Know Thyself

It's pretty funny, 3 weeks removed from the Hillsong Live Tour I still am reflecting upon it. Probably because it really challenged a lot of things about myself than I fully realized.

One thing that I struggled with throughout was the pursuit of pleasing other people. It is a tricky thing to pursue. I found myself from the first night taking a boatload of criticism and basically playing catch up from there. Quickly my mindset became about how do I satisfy the people in charge and do a good enough job to not get yelled at.

It certainly didn't help that my direct oversight was incredibly demeaning and almost always discouraging. There's a certain culture that I've associated Hillsong with. They promote encouragement, they build you up, they treat you in a way that shows love and care. But this person was opposite of that.

But you know what? I really believe this was good for me to go through. In ministry and in dealing with other people they are not always going to be pleasant and are not always going to agree with you. And when I meet resistance I need to be completely confident in myself (and my beliefs) and in the position that God has placed me in. Otherwise if I just concentrate on pleasing others than I'll be easily swayed by everyone around me (whether their intentions are good or not). What happens when a person who is at a crisis of faith moment needs someone to ask the hard questions? If I'm so easily swayed then when the questions get hard I'll probably back off. Our friends need us to be strong in our beliefs. You know what they say,

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything

Last night in San Diego

Here's the last video on the last night. Andrew Starke makes an appearance. Great ride. I'll post up more thoughts later as well as more pictures and even video. Please visit my website chongahn.net and find out more about what I'll be doing after the tour. 2012 here we come!



It's funny if you look at the thumbnail pic of the video it's the exact moment where I'm thinking about being home. hahaha

The End is here. Posting videos of the last days

Just going to post up a video link of Nokia Theatre with Matthew Hodges. It was good to see him again and give a little shout out to AACF. This venue was POWERFUL. My control room station was just next to the stage so I could hear the crowd. Powerful.



Check out the lighting on the stage. Pretty nice filling up the whole theatre.



It's a nice location Nokia Theatre is in. I heard it used to be not a good area but now it's a beautiful place.



The Staples Center is right next to Nokia Theatre.

Hillsong Live in sunny... err RAINY Tucson Arizona

Where is the Sun? Eh whatever. Great night tonight. Next Stop LA

Just came to post this video:

Going West

It's December! Crazy how time flies huh? Just a few more days left and I head home. Right now I'm in Tucson, Arizona. I was looking forward to some warm weather but it seems as though a colder and rainier front follows us as we travel west. Florida weather was nice (70s) but ever since then it's been pretty chilly. Even in El Paso which I hear pretty much never rains it was down-pouring.

One of the highlights continues to be interacting with the various voluteers and people who serve at church. To hear about their experiences and about how their church has progressed is pretty cool. It's also interesting to see the different setups for video at each church. Who knows, maybe we can see this type of growth in our church back in Seattle? I'll certainly know more of what the ideal setup is.

Anyways here's some pictures:

When you wake up in the morning and you're tired and you're at a completely new and unfamiliar location you need some guidance on where to go and where things are in the building. That's why we have these.





A crucial one to know: CATERING



And here's a picture of my director's station.

Another video from Houston

As each worship night happens I think in terms of video things are getting better and better. It's been difficult in a lot of different ways for me but a lot of the reasons why it's been difficult doesn't necessarily equate to explaining why I've been struggling with performing well. It's not like I've all of the sudden forgotten how to direct. Every night I come away feeling like I couldn't have done any better with what I have. But it clearly seems like each night I've been improving. It's not like the crew or setup has been getting better and better. So it's definitely me who's improving.

I suppose there is a learning factor. I have to admit a 21 song set list has a lot of ins and outs to remember. Even just understanding how to communicate to completely new crew each night is a first for me. There's a lot of little things that just pile up on top of each other that I have to worry about.

Sometimes I've thought maybe the powers that be might be regretting taking me on for this tour. Could someone else have done a better job than I have? Perhaps. But that doesn't take away from the fact that this has been an incredible opportunity. It's not just an opportunity to do video directing too. I've had great opportunity to have good conversations with a wide variety of people. I've seen God minister to a great amount of people. And even despite getting a lot criticism thrown my way, I'm learning how to take the good away from it. There may be a few tough people to deal with here but there are also many top class people.

Ok now that you had to read through all that, here's a video. Enjoy!

Southern Hospitality

So far my experience with people from the South has been really positive. People are really friendly and are willing to help. Was at Jentezen Franklin's church and they have a great tv crew and setup. Again the people are incredibly nice and sooo helpful and willing to go the extra mile to meet your needs.

Check out this video at The Berry Center in Houston.



Check out who I saw. Hillsong TV crew reunion


Chris Gregory and Nate Rosson. Lauren wall was also there but she left before I could take the picture.

Like a BUS

Hey check out pictures of the inside of our Tour Bus. Pretty nice. There are 2 lounge areas where there are TVs and we get a good amount of channels off of our Direct TV (I think) hook up.



