How It Started
It was the three musketeers Kevin Friesen, Greg Meeres and myself, all of us with an individual desire to travel to Africa and do something. I, Amy, had a connection to an organization called Iris Ministries that was going to let me stay with them in Mozambique and teach the kids HIV/AIDS education through drama. Kevin had gotten wind of a project orchestrated by Impact Nations to bring water filtration systems to Zimbabwe and was pursuing this venture. Greg, at this point came aboard, hearing our passion to dig our feet into these projects, it stirred in him an already existing desire to travel to Africa to document what God was doing and would do.
I remember meeting at the Wired Monk Coffee House in Kitsilano near where I used to live in April 2007 just before going back to Australia for a month in May. We poured out our ideas, our dreams, and vision for how the three of us could combine forces and somehow document what we were about to embark on. From here the three Musketeers united and launched the documentary Paths of Dust and Hope.
It was a faith journey of raising funds, working 14-hour days for some and collaborating constantly on what our story was going to look like. We decided that following two amateur missionaries into the wilds of Africa to take on an HIV/AIDS Education theatre program in Mozambique and activating water filtration systems in Zimbabwe was a good enough story. It had everything, the adventure, the humor, the unpredictability, the first hand glimpse of struggle and tribulation. It was gold! And so after some preliminary footage of Kev and I getting vaccinations, sharing our forethoughts on the steps of my old blue house and hosting a fundraiser with the help of our community, we embarked on a journey that we would never completely be prepared for.
The next part is the words of Greg Meeres written in December 2007 for the debut of a new Christian Magazine, In The World.
“WE HAD put almost eight months into planning all the details, and thought we were ready. But as the departure date for Kevin and I approached, those plans started to come apart.
With one phone call, our plans for Zimbabwe were tossed. The political climate there had reached a critical point and it was no longer safe for us to enter the country.
I was told, by a BBC colleague in South Africa, that a white man attempting to cross the border with a camera would face 50 years in prison. That’s a pretty long time without Hockey Night in Canada.
Around the same time, we learned from our missionary colleague
Amy Robinson that a ministry we were counting on to produce an HIV/AIDS theatre program in Mozambique had no resources to spare.
“You gotta be kidding,” we thought. All that planning, all that effort – for what?
Kevin and I frantically tried to force something together. But in the end, we took the advice of many around us and went to Mozambique without a plan.
“Trust in God,” they said. “His plans are always greater than our own.” Wouldn’t you know it? They were right.”
Indeed ‘they’ were right. By miraculous intervention, Kevin and I got connected with Jeff and Caryn Hakes, an American couple living in Massaca2 (there are actually five Massaca’s in the area), just outside Maputo, who were establishing and building a home of mentorship for young men coming out of the orphanage sub-culture, with no direction or support on how to integrate back into their society. They had fourteen young men under their mentorship and were teaching them everything from financial responsibility and management to how to be a good father. So many of the children in Mozambique have grown without father’s a theme we encountered in many of the boys and girls stories that lived in Jeff’s community. We spent the next month living under Jeff and Caryn’s roof and following the remarkable lives and project they had established.
As Greg continues:
“Instead of the HIV/AIDS education project, our focus became five stories of young men who are not only changing their lives, but are changing the face of their country.
It is through Jeff Hakes and the young men of Project Benjamin that I see hope for Mozambique. And it is through God that I see these men, and tell their stories. God had taken care of all the details; his plan was perfect.”
From the same article I then shared what we had experienced:
“The stories we captured rose up like a phoenix out of the ashes. We had no idea that the muddy waters of ideas and misconceptions were the exact thing we had to wade through to find the gold in the lives of these young men and women of Mozambique. The ‘fatherless generation,’ the first generation of educated Mozambicans, the joy of a nation bound by horrific cycles of poverty and sickness, all came through before the lens of our cameras.
We spent time with Admiro, our young law student, in Costa de Sol at the small village where he grew up. We spent time with Pedro at his college where he is studying engineering; we listened to his testimony, his hope to one day be the dad he never had, to be the father who never leaves.
We followed Calisto to the market, where Jeff was teaching him how to responsibly handle finances. We prayed with Seraphim to find the funds to build his first house, to provide a home for his future family.
We laughed with and eagerly listened to the profound words of Filomena’s poetry and her story of what it is to be a 22-year old woman in Mozambique. We sang with Maria, grandmother of many children abandoned by her own sons and daughters.
We clapped and shared the joy when we found out Almero passed his first semester of grade seven and when Verdiano graduated and became a certified mechanic.
And we cried when we saw and heard the broken hearts of our beloved brothers and sisters, and how desperately they wanted to see a better Mozambique for their children.
This is what the Lord has done. He works all things for good and never gives us anything he knows we can’t handle. And this is the story of the possible beyond the impossible.”
The Two Year Void
We arrived back into Vancouver from Africa February 2008 with the footage and a story we believed would change nations. However, a wave of doubt, discouragement and perhaps fear of failure slowly rose up, a giant to us and tossed the three of us in many different directions. Greg kept pursuing his film company Boldfish and working on other commercial and ministerial projects and for a time Kevin and I jumped on board to help. In this transition back into western life, Kevin and I got engaged and realized we needed to put all our effort and resources into saving for our future. In May 2009, Kevin and I were married and the journey of being newly-weds steered us further away. Sadly, months, then years passed and Paths of Dust and Hope became a memory, a twinge, a dusty silver medal…unspoken, we all just felt we didn’t have what it took to get the gold, and so we gave up.
Current Progress
Now, just over two years since Africa, we are now able to look back and see the wave of doubt and discouragement slowly ebb out to sea. We are not failures for we have not completely walked away. In fact both Greg and I felt strongly that God was constantly encouraging us to keep pursuing the completion of this project with the same scripture, received a year apart, Matthew 25:21 “…You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities.”
PODAH, is our ‘small amount’ and as we faithfully complete this project we will be given and entrusted with greater responsibilities within film, something we all have great passion for!
About six months ago, I began the arduous task of transcribing every word and thought we captured. Twenty plus tapes and perhaps 25 plus hours of footage! This first step to creating a story-arc has just recently been completed with celebration. And, in two days the three of us will meet to map out the story-arc and begin an intense editing process. Our goal is by the end of September to have Paths of Dust and Hope completed. It’s possible we may need more footage but that’s a bridge we will cross if it comes and by editing what we have, we will gain greater clarity to whether or not extra footage is necessary.
Throughout this last two years, Kevin has remained in contact with the Benjamin project and been updated with the successes and trials they continue to walk through. Some of the boys have graduated high school, finished degrees, one is married and Seraphim’s house is built! It’s been talked of that to capture where the boys are at now would be powerful, so for now, this door remains open.
The Next Step
Complete the story-arc. Edit the footage to match and support the story. Add a score. Add voice-over where needed. Add in visual effects where needed. See if more footage is needed. Done.
Our hope is that we are at the bare minimum just able to get the stories of these young men out there to our communities, to share and inspire those around us the victory they have of overcoming incredible odds and rising up to change their nation.
At a maximum effect, Paths of Dust and Hope will hit the silver screen and pierce the hearts of millions who are inspired to travel to Africa to start more Project Benjamin’s and mentor up young men and women who long to change the face of their nation.
I hope this has been an adventure for our readers and supporters. As we continue down this Path…of Dust and indeed HOPE, we will keep you all posted on the great things to come.
God Bless!
Dress up 70's style!
