beside the point

A Pretty Good Weekend

I had a pretty good weekend. It started Friday night with the Addy Awards. For those of you who are not in "the business", the Addy's are advertising's answer to the Oscars. I never think of myself as being "in advertising," but the industry does. Web design, multimedia marketing, all the stuff that we do at Elevation counts as advertising. But, I digress.

The awards are a big fancy occasion and we got all dressed up (though we were underdressed compared to a lot of folks). I wore my black suit with a tan dress shirt and nice tie, and Sarah wore a black, floor length gown (and looked spectacular!). There were quite a few tuxes and gown there. We had a fancy meal and then the awards ceremony.

Elevation did really well. All in all, we won 9 Gold Awards - at least a few that I had a personal hand in - and lots of Bronze and Silvers. We also won an award for the best piece that never got used. We did a logo for a mayoral campaign that the client thought was a little to daring and went with a more conservative version we did. But the biggest award of the evening for us was Best of Show. The top award they give out! We won for a site that Chris and I really worked hard on. It was surprising to win but VERY gratifying as well. The same site Tuska Studio also won a Gold for website. Recently, we received word that the Smithsonian Museum of American Art wanted to buy some pieces from this artist and they had first been attracted BY THE WEBSITE. They had some VERY nice things to say about it. High praise coming from the Smithsonian!!

After accepting the awards, they interviewed the winners, so you can watch the awards show on Channel 18 this coming Saturday and see me try to sound like an idiot on TV! All in all, a big night and a lot of fun.

Then, Saturday, Sarah and I celebrated our 1 month anniversary. It seems impossible to believe that we've been together only a month! I feel like we've known each other for so much longer. We went to dinner at Giuseppi's and had a wonderful meal. The food (I thought) was really on par with any other nice Italian place, but the atmosphere was very nice. It was quiet and we could really talk. That's two nights in a row for me in a suit! I think that may be a record.

After a wonderful dinner and awesome conversation (with a beautiful woman I might add! :-), we changed into more casual clothes and went to see End of the Spear. For those who haven't heard about it, it's the true story of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint and a group of missionaries to Ecuador in the 50s. They worked to make contact with an unreached tribe in the Amazon basin and were tragically killed. Following this, their wives went to the jungle to live among the natives and share the love of Christ. Through their love - and in large part because the men did not fight back when attacked - a number of the natives came to know Christ. At the end of the film, Nate Saint's son Steve learns that one of these men who became a Christian was the one who speared his father and in a touching and dramatic scene, forgives him.

This is a truly amazing story and one that is likely to make you want to head straight for the mission field! If you haven't seen it, GO NOW!!!! :-) Seriously, 50% of the proceeds go to reach indigenous peoples who have never heard the gospel, so don't wait to rent it, see it in the theater!

The most amazing line came when Nate and the others are preparing to leave to go attempt to meet the natives. They are known as a very violent group with a culture of revenge and death (in fact, they had almost exterminated themselves by the 1950s because they killed so many...). Nate's son Steve asks his father if he will shoot them to defend himself if they attack. Nate responds, "We can't shoot them. They aren't ready for heaven. We are." Wow. To have that kind of faith and love to lay down your own life because you know that you are ready to face God rather than kill someone to save your life because they are NOT READY.

This turns out to be huge. The women end up telling the natives later about the Creator God's Son, who even though He was speared, He did not spear back. They have a hard time with this concept, but it is eventually what makes the difference. I can't emphasize this enough, GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!!

posted by Bryan @ 10:01 AM