My bed is the near top right bunk.

Give me a break!

Another video from Orlando Florida. Check it out!



Check out our buses! Pretty nice buses I must say. Serves us really well. The first picture is of buses 1 and 2. We travel on 3 buses total. Most of the time we spend the day unpacking our 2 trucks and then build the stage/lighting/video systems and by that time it's vocal/sound checks. Then a last dinner and we do the worship night. When that's done we tear everything down and then shower up and off to the next city on those buses. That's where we sleep until we get to the next venue and start the whole process again. Full days no doubt.




We have an extendable piece where it increases the size of one of our lounge areas so during when the bus is stopped the driver can make the place more spacious.

I'll put more pictures later to show you the inside of the buses.

Live from Little Rock

Last stop before a 3 day break in Orlando. Yay!

From Chicago to… wait what city am I in?

Well I had to think for a moment what city I was in just now. Louisville, Kentucky! I must say the people at Southeast Christian Church have been incredibly nice. The video/production team they have are super nice and extremely helpful. Really good setup as far as TV/Video is concerned. 5 cameras with a very good setup in the control room. There is still sooo much that I am not knowledgeable on.

One thing that is tough is the amount of stress I have been on. It is a huge amount of work to be doing and a lot of different hats I have to be wearing. Normally as a director I’d just be in charge of talking to camera people and cutting what goes to screens. But now I have to do things like calling queues, rolling video playbacks, going to a bunch of different meetings with the band or other various “bosses” I have. It’s like in Office Space where I have like 10 different bosses. So when I make a mistake I hear about it 10 different times. Let’s just say that it’s been a challenge. But I have to keep reminding myself that I can’t be defeated. That God is above anything that might come against me. Even if that very thing is myself and my own self-confidence.

Well back to the bus and to the next destination. Little Rock, Arkansas.

Opening Night

On the bus after the official first night on tour. Let's just say in terms of the video side of things is was a rough start. I think from this point it will get better but there were some struggles. We started off real well getting all the queues and video playbacks but there was some communications problems. The venue were pretty adamant about having their own director run the camera ops and switcher so I was just giving the queues on who he should be on and what shots he needs to cut in.

Haha it was actually amusing because the mistake I made was being able to communicate to the director (and thus him to his camera ops) who was who. For some reason all my descriptions of who Reuben Morgan was (he ended up being leather jacket man) or who Ben Fielding was (red guitar lead) or other people in the band didn't work at all. Apparently "guy who's singing" isn't a good enough description. Good lesson learned though. Never assume.

It's pretty cool we have a few remote controlled robo cameras at our disposal. Certainly interesting. Not as flexible but the more camera shots the better. Plus they're not as intrusive as a whole camera-man moving around.

More updates (with pictures and video) later! God is Able!!

Video Update

If I had time I'd post more.

Hillsong Live US Tour Day 1

So I arrived in Minneapolis and just had a relaxing night. No work just hungout mostly. Arrived at the Westin after a $35 cab ride. Room is nice. Met all the crew before heading out to The Cheesecake Factory. Had a full meal and then went to Target. Now just chillin in my room watching some mythbusters and emailing on complimentary internet.

The crew seems to be a good bunch of people. Interesting to hear the Australian accent again. It was funny because at The Cheesecake Factory our waitress couldn't understand Rob's accent a bunch of times. One time even I had to repeat what he said to clarify what he wanted. It was also pretty loud so that didn't help.

Tomorrow will be the actual work. Not completely sure what I'll be doing but I'm going to go early just to see how things are being set up. Will definitely bring my laptop and camera.

Dreams

I think this blog will have some reoccurring themes. First will probably be ministry related things. What is going on with AACF and in the near future updates from the Hillsong Live US Tour. Second will probably be sports related. Third perhaps something about movies. Fourth maybe something in the current news. And Fifth I’m not sure if this will be consistent but something about dreams? Let’s just say I dream a lot. A LOT. Sometimes I even write them down. Something about dreams fascinates me. God has spoken through dreams. He sometimes gives His people great visions. Joseph was a dreamer. He revealed to him his future. Joseph also interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream and saved the land from an impending famine. Solomon asked for wisdom from God in a dream. There just seems to me a lot that dreams can do for us.

Anyways there might be some posts about dreams that I have. Most dreams I have are just too weird to post but I’ll try and post the interesting ones.

St. Louis Cardinals

This week the St. Louis Cardinals won their 11th major league baseball championship. And they did it in a miracle season for the ages. Being back 10.5 games to Atlanta for the wild card on August 25th, it reminds me of the 1995 mariners when they were 11.5 back on August 24th and they came back to make the playoffs and beat the Yankees in the first round. The difference? These Cardinals WON the whole shebang.

