The Graduate

We are celebrating back-to-back graduations with our son Chase these next two weekends. Chase's High School graduation will be today at 2:00 PM. He and seven fellow Home Schoolers will be honored in a ceremony at Crossroads Church. Last year, after completing his Junior year, Chase only needed two more credits to graduate. After attending the "Experience Week" our Master's Commission program puts on every year, Chase decided he wanted to complete his school work early so that he could go ahead and join Master's Commission. That explains his second graduation, which will be next weekend when he crosses the stage to receive his diploma for the nine month discipleship school he has participated in since September. Chase plans to enroll in a second year with the program which will allow him to earn a Bachelor's Degree from West Coast Bible College. He believes God has called him into the ministry.

We are so proud of Chase. He has been an excellent student and an absolute joy to have in our home. In preparation for his graduations, we have looked through hundreds of photographs we've taken of Chase through the years. After looking at all the pictures, Donna and I came to two conclusions: 1. Our son has always been a really fun and interesting kid! 2. He's had a really fun life. We love him so much and thank God for him! 

The Porcelain Unicorn

The power of film as a medium for story telling is one of my greatest interests. I've always been drawn to stories, but never so much as when I became a Christ follower. It's then I discovered the greatest story of all time and the main character of the story was an avid story teller Himself.

Matthew 13:34 declares that Jesus never addressed a crowd without using a parable (a story) to illustrate what He was teaching. I have attempted to practice the same through my years of ministry. One of my great passions is turning those stories into mini-movies. I love using them to illustrate God's truth. I find they're so effective. The following short film demonstrates my point.

Legendary film director Sir Ridley Scott launched a global film contest for aspiring directors titled "Tell It Your Way." The film could be only three minutes, contain only six lines of narrative and be a compelling story. There were six hundred entries. The winner was "The Porcelain Unicorn" by American director Keegan Wilcox. The story is of the lifetimes of two people who are totally oppisite yet very much the same - All told in less than three minutes.  I think you'll see why it won! Enjoy.