Ecuador 2007 - Production Trip Report!

As many of you all may know, I just went on my first overseas trip, May 14-18th. The company I am working for, Franklin Films, was hired to produce a promotional video for Compassion International in Ecuador. I was asked to be one of the two camera operators for the trip. I had a blast! Keep reading!

God's Faithfulness

The Lord was so good to allow me this opportunity and to show Himself strong on my behalf. Flying really isn't something I look forward to. In fact, I have be able to avoid it for 14 years! I trust the plane; I trust the pilots; I don't mind the heights; I just have a very, very, sensitive stomach and inner ear problems, so take-offs really bother me! I praise the Lord for getting me through all six take-offs and also helping me deal well with the high altitude during our stay in Ecuador.

Overlooking Quito, Ecuador ~ Elevation is 10,000 Ft.
Population around 2 Million

Houses in Quito - They just build on top of each other!
Click to see a better view.

The Land

Quito, the capitol of Ecuador, is at an elevation of 9,500 feet and is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. Quito's population is around two million. Tuesday morning, we visited a Compassion project in the urban area of Quito. I was shocked to see 100+ children lined up singing and waving flags and decorations they had made just for us. They have so little, yet they give so much. We then traveled to Otavalo where we stayed the next couple of nights.

The Volcano in Otavalo!
We got to stay at a resort on the lake right next to it!

It is amazing to see the contrast between the Puertolago
resort and the surrounding community.


Director of photography: Mark Schlicher. HE ROCKS!
Here we were taking some still photo shots while the HD camera
was getting some time lapse of the clouds over the volcano!

Standing over the Equator!
Thankfully my blood in my head didn't start to go
the other direction when I crossed the line! :)

One of the cabins at Puertolago, the resort we stayed at for two nights.

Compassion International

From working with Compassion over the entire week, I must say I was extremely impressed with how Christ-centered they operate these trips, as well as how they operate the various projects helping people to sponsor needy children. The Lord is using them in a mighty way to reach these people with the Gospel and also to provide them with the opportunity to learn and to grow physically and spiritually. They have made a huge impact on the country as evidenced by the numbers of children who have grown up and are now serving in the same towns that they were raised in.

Some of the Compassion staff talking to a merchant on the street

The bus we rode in for many hours during our four-day trip



View from the window of the bus

Oh, did I mention that the roads there were very, very narrow? :)
It is amazing that we didn't fall down a mountain!

The People

The Christians in Ecuador are very gracious and loving. The love of Christ shines though their lives in the mist of their suffering and poverty. It was amazing to me to hear testimony after testimony of how God provides for them and how they view life. I heard one little girl say, "We have God and so we have everything."

Children looking on as we prepare to leave a Compassion project

A man looking down the street as we passed by in the bus

A lady tilling her land by hand

The Ecuadorian Indians are very hard workers.

After shooting video all day...
it is really relaxing to shoot some still photos!

Ken Carpenter, Director for the production shoot,
interacts with one of the little ones

The Impact

When I think back to my trip, it is difficult to put into words how I was changed by what I saw and experienced. I think if I were to boil it all down to one common thread, it would have to be: God's Faithfulness! This was evidenced as I saw the Lord Jesus the same in Ecuador as He is here in the USA.

He provides food, clothing and shelter to the poverty-stricken people of Ecuador. He is the source of comfort and peace to the believers in Ecuador.He shows Himself strong, as each child that Compassion is able to reach, grows up and begins to give back to his or her community.

The Lord IS there for these people. The Christians know that they indeed have everything because they have the Creator of the world living inside them.

By the way...
I had a blast taking photos when I had chance!

Me at our last Compassion project~
Thanks to Mark Schlicher for taking this photo

I took most of these photos through the bus window as we traveled.

It's only by God's grace that they turned out.
(Canon 30D 18-55mm)

Thank You!

This trip was bathed in prayer. I know many of you prayed fervently for me and for our crew. I sensed it. God gave me strength for the trip. He protected our team as we traveled. Thank you for praying!! Your prayers were answered and I hope this post was an encouragement to you in your daily lives as you think about God's goodness and His unrelenting faithfulness in each of your lives.

In Christ,

Nathan B.

The children loved the cameras!

Spring 2007 Greetings!

