Mission Magazine | Jan-Feb 2014

Welcome to our new MISSION magazine. Asia Pacifi c Media is upgrading our communication. We hope you

will like the new format and the fresh information we will bring you every other month. In this issue, you will read about a new movie for Nepal and a video project that is targeting Filipino children.

Nepal is a nation of 28 million, the vast majority of whom are Hindu. This movie tells of the transformation of a young boy from a talented, but, selfi sh soccer star to a follower of Christ and true leader of other young men. Through drama, we believe the message will attract many who will hear God’s good news for the fi rst time.

The Philippines is a young nation. Over 50 percent of the population is under 20. Yet little is being done

with media to reach or dis-ciple children. We believe that a values oriented video series will not only be used by churches but also in schools.

We have a vision to see Christ followers effectively using media to reach every people group in Asia Pacifi c. Media then becomes a tool that not only shares the Good News but brings people into con-tact with followers of Christ.

We do this through the pro-duction of indigenous tools, the training of local workers to become speakers and pro-ducers and the partnerships with other like minded minis-tries, knowing that together we can do more.

Asia Pacifi c Media is begin-ning its 26th year based in Manila, Philippines. From humble beginnings, God has blessed and expanded our efforts. We could not have imagined the media of 2014 in 1988. This expansion is

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God’s gift to the church. Our team is based in Manila, Hong Kong and Taiwan. We support other media efforts in Indonesia and Cambodia.

We want MISSION magazine to inform you as well as inspire you to become a part: through prayer, through volunteer-ing your time and talent and through giving. Thanks for giving us a few minutes of your valuable time. Also, let us hear from you. You can reach us through apmedia.org or on the Asia Pacifi c Media Facebook page.

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FILMMAKER EMPLOYS ‘FROM SCRATCH’ PHILOSOPHY TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL

Nepal, a tiny country about the size of the state of Arkansas, strategically situ-ated in the Great Himalaya Mountain Range between behemoths China and India, is home to more than 30 million souls. Less than one percent of its population is Christian. This nation stands as a testament to the words of Christ, “The har-vest is plentiful but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37, NIV).

It is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, with more than 25

percent of its population living below the poverty line. Nepal’s seemingly relentless political upheaval and propensity for natural disasters cause some to see insurmountable challenges in spreading the gospel here. But with the advent of a more stable political system and a population skewing toward youth — more than half of Ne-pal’s population is less than 25 — Asia Pacifi c Media, Promise Ministries and Sword Produc-tions see unlimited opportuni-ties for advancing the Kingdom.

The three organizations recently joined forces to produce a fea-ture fi lm, appropriately entitled, “Bijay” (“Victory”). It has a boy-

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meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back-again subplot set against the wildly popular sport most of the world calls football, although U.S. fans are more likely to refer to it as soccer. Bi-jay, the hero of the story, fl aunts his pride and arrogance in his own athletic skills, only to have his hopes of playing for the na-tional team crushed. Fortunately for Bijay, the coach of his village team never gives up on him and eventually introduces him to the transformative power of faith in Christ.

“Football is hugely popular in Nepal, and it gives a place for action to happen, an import-ant factor in a movie targeting youth,” explains director Stephen Cadd of Sword Productions. “But while the movie is set in a village and has a football theme, it is really about how Christ can make real change in our lives.”

Making a movie that can com-pete with anything the general market has to offer is a priority

for Cadd and his crew, but providing quality entertainment to the local population pales in comparison to the teams’ primary goal. They want to spread the gos-pel by training young indige-nous Christians to be leaders in their countries’ own fi lm and entertainment industries.

“No matter how much we try, we will never fully understand the cultures of these countries,” Cadd admits. “To truly know how they think, you need to be from that place. If we want to communicate effectively and powerfully, we need to speak in their language and in a cultural context that makes sense to them. The Good News needs to be ‘good news’ to their world, their issues, their fears.”

Cadd and a team collaborate to use movie-making as a tool to accomplish that mission. Each crew member starts out

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performing the functions of his or her fi lmmaking position, but trains up to four local workers to take over as the production progresses.

“As we make the movie, we explain what we are doing and why,” Cadd says. “By the second week they are assisting. The third week they are doing most of the

work, and by the last week they are doing everything. Our role is to step back and advise when we feel it is needed.”

