Only four days left!

Extended periods of silence on this blog usually mean craziness in the editing world, and this entire month pretty much proves that. That being said, in four days, the cat will be out of the bag, as it were, and all the awesomeness will be revealed! (Awesomeness...what a great made-up word..)

Anywho, until then, here's a message from Pastor Troy!


Don't miss this Weekend! from Flamingo Road Church on Vimeo.

Something big is coming...

Experiments in HD

Sooo....we've started using what little space we've got on our one P2 card to film small promo spots in HD for TV, and here is our first fully HD spot...maybe someday I'll post the early experiments that have people tinted in funny colors with pieces of their bodies cut off by the camera.

Mad props to our spokeswoman Ana and to Phil Lashley, our resident After Effects ninja, who made the killer background.

Enjoy!

FRC-192 Cutaway Intro - Ana from Mauricio Tinoco on Vimeo.

I soooo don't look this cool in real life

Bryan from NBphotographix came by church this week to take some headshots of the staff here to be a part of an art project....this is one of the many results:


It's my 30 year old twin!

A prophetic word?

HT to Candice Watters, contributor from The Boundless Line, who quoted this in an article centered around a great explanation on our current economic situation over at Tony Woodleif's blog (who may have got it from someone else, but that's as far as I can keep track of where credit is due on this one).

This was written in 1897:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.
-Alexander Tyler

...And from the looks of what I'm reading and seeing in the news, the cycle is in full swing.

Thanks, Mr. Spencer

It's an emo night...I can feel it. Sometimes it just hits me, this mentally-and-emotionally drained kind of frustration with where things are at the moment. Even Heroes had that kind of Ecclesiastes kind of vibe to it, all the characters running around trying to make a difference and never really getting anywhere (and what was the deal with Peter starting to use Sylar's power and attacking his own mother like that? Craziness!). Guilty pleasures aside, it's the Dip, as Seth Godin puts it.
The only reason I mention it is because I frequently need to be reminded more than I need to be informed when times like these come around, and posts like this one help keep things in perspective for me. You should definitely check out that link and see his site if you haven't...I just quoted the whole post here because I liked it. If I've still got this blog when I've gotten over the self-consciousness of baring my soul on the internet, you'll be seeing more of this kind of honesty in the stuff I write. At the moment, though, I can totally identify with what he's saying.

Some Christians love to talk about the sins of Obama or gays or the mainstream media, but get really animated when I suggest we need to talk about our own, even if they are listed in the Bible dozens of times.

If the Gospel isn’t grabbing you by the real sins in your real life, just exactly what is the Gospel doing for you? Or you with it?

I don’t like the fact that I can give a really good talk on prayer when I rarely pray.

I don’t like it that I can read Matthew 5:23-24 and, as far as I can recall, never take a single step toward obeying it.

I don’t like that I can sin and then condemn someone else’s sin in almost the same breath.

I don’t like it that I’m convinced people need to understand me, but I take so little time to understand others.

I regret that I’ve spent so much of my life seeking to make myself happy in ways that never led to real happiness at all.

I don’t like it that I’ve accumulated so much stuff I don’t need, and I’m so reluctant to give it away.

It causes me real sorrow that I’ve said “I love you” far to little in my life, especially to the people I love the most.

I don’t like the fact that some of my students think I’m a hero, when I’ve done nothing more than be an unprofitable servant.

I hate the difference between what I know and what I do.

I hate the fact that I can use words like “radical” describing what others should do in following Jesus when I’m the first one to want to play it safe.

I don’t like that part of me that thinks everyone should listen to what I say.

I wish I could see myself as God sees me, both in my sinfulness and in the Gospel of Jesus.

I regret using so little of my life’s time, energy and resources for worship and communion with God.

I despise that part of me that always finds fault, and uses that knowledge to put myself above others.

I am embarrassed by the words I use that come so easily from the tongue but have little root in the heart.

I regret taking so few risks in the cause of living a God-filled life.

I despise the shallowness of my repentance for sin that has caused hurt and pain for others.

I don’t like that part of me that can make up an excuse, even lie, almost endlessly in the cause of avoiding the truth and its consequences.

I don’t like that I can talk of heaven in a sermon or at a funeral, but very little of me wants to go there.

I regret that I have loved my arrogant self far than I’ve loved my self humbled in Christ.

I regret that so much good advice, good teaching and good example was wasted on me.

But I am glad for the endless mercies of the Lord, and the amazing fact that those mercies extend to me, today and every day.

I am glad that Christ my substitute took this sorry life, pathetic obedience and lethargic worship and exchanged it for his perfect righteousness.

I am glad that the Holy Spirit is remaking and raising dead men- even at age 52.

I am glad that one day I will look at all these failures and regrets and they will have been transformed into the very glory of Jesus Christ himself.

I am glad that God has cast the very things I most dislike about myself into the depths of the sea and has removed them as far as the east is from the west.

I am glad that when I return in shame and embarrassment, my Father meets me running, covers me with his gladness and throws me a party in the presence of the naysayers and pharisees.