This is another reason why I love sports. It’s the whole never give up (refuse to lose) philosophy. Yogi Berra used to say “it ain’t over till it’s over.” And how true is it for this team? In game 6 it was the bottom of the 9th and David Freese was down to his last strike. ONE more strike and Texas wins the World Series. But Freese, who grew up in St. Louis and was a Cardinals fan as a kid, ropes a 2-rbi triple that ties the game, and later in the bottom of the 11th he wins the game on a walk off homerun. David Freese never gave up. The Cardinals never gave up. They never gave up on themselves and they never gave up on each other. You couldn’t write a better story than this. This is why I love sports.

I'm going on Hillsong Live's US Tour

Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

This whole Occupy Wall Street I find really fascinating. There has been a lot of criticism of "the message" being muddled or unclear, and it has taken a while for this movement to even get any press coverage (i.e. The Ron Paul syndrome). But I think something like this was inevitable. People are angry and frustrated. The political system has failed and this protest is their way of wanting things to change. But will it work? Can it work?

I'm afraid this will become a political debate. Although that's probably already happened. Is there a way for politics to not be corrupt by money?

Movie Recommendation

Soul Surfer (2011)

I think I'll try and give the occasional movie recommendation on films that aren't super mainstream. Though there's a faith aspect to this movie that may not be normal. But yea this movie I thought was pretty inspirational.

Based on a true story which though it took some dramatic liberties stayed pretty close to a lot of the facts. Bethany Hamilton who though lost an arm in a shark attack still pursues her dream of being a professional surfer. I can't imagine what I would do in a situation like that when you could just give up on your dreams and just try and survive. This is the type of powerful faith that I look to emulate.

Why I love Football

Now the only relevant clip is the first 42 seconds when Lou Holtz is giving his pregame chat to his players. As much as I loved Joe Montana (Notre Dame Alum) and the movie Rudy I am in no way a fan of Notre Dame. In fact I probably root against them most of the time. But Lou Holtz talks about one of the reasons I love sports, specifically for a physical sport like football. There’s a lot of team aspect to the game and strategy where you try to mis-direct and out-think your opponent but a lot of times you come to the situation where it is one-on-one, i.e. mono-e-mono. Your assignment is to block, hit or get past the guy in front of you.

This reminds me of high school football where we would do tackling drills where it would be basically you against the ball carrier. No cutbacks or other blockers to worry about, it’s just you going straight at the other person. In the Lou Holtz speech clip he says you should “go out there and say hey baby here I am now, let me see you run through me now. Let me see you show some disrespect for me when my nose is on your nose. Let me see what you think of me now that my face is to you.” He’s describing the idea of not backing down.

When you’re tackling someone there are many things that can go wrong. You can miss (I know the feeling), you can get run over (I also know how this feels), you can even get injured (and yes unfortunately I know what this feels as well). But you shouldn’t demean yourself by not giving 100%. Otherwise you’ll live a life of regret. You won’t get a chance to really shine. It’s the same with our faith in God. If we don’t give our whole selves then we won’t get a chance for God to shine.

So when I watch Football I don't see individuals mindlessly hitting each other. I see how a person can face their fears, look them straight into their eyes and say "here I am now, let me see you run through me now. Let me see you show some disrespect for me when my nose is on your nose. Let me see what you think of me now that my face is to you.”

Support Update

Quick Update on my support raising. The target is a support base of $1743.37 per month. June was at 4.2%, August at 21%, and in September I'm in the neighborhood of 42%. Thanks for all the prayer and donations!

Remember you can check out chongahn.net for info on how to contribute.

Our Deepest Fear

This is an interesting quote from Marianne Williamson (also used by Nelson Mandela):

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

This is a pretty interesting concept. This quote was used in a couple of movies. Coach Carter used it as well as Akeelah and the Bee. They used it to inspire the athlete/speller into being great. But in those movies there was a crucial point that was left out. They were tackling their insecurities and starting to believe in themselves and taking on the question of "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" But what was their answer to that question? What is the world's answer to that question? Hmmm

I know what Marianne Williamson's answer was. I know what Jesus' answer is. That we are children of God! That we are born with a purpose to shine God's light. We are given permission to be great because we are created in His Image. If you are a Christian that means we should be empowered. Not because we are so awesome but because God is! Check out Ephesians 2:6,7

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus

So BE GREAT!

First Video Blog!

Check out my first of many Video Blog Updates!



Feel free to leave comments!

A New Season Begins

Hey guys!

I'm relaunching my blog/website and even adding a facebook page so that you guys can keep up with what I'm going to be doing, ministry-wise.

As some of you know I'm currently support raising to do college ministry at the University of Washington. I'm really excited to see what God is going to do in this new season of my life. I know He's already been faithful to this ministry and I know that it is ready to take it to the next level!

In order to technically be allowed to start ministry I'll have to raise 80% of my support. I'm going to need your help! Check out my webpage for more information:

With an all new design!