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!!