I am glad that Jesus takes these things I loathe about myself and says “It is finished. Come you good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Today you will be with me in paradise.”

I am glad Jesus says “Before I have called you servant, but now I will call you friend.”

I am glad Jesus says “Who condemns you? There is now no condemnation because you are in me and I am in you. If I am for you, who can be against you? Go, and sin no more.”

I'm glad, too.

Prepare to be inspired

Carlos Lascano somehow managed to compress Steph and I's story into a two minute video!

...Or at least this is how I would romanticize it if I had put this together. Seriously, though, this is worth watching a couple of times. I'm proud to be able to work in the same field as guys like this:


A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.


...And it was done mostly with cardboard, paper, and wires. You can read here about how he put it together. Enjoy!

My co-workers are better then yours ;)

They sang and everything...the media team ROCKS!

Stephanie

I could also title this post, Why My Wife is Awesome!

Here is a post she put up over at that other really cool blog I write for, The Elevate Blog. 

I love it whenever she writes or teaches, because she has a way of communicating to the women in our college ministry that leaves a lasting impression each time she takes the lead. I couldn't ask for a better partner in ministry, or a better friend.

Check this out!

As Mauricio and I are sitting down watching CNN's Anderson Coopers's 360 show have discussions about the bailout being rejected and covering Sarah Palin's campaign (discussing it heavily) especially as the vice presidential debates gets closer this Thursday...

One of the commentators mentioned that part of the preparation for the debates is to have a mock-debate where they ask her questions and see how she will answer. They will take measures to ensure she is knowledgeable so she is able to answer "authentically" as opposed to being a puppet and having an advisor speak through her... Hmmmmm..... Now, please don't mistake this post with promoting one political party or candidate over another... it's definitely not about that!

But honestly, that comment is still echoing in my mind.... "she needs to answer authentically" Why? I found the comment very interesting especially considering the discussion tonight in Elevate. Why is authenticity so important during this presidential campaign? Do you trust the platform you're planning to vote on? Do you feel they're authentic enough that they've won your authentic vote? Think about it.... if you don't trust a candidate and feel they're genuine, then you probably won't buy into what they "so-called" represent. Its kind of similar to our relationship with Christ!

...want to read more? Then hop on over to the Elevate blog!

Falling Slowly

I can't believe it's taken me this long to discover The Swell Season...ah, well. Better late than never, I suppose...

Adventures in Ministry

Okay, the just the facts:

1) This weekend, Flamingo Road Church brought over 20,000 pounds worth of water and supplies for Haiti relief.

2) We brought two trucks to collect the supplies. We should have brought four.

3) Supply trailers shouldn't be parked on soft grass, especially when they tip over while filled with a team of church volunteers (and 1 cameraman) packing it with water.

4) Now we are donating a crane

What Ian likes to do while things are rendering...

*Actually, he does productive stuff all the time, I just happened to catch him in one of his stir-crazy moments after a really long day

Lifechange @ Flamingo

I would have posted this earlier, but I needed a few days to recover from the archives-raiding extravaganza that was last week's production schedule...Two days of frantic tape-raiding with eight volunteers and three playback stations running almost continuously (and we still have almost an entire wall of shelves full of tapes we hadn't gone through) yielded its prize: a sick look back at some of the most inspiring interviews profiling the life change that we get to be a part of on a daily basis at Flamingo.

We are a blessed little crew.



Life Change from Flamingo Road Church on Vimeo.

Duude!

My wife plays Rock Band.....that is so hot!

Why the FRC Media Team loves the office staff

I have to admit, we media guys get lonely sometimes. We're in an entirely different building than pretty much everyone else on staff, so when everyone else is celebrating a birthday or freaking out because someone's water broke in the middle of a meeting (which hasn't happened yet, by the way), we continue to edit video behind our glowing screens, blissfully oblivious to all the action that happens next door.

But not today, because today, we got brownies!


Much love to Beverly, who is Garland's assistant and our current favorite person in the office (behind Vicky, who writes our paychecks)

Question

Could Mauricio pull this off?

More Than a Game Epilogue

...and here is the finished product:




More Than a Game Trailer 02 from Flamingo Road Church on Vimeo.

More than a Game

Whew! Sorry for the lack of posting lately, things have been happening a mile a minute here in my world. I've actually been doing more journaling on my own than posting, mainly because there are a lot of things I'm thinking through right now, some of which I'm sure will end up showing up on this page in the near future. 

In the meanwhile, here is the giving video from last week:

Pretty sweet, huh?

Well, that was only the beginning, because we now have a Pre-teaching video (that's the video we use for set changes right before Pastor Troy comes onstage to bring the Word) that we've got to design for the upcoming series that has that same gritty feel.

Fortunately for us, we've got musical fusion-making maniacs like Pastor Brian Fuller who make this easy for us video guys by producing tracks that are so good, they make you want to slap your grandma.

You can listen to it here.

Man, I love this job!

I just stuck my toes into

...the twitter pool...I may have a new addition to that sidebar on the right pretty soon...

Oops

I am soooooo glad that this has never happened to Pastor Troy. 

