The Wow of missions in the Philippines
Saturday, 25 July 2009
I started to get apprehensive when I was asked to produce a documentary video of the mission work in Philippines because I really hate flying.
I was lukewarm and wasn’t all that excited about going to the Philippines because I thought I have seen it all. I have seen and produced documentary videos of the mission works in other countries including Indonesia, China, Kenya and the Tanzania.
What could be so exciting about a country that is so deep into religious traditions and idolatry?
However my apprehension turned into excitement when I heard that the mission team led by Pastor Mike was planning and praying to share the gospel to 40,000 souls.
40,000 souls! Wow! I was excited by the number but I still could not imagine how this is going to be possible. I have seen mass gatherings of hundreds of villagers in China where the gospel was preached. Humanly speaking, I cannot imagine similar mass gatherings of Filipinos like what I witnessed in China.
I was told that I had to spend 2 weeks in some islands in the Philippines. I told Pastor Vic, “It is quite impossible because I simply could not take so much time off during this period of the year.”
We came to some compromise and arrangement was made for me to spend only 1 week in the field. However the team of 30 from GLCC (Gospel Light Christian Church) had gone one week before me and I was told that I had to travel alone.
“How am I going to carry those heavy tripods, cameras and a heavy laptop and travel to some islands in some remote part of the Philippines all by myself?”
Later I was given the assurance that Derrick would be joining me. Derrick used to work for Mediacorp and has lots of experience in videography.
Thank God that we had Lily who helped to make all the arrangement to book the air tickets for us. She tried very hard to make our travel plan as smooth as possible. However we still ended up having to depart at an unearthly time of 12.05am on 16/07/2009. That would means no sleep for 16/07/2009 and we would be zombies when we arrive in the Philippines.
The few days before our departure date were a mad rush for me. I had to run to Sim Lim Square to get a new HD video camera and Digital camera. I did not feel safe travelling to the Philippines to undertake a video shoot with just one HD video camera. I knew too well that electronic equipments can fail me at the most in appropriate time. I certainly do not want to travel all the way there and get caught in a situation like what I encountered in Sichuan last year when my Canon EOS 400D failed me when I went there to shoot a video of the earthquake scene.
I thought of purchasing another Pro HD Video camera that can record on HDV tapes like my Sony A1 but I changed my mind and bought the Sony HDR XR 520E instead. This new Sony camera comes with a 240 Gig hard disk and it can record full HDV up to 1920x 1080. It can also shoot still photos concurrently up to 12 mega pixel in resolution while the video is being recorded. The HDV video on the crystal clear LCD is super sharp and the colour is very rich. I don’t have to carry so many HDV tapes with me when I travel. More importantly I can save time in downloading the video for editing later.
I was quite happy with the purchase till I got home. I realized that none of my softwares could work on the AVCHD format.
Oh no! I have bought the wrong camera. I went online to hunt for the video Codec and suitable softwares that could edit AVCHD format but I could not find any. I thought of disposing off this camera on Ebay to get the Pro HDV camera that can record on HDV tapes.
I did a more thorough research on Google and I finally found the solution to my problem. I downloaded a trial version of a software that could convert the AVCHD videos to mpg and wmv format. But the converted videos became jerky and distorted. I was devastated, “Now, I really had to Ebay the camera away and get a proper Pro HDV camera.”
I prayed and continued my research on Google. I read through several forums and users’ comments to look for solutions. Everyone seems to be facing the same nightmare that I was encountering. Everyone was asking for help.
Thank God I finally found the right tool. I downloaded a trial version of AVS4You video converter. This software is fantastic! It converted all my test AVCHD videos into wmv successfully without losing any resolution or causing any distortion.
I quickly went online and “paypaled” USD 59 to own the softwares. But I got more than what I bargained for. I would have paid USD 590 for this great software. But the USD 59 I paid allowed me to download a bundle of other very good multimedia and PC system tools with free upgrades for life.
With AVS4You, I am now assured that the new Sony HDR XR 520E is ready to be my work horse for this mission trip. (Sounds like a good advertisement for AVS4You and a life saver for Sony!)
After charging all my batteries over a span of 2 days, I am all ready for this exciting mission trip.
I was excited but I was still apprehensive of flying.
Read more . . .
Travel Journal