As we enjoy this beautiful spring and reflect over the happenings of 2006 and 2007, we again see the faithfulness of the Lord in our lives. Every morning the sun rose and in the evening it set. Our hearts keep pumping, never missing a beat. We have eyesight, hearing, mobility. The list goes on and on of things that happen only because of God! It is of His mercies that we aren’t consumed. Great is His faithfulness!

Throughout this past year, our family has been spiritually encouraged as we continued to work with the ministry, Prison to Purpose. We had the opportunity to spend several days in the McPherson Women’s Prison in Newport, Arkansas, on three different occasions during this year. We also helped with weekend conferences held quarterly in various Arkansas locations. It has been an invaluable education to us to sit under the biblical teaching of Chaplain Dewitt and former inmate, Stacey Smith, while they teach women in prison and also those who are paroled. Not only have we learned how to help those with addictions and behavioral problems by applying the truths from the Word of God, but we ourselves have been challenged tremendously in our own walk with the Lord.

Nathan and Chiree’s videography clients have kept them busy, along with their traveling jobs for the business. They invited us to go along on many of their productions this past year, so we had several short family vacations and made some great memories. It was different having our children pay for our food and lodging, but we didn’t complain at all! Besides doing the Arkansas productions for all of the Prison to Purpose conferences, they had nine weddings to video during 2006. Two of them were in Texas and one in Ohio; the rest were throughout the state of Missouri. (August 6, 2006, Weddings)

We joined them for all of the weddings, along with their production of the a 90^th birthday celebration of our Bible college president, Dr. A. Ray Stanford in Athens, Georgia, in September. What a memorable time Jimmy and I had fellowshipping with friends from 35 years ago and being encouraged seeing so many who have continued to faithfully share a clear gospel message wherever God has led them!

Nathan did several other out-of-state productions in the fall and had the opportunity to travel with Franklin Springs Family Media for the shooting of a DVD documentary of Stonewall Jackson that will be released in the summer. For this production the team traveled to Virgina Military Institute when the trees were at their peak of beauty. We joined him for the 3-day production of the Eden String Quartet/Miller Family in Oakland, Illinois. We so enjoyed meeting this dear family and seeing their dedication to raising a family for God's glory.

(Visit www.franklinsprings.com to view the trailers for both the Eden String Quartet and the Stonewall Jackson documentary.)

Jimmy enjoyed watching the deer in our pasture throughout October and November as he eagerly awaited rifle hunting season. Early one morning after the season opened, just around the hollow of our hill, he shot his deer. This year he processed it himself and we were grateful to have the meat for our freezer for some great eating this past winter.

Holidays were spent with Grandma Mitchell, Granny and Papa Bollinger and several of the aunts, uncles and cousins. We treasure the times we have with our very dear extended family and are so thankful for the blessings that they are to our lives.

January of this new year brought a big surprise. When an ice storm arrived on the 12th, many Missourians found themselves faced with no power anywhere from 4-14 days during this bitter cold spell. We were without power for 11 days, which not only meant no heat but also no water, since our well is run by electricity. Carrying water from the city for drinking and allowing us to flush the toilets once each day gave us a new appreciation for running water!!! We were glad for our wood burning stove we had in the unfinished part of our basement, which became our “family room” for those eleven days. As you can imagine, Jimmy has kept busy with extra electrical work from the storm. Neosho looked like (and in many places still looks like) a war zone. We are grateful for the National Guard and the many volunteers from various organizations and churches in our nation that helped with the clean-up. May the Lord bless them for their servant's spirit.

At the end of January I was joined by my sister and her husband to take Mother to San Antonio. It was an emotional time for us as daughters to go back with Mother to the places we lived while growing up and the many special memories we had as a family, only this time Daddy wasn’t with us. Mother was blessed seeing friends she loved, many of them now widows, too. We stayed in the facility for military dependents and retirees, which happened to be the place where families now stay when soldiers are being treated from injuries due to the war. It was across the street from the huge Brooks Army Medical Center and the new Center for the Intrepid, a rehabilitation center for amputees. It was a very touching time for us to be with these families and also with some of the injured soldiers that we met. I came away with a new awareness of how better to pray for those who are serving our nation overseas and for their families back home.

