that popularly read, I figured I’d do one anyway, but hey, I’m going to have pretty pictures too!

( Google+ also made me a video for the year, which is awesome, even if it makes me look as if all I did was sit and eat with people…. http://goo.gl/LvuNP6 )

2013 was brilliant now wasn’t it? Around about this time a year ago, I went to Thailand to start my Discipleship Training School at Create International, which would end up being six months that really changed my view on, well, most things I guess. It especially shifted my relationship with God, my view on missions, and it’s place in the world, as well as bringing into focus what Create actually did. After all the separate classes, as well as multiple outreaches, there isn’t very many areas of my life it didn’t affect. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really want to do the DTS, I wanted to see what Create did, I wanted to get involved, and see where it lead, I only did the DTS because I had to, but afterwards, I wouldn’t have changed that six months for the world.

Regardless of what I would’ve done following it’s end, where I will go from here even, regardless of what I’m doing in 10 years, the experience was brilliant, I’d recommend it to anyone in any field really. During this time I spent a lot of time in Thailand, both locally in Chiang Mai, as well as further North-West in Fang helping build for a school.

As well as in the mountains at Dulalbpea, speaking in houses and churches.

I went to Malaysia twice, once to Kuala Lumpur, the other to Penang.

I was also blessed to be able to go to Create’s 25th Anniversary, and the Family Gathering, where I got to meet the Create Emerge team who have played such a solid role in my life these past number of years. It was here that I got to see Megan again, which was a great time of, quite frankly rest!

And then there was the month in Myanmar, which was brilliant, and an experience that I won’t be forgetting. It showed me the importance of reaching those who have never heard of Christ, and the usefulness of the particular methods we employ at Create.

The end of DTS, would take me right through to July, only half-way through the year. Those who went along the ride with me, both students and staff, really made the experience what it was, without them it would have been vastly different. I will miss them dearly as the continue along their own paths, now, and in the future. Phew, this really is a long post….

Following DTS graduation, I decided that a rest was in order, as I was a bit knackered. So I took that Saturday and Sunday to rest, and started at Create as staff proper that Monday! 😀 It was during this time that I really began to see the kind of work Create does, the complexity of some of the tasks, the wide variety of jobs etc. I got my hands involved in all sorts of things during this time, some animated pieces which had been delayed for far too long, some website work, and started to think about pipeline changes. I helped a lot with Workbooks Pioneer, something new Sarah had begun that I helped with during DTS.

I was involved with the start of Equip2Go, which is going very, very well. I’m very excited to see where it will be going in the next few months and years, I’m sure you will be hearing about it a lot from me!

I also got stuck in with helping two amazing interns during this time, and made two new friends 😀 We also got to meet Rebekka, who was the newbie at Create, mainly because everyone in the VAM came from the CIDTS.

Actually during this time we had a lot of new faces around the place, and I got to really get to know a whole lot of faces that had been around, but that I hadn’t had time to really get to know. People like Carla, Sharon, Bill, Jeremy, Paul, or Peter were all new friends. I don’t believe that I could have got through all that we did without these guys….

I also went ahead and completed the six week Frontier Filmmaking School, which was amazing. This allowed me to really get going on an actual filmset, and allowed me to see the small details in the workflow for Create. During this time I learnt a lot, both for film, as well as, yet more, about relying on God. It was hard, but it was good. During this time I went on yet another VISA run to Malaysia, which was harrowing to say the least….

Following the end of the FFS, I continued on staffing for Create. I was again involved in a number of projects, just anything I could do to help. I helped with the Art teams’ project, promo work, some design work, as well as detailing changes for Create’s workflow, which is undergoing some nice and significant changes. I even got to do some teaching in the Visual Arts for Missions school, which really was very fun. I will miss those guys dearly.

I also decided to go back. Jeepers creepers….. so yeah. And not only go back to staff, but rather to lead the next School of Frontier Media! I can’t really say a whole lot about that seeing as it hasn’t even started, but it is occupying pretty much all of my mind, I have whiteboards and stickynotes all over with the ramblings of my brain strewn across with all my ideas, so I can already tell it will certainly be a journey…

One of the best parts of the year though is that I was able to come home for Christmas! These holidays have been a good time to spend time with my family, and get a little bit of rest. The next couple of years will be rather eventful, so I decided I would make a real effort in relaxing for a bit. I have been able to meet a number of old friends which is nice, and I plan on stopping over in Auckland to see more before I leave for Thailand. Which will be at the end of the month.

I really didn’t get to say a whole lot of details that I would of liked to to be honest, but I don’t think I could’ve completed such a task… You can find more details at my other posts here: https://ourpaperairplane.org/

You can also see even more pictures over on plus 🙂 http://goo.gl/zrpgMc

It has been a brilliant year, and there are too many people to thank, so I’m not going to go through all that rigmarole, but it certainly couldn’t have been done without the help of those around me. Next year I hope to continue my work in Thailand, making films to reach the lost, thank you for those who have come alongside me already, if you’d like to get involved in making a difference for the Kingdom of Christ, give me a shout!:)

Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, and have a wonderful 2014,

Keegan