Merry Christmas From Our Family to Yours!

 

Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

And the Winner is . . .

Actually, before I announce the winner, I just want to encourage my readers to look at the comments for the giveaway post, and if you haven't seen the movies people suggested, click on the links and find out more! I've seen most of those movies and they're GREAT!

Okay, now for the winner of The Alzen Family - Live in Concert! :-)

The winner is . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .

Congratulations Hayley! Just leave me a comment with your address (and I won't publish it) and I'll get the DVD out to you as soon as I can! I hope you enjoy it! :-)

Trip Journal - Saturday

Sorry it's taken me so long to finish writing about our trip to San Antonio - life has been busy around here, and the rest of this week is going to be crazy with playing/singing at nursing homes and other things going on! What are some things keeping you busy this season?

On the last day of the festival (Saturday) we watched some more movies, visited with friends, and that evening, attended the awards ceremonies! A lot of people were dressed very fancy, and it was neat seeing the ladies in their modest, beautiful, formal dresses. Actually being there, live, at the awards ceremonies was an amazing experience - something I'll never forget! I sat on the edge of my seat as I waited to hear who the winners were in each category (and I'm just mentioning a few below - go to http://www.saicff.org/ to see all the categories). You can visit Doug Philip's blog (and scroll way down) to see some live footage from that night.

 

In the "young filmmaker" category, Small Talents won, and it looks good, but we never did get around to seeing it because there were SO many movies to choose from!

In between announcing categories, musicians played and George Sarris performed again (below is the man who played an important role in Ace Wonder).

The Penny was the winner of the Best Feature Film Award, and it sure deserved it!! We did see this film, and I HIGHLY recommend it!! The storyline was very complicated (but not hard to understand) and tight. The acting was really good, and the cinematography was great! For an independent film (directed by Nathan Webster, pictured below) . . . all I can say is . . . WOW!! Check out the website at http://www.thepennyfilm.com/. There were some other really good feature films there as well. We didn't see all of them right there at the festival, but I would recommend Standing Firm, No Greater Love (for older kids or adults), The Runner From Ravenshead, and Live to Forgive. We didn't see Sybil Ludington at all but that one looked good too.

The Runner from Ravenshead won the Audience Choice Award by 400%!!! They sure deserved it! :-) As far as I know, they were the only film there to get a standing ovation in the MIDDLE of the movie! (below is a picture of the family that made it)

It was very touching to hear the acceptance speech of the $101,000 grand prize winner (watch it HERE)! The Bowers family made Agenda: Grinding America Down and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!! It was well done, and very informative! Check it out at http://agendadocumentary.com/.

 

 

After the awards ceremonies, we enjoyed visiting with lots of people until at least midnight - right there outside the building! Yes, it was that nice outside! :-)
One of the funnest things was meeting Gator Moore (the main actor in The Widow's Might and now in Ace Wonder). By the way, Ace Wonder was a GREAT film! It was so neat being able to see the world premiere (it was a rough cut, but still was very good). The acting was great, the storyline was very interesting, and Gator completely carries the show - I can't wait to see the final cut on DVD!

Next time I'll share some pictures from our last day in Texas with our new friends! Until then, don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!! :-)

GIVEAWAY!

It's time for another giveaway! I've had hardly any time to be blogging lately, but I hope to get a post up soon about the last few days of our trip to Texas! :-)

This time, the giveaway is for . . . .

Check out the family website at http://www.alzenfamily.com/. Go HERE to see the fun trailer! Taylor (Lacheln Designs), over at Surrendering My All, designed the very professional cover (thanks to Taylor for the nice picture of the cover)! :-) Thanks Taylor for all the work you put into this! And of course the Alzen Family was a HUGE help as well - you can check out their blog HERE. If you don't win the giveaway, I do have copies for sale on my website (http://www.gloryandgrace.com/).

Here are the rules:

IF YOU WANT TO BE ENTERED ONCE, leave a comment on my blog and share about your favorite Christan film(s) (and leave a link to the website/trailer if possible).

IF YOU WANT TO BE ENTERED TWICE, do the above AND write about this giveaway on your blog (with a link to this post) and leave a comment here with the link to your blog.

The giveaway will be closed on the night of Sunday the 19th of December, and the winner will be randomly chosen and announced the next day (maybe you'll get it in time for Christmas!).

Story Without Words - Our Christmas Tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alzen Family Trailer

This is a silly trailer I put together for the Alzen family's live DVD! They are a very funny family, and they love adding humor to things (including their concerts!) so this trailer is anything but normal. :-) Enjoy!

The Alzen Family

Two Fridays ago we went to our friends house (the Alzens) near Minneapolis. My harp had a bad crack in it, and we thought it was done for, but then we found someone near the Twin Cities who could repair it (Stoney End Harps). Praise the Lord the repair went well, and we should get several more years out of the harp! Below is a picture of the harp before it was repaired.

Mom, Lydia, Ethan and I stayed 2 nights at the Alzens, while dad and the boys went hunting back home. When we woke up on Saturday morning, the ground was covered in thick, wet snow! Mom thought about whether or not she should drive the 40 miles to deliver the harp to be fixed, and she finally decided she should go. We are so thankful that God kept her safe that day, because there were over 400 accidents and 2 deaths on the road because of that storm!

While mom took the harp to be fixed, I stayed at the Alzens house to edit a fun new project we were working on - The Alzen Family Live in Concert DVD (trailer coming soon)!!!! I had been able to film a concert of theirs a while ago, and someone else filmed a Christmas concert they did, so I put the footage together for a DVD! It was a lot of fun, and God worked it out so we could get it done in time for their fundraiser (which was on the 19th). Check out their adoption blog here, and their family blog here. And to see their band website, visit, http://www.alzenfamily.com/.