Here's the gist of it:

KKOKOMO, Ind. - A pastor brought out a dirt bike during a church service to demonstrate the concept of unity. Now he's demonstrating the concept of healing.

Jeff Harlow, the senior pastor at Crossroads Community Church, broke his wrist when he lost control of the motorcycle at the start of Sunday's second service, driving off a 5-foot platform and into the vacant first row of seats. He underwent surgery on the wrist Monday.

"Jeff has already laughed a lot, so he's OK. I think his pride was bruised," said his wife, Becky.

Indeed. I'm really glad he's okay and that no one got hurt. Still, the part of me that will garner angry emails for saying the following can't help thinking about the kinds of things that could happen as Pastors continue to get more creative with stage props. Maybe we can start calling them Stunt Pastors. It will be a new kind of extreme sport :-p

Caption please?

This was taken at a recent video team shoot....any caption ideas?

Post F3 Report

It was a blast. Really. 

I'm pretty sure that all of our volunteers want our jobs, which is a good thing, I think. I'll leave the details to Heredes (along with all of the finished video entries), but since you came all the way here, here's our demo reel for 2008, which we premiered at F3. Enjoy!

On the practical end, all this frantic video production meant that the office became something of a disaster area over the weekend...so we had to clean...

Si vous ple?, Part Two!

Okay, so last time I was digging through 2 Samuael 7  because it really spoke to what I was feeling after spending the evening at The Rendezvous, another college ministry that meets in town. I was thinking about it all and decided to blog it.

As a leader, I'm learning that my favorite people to work with are the ones who I don't have to chase after to get their job done. I would much rather redirect a person by giving minor course correction (or even pick them back up if they failed while trying) than to motivate someone who didn't have initiative in the first place, and I'm pretty sure that's one of those traits that God really liked about David.

Moral of the story: it's better to get out there and do the good you know to do than to wait on writing from the sky.

The ugliest fish I've ever seen

This fish is so ugly, it's funny....this, I think, is proof that God has a sense of humor...

Don't say I didn't warn you...

Si vous ple?, part one

Field trip! 

Tonight about 15 of us from Elevate piled into our cars and went to visit the folks over at The Rendezvous. They are a college ministry that meets at Trinity Church in Miami, and let me tell you, they are knocking that ministry out of the park over there.  Think 7|22 meets calle ocho.

What really got me fired up was the conversations I was able to have with the guys in leadership there.

If you were leading a group that in less than a year went from 40 to over 900, you might be tempted to put on some airs about you, and in some circles, that might be expected. What thrilled me was meeting a crew of people who were passionately committed to following God into what was, and in many ways still is, unfamiliar territory, while being totally aware of Who was really behind it all. I came away from our conversation inspired to run even harder after the potential that our own gathering has.

It got me to thinking of a passage I read this morning from 2 Samuel on the YouVersion app I downloaded to my iPhone yesterday (which will probably be its own post in the near future. Here's the synopsis: go and download YouVersion now).

It's the seventh chapter, and since I'll probably misquote it if I try to recite it from memory (don't look at me like that; you don't have it memorized either), you can read it here so that we're on the same page.

One of the things I love about David (besides him being a musician) is that he had initiative. He went after Goliath without waiting for word from a prophet, and he has that same gumption (I'm not from the South; can I  use that word?) later in his life when the time comes to build a temple. 

Granted, God stops him before he builds it, but what gets me is that God doesn't get mad at him for it. God doesn't put a wall in front of him, he redirects him. 

Interesting thought, huh?

I'll finish this one later...until next time...

Back in the Day...

In light of our upcoming film festival, I thought it might be nice to show you guys the kinds of videos I used to help make back in high school. 

Comments welcome :)


HT: Eric "DJ Otaku" Mesa

What I'm doing right now....

I've discovered a new hobby that I probably should have gotten into a long time ago: Web hunting for other college ministries.

I have the privilege of working with and for people who believe with all their hearts that if you're going to invest time doing something, you may as well knock it out of the park (and when it comes to what we do each weekend, you'd better).

I am also in the fun position of being in charge of a college ministry that is larger and more successful than anything I've ever led thus far and has more possibilities than I can legibly write down in the short amount of time I'm taking to post this, so, having come to the conclusion that it's more fun to learn from other people's mistakes so that you can make your own and not theirs, I am now jumping from website to website trying to find people who know more than me so I can bother them or buy them lunch, whichever comes first (Rich Wilkerson Jr., I'm looking in your direction).

So tell me, who's mistakes are you trying to learn from?

So, Mauricio, how'd your staff meeting with the video team go the other night?

Creative breaks are fun!

Are there any other caption ideas that I should know about?

F3 is coming

July 25 & 26 @ Flamingo Road Church

Good thoughts on a Wednesday

Today has been a good day for blog roaming.

-Daniel Decker just got added to my RSS reader; he recently posted a video that is pretty much going to haunt me for the rest of the week.

-Rob Bell's new book is coming soon! October can't come soon enough, as far as I'm concerned.

-This morning I was listening to the potential podcast from a few weeks ago (I'm trying to get caught up to the most recent ones)...if any of you want to know what it means to lead at Flamingo Road Church, download the mp3 here.

