Lights, Camera, Action!

Hello all my friends and relations! I have missed you all profoundly, and I'm sorry I haven't posted recently. There are reasons though, and good ones. It all started back at the beginning of this year, right before I got elected as the president of our GenJ club. I was giving a campaign speech at the Tate's house and afterward we were talking about the Parental Rights Amendment, and how the word really needed to get out to the citizens of our nation who haven't heard about it, or haven't heard enough to care. The Tates had been thinking it would be very cool to make a documentary about the whole issue and the implications and consequences it could have on our culture. Another family that was there [the Kruses for all you Daughters of Destiny-ers], also really liked the idea and in fact, the dad had some background in news/media stuff. Anyways, it was all very interesting to talk about, but still, and idea. We did, however, pray about it as a group before we all left, and were still interested in the idea. Fast forward to the last couple of months. The Tates had done some research on the movie idea, and in fact, felt like they were supposed to pursue it. [As did the rest of us]. With that in mind, Grace contacted the heads of Parental Rights.Org, and asked them if she and Mr. Larry could come up and have a meeting with them to ask them some questions about the history and story of the Parental Rights Amendment. They did have that meeting, and the result was that the PRO guys were extremely excited about the whole documentary idea. They said they'd actually been wishing someone would get that thought and make one. On top of that, they agreed to let our production be official affiliated with Parental Rights.Org! And that they'd help us make contacts with cases of people who they'd worked with for interview bits! It was very exciting and marked the place that it looked like some kind of movie was going to be made. Okay, so research and other pre-production started, and then Grace, Elissa, and Mr. Larry went up to Patrick Henry College a few weeks ago to see a seminar by filmmaker George Escobar [a film executive who was called to start his own independent film company a few years ago called "Advent Film Group". One of their projects was "Come What May". This seminar was a great opportunity, and I waited expectantly to hear the pearls of filmmaking wisdom that would be brought back ;) In an amazing God-event, the Tates came back telling me that not only was the seminar great, but that George Escobar had offered us the use of his professional filmmaking equipment!!! It was truly an amazing [and slightly unbelievable] turn of events. Nevertheless, last Tuesday found me and Daniel T., Steven T., Grace T., and Elissa K., going up to Purcellville, VA to meet with an Advent intern to pick up and train on the equipment! It was a 10 hour round trip, but it was an amazing time. We didn't really know what they were going to give us, but we figured maybe a camera and a couple of accessories. It turns out that they were giving us a ton more than that. We were amazed as Miss Intern showed us a stack of flight cases containing a great camera, lighting fixtures, mics, audio, and the list just went on! In all, it was like a text book setup. We were so excited as we put it in the car and I drove back home with Steven and Elissa. This week is the start of shooting for a teaser trailer that is scheduled to be done soon. Very, Very, cool. Please pray, and I'll send you all to our film website once we get it up and running =) Another cool development in my personal life, was that I've been working on my application for the GenJ Leadership Corps. When we went to Purcellville, I had finally gotten it ready, and was able to deliver it to the head GenJ office. [very handy ;) I didn't expect to hear back too soon because the website said they'd get back in no less than 10 days. To my surprise, I got a call the next afternoon saying that I had been accepted and would I be available to be a counselor at the iGovern camp at Patrick Henry at the end of the month. This was one of the big reasons I wanted to get my application in quickly, so I was very blessed to see the Lord work in that way. With both of these subjects it has been very cool to see God confirm and propel these desires that I had been feeling were from Him, but had not really been given a clear go-ahead on. Needless to say, it was a great reminder of the fact that the plan that God has for me and my life is the absolute A #1 best way it could ever go. Sometimes I [and maybe you too] get afraid and worried when we don't see how our hopes and dreams will [or even could] play into the "hum-drum" of our immediate circumstances. I know that I don't really want to set my jaw and plunge down my own path of life, but it can be very disconcerting in our limited mindset to just do the next thing the Lord places in front of us and not calculate the probabilities or percentages of how everything could, or might, or should work out. I believe that God wants us to hope and imagine and dream, and the answer to this question is not to just nip our hopes in the bud and bury our dreams in the sand of impossibilities, but to ask the Lord for the hope and faith to trust that the plan is incredible and the desires that He gives us will not just be washed down the drain. Also, God has been reminding me that His plan will never leave me with regrets or feeling like I missed out on something better. His plan was custom made for me before time began. It is the most fulfilling, most moving, most inspiring story that could ever work out in my life. Pretty hopeful ;) So anyways, this is why I've been [and will be] busy, but I will endeavor to keep you all up to date on your post shots and I hope you've all enjoyed this one :)

So the Healthcare Bill passed. Now What?