While we were in San Antonio, Nathan and Chiree worked in Oklahoma City for Novo Ministries doing a promotional video for After-School Bible Clubs. What an effective ministry going into the inner city and the government housing to reach boys and girls with the gospel of Christ. The mission field truly is right in our own back yards!

At the end of February we experienced something new to our family. Nathan moved to Franklin, Tennessee, in order to work full-time at Franklin Springs Family Media for a year. We are excited for his opportunity to work in a business that has a vision for producing quality family media. The thing we knew we would miss the most with him being gone was dinner time each night since eating together has been a special time for us for the past 26 years. It has worked out well, though, as Nathan calls us during the dinner hour and we set the speaker phone on the table and talk just like we used to, sharing the happenings of the day. It is fun, too, comparing menus, and frankly, some nights we like what he is eating more than what we are! As for his business here with Bollinger Productions, Chiree is continuing to run it with their established clients and ministries. Nathan has taught and trained her well, so now she has her own new adventure.

Many have asked when Jimmy and I are having some more Labradoodles to sell. Well, last fall we decided to retire Polly and us from the puppy business. We had her neutered, but Polly’s motherly instincts are still there as she continues to nurse our kittens, even when they are old enough and big enough to be called cats! It is quite a sight! Maybe we will raise puppies again someday, but in the meantime, we will just enjoy Polly and her kittens. (For those of you interested in seeing some darling puppies, visit our sister-in-law’s website: www.pomacres.com Kathy and her husband, Kenny, raise Pomeranians and also a new breed that has no shedding, Havanese puppies. ).

Thanks for letting us share with you our year in review. It is always fun to reminisce, though, we realize how very quickly time does fly and how we want to treasure every moment. May we all be found faithful as we use that which has been given to us for God’s glory!

Yummy Hot Fudge Ice Cream Bar Dessert

• 1 (8-ounce) hot fudge syrup
• 10 ice cream sandwiches
• 1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 crushed candy bars (Butter Finger or Heath Bar)

Directions:

1. Pour the hot fudge syrup into a medium microwave safe bowl and microwave 1 to 2 minutes on high. Do not allow to boil.
2. Line the bottom of a 9x13 inch dish with a layer of ice cream sandwiches. Spread whipped topping over the sandwiches. Drizzle hot fudge mixture over that. Top with crushed candy bars.
3. Cover and freeze for up to 2 months. Remove from the freezer 10 minutes before serving. Cut into squares.

Note: Ingredients can be doubled and this dessert can be layered by repeating the directions but only using the candy bars on the final layer.

A Snow Story

Here we are, the weekend of Christmas 2006. Our family has been reflecting over the past year as we walked through a difficult trial with our dear friends, the Snow Family – Curtis-38, Melissa-37, Elizabeth-14, Marilyn-11, Abigail-10, Emily-9, Anna-7, Molly-3 and Isaac-1.

The Snows moved to our little town of Neosho (Missouri) a little over 3 years ago. We met them through the home schooling group we are all a part of, the Advanced Training Institute. Chiree began teaching violin to three of the Snow girls in 2003. Each week Chiree would come home and share with me all the things she learned from Melissa about childrearing. She would stay a long time after teaching just to talk with Melissa. Because our family is small with only Nathan and Chiree, it was a blessing for her to be a part of a large family and watch how they trained and educated. After Chiree helped care for her great-grandma for 19 months and was with her when she died, she shared with Melissa that since she had witnessed a death, she would love to witness a birth. Melissa told her that she could come to the next birth she had, which happened a little over a year later.

Chiree and I were called in the middle of the night of November 18^th, 2005, and both of us watched the miracle of Isaac David’s birth in the guest bedroom of the Snow home. There were six Snow Angels, and now there was a Snow Man! It was such a special happening and we were honored to be there for it. Little did we know that just two weeks later Curtis would again call us in the middle of the night asking us to come to the emergency room. Melissa had experienced a bad headache the evening before and had become incoherent, so Curtis insisted they get to the hospital. Within two hours the test revealed that Melissa had either experienced a stroke or had a brain tumor. It was determined later that day that is was a brain tumor and the biopsy revealed that it was inoperable. December 2005 was very difficult as Melissa continually had seizures and by the time she came home for Christmas, she was a very different looking mommy to her children with no hair and she had begun to swell, which has continued throughout the year.