Called it like it is

Today my bad blogging habits finally caught up to me.

Thank you Stacie for pointing out the error of my ways.

BBS, or more accurately, The Perfect Groomsmen Gift

A few months ago, I was walking in a store called "Things Remembered" on an intense hunt for a gift for my groomsmen. Frustration. Everything I saw was (in my opinion) either cheesy or already had a cousin sitting in my desk drawer gathering dust from previous weddings I'd been a part of (monogrammed sterling silver bookmark, anyone?).

I was worried that I would have to settle for the monogrammed lighters, or worse yet, money clips (sorry to those of you who have gifted me with those. I have all three of them safely tucked away in the bottom of my desk drawer) when I happened to come across an article over at one of my favorite blogs called "How to Shave Like Your Grandpa." If that doesn't sound cool, I don't know what does.

Anywho, long story short, I got inspired to invest in the cost of buying new Merkur Classic Safety Razors #178 (Made in Germany! Oh yeah!) for my guys and one for myself. I had never heard of giving safety razors as a gift, and I knew that none of the guys owned one, so it was a pretty safe bet to assume that that they would actually use them.

So how did it go, you ask?

Well, I took the razor to my face for its first test drive two Sundays ago and ended up wearing little squares of toilet paper on my face for most of the morning.  However, undaunted, I did some research and later invested in some higher quality shaving cream in order to prepare for the next match up.

Last night was the night, and let me tell you, it was heavenly. I'm fairly certain that I have rediscovered shaving the way God intended. I didn't know shaving could be so much fun. I really wanted to put all the hair back on my face and do it again when I was finished. BBS (Baby Butt Smooth) doesn't do the experience justice.

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I decided to blog about the experience and recommend safety razors to anyone as the ultimate manly groomsmen gift. 

So there you go. If anyone wants my old Gillette quattro, it will be sitting at the bottom of the medicine cabinet, hanging its head in shame.

Traditional wet shave - 1
Plastic Cartridge Razors - 0 

Yeah, buddy.

A month and two days later....

Alrighty, I've had a good solid month to try to adjust to the nearly indescribably (for me, anyway) profound life change that happened on May 23, and so now it's time to get back into blog world and start writing about it.

Before I dive into that, though, here are a couple of relevant links I'd like to plug for you:

-All of the wedding pictures are now up at our webpage, so feel free to head on over there, comment, add to them, or download them. The URL is www.tinocosanchez.com.

-While this isn't strictly wedding-related, Steph and I do work with Elevate, the college ministry at Flamingo Road Church, and they happen to have a blog. Check it out!

Alrighty. So the big question is, "how was it?," the definition of "it" varying depending on whether I was talking to guys or girls (it's kind of funny how that works like that, isn't it?). For now, I'm going to define "it" as the entire experience (and I'll probably have to dedicate an entire post to just stories from the trip, because there were a ton of stories).

There were two things that I was aware of right from the start. One: life can and does operate on two separate levels, and Two: We choose what level it operates on.

Our ceremony was amazing, it really was, but as I'm thinking back now, I realize that for some people, it was just a ceremony. A slightly more important day on the calendar, but still a day.

We didn't approach it that way, mainly because we understood on what level we wanted to experience this day. We firmly believe that God was there, and that on this side of the trip, we are one, and as such, now relate together to God in a way that we didn't before we were married and had the honeymoon. But the way some people ask about it (a small minority, btw), one would get the impression that it was all about the honeymoon.

You see? Two levels.

It's a little trickier to see on "normal" days (as it there were such a thing), but the dynamic is there nonetheless.

And so, Jacob wakes up one morning and calls the place Bethel, because God was there and he didn't see it until just now.

And so, Moses turns aside to a bush that he may have walked past a thousand times, because now he notices that there is something profound going on.

Is it just a day, or is it something deeper?

Or is everything an accident?

This is how I think the rot settles into a marriage; everything turns provincial, and it stops being profound. 

And so, I'm trying to train myself to see life the way God sees it, to understand that the moments I live in have a purpose attached, and that the notion that any aspect of my life is somehow disconnected from what God is doing in this world is a selfish myth.

What level do you operate on?

Colombia!

Hey gang,

I'm sitting here in my cousin's bedroom, getting ready to knock out; I'm not officially married yet (48 hours!) so I guess it's okay for me to blog.

This will probably be the last thing I post for a while (if you see a something up here next week, it's probably a bad sign), but I had a lot on my mind, and thought it would be cool to look back on the kinds of thoughts that were going through my head in the days before Steph and I got married.

Simply put, this is turning out to be one of the best weeks of my life. Everywhere I look I see my family united and celebrating in a way I haven't seen in ages. I think the coolest thing about it is the realization of how blessed Steph and I truly are. Two years ago when we determined the direction our courtship was going to go in, I don't think either one of us had the slightest idea that the kind of moments we're experiencing this week could even happen. 

It's like God took what, at times, seemed like a tedious amount of obedience and went to work blessing it in masse. 

