Video production continues; Farewell Isaac

Yesterday I went to "Montgallet Valley," the section of Paris where there are lots of computer stores. Last week the computer connection for the firewire got broken. Thus, while we were still able to film scenes from life and ministry in Paris, we weren't able to do anything else, as we couldn't upload from the videocamera to the computer.

To be honest, I was nervous about the whole thing, as I had no idea how to go about getting the firewire connection fixed. Trying to explain the situation in my second language added more angst to the situation. I was also frustrated about the video production project being blocked for several days.

Yesterday morning I first went to Surcouf, the computer megastore in Montgallet Valley. While they couldn't repair the machine, they were very helpful in sending me toward another store that does repairs on notebooks. While this store was closed, I started asking around at a neighboring store. While it didn't repair broken connections, it did normally sell PCMCIA cards that have firewire connections. They happened to be out of stock there, but they pointed me to another store just down the street. LCD International, the 4th store on my journey, did have the IEEE 1394 firewire card, so I bought it. I then realized that the connection was different, so I went to a 5th store (EDI) to buy a firewire cable. On my way to the metro, I looked in several other stores and bought a 1 gigabyte memory thumb drive for our presentations this summer.

Until today, I used to feel intimidated in Montgallet Valley. Now, I actually like it. Perhaps it's the computer geek coming out in me.

After my excursion in Montgallet Valley, I went to the farewell church staff luncheon of Isaac. I can't believe that he's already been here 9 1/2 months, as it seems like I just picked him up at the airport. But that was last September.

It wasn't sad for me, since we'll be visiting him in Colorado next month. But it will be strange to not see him around the church anymore. Isaac did an outstanding job this year, going above and beyond the call. It's encouraging for me to have been part of the process of bringing him over to Paris for this year.

One never knows how different connections will work out. It's important to cultivate the connections that God does bring.

My work at learning video production is an attempt to help to cultivate these connections. Because we live in a visual generation, it's important for people to see what is happening in Paris.