We helped to care for the family, along with Melissa’s parents and sister that came from Ohio to stay through March. January- June was filled with doctors' appointments for chemo and radiation. Many people helped in many ways, including 4 nursing moms that pumped their milk for 3 months in order for us to give Isaac a good start in life with nourishing food and several churches brought meals for the whole year. Chiree and Leanna Wilkins home schooled the girls that semester. I headed up a team of 11 godly, efficient young ladies from the ages of 16-24 that volunteered to be nannies taking one-week shifts. It was a full time job caring for 6 little girls and a newborn, 24/7, and each one of the nannies grew to love the Snow children. There is a bond with all of them and many special memories during that time.

Melissa’s parents and sister returned for the summer months to help with the family. Chiree and I continued to help them and spend time with the children. By September, the Snow family truly needed to be a family without any people being around. We all understood how they longed for it to be like it used to be. I know it was hard, but it was worth it to them to have their family alone after having others live with them for nine months straight. Melissa wanted to begin doing the home schooling herself and really tried to when she would have an hour or two without pain. We continued to come over and visit or bring the children to our home for special activities, but we did not assert ourselves as we had done before when we were the ones in charge. We knew how important it was for Melissa to feel like she was the mother of her children and the keeper of her home.

In November the Snows came to our home to celebrate Isaac’s first birthday. His first year had gone quickly, but at the same time, it seemed like ten years wrapped up in one. The girls had so much fun shopping for him and getting to buy BOY toys! There were no pink gifts or dolls for him to open, which was what they were accustomed to for each of their birthdays. Isaac was the center of all our attention and it was a wonderful evening of celebration, even though Melissa was totally exhausted.

Now it is Christmas weekend. Curtis was in the hospital Thursday night and Friday morning with symptoms of a heart attack. After thorough testing, it was diagnosed as extreme stress. (Just 3 years ago, he spent 11 days in ICU with 50 blood clots that passed through his lungs. It was a miracle that he lived through that. His own health has been a concern to us.) Curtis is the Director for Teen Challenge for our area, so he is a much respected missionary throughout the state. Melissa and the children always traveled with him in the past sharing the ministry with churches each weekend.

Curtis’ mother arrived on Thursday afternoon and Melissa’s parents will be here soon. Both families are already grieving over losses this past year. In February Curtis’ father died. A month later his grandmother died. In March Melissa’s sister-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and died in April. This fall Curtis’ grandfather died. So, you can see that many other stresses have been a part of their year. Through it all, Curtis and Melissa have been such a precious example of full trust in the Lord. What a testimony they have been to all of us!!

If you would like to read Melissa’s journal, it can be found at www.caringbridge.org. After you click on the “visit” at the top right, you write in melissasnow on the second page under site name.

Please pray for this dear family and for Melissa to be out of pain. She is very peaceful and has a beautiful smile on her face, even through her pain. How blessed we are to know the Lord will be their constant source of strength in the upcoming days as He has faithfully been this whole year!

Christmas Thoughts

His Birth and Our New Birth

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ’God with us’ —Matthew 1:23

His Birth in History. ". . . that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God ( Luke 1:35 ). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.

His Birth in Me. "My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you . . ." (Galatians 4:19 ). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a "Bethlehem" for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. "You must be born again" ( John 3:7 ). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that "Christ is formed" in me. And once "Christ is formed" in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.

God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.

- My Utmost for His Highest December 25 -

Weddings...

The past few months have been filled with shooting wedding videos for some awesome couples! It has been a blessing to be a part of each of these couples' lives on their special day and to see them make this important covenant before the Lord. Now we are beginning the process of editing these weddings.

Photography compliments of Heather Johnson
Amanda Brymer & Ann Bollinger

DSL Upgrade!

Well friends, I just wanted to update you all as to what type of DSL package we are using and the speeds that we are getting here in Neosho, MO! We had SBC change our package from the "Pro" to the "Elite"!!! It was about a $7 more per month charge but wow it sure made a big difference.


The download speeds went from 2.7mbits to 5.4mbits and upload speeds went up from 384kbps to 768kbps!!! We are able to download 500MB in around 11mins. Anywho that is the Bollinger Clan tech update for today!

Other than the slow DSL we are all doing fine and keeping busy and enjoying this beautiful summer that the Lord has provided for us.

Bollingers