And now, in less than two days, I get to walk into a marriage more sure than I've ever been that this was the way it was always meant to be, that it was always going to be her. Moments like today as we rode in a carriage together through the old city in Cartagena are reminders that obedience is so worth it, that we didn't keep ourselves pure in vain.

I'm reminded that all of the bone-headed habits and self-centered ways of thinking that I'm having to break myself of daily are worth it because the effort puts me in a place where the kind of marriage dreams are made of isn't just a pipe dream, but rather becomes a distinct possibility.

I was talking to Matt at our table this evening (he's the officiating Pastor, by the way. I haven't done any fact checking on this, but all the same I'm pretty sure he's the first Arkansan to ever preside over a wedding in Colombia) about the whole thing, and we both realized how grateful we are to work at a church under a leader who teaches us to never quit in the pursuit of our full potential, and nights like tonight confirm that yes, it's worth it.

I realize that I'm writing this now to the young guy or girl who's wondering if pursing a relationship the way God asks us to in his word is worth it.

Please trust me when I say that it is.

This week is proof of it.

Thought Avalanche

I am sitting in my room trying to wrap my brain around the events that have transpired over the last week, but it's not really working.

Let me try again.

Did I really see almost 50 people experience a college ministry Monday night that not even a year ago was made up of 12 people in my backyard?

And Thursday? The night where Steph and I got to go have dinner with Matt & Jenn and talk over what our wedding ceremony is going to be like? That was fun in all kinds of ways, because it's no longer just me or just her, but it's starting to become an us. 

And then of course Friday night just blew my mind right out of the water....if you weren't there,  just know that it was a ceremony (service? Send-off? Roast? I still don't know quite what to call it. Any ideas, Brian?) that I will remember fondly for the rest of my life. The long and the short of it is, that I know some world class people.

Which is why I'm okay with writing a post that on the front end may look like a laundry list of how much better my week was than yours.

Collaboration. Around FRC, it's the notion that who you do life with matters. The quality of the people you spend your time around (or who allow you to spend your time around them on less endearing days) affects the quality of your life.

And thus, this week.

I get to lead a college ministry along with a crew of passionate and sharp people who practically run the thing like they were getting paid to do it, and so together we get to experience more relational success than we've ever had and the launch of a multi-campus college ministry.

The day Steph and I get married is going to be that much more special because the guy who's officiating it has been my friend for years.

And then Friday night was pretty much a culmination of all the things I love about the people I get to do life with. Steph and I are launching into married life knowing that we are surrounded by the best community of people we could ever have asked for...

So, yeah, this post can pretty much be summarized like this: the right people can make all the difference in a life.

only fifteen more days...

work, run, wedding, sleep, work, run, wedding, sleep, work, run, wedding, sleep.....

Holy cow!

It's May 1!!!! 

You know what that means??

I'm getting married in 22 days!

I feel like this cat right now:

My life right now

A sample itinerary in inner monologue form for all you folks wondering where all my posts went:

~ 5:30 am ... Wake up. 

Freak out because you have less than a month until your wedding. 

Calm down.

Work on wedding stuff until time to leave for work (the quiet time goes somewhere in here usually).

~ 8:30 am ... Make phone calls while driving.

Church stuff until lunch

~ 12:30 ... Insert wedding stuff and possible meal here (with phone calls thrown in for good measure).

~ 2 PM ... Return to church and edit/schedule/shoot/produce/design/yank out hair until dinner time.

~ 8 PM ... Find food while working on/thinking about wedding stuff.

~ 9 PM ... Go see Stephanie and remember why I'm doing all this.

~ 11 PM ... Go home and work some more on wedding stuff or random posts so people know you're alive. Try to carve out time for silence and stillness so you don't go crazy.

~ 2 AM ... Sleep.

Throw in meetings, location shoots, planning/teaching college ministry, seeing my fiancé, and the occasional bathroom break, and it's a wonder that I'm still able to function sometimes...however, considering the fact that I get to marry Stephanie when all's said and done, I'd say that it's worth it.

 

29 days, people. 29 days.

AHEM

I will be married in 34 days. 

That is all.

(insert barely-contained glee)

VEGAS!!

Okay I'm not gonna lie to you...(LOL), the only reason I'm blogging is because Miggie brought a wireless card and Phil is taking a shower before we head off to the convention for day two (for the seven of us that arrived yesterday) of the awesomeness.

I don't have time to give the full rundown, so bullet points will have to do:

*The convention is still too big to take in even though we have four days here.

*We met The Real Nick Jones, along with Mark Dawson and Warren Hough from Lifechurch.tv...what a great group of guys!

*The Monte Carlos is about 60 1/2 times better than the Stratosphere was last time I was here

...Uh oh, it's time for breakfast...catch you later!

*is awesomeness even a word? I dunno...I'm using it anyway

Editing break

Check out what I found during my creative break today!

I liked this song full band, but with the one acoustic guitar it sounds sick! Wait until the 2:21 mark...then you'll see what I mean...

Hat tip: Ian & Phil for discovering it for pointing me in the right direction!

