Rachel's Viewfinder

Well, nearly, anyway…

This past weekend, my husband an I drove up to Pittsburg, PA.  Along I-77 in West Virginia, there are two tunnels under the mountains.  As we drove through one of them, I could see the entrance in the rearview mirror, and the exit far ahead in the dim lights.  It grew closer by the second, but for a few moments the weak orange lights, the solid white strip separating the lanes of cars, and the “thump thump” of the concrete, made the tunnel stretch on to infinity.

Life has felt very much like an infinite tunnel these past couple months.  And it’s been a tunnel named “Summer SIMCO 2011.” 

“Tunnel Ahead” signs started in late June.  The Media Productions Team prepped for the up-coming SIMCO.  It would be the biggest class in three years: 65 people total!  And we had a new challenge: instead of three weeks of training, we would only have two.  Everything needed to change to accommodate.  Sessions were dropped, some were added.  A new video and photography shooting space had to be found.  Even the location of where we did training changed.

SIMCO began July 16.  On that following Monday, the Tunnel began.  That afternoon, the Media Productions Team spoke about the RDM tools that we make and help provide to our new missionaries.  Tuesday, I had a full afternoon of portraits to take.  The skills Clint Lapina taught me back in February helped immensely.  Thank you, Clint!  Wednesday, the madhouse of filming began.  All told, we filmed ten video projects.  I haven’t had that many SIMCO projects from one class in a very long time.  

While I had my video projects, other people were swamped too.  Erin was up to her eyeballs in design projects, Robo found himself busy helping people set up blogs and websites, and Claude was teaching storytelling.  We were a very busy team!

After the madhouse of a two-week SIMCO came post-production.  Of my ten filming sessions, I only had nine videos to produce.  Erin began to process her requests.  Claude went on a month-long trip to Nigeria.  And now, almost six weeks after, we’re all almost done.  It’s nearly over!  There is light at the end of the Tunnel!

SIMCO classes as big as this past one are crazy-busy and stressful times for us.  But all told, we made a difference in the lives of missionaries heading to countries like Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and others.