November 24, 2010
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1 month.
I’m posting this for my reference — I will blog again soonly, it has been awhile since I’ve written and I’ve got this week off. It will still be busy but it’ll be more relaxed than normal.
Family and Friends,
I have exactly a month left in my collegiate career and have enjoyed my last semester in California.
Many of you have been keeping up on my facebook pictures as an overview of the things I have been doing to entertain myself. For the few of you that do not have facebook; I have been able to see many live tapings of television shows, hike to the Hollywood sign, see the original Bat cave, watch John Williams orchestrate many of his famous pieces from Indian Jones to Star Wars, film in the same prison as G.I. Joe, Hancock, Back to the Future, Terminator, cliff jumping, meet Christians in the industry and much more.
A professor at Spring Arbor recommended that I postpone graduation to take part in this semester program. Although I have fulfilled my credits at Spring Arbor, I am getting 16 more credits that will transfer back to my final film degree. 8 credits are in a 3 days a week internship and the other 8 are split up between 3 different classes.
I have been interning with a freelance director and editor. She also went through the same program as the one I am currently in. I chose to do my internship with her as opposed to a company because of the hands on editing experience I am getting. Other students are meeting famous actors through their internships but spend their days filing paper work and making copies. My goal through my internship was to gain experience, not networking because my intent is not to stay in California.
My work has consisted of editing many pieces for a band called The Strange Familiar. They were on the television show, America’s Got Talent and went further than any band has gone before.
Below are links to two videos that I have edited for them. I have done others but they were shown at their concerts and not put on the web.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snUQTF6JOzU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXwVIr65ogw
I have also done a small one minute piece for television and have worked on set for a music video with “The in Between”(a local CA band).
We had an internship check up meeting with two professors and other students a week ago to talk about different internships, good and bad aspects of them and the one question that stuck out to me was: how have you felt yourself challenged in L.A. in your faith? I don’t normally talk in groups but this specific question had been one I was wrestling with lately. My biggest challenge has not been IN my internship or IN LA. It has been IN the program. This is not a belittlement on the program that I am in, because it is a great program and I’m blessed to have been apart of it. We just had a group project/film and I’ve never felt so belittled and unsure of what my stance should be. It frustrated me that in a group of “Christians” I was wondering and fighting with the idea of what I should do in specific situations. Do I speak up or just “act” by not participating. No wonder people have such a skewed view on Christianity when people act differently than what they claim. “To call yourself a child of God is one thing. To be called a child of God by those who watch your life is another thing altogether. People are watching the way we act more than they are listening to what we say.” (Max Lucado) “We” (Christians) say we want to make a difference in Hollywood (or anywhere) BUT who says we are going to ACT differently than non-believers in a secular setting if we don’t even stand true to our faith in a CHRISTIAN setting?
Ecclesia, the church I have been attending is in an old theater and literally right outside the doors are 3 different sex shops. Even though this place can be so corrupt and most people are only concerned with themselves and furthering their careers; God is here. It is great to physically be surrounded by other Christians (not in the LAFSC program) that are working and worshiping in the heart of Hollywood. Although I do not feel like this is where God is calling me to be, I support the Christians that are working in such an environment. I have had the opportunity to meet many different Christians working in this industry who have been ridiculed by other believers for working here. The way I see it is if Christians hid from this place, it would be all that more lost and corrupt. It is a mission field – just like anywhere else. I do not think or claim to know all there is to know about this city, but I do have a better grasp on it than before I came.
As I come to the end of my time here in L.A., I can look back on my life and see how God has put different things in my life to prepare me for this past semester. He has been faithful and will continue to be in my life, but it is not because of what He has or has not done for me that I trust Him. He knows my next steps and I trust He will open and close doors for His glory.
Bethany Sanderson
“Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:31
“I will not boast in anything, No gifts, no power, no wisdom, But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection”
How Deep the Father’s Love for Us