Easter Recap '08

12 tapes, 7 volunteers, and three days worth of editing later...


Easter '08 Recap from Flamingo Road Church on Vimeo.

Equipment: Canon XL-1 {} Sony HVR-A1U {} Panasonic AVG DVX-100B {} Panasonic Handicam from Best buy {} Apple Motion {} Final Cut.

Peeps: Luis, Javy, Evan, Stacey, Jeff, Maria,Alex, Ian, & Phil. Heredes brought food (and direction :).

If you feel left out of the loop, I'm sorry

If you're in any way involved or planning on attending either of Stephanie and I's wedding ceremonies, you should pop on over to our website and check the blog over there for regular updates...you might miss some important travel info without meaning to. 

And besides, it's a pretty sick website for a guy who's never designed one before (Thankyou, iWeb!). 

There's your sign

I can tell when my life has become a little too tightly structured when I find myself awake at 1:00 AM on a Saturday cruising blogs just because I need some kind of unscheduled time to let my mind wander to things besides work and wedding planning...I was going to take a walk around my neighborhood, but that would involve the putting on of shoes, and frankly, playing guitar sounds like a better option, so there I go.

I think I need to go camping...

Before I depart, props to:

-Stacie for the insightful letter from God.

-Evan for having a blog

-Heredes for pointing me to John Mayer's blog (bookmark!)

-Wagonsdeep for getting me all fired up about what's possible in this business.

-J. Budziszewski...I haven't read office hours in ages and forgot how much I enjoy his writing.

Sam

Thursdays for me are always cool days in that I get to experience the novelty of actually putting my degree to work.

Most days are spent in media producer land, but on Thursdays I give saxophone lessons in the afternoon, and today I was reminded once again of why I love teaching.

Sam hit her first G above high F#, which officially puts her two notes into the altissimo range on her horn. On its own it's impressive, but in the context of the last six months of working towards something she's never done and seeing what seemed like little to no results for months on end, it's huge. And she's not even in high school.

Anyway, I mention it only to draw attention to the point of it all: persistence matters.

Chechanie

Last night I was in the middle of one of those great 2:00 AM phone conversations with Stephanie when a really neat realization struck me.

I have the ability to to make Stephanie the happiest fiancé in the world.

Now, that's a neat privilege.

Oops

Hey there, kiddos...
I know, it's been ages since I've made a proper post...Easter will do that to you- correction, Easter while working in full-time ministry in the United States will do that to you.

Anywho, to sort of make up for it, I'm attaching a small diagram of various things I've been up to over the past few weeks (notice how all of it is church-related)

Actually, the truth is that there are way more cool things to write about than I really have the time or the energy for at the moment, so I'm going to be lame and reference Heredes' blog. He's got all of the facts and sums it up nicely. Suffice it to say that we're still trying to recover some of the sleep we missed over the last two weeks.

Given all that went down, though, I'd say it was worth it...here's one of the videos the team put together last week. It was filmed on Thursday morning at 8 am and finished Friday around 7:30 am, an occurrence which probably won't be happening anymore once I'm  married. 

Enjoy!

Graveyard Video-RationaLIES from Flamingo Road Church on Vimeo.

"Hey Phil! Look at that funny stain in the parking lot. Do you have your camera?"

I HEART my job...

I was supposed to post this last week after we finished putting this video together, but I got a little sidetracked (Steph and I are getting married in less than three months. Cut me a little slack), so to make up for it, I'll post two videos for the price of one:

So...this is what I and the the team get to do for a living (unless you're talking about our volunteers, in which case they are way more hard core than us paid sissies, because they actually make a living doing something else, but come in at all hours anyway).

In case you're interested, here are some facts about said videos:

-This is all Photoshop CS3 and Apple Motion

-We pre-composed pretty much everything; nearly everywhere you see a blank screen, even for a frame, it marks where we pre-exported our stuff and reimported it into another project file (even with 12 gigs of RAM in my tower, the lighting effects alone in that second trailer would have crashed the computer pretty quickly.

-Both of them took about three-and-a-half days to pull off, although that mainly included some really late nights (It's 3:30 AM on a Saturday morning and I'm writing this as my final render is exporting)

All that being said, it's still the best job I've ever had (although being a clown assistant ranks a close second.)

....Okay, my render is done. It's time for me to go home and not wake up until after the sun comes up.

Peace!

Oh my word....

Jesus Is: Remix is my new favorite album...you should all go to iTunes right now and download it and then play it many times.

The remix of "Where the Love Lasts Forever" is suh-weeeeet! Especially where they replaced the I-V-vi-V progression in the hook with the IV-V-vi, just to make it sound more hip...yeah, the song now sounds like about six other trance tunes you've heard fifty times, but I still like it. Yeah, I know it's Hillsong and that I work in ministry, which pretty much means that every one of their songs is my favorite worship song of all time, but this one is really good, I promise.

1+1=1

I think that one of the coolest things that Steph and I get to do together is work with the college ministry here at FRC. Her work schedule is a little tough right now so she can't go as often as she likes, but when she's around, it really adds value to what I do. At least it feels that way to me.
I can remember talking to her on the phone as we were discussing different observations we had about our group. The whole time I was wondering what it was that I managed to get right along the way that allowed me to be here now, sharing the joys of a mutual passion with someone that I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. This is one of my favorite examples of grace.