Hey guys, this is an email that I sent out to our Generation Joshua club regarding this recent healthcare bill. I hope you all enjoy it, and please consider signing Cuccinelli's petition online.
Thanks for reading, and I'll post again soon!



From the office of the President:

Hey everyone, how's it going? If you have been following the recent developments related to the health care bill, you know that the House of Representatives voted to pass this highly controversial bill last Sunday, March 21st. You know, right about now is when we can become very discouraged as conservative Christians in the United States of America. We've protested, we've written letters to newspapers and civic leaders, we've prayed for this bill not to pass, some of us have been full-out front line fighters on this issue, and yet, the votes were cast, and the results were in favor of the health care bill. Was all our prayer and work and energy for nothing? Is this just one more example of how useless it is to resist because the Federal government will do and get away with whatever it wants despite what many of us believe is unconstitutional legislation? Is it one more reason to avoid speaking out or being involved in the politics of our nation? Is this one more nail in the coffin of the voice of Truth and Justice? Have we simply wasted our breath? Well ladies and gentleman, I'm here to say that by no means is any of this true. I firmly believe that this is the Lord's nation no matter what our people or leaders may say or do to the contrary. There is still a remnant [and not a small one either] of true Americans who acknowledge the rightful authority of the King of Kings. If we tuck our tails and go home because of a parliamentary defeat, then that means that our hope and confidence was not where it should have been. Now don't get me wrong; I'm not saying, "Oh, don't worry about it. It's not that big of a deal, worse stuff has happened, just chill out". No, that's not at all what I'm saying. What I am saying though, is that as Christians, our Hope, our confidence, and our initiative, should come from the fact that no matter what setbacks or "defeats" we may experience as ambassadors for Christ, we are on the side that ultimately wins. The Lord's sovereign plan is in no way changed by the vote of a congress, and we can have peace in that fact. In His word, Jesus tells us, "I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." [John 16:33] You see, we are the salt and the light to a world without peace. A world without hope. We all know there is trouble in this world, we experience it every day. The difference is, we have a Lord who cares and who has completely overcome this world and all of its troubles. Jesus Christ has overcome the world, not Obama, not Nancy Pelosi, not the TEA Party, not the PRA, not any anti-healthcare bill, and most certainly not this health care bill. This should leave us with a huge amount of hope and passion to not settle for this in our nation, which is the Lord's nation. It should spur us on in our efforts to proclaim the crown rights of Jesus in our country. That's one of the reasons I'm writing this email. If you haven't heard yet, our recently-elected attorney general Mr. Ken Cuccinelli, has, with about 10 or so other AGs from around the nation, decided to contest the legality of this move by the federal government. This is a huge undertaking, and there are those who would tell Mr. Cuccinelli that he's just wasting his time, he'll never win, etc., etc. Thankfully though, our attorney general is taking the line of John Quincey Adams who said, "Duty is ours, results are God's". If the people of this nation listened the nay-sayers every time we had a tough decision to make, I doubt that this nation would have ever come into existence. We must boldly execute what duties have been entrusted to us, and not step into the snares of probabilities and percentages. Okay, so here's where we come in: Mr. Cuccinelli can't do this alone, and he shouldn't have to. We need to do what we can to help stand up for our rights and the rights of our state. So how do we do that? Well to start with, you can go to http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stopthemandate/ and sign Ken's petition that deals with this whole subject. Also, please email your friends and family and ask them to consider signing this petition also. Please pray for our leaders and ask the Lord to give them His heart and wisdom as they make decisions in and for our nation. All of us here at TACT GenJ, would love to hear from any of you all in relation to this subject, in relation to starting you own GenJ club, in relation to doing a GenJ presentation at your church or school, or if you just want to say hey that's fine too! Well hey, thank you so much for taking the time to read this message, and for your continued support and effort for Christ in your communities and this nation as a whole!
May God bless you all, and may God bless America!

