StaddonFamily.com

Pic of the Month: June ’09

posted by James on 05/31/09

Thy Word is Light

In terms of photography, last month was very productive. Though I went on more ventures than usual considering the beauty and variety of subject matter at this time of year, I wasn’t confined to taking pictures outside only. This image was taken in my room late on Thursday night, approximately ten minutes before midnight, to be exact!

The purpose behind setting up and shooting this composition was to use in a new book being published by IBLP. A very similar stock image was going to be used, so I jumped at any chance of replacing it with a picture of my own. The deadline for submitting images for this publication was Friday morning; thus, the reason for staying up so late.

To set up the composition, I chose the biggest Bible I could find and a relatively thick candle with textured wax along the sides. By itself, the candle looked too tall, so I used another book to raise the Bible up. Then I stuck two hair spray bottles under each side of the open Bible to create that curved look of an old, open book. As for lighting, I was in a pickle because I didn’t have a tripod. Therefore I resorted to bouncing an external flash off the wall to the right for my main light and used two lamps on the left to act as fill light. The final exposure was: ISO 200 (to keep the quality high), shutter-speed 1/100 sec (to keep it sharp), and aperture f/11 (to keep the candle flame from becoming a blob of light). It took about six or seven tries to get it right, but the final result is well worth the effort.

“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! . . . Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments” (Psalm 119:103-106).

6 Comments » | posted in Photography

Change of Plans

posted by Donald on 05/28/09

This weekend is a weekend that the people of Taiwan have been looking forward to. It’s Dragon Boat Festival. And it is a “four-day weekend” including Sunday. Many plan to see their relatives; many plan to rest; but everyone plans to have dzong-ze. It consists of rice with mushrooms, peanuts and meat etc in the middle, wrapped and steamed in a bamboo leaf. There’s a good picture here.

The time off is what people look forward to most (even despite the fact that they will have to work next Saturday as a make-up day) and my plan was to join other Nan Jung teachers, hiking beautiful Bei Da Wu Mountain. Due to an accident however, and rain predicted in the weather, it didn’t work out. Instead we went to see the dragon boat races in Kaoshiung with a teacher who lives there. In my opinion it was even more enjoyable than the races we saw last year in Taipei. It wasn’t crowded and because of the holiday parking was free! Watching the races really served as an object lesson on teamwork.

Early on in the trip this year, it became apparent that flexibility was one thing that would be needed most. Looking back now we see how much it has helped throughout the past months (interviews, cultural differences, communication, weather changes, school schedules, internet availability, lesson-planning …) and I am very grateful that God has given us the grace, not simply to go with a flow, but to reprioritize, reorganize and give each thing our best effort before Him. It’s been a great year. Given the results of our very-interesting personality test, quickly-changing circumstances should have been something hard for us to handle. I must give the glory to God when I say that we have been able to remain joyful and diligent as a team throughout the year.

2 Comments » | posted in Family News

Plan F

posted by Daniel on 05/25/09

Plan A – Leave Sunday School Teacher’s Book in classroom at church after using it to teach lesson, so that Teacher can pick it up during the week.

Oh no! I forgot and brought it home with me.

Plan B – No problem! Just take the Teacher’s Book with us to evening church and leave it on the classroom table.

Oops! We got in a rush and I left my Bible at home, which unfortunately happened to have the book in it. The seriousness of the situation was quickly escalating. Especially when I found out we would not be at church the next Sunday.

Plan C – Let’s see. Michael might be attending a church meeting Tuesday night. He could just take it then.

Hmmm… Michael ended up not going to the meeting.

Plan D – Dad will be at the Parish Meeting Thursday night. Perhaps he could give it to Willis Ash, who lives near the church and attends just about every church-related event. (I finally got around to calling our teacher – who had been looking all around the church for her Teacher’s Book – and she said this plan would work fine.)

Uh-oh. Minutes after Dad left for work Thursday I realized he wasn’t coming home before going to the Parish Meeting – and we hadn’t given him the book! Surely it wasn’t my fault… There were a lot of other things I had to remember that morning… um, like taking out the trash, brushing my teeth, and other mind-engrossing tasks… By now I was becoming an expert in this field of explanation formulations (in other contexts known by a less flattering name – excuse-making :/ ).

Plan E – Relax. Esther and Mom had already planned on stopping at Grandma and Grandpa’s house during a trip into town, so they can take the book and leave it at their house for Dad to pick up on his way to the meeting.

Horrors! Willis called and said that due to some unexpected chain of events he would not be able to make it to the Parish Meeting. It seemed our last possible link to get the book to the church was slipping away…

Plan F – After telling Dad the situation over the phone, he says that it would be possible for him to stop at Willis’ house on his way home from the meeting and give him the book, so that Willis could take it to the church (he was the only one with a key) and leave it on the classroom table for our Teacher to come pick up the next day (and hopefully have time to prepare a lesson for Sunday – which was now only a couple days away!)

One “small” mistake, which at first seemed easy enough to correct, turned out involving nine different individuals, eight separate exchanges, and many inconveniences for everyone involved!

Learn from my bummer and spare yourself a headache or two: Do things right the first time!

5 Comments » | posted in The Bright Side

“Fishing” Stories

posted by Robert on 05/23/09

Recently, I have been really encouraged to hear many exciting reports from young people who participated in Living the Journey’s Challenge II and have been making an extra effort to learn how to be more effective “fishers of men” as they share the Good News of salvation with others. Here are some links to a few of these stories. You’ll notice that one is from Jonathan and the last one involves James. I hope they motivate you as much as they have motivated me!