It's so different from what I expected it to be. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. I had no idea of what to expect.
I'd never been in a courtship before, never been in a relationship that had this much potential to glorify God in some serious ways, and I definitely had never been in a relationship with a woman who flat out told me that she was willing to submit to my leadership - which, if you're ignorant, sounds like a free pass, until you realize that the flip side of all that privilege is the responsibility to do the whole "love your wife as Christ loved the Church" deal ("With great power, comes great responsibility, Peter").

And it is a big deal. I told the guys in the small group this much, too. The day I figured out that growing up isn't something that just happens to you was one of the best things I ever learned, because it meant that I wasn't somehow excluded from manhood because I happen to be a knucklehead. It just meant that I had to learn a whole lot of discipline (I haven't watched cartoons in at least six months, for starters :)

It's a really big deal. I get to do something I love to do with someone I love to do it with, and we get to be a part of some seriously God-glorifying life change...I don't know that I've had many feelings like this one, this sense of rightness that is telling me that I'm on the right path, that yeah, it's a fight, but that by the grace of God I'm also a different person than I was a year ago. In this moment, it's tough for me to balance it well against all of the other really cool moments I get to experience on a weekly basis, so I don't think I'll be trying to make any comparisons right now.
For now, I'm just grateful that I've got Stephanie Sanchez, and that she's got me.

Today

Today will be a good day.


Today is my day off, which means it's wedding planning day!

It's also the same that the gorgeous young lady in that photo over there has off from work, which means I get to spend time with her!

I love Tuesdays....

What do these men have in common?

Well, besides the fact that they are a bunch of goofballs, they are also going to be simplifying their lives by selling a bunch of their possessions at the World's Largest Garage Sale this Saturday from 8 AM to 11 AM at all of our campuses!
It's all for a good cause, so if you're looking for some items from the Tinoco, Lashley, or Papichulo collections (also known as the "Ian gives himself funny nicknames" collection), they will be available for sale for a limited time only (three hours).

Be the first to own a Book Read By Mo! Prepare to exhuberantly rejoice at the thought of owning an actual Paperweight Phil Used Just Last Month! Be thrilled at the prospect of bartering for that shirt Ian Wore Once And Promptly Forgot About Until Last Week When He Found It In The Back Of His Closet!

Seriously, though, all the proceeds from the sale are going to the American Cancer Society, so if you're anywhere in South Florida or in Lima, Peru or near any of our other locations, be sure to check it out!
C'mon! Make your Saturday count for something huge!
We'll see you then!

What I did this week

Well, besides running around like a maniac, continuing to plan a wedding, and all of the other myriad things that turn my days into blurs, I also managed to put this together.

Mad props to Phil for all the coaching...he'll make a motionographer out of me yet.

Enjoy!

Get LOST!

Soo....last night I took in my very first episode of Lost, which also happened to be the premier of season four. Better late than never, I guess.
Carlos & Michelle Garcia threw a Lost party, complete with Dharma soda, Dharma pizza, and yes, even Dharma Peanut Butter. Throw in an hour of Rock Band on X-Box and you've got yourself the place to be.

*Mad props and shout outs to Carlos, Michelle, Cristian, Gerson, Bert, Ian, Miggee, Olie, Pam, Kyle, & Rebecca!

On the Set

Hmmm....I'm trying to think of a good caption for this one. Any ideas?

What are you doing reading this post??

The polls are open till 7 PM today, so stop reading my blog and get out there and vote! (And then you can come back and read it all you want :)

-sent from my iPhone (driving down Flamingo Road on my way to the polls)*












*Calm down, I was at a red light.

You asked for it...

I've gotten several requests to post this, so here is last week's giving video, in all it's satiristic glory. Enjoy!

The Anniversary Post

Here's to the woman who makes my life sing. I love you, amor!

The Equation

Multiply this by n, and let n be equal to every other week when we forget to close the bathroom door upstairs, and the result is that our local dry cleaner knows us by name.

A Good Read

Every now and again, I find a good quote that I like to sit and marinate on for a bit, and occasionally - in my better moments - apply.

This week's quote is sponsored by the Christian Classics Ethereal Libray (notice the groovy link up there.)
Peep this:

Wherefore, if you see another sin openly or commit a serious crime, do not consider yourself better, for you do not know how long you can remain in good estate. All men are frail, but you must admit that none is more frail than yourself.

Some thoughts are able to find more traction in my head than others, and this is definitely one of them. Appropriately enough, the person who brings it to mind more often than anyone else is Stephanie.
If my fiancé has taught me anything, it's that I am way more selective in my personal application of Scripture (specifically in the area of good relationship practice) than I could have imagined before I met her.