Sincerely,

Daniel W. Heffington, TACT President
--
http://www.tidewatersactiveconservativeteens.blogspot.com/
Faith. Duty. Courage.
http://www.generationjoshua.org/

Hooray!

Hi everybody! I just wanted to give you all some news that I heard yesterday but didn't post on the blog. [drum roll please.] ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta-rat-tat-tat! Here it is: at church I was informed that the results were in for the Parental Rights ProClaim Video Contest! And not only that, but we placed 2 Times!!! We came in first place in the Youth category with the older kid commercial, and second place in the commercial category [all ages if I'm correct]! Here's a big thank-you to everyone who helped out with those projects. They were a ton of fun and I can't wait to do the next one! Thank you God also for allowing our little commercials to do really well in a nation-wide contest! You know, we really had a great time working on the videos and it also was a great chance to have to put into words and shots our beliefs and convictions about this battle in our country. [though it was actually Grace Tate and her friends who planned most of that out:) [But we were like, "yeah that's just what I was thinking" ;) So anyway, it would have been still really fun if it never went any farther than that, but God decided to give us the encouragement of the contest results as well! I pray that this encourages us and spurs us on to proclaim the Lord's Truth even louder than before. So congratulations guys, and I hope to see you soon! Hey, if you haven't seen the finished commercials or you want to see them again, just click here [our videos are " We Too Support the Parental Rights Amendment" and "From the Very Beginning, Mom and Dad" See you all later!

Rainy Day

Good Morning everybody! Please do not be depressed by the title of this blog- I love rainy days! I'm excited as I see that Fall has definitely moved in. The air is cool and breezy and the "deciduous"[that's a big landscaper word for "trees that lose their leaves in the fall"] trees are really showing their colors. The Fall and most of Winter are some of my absolute favorite seasons. I know that my birthday's in there, but I don't think it's just that:) Well, here's some updates. "The King's Daughter" let our family borrow some DVDs. One featured Little Bear Wheeler and his talk about the life of William Wallace.[I'm finding some neat people in history that have my middle name for a first name.] That was really interesting, but I can't stand to hear about the way he died. The other DVD was Voddie Bauchum's talk on defending the Resurrection of Jesus. That was a great one as well. Okay, last night was GenJ and Cuccinelli's district campaign manager guy came and spoke to us about Ken and what we could do to help him if we were so inclined. If I can come up with some free time, I may be doing some door-to-door or sign waving or phone banking etc. [However, if you've been to my house recently, you've probably noticed my regiment of signs lining the road front]. Our aerating and seeding is coming along pretty well, and if we go to work today, I think we hope to finish. Hey did I mention that I'm reading the Federalist Papers? It's a book of editorials that were sent in to New York newspapers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, during the time that our country was deciding whether or not to ratify our constitution. These were called the Federalist Papers and were in support of the Constitution. Can you guess what the Anti-Federalist Papers were? Hope that you all have a good day, and I'll post again soon!

Hey

Good Sunday evening to you all. [I guess I should say ya'll if I live in the country:) Hope that everbody had a good time at church or whatever else you did for you heathens[hee!hee!]
Well, as for us, we hosted our home church at our house. The trip to church took forever though, all those stairs to walk down and everything:) So all of that went well. Uncle David brought his drum set over for worship time, and Dad played his bass while Katie, Justin, and I played our guitars. I always love that. After church, we had to eat lunch pretty quickly because I ended up taking Matthew, Rachel and Sarah to the Life Chain.[I explained what that is on yesterday's post] Anyway, we got our signs and ended up having enough people show up to line about two blocks of V.B. blvd. on both sides of the street! It was a really great time to pray for and think about the need for God to change our country's heart in relation to abortion. We got to see the Crane family afterwords, [Mr. David Crane is the local organizer of Life Chain and the president of Life Ministries]. It turns out that one of their daughters is engaged to an old friend of ours that we haven't been in touch with for a long time. That was cool. By the way, I think I got the info I posted yesterday kind of mixed up. Life Ministries did not start Life Chain, David Crane just organizes this chapter of it. But hey. So we had a good time with that, and I ended up switching cars with Mr. Larry to take the Wright boys home. He came over later and re-switched cars. So that's my day. I'll keep you all up to date this week, and I hope you all have a good week yourselves!