Vox Lucens

Today’s Weekly Reminder.

*****

            We have been talking a lot about aftermath lately.  The news has been abuzz with it – the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in Texas, for instance, the aftermath of the political party conventions, the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Georgia.  And we’ve been talking about aftermath in The Weekly Reminder, especially relating to the violence that started in Orissa, India, weeks ago and has now spread throughout the country.

            But sometimes the aftermath gets forgotten – lost in the shuffle of more current tragedy.  Our minds tend to move on, forgetting those that are left behind as a result of tragedy.  Even now, for instance, in Orissa, though the ruins of the churches torched by Hindu ultra-fundamentalists have barely cooled, the news outlets have moved on.

            Though the nature of the news is to move on to “new” and “exciting” tragedies, the nature of our prayers should not be – and neither should our ministry.  The very heart of Remember’s work is in the aftermath, reaching out to the widows and orphans of martyrs, those left behind, living their day-to-day lives in quiet suffering as a result of the tragedy of persecution.  The life of Sadia, the widow of a martyred Sudanese pastor, is not newsworthy, as she washes clothes and windows to singlehandedly support her family.  But ministering to her touches the heart of God.

            It is no coincidence that in the aftermath there is hope.  The word “aftermath” is actually an agricultural term, meaning a second-growth crop – though the first growth of the hay has been chopped off or plowed under, it is not dead.  “Aftermath” literally means that it grows up again!

            Though churches and homes in India lie in smoldering ruins, though Sadia and uncounted others like her live their lives in sorrow, though believers all over the world are targeted for untold suffering, the Spirit that gives life is still present in these chopped off, plowed under Christians.

            And the aftermath is coming!

The first time I saw HDR photographs I was blown away.  Little did I imagine then that my little Nikon D40 and some open source software could produce some amazing HDR results.

I did, though, discover that the D40 was inexplicably produced without automatic exposure bracketing, meaning I had to do this all manually.  Now that I’ve fiddled with it a bit I’d love to have AEB to cut down on ghosting and open up the possibilities for better HDR, but I’m making progress.

So here’s what I did.  My original shot (sorry that it’s no great photo; I’m experimenting with what I have access to today):

 As you can see, it’s a typical digital picture in a number of ways - the brightness of the exposure causes some of the darker elements to lose their detail.  (By the way, you can click on any picture in this post for a fullsize version.)

But by melding a few different exposures into one, you get HDR.  Here’s what I ended up with on my first attempts:

[If you want to see more, and better,  HDR, check out the article that first blew me away at Smashing Magazine.]

[And other such grammatical idiosyncratic anomalies...am I the only one disturbed by phrases like "Acting Thailand's Prime Minister" (from the AP) and "Author and Pastor Rick Warren of the book 'A Purpose Driven Life'..." (from a radio ad)?  Say them out loud if you don't see what I mean.]

All this just to say that it’s really tough to describe what we do in one leading sentence for a press release.   We are a local non-profit…we are also an international non-profit…but are we a local international non-profit?

What were you doing?

I apologize for the lightness of blog posting of late.  I would offer excuses, but it’s the same excuse I always give - life’s crazy.  I like it that way, generally, but sometimes it gets a little out of hand…

Last week, “Generations with Vision” radio host Kevin Swanson was gracious enough to feature me in an interview on his daily program.  It’s running today - talking about recent news out of Orissa, Remember’s growing work, and a few recommendations on how churches, families, and individuals can truly “remember them that are in bonds.”

Listen Here!