This is the REAL Alzen Family!! :-)

Ha ha, just kidding :) Front - Isaac, Lucas, Mrs. (Denise) Alzen, Back - Tessa, AnaLise, Mr. (Brad) Alzen

 

Thank you, Alzen family, for opening up your home to us last minute! We had a great time!

Cholera Epidemic in Haiti

Trip Journal - Thursday and Friday

Thursday was the first day of the actual Film Festival. We stayed in a hotel in downtown San Antonio so we could be right there, because we knew it would be late nights and early mornings! Part of the day Thursday, and all day Friday and Saturday, there were several movies and often a speaker all at the same time. It was hard to choose, and besides all the interesting things to watch, there were SO MANY like-minded families there! We were able to meet many people (although we regret not visiting with more!!) and we were blessed and encouraged to fellowship with other Christians.

One other fun thing that happened on Thursday was our aunt and uncle from NC surprising us!!! They had flown to San Antonio a few days before, and spent some time sight-seeing, then on Thursday at the festival they walked up to us and we were SO SURPRISED!!!!!! We were glad that they were able to enjoy the many movies there! Thanks Uncle Tim and Aunt Lauri for the fun surprise!! :-)

Here are some pictures from those two days . . .

 

On Thursday before the festival started, we visited the Alamo. It was AMAZING to see such a historical place, and we learned that one of the young men who died at the Alamo was named James Kenney!! I did just a little research and I don't think he was married, so he probably isn't a direct relative of us, but maybe we are distantly related somehow! :-)

We are completely not used to big cities, so we found many interesting things! Some things we didn't like - such as driving back to the hotel in the dark the night before Halloween (yuck!) - and some we liked - such as these beautiful carriages!

 

There were many wonderful, godly, speakers at the festival, including R.C. Sproul Jr.,

Kevin Swanson (who was the keynote speaker at the ND Homeschool Convention last year),

Geoffrey Botkin,

                                                        Doug Phillips, and more!

There were also some very good performers there - Becky Morecraft (a singer) . . .

 . . . and George Sarris (an EXCELLENT storyteller who quoted directly from the Bible).

George Escobar (of Advent Film Group) was also there, and he showed some exclusive clips from his new movie, Alone, Yet Not Alone. It looks very good!

We watched many movies over the course of the three days, but here's a little bit about one of our favorites (I'll write more on the other films later).

#1 - The Runner From Ravenshead

It was made by this family picture below, and the five children were the ONLY ACTORS in the film!! I think they were all under the age of 9 or 10 when they were filming. It was SO well done, and had a GREAT storyline, and the kids were AMAZING! I can't recommend this film high enough! It is perfect for the entire family - little kids will be enthralled, and older ones won't be bored, that's for sure! It won the Audience Choice Award by 400%, and it was also runner-up for the $101,000 Grand Prize. At both showings it received at least one standing ovation, and everybody loved it!

On Friday night there was a premiere showing of the movie Ace Wonder (by Huemoore Productions who also made The Widow's Might), but this post is getting long so I'll write about that next time!

AND THE WINNER IS . . .

Last week I posted a giveaway for the documentary Shining in Her Corner - The Story of Amy Vest and Loving the Lord Ministries. Thank you to all who entered!! I was encouraged by your comments, and by reading your blog posts.

Okay, now for the moment you've all been waiting for . . . well, maybe I should tell you how we picked the winner first. :-) I wrote down everybody's name (twice if you posted about it), folded the papers and mixed them up, and had Ethan (my 8-year-old brother) pick out the winner!

AND THE WINNER IS . . . .

 

Congratulations! Please leave a comment with your full name and address, and I won't publish it. I will get your DVD in the mail to you this weekend! I hope it is a blessing to you and your family!

I hope to post soon about a new project I've been working on, and also post another giveaway for my new project! And I haven't forgotten about telling ya'll about the rest of our TX trip!! Life has been crazy around here but I hope to get back to the blogging world soon. :-)

Giveaway Extended!

This upcoming weekend some of my family members and I have to be out of town for a few days (it came up last minute), so I won't be home on Sunday. So . . . I've decided to extend the giveaway to Wednesday, November 17th! For any of you who haven't signed up yet, please go to this post and leave a comment!! Thank you to all those who have entered so far! Please visit www.lovingthelordministries.org to find out more about Loving the Lord Ministries!

 

Part 3 - Tuesday and Wednesday

While Caleb and I were at the academy each day, mom and dad took Daniel, Lydia and Ethan sightseeing.

We were able to go on the riverboat ride with them during a lunch break - that was fun!

 

San Antonio is a beautiful city!

We learned a lot more at the academy from people like Collin Gunn (producer of Indoctrination)

and David Cook, who wrote the story for Seven Days in Utopia.

There were also other great speakers, including Isaac Botkin (who wrote the book Outside Hollywood), Doug Phillips (President of Vision Forum Ministries) and Geoff Botkin (Western Conservatory). Besides the speakers, there was also a panel of men who were asked questions about films they had made or worked on. There were SO many good things to learn from everybody!

I was very happy to be able to meet Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin, who wrote the book So Much More (highly recommended) and helped make the documentary The Return of the Daughters (also HIGHLY recommended)!!! They are both very godly, encouraging young ladies and I was honored to have a chance to talk with them!
 

Check back early next week for pictures from the Film Festival!!