Understanding the Land

A couple of years ago, some friends of mine (Trent & Rebekah Dutton) had the opportunity to spend six weeks traveling across the land of Israel on their own. This allowed them the chance to see the land from different perspectives that people on a normal tour do not get to see.

One of my favorite pictures in their collection is one taken from the hills west of the Hula Valley and north of the Sea of Galilee. The picture is directed toward the east and shows the Hula Valley spreading across the foreground and the Golan Heights rising in the distance. In the floor of the valley is the tel of Hazor. (In the picture, the tel is located in the bottom right hand corner just above where the road crosses the small ravine.) This picture is a perfect example of the importance of understanding the land and having pictures and videos to study by.

As I have mentioned before, I love maps. But even the best maps represent the city of Hazor as a simple dot. It is hard to appreciate the importance of the position of the city of Hazor unless you see the city from the perspective of this picture.

That is one of the many reasons why I am so excited about the Appian Media Kickstarter project. We are going to be making five 20-minute videos about the early life of Jesus. To do this, we are going to travel to Israel and capture video from the places where these events took place. By seeing video of these places, Bible students can better appreciate the writings in the Gospels and the narrative of Jesus. Our goal is to create these videos and give them away for free for Bible students all over the world. We have already reached our primary goal, so the videos will be made. But, we have a number of stretch goals that we would love to hit to provide additional resources for all of the users.

Will you help us?

Visit our Kickstarter page and please forward this link to anyone who you might feel would be interested. And please pray for our efforts and that God's Word will be spread.

Appian Media: Following the Messiah

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by a couple of Christians living in Indianapolis, Indiana. They are both video producers and had spent a great deal of time looking for Biblically-based videos to be used in their classrooms for teaching. While there are a number of videos available, none of them fit their need exactly, or were not as Biblically accurate as desired. Tired of looking, they made the decision to make a series of videos themselves. They contacted me to learn more about traveling to Israel. After a number of email and phone conversations, they asked me to join their team and assist them with the logistics of the trip and helping to arrange the locations to go. I could not be more thrilled.

The plan is to produce five 20-minute videos covering the early life of Jesus. We will visit Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and the Galilee. Our goal is to make this trip during the month of June. When we are completely finished, we will set up a website and allow everyone to download the videos for free.

The four of us on the team have agreed to use our vacation time from work to make this happen. Earlier today, we started a Kickstarter Campaign to raise the funds in order to do this. To this end, I would like to ask a couple of favors from everyone.

First, go and like our Facebook page. That is the easiest way to keep up with what we are doing.

Second, pray for the success of our efforts. Our goal is that we can produce these videos in such a way that they will be useful in spreading the Gospel and teaching others about Jesus. We need your prayers to help us do this.

Third, please spread the word about this campaign. The more people that know about it, the better chance we have at success. With Kickstarter, it is an "all or nothing" campaign. So, if we do not raise the full amount, the videos will not be made.

Finally, if you are inclined, we would appreciate your financial support. Go to the Kickstarter page, watch the video and look at the different levels of support. Regardless of the level you choose, you will be able to view and download the videos two weeks before they are formally released to the public. Higher tier donations will be able to request that members of the team come to your congregation to talk to your group about the videos and how they can be used in teaching.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me and I will be happy to answer them.