Dear family and friends,
My bags are packed, sitting by the door for an early morning departure tomorrow. I’m driving to the coastal town of Malindi with a bunch of our crew for the film project. The trip will take all day even though the roads are in relatively good shape. It’s mornings like this, however, when I miss the airplane—breaking out on top of a dreary overcast and into the blazing morning sun—cruising straight and high and fast to my destination. Alas, the car trip will be anything but straight and fast, but the good company and promise of adventure ought to make it enjoyable.
I’ll be gone for two and a half furious (and hopefully fruitful) weeks filming all the scenes in the movie that call for the coastal location. Amelia is back in boarding school again for the second half of her term. So it’s just Renee and Zach for a while.
Renee’s been reorganizing a library at the mission’s counseling center for many months now. She spends a couple days a week applying her formidable organizational skills to the mountain of books over there. I have to admit that her being a “librarian” makes her even more adorable than she already is. That, and the new braces on her teeth.
Amelia has been doing well. She was recently home for a long weekend between terms. She’s growing up, and we’re very proud of her for rising to the challenge of being away from home and jumping into a busy and unfamiliar academic world. She’s getting good grades, growing, stretching—acting and looking more like a young woman (although she’ll deny it).
Zach’s homeschooling is going smoothly, but somehow the reading, writing, and math seems like such a small part of his learning in a given day. He has a curious mind and a creative bent, and so when school’s out he’s busy making movies of his own, dabbling in 3D animation and stop-motion photography, and asking questions on how to tell a better story. We were talking about this a couple days back while sitting idle in an obligatory Nairobi traffic jam. I asked if he thought he would want to go to film school someday—if that was something he had an interest in. And he said, “Of course! I’m like you dad.” I guess I never thought of that. There was a time when I imagined one of our children following in my footsteps and becoming an aviator… but maybe we will get a storyteller instead.
The media ministry is really busy right now. Probably too busy, but it’s only for a season. We’re in the thick of filming the missions movie, which is requiring early mornings and late nights, and more chaos than I prefer to work among. We should finish filming by December, and after that will be many months of post-production work. There’s some fun updates and “behind the scenes” clips on the film’s website. Even though video production has long been a staple of our media work, making a movie is much different from the 10-minute documentaries we are used to. It’s a whirlwind.
We have a lot to be thankful for as we continue down this path in missions God has placed us on. I’m grateful for the friends with whom I share the media ministry, and the exciting and strategic work that we get to do. Renee and I are both really blessed to see our kids growing and maturing in mind and body and soul. And we are thankful for our support team, and your prayers—especially your prayers.
When you think of us, please pray for these things:
- My many travels in the months ahead—for safety, and in planning.
- For Amelia at school. Pray for her encouragement, opportunities to make new friends, and the occasional homesickness.
- Pray for Zach and Renee as they are home without us. Pray for Renee since she’s in a lot of pain with the orthodontics on her teeth.
- Pray for our movie—that God guides us to make this film just what it needs to be for the African church.
Thanks so much.
With love from Africa,
The Delorenzo’s