For all you non-euphemism people out there, that basically means that I have lots and lots of room to grow. Maturity, Spiritual Leadership, Not sticking my foot in my mouth, you name it, and I probably need to work on it. Seriously, there's no cure for an overinflated estimate of yourself than spending large amounts of time with someone you're going to marry. It drove me nuts with frustration at first - I like getting things right the first time - but it's slowly starting to settle on me that learning how to love Stephanie is going to take at least the rest of my life.
This is a comforting (and slightly frustrating) thought.

The tricky part in all that, of course, is maintaining the understanding that I haven't arrived yet, and that I probably never will (not perfectly, anyway).
After all, the times I've landed myself in the worst messes were when I'd allowed myself to forget that. Which is why that quote is so helpful to me. I need reminders of my frailty, my tendency towards being Mr. Stupid rather than Mr. Right, not so that I'm beating myself down all day, but so that I'll be in the kind of frame of mind that will allow me to see and appreciate Stephanie for all that she is and even for what she isn't.
Knowing that I'm frail allows me to:

...approach her with gratitude, because I'm reminded that I'm hanging in here still by the grace of God and of Stephanie.

...focus on loving her PERIOD, rather than trying to "fix her" so she can love me better (which, by the way, doesn't work. Trust me.)

...realize that I need lots of and lots of prayer, because Mauricio is a bit of a dork and needs help.

...be ridiculously happy when I do get things right, because, now I know that it's proof of progress rather than a confirmation of how I think I have it all together.

Anyway, more on that later...the eyelids are getting heavy and I'm waking up in four-and-a-half hours to go get buff for my wedding.

Peace!

The finished product!

...and here is the end result of all the work from last week.
Apple Motion rocks...

Reason Mauricio loves Stephanie #124

I woke up this morning and found the following text message:

Jan 10, 2008 2:46 AM
On my way home...I know ur asleep but just letting u know ur on my mind



...I think she likes me. :)

Weekend Preview

We've been learning stuff this week!
Phil has been training me in the art of motionography, and so far it has been pretty sweet!

That being said, here's a preview of where we're headed with this weekend's giving video. It's way in the skeletal stages, but trust me, it'll look sick when we're done...sigh...I love my profession...

Adventures in Community

Okay, the pictures first, then the props.

My home group rocks.
Something really amazing and altogether unique happens each week when Stephanie, Heidy, Carson, Luis, Javier, Ryan, Matt, Jeff, Stacey, Stacie, Aimee, Leah, Aaron, Josh, Pablo, Eryn, Diana, Will, Evan, and I (and whoever else joins in) get together each Monday night; the best way to describe it is to say community happens.

Let me give a rundown of tonight, for example.
We started off like normal, all jokes and hugs and catching up with each other on what's been going on since the last time we all hung out, and then launched right into the meal. A little while later we were sitting together, everyone sharing about the kinds of lessons we all had learned in the past year. By the time we'd finished singing together in some acoustic worship (which is often the best kind) and talked over the second chapter of Ephesians, we'd been together for almost two hours, and no one was ready to leave.

That is so cool.

Anyway, I don't mention all that to talk up how great we are (tonight also included a neat little discussion on how none of us are all that important, but God loves us anyway), but simply to point out that community, while risky and very intimidating at first, is well worth whatever effort you have to go through to achieve it.

Trust me, it is. And while you're in the trusting mood, trust me again when I say that it is work.
Anytime a group of people get together, there are going to be issues, and we've got our fair share of them; what I love about us, however, is the fact that in spite of all of that, we're still here, and we're still committed, and I'm grateful for the grace that allows a group as diverse and weird as we are to grow together and to spend time asking the important questions.

that being said (WARNING: SHAMELESS MINISTRY PLUG AHEAD), if you're involved at all at Flamingo Road Church and you're not involved in a small group, then this is me wagging my finger at you and clicking my tongue in a very disappointed way. Shoot me an email or check out our website if you need info.

While I'm at it, if you're not plugged into a ministry, you should join one. Like the video team. We're amazing and we work for a guy named Heredes. With a name like that, you know it's got to be good. Also, according to this very blog we are dead sexy video men. Word up.

Okay, I'm done with the plugs. It's time to knock out.
The video team is going to the gym tomorrow morning at 6 AM, and I intend to stay awake for the duration of the work out.

Peace!

As I suspected...

81%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

Arrrrrr!

So...we're here, about 140 days or so away from the big day (aren't you excited??), and it occurred to me that I haven't really talked about anything directly wedding-related in quite some time.

I've decided to share the theme of our wedding with you. Yes, you, dear reader.
the theme of the Sanchez-Tinoco wedding will be...PIRATES!


I have to admit, I was a little perplexed when Steph first informed me that this was what she wanted as our theme. The first image that popped into my head looked pretty close to the photo on the left over there, so reconciling that with the vision I had in my head of holy matrimony (which did not include George Bush with an eye patch) was a problem at first.

Fortunately for me, however, I'm learning to walk in the liberating truth that Mauricio is much happier when Stephanie is happy, which simplifies the decision-making process quite a bit in the wedding planning department.

...I'm sorry. I was momentarily distracted by that picture. I'm the one who put it there and I still think it's hilarious.

Arrrr!!!!

www.tinocosanchez.com