The team takes a “from scratch” approach to training their young protegés. They start at the beginning, with idea gen-eration and screenplay writing, then progress to production management, then lights and sound, casting and shooting and editing and post-produc-

tion. Finally, the young fi lmmak-ers learn about distributing their movies in the nation’s cinemas or releasing them on DVD.

“All of our projects have a larger goal than just making an evangelistic movie in the nation-al language,” Cadd says. “We want to train young believers from that culture so they can be effective communicators of the gospel — telling their stories to their people in their language and culture. We use the making of the movie as a training tool.”

Whether “Bijay” becomes a major victory in Nepal remains to be seen, but Cadd’s method has produced remark-able success in other regions of Asia. A team of Mongolian fi lm-makers trained by Cadd and his crew went on to produce 12 feature-length fi lms for their country’s main-stream cinema, their most re-cent production earning a “Best Picture of the Year” award.

“Discipleship is all about teaching so that the next generation can be empowered

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to become the leaders and infl uencers in their nations,” Cadd says. “By multiplying ourselves, we can see genu-ine change happen as Christ

is made known and people encounter the life-changing gospel in their own language and culture.” Read more about the team effort that went into producing “Bijay” on page 8.

Nepal is a landlocked coun-try located between China and India.

Nepal is home to Mt. Everest, the highest point in Asia, reaching 8,850 meters.

Agriculture provides the liveli-hood for 75 percent of Nepal’s population, but only 16 per-cent of its land is arable.

46 percent of the Nepalese population is unemployed.

Less than 50 percent of the population speaks Nepali, the nation’s offi cial language.

80.6 percent of the Nepal-ese are Hindu. Another 10.7 percent are Buddhist. Muslims make up 4.2 percent of the population. Less than 1 per-cent of Nepal is Christian.

29.1 percent of Nepal’s children under the age of 5 are under-weight.


It is past 1 a.m. when we arrive in Nepal to shoot the movie“Bijay” (translated as “Victory”). I am part of the production team. The next morning, we go directly to the office of Promise Media (the Nepalese media ministry we are working with) to check on all the equipment and prepare for the coming week’s training.

Our first day, we begin with devotions after breakfast, which is how we will begin every day. We want to reach out to the non-believers working with us through our interaction with each other, our attitudes on set and by the way we work.

Training starts with a gener-al assembly of the cast and

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crew. Everybody is introduced and the actors do a full read-through of the script. In the afternoon, the actors stay with the director and the acting coach for a workshop. These actors auditioned with and were selected by our director and our acting coach, together with the director trainees, only the week before. While the actors work with the director and acting coach, the technical team is divided into different departments for hands-on training. We spend three days teaching our Nepalese coun-terparts in sound, lighting and camera work, and another two days practicing full set-ups with the actors and all techni-cal departments, allowing the Nepalese to apply their new knowledge before we actually start shooting.

It is our second week, and we travel to the “mountains” (which the Nepalese call “hills”) for almost four hours, over rough roads, until we reach our location in the village

of Chitlang. We start shooting the fi lm.

The week of shooting, the Philippine team takes the lead in the technical departments while the Nepalese observe and help. Then, gradually the Nepalese team takes over more and more of the responsibility, and by the end of the shoot they are doing all the work. The entire production is a long continuous training for the locals. They observe and learn correct procedures and how to deal with problems that arise during a shoot.

Shooting a movie is quite chal-lenging and stressful at times, but God is allowing miracles to happen. He gives us electrical power when we need it. We experience some rejection as we chose some of our locations, and God provides a better place that makes our

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but God is allowing miracles to


shots more interesting. He also provides healing to some of our actors and even instantly heals a family member, of an unsaved crew member, who was in the hospital, and that leads them to believe that our God is power-ful.

The sun sets early, and we lose daylight just after 4 in the afternoon. We try to accomplish our shooting schedule each day before it gets too dark. Tem-perature is another challenge. Every day is sunny, but from dawn until about 11 a.m., the weather is very cold. It becomes warmer until about 2 in the afternoon, and then it becomes colder and colder as darkness approaches. The cold weather is our daily challenge, but the warm character, hard work and willingness to learn, of the peo-ple that we work with, enables us to fi nish our 15-day location shoot in the village on time.

Most of the Nepalese people who join us are new to this kind of setting. We are often told

that things happen because that’s how the Nepalese do it. But after be-ing in Nepal for almost fi ve weeks, I see their potential as they realize that with God’s help they can achieve great things.

Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctifi ed you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (NKJV). This verse inspires me during my fi ve weeks in Nepal. Indeed, the plan of the Lord is greater than the plans that I have as He brought me into Ne-pal. It is an honor to be a part of this project, training people in production, producing an evangelistic movie and serving the Lord with the Nepalese people who are passionate in using their lives for the glory of God. Dhanebad Yesu! (Thank you, Jesus!)

Alena Palad is an audio recordist and sound editor for APMedia at the regional studio in Manila, Philippines.


“UKids,” a series of short dra-mas targeting Filipino children ages 6 to 12, addresses char-acter issues. The eight-minute dramas, on which production began in 2012, are anticipated to be an ongoing project.

“There is a signifi cant interest in these videos in the public schools since values formation is a part of the public school curriculum,”Bill Snider, Director of Asia Pacifi c Media (APMe-dia), says. Having produced and fi eld-tested a pilot package of six episodes, APM is currently work-ing on the fi rst complete series, which will include 13 dramas.

“UKids” illustrates Christian character. As a part of the Usapang Pamilya (Family Talk

emphasis of Asia Pacifi c Media), the series can introduce view-ers to the broader video library. “Since 50 percent of the Philip-pine population is under 20, we feel it’s important to minister to children and teenagers,” Snider says. “They provide the oppor-tunity to present Christ in the practical aspects of living.”

The national church has part-nered with APMedia in the development. They are introduc-ing “UKids” to their Christian Education leadership team. The Christian Education department will be heavily involved in pro-moting “UKids.”

APMedia is in ongoing con-versations with consultants

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connected to the Philippine Department of Education, and there is interest in incorporating the “UKids” video series into values education in the primary schools.

“‘UKids’ dramas are another expression of our concern, as a ministry, for the Filipino family.

We’re excited to see where this project goes and are very thank-ful for the very strong supportthat we’re receiving from na-tional churches, as well as for the interests expressed from the Department of Education.”

For ways you can contribute to the “UKids” project turn to p. 15.


14.

“This program has contributed to the noticeable numerical growth of our church. The early morning and afternoon services are increasing in attendance, and that is a good thing!” — Egay Gomez

“I am thankful for what is hap-pening in my life, especially to my children because of what we have been hearing and watch-ing [in the “Usapang Pamilya” videos] in the days we’ve been attending. Even though I am separated from my husband, I have learned so many things. I have forgiven my husband and myself over the many things that I have gone through in life. Together with my children, I

have surrendered all to the Lord and to all His plans for us. With all that has happened to us, I know that the Lord has a plan for my life. Slowly, I am drawing nearer to God. Together with my children, I am offering my whole life to Him. I am thankful for having come to this church.” — Emelita Casabuena

“I am thankful for the wonder-ful things happening in my life ever since I started coming here because I have learned how to humble myself, and [as a result] my husband and I no longer fi ght as much and our business has picked up. I give thanks to the Lord!” — Jackielou Duldulao

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“Usapang Pamilya” video series

“We give thanks that we have settled all our fi nancial obli-gations and that our child has been healed!” — Augusto and Maribel Landig

These are authentic testimo-nies by people whose lives have been changed by the “Usapang Pamilya” videos produced here at Asia Pac-ifi c Media. We are a regional ministry of the Assemblies of God World Missions—USA based in Manila, Philippines whose mission is to empower national churches in Asia and the Pacifi c Islands to use and produce media tools for evan-gelism, church planting and discipleship of believers.

Our videos are used in a variety of ministries and outreaches throughout the region, and are impacting people for Christ. “Usapang Pamilya” are episodic, one-shot videos that contain powerful, life-changing lessons shared through dynamic, real-life dramas and follow-up group discussion formats, providing ministry leaders with ample opportunities to offer bibli-cal solutions to the every day issues faced by the people in their communities.

We would like to thank you for joining us with your support of this dynamic, life-changing ministry to our friends across the globe. Your faithfulness enables us to continue developing effective outreach tools using conve-nient, contemporary technol-ogies that provide practical, easy-to-use, and most importantly, effective biblical resources to produce spiritual

results.

Here at Asia Pacifi c Media, we appreciate your continued sup-port. If you’ve not been able to give monetarily in the past but would like to start, we invite you to visit page 15 or apme-dia.org for instructionson how to contribute.

Thank you for being a part of Asia Pacifi c Media!


Documents

Mission Magazine | Jan-Feb 2014