Now, we’ve got to see the actual ministry become what I visualized. North has enough equipment. We’ve got to go beyond having trinkets and baubles to actually producing something that will make an impact for the Kingdom of God.

Staff
One thing that is going to be key is having a trained and dedicated staff. I would like to see us do this with volunteers. But only time will tell. See, if we can’t find a dedicated staff, then we need to stipend a few people who are going to really stick with it. If we produce a quality product and we make it accessible, we can have a ministry that actually produces revenue for the church.

Little Mike Avery and Rashidi aren’t interested in operating the manned camera. So, those are two people out of the mix. I just found that out this morning. Tracey Jenkins is interested in running it. He was on his way this morning but had to call out because his baby had a pretty bad rash and needed to be taken to the hospital for attention. David “Butter” Selby, Jr. actually ran the camera today. I’m not sure how often he is willing to do that, but he did it today.

We need a staff to actually work on distribution of the DVDs as well.

How the Video Actually Looked
It’s going to take some training. The first thing I noticed as I reviewed the video is that we have to keep it interesting. With four camera angles we can make it interesting, especially since we can pan and zoom with each of those cameras. During the praise and worship time the praise team did a song “O! Lord, You are Awesome.” It was a great song. People really enjoyed it. Did that translate on the video? No, the video was boring. Why? I’m guessing that whoever was on the video mixer and controller was a little too much into the song to preserve it for those who would have been watching by Internet or for those who would purchase the DVD. They kept it on camera one the entire time. No zoom. No change. Boring. But that was one of the high points in worship today.

So, we have to train the operators to keep it interesting. We don’t need to keep the camera on one shot more than a few seconds. We need different angles. We need audience response when the speaker says something and people are reacting.

I’m sensing that there’s too much distraction up in the booth. I saw my main man Rufus taking a pitcher of red drink up into the video room as I was making my way back to the pulpit. I don’t think that we need to be quite that comfortable in that room with all that expensive equipment. And we don’t need a gaggle of folk hanging out up there. We need a few folk who are going to work that room. Whatever talking goes on up there should be with respect to producing a God-glorifying product.

Did we move in product?
I don’t believe we moved any product like I envisioned today. We need to move that DVD copier to the lobby with three staff persons: one person to copy the DVDs, a second person to distribute them and a third person to capture the contact information for the person who takes a DVD.

So, when the preacher finishes preaching, we move into the copying and distribution phase of the ministry. We need cases prepared. As people leave, they can take a copy with them. We’ll get the money later. We need people to get the message while it’s fresh on their hearts.

Tags: DVD, ministry, video, distribution, filming, excellence, quality, dedication, focus, concentration, serious, north, philaelphia, seventh-day, adventist

It was also different because there was a major supermarket in the mall. I just don’t think of supermarkets being in the mall.

Then we went to the Union office. They just built and opened that recently. Very nice building on a large property. I asked Strike Ben about it and he said that the Philadelphia Church actually donated the property (free) to the union office. Very generous donation!

There are goats everywhere in Botswana! I interject that at this point because there were goats wandering all over the union office property! It’s funny to me. Goats are EVERYWHERE. Goats outside the property of the most posh hotels. Mrs. Priscilla Ben, Strike’s wife, even notes that the goats know how to tell a green traffic light from a red one!

We dropped the union president off at his house. He is from Zimbabwe and speak Shona. It was interesting to go to his home. It dawned on me that most people are around have serious fences around their homes. I’m talking about gates that would be the equivalent of “gated communities” in the US. The president had an automated gate that opened when he got home. Pastor Ben says that they all have them to try to discourage the thieves. I thought that was interesting.

After we dropped off the Union President, we went to downtown Gaborone so Strike could withdraw some money because the ATM (autobank) at the mall was out of money.

We came to eat at the restaurant connected to my hotel. Very good food. Very good food. Randy Stafford used to eat here. If you have ever spent any time with Randy Stafford, you know that he likes to eat well. You will be hard pressed to find Stafford eating KFC or McDonald’s. He dines on fine fare. This place is a buffet, but it has several stations. Two stations of dinner food with choices of chicken, mutton, beef, plenty of veggies ranging from curried lentils, baked potato squares, pumpkin, white rice, Spanish rice or rice with peas, greens. Then they have like a stir fry where they’ll make it like you like it. You choose the fixins and what kind of oil (sesame, peanut, etc.) and they do that for you. They have a meat carving station. A salad station. And a dessert station. Oh! And an area with various kinds of breads. What I really like is that the folk here are very careful. These are some clean Black people! They take great pride in what they do and how they present it. They even have live music! And the brotha (Henry Peters) is good!!! Knows his lyrics and what have you.

I know a few black people in the restaurant business that I’d like to bring over here so they could see how it’s done.

President Ben wanted to watch the soccer game between Botswana and Morroco. So he came to my hotel room, sat on the bed and fussed at the screen. Funny how I knew when something exciting was taking place though I could barely make out a word or two of the commentator (because he was speaking Setswana). His inflection was enough for me to know what either team was about to score a point. (Well, Botswana never scored a point.) Pretty pathetic game. Botswana lost. The score was 1-0.

After that I made my final preparations for the meeting. President Strike Ben was back to pick me up at 5:30. We headed over to the fairgrounds to see the health team taking their final blood pressures and blood sugar readings. I met the team of nurses and doctors. (These people are on the ball!) Then the evening service began.

The music is just gorgeous. The harmonies are so warm. The worship is so vibrant. Oh! It’s nice. No drums. No piano. Most of the “Praise and Worship” or song service is led by one lady with an alto and a bass who joins her at the mic. But the people know the songs. Song after song they sing. No music in hand. No words projected onto a screen. They just sing and snap or tap. It’s really worshipful and festive at the same time. I’m sitting on the front row. So the lady leading is in front of me. There are three sections. So, I’m in the center section. There are Africans in front of me leading, and Africans to my right, left and rear singing. To hear 700 or 800 Africans singing in surround sound made the 17-hour leg from Atlanta to Johannesburg WORTH THE TRIP.

After service, the gentle shepherd (as they call Strike Ben) took me with him to visit the wife of his first first elder who had suffered a stroke. We were supposed to be just dropping by to pray for her, but Strike Ben is a home-visiting pastor. We were there a while. Bless the Lord. ☺ It was a nice visit though.

The day ended with him dropping me in front of the restaurant to get some supper. I am writing this note from my table in the restaurant. And now I’m about to go to my room and turn in for the night after trying to touch bases with Ev. Tomorrow the treasurer picks me up at 10 AM. ☺