We have made some progress in our lighting and rendering! Praise God! Please continue to pray for this area of the film, we are so close to the film being finished.
It's been a great first full week ofLent here at the office. We are currently working on a new website and we are excited to be able to share it with you soon! Till then please continue to help spread the word about our Spiritual Adoption Campaign. We have 465 babies spiritually adopted!
Speaking of babies, check out a couple of the latest pictures of the baby in Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage.
We pray you have a wonderful weekend and don't forget to have some Cuban Coffee! Here is the latest Fruit Basket video. Oh one more thing... Lumen Entertainment is now on Pinterest! Please don't hesitate to follow and re-pin our pins. It's another great way to help spread Lumen Entertainment to the masses who still do not know we exists. Thank you for your prayers and support! ~ Lumen Crew
What a wonderful feast day in our Church. We pray that you have had a great weekend and our enjoying your Monday. It's been a quiet day in the office for the most part. Brian and Carlos are working extremely hard on editing Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage. Nicol is busy updating our data base and working on the final amount that was raised during the month of December. We realize we said we would have the total last week, but more checks are still coming in. PRAISE GOD! We know we have met our goal for the fundraiser. We are truly grateful for all of your financial donations!
Song of the Week:Marvelous Light Sung by Thomas and Timothy
Challenge of the Week:Now that Christmas has officially ended on the Church calendar, are you still radiating Christ's peace and joy from Christmas? Remember Christmas peace and joy isn't found just in one season, but it is meant to be spread year around.
Quote of the Week:"Give me grace, O Lord, to do as you command, and command me to do what you will!" St. Augustine
Scripture of the Week: "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."~1Corinthians 10:31
Prayer Requests for the Week:
1. For Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage
2. All who are working on Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage
3. Continue financial and spiritual support of Lumen Entertainment
4. All of our benefactors
5. Lord will bring people to us to help complete Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage
We pray you have a wonderful and an abundantly blessed week. ~Lumen Crew
Happy 1st Sunday of Advent! We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. The Lumen Crew truly enjoyed their time with their family and friends. What a great way to end the Thanksgiving Holiday by kicking off Advent and the new Mass Translation. Speaking of Advent, don't forget it's not too late to order He is Coming to help teach or enhance your child's Advent season. Also our friends at Holy Heroes. We both are incredibly thankful for your support!
During this Advent season, some of the Lumen Crew has decided to do an Advent fast to prepare for the birth of our Lord and Savior! You can start now and it ends on Christmas Eve. It's some what like Lent and you do not have to give up something either. Maybe add something to what you already do everyday. You could add an extra 10 min a day to your prayer time, dive into scripture, attend daily mass, pray the rosary more often, or visit Jesus in Adoration. A priest had said in his homily, "what better way to prepare for the birth of Jesus than to spend time in prayer and in the scriptures." Let all of us be encouraged to prepare for the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
We pray you all have a great week and you all are in our prayers. See you on Friday for some Cuban Coffee and hopefully are mailing will be done and sent out!
Song of the Week: To help prepare for the Birth: O Come O Come Emmanuel by Shane & Shane
Challenge of the Week:What are you going to do to prepare for the birth of Jesus?
Quote of the Week:"God
walks into your soul with silent step. God comes to you more than you
go to Him. Never will his coming be what you expect, and yet never will
it disappoint." Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Scripture of the Week: Jesus said to his disciples:"Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come." Matt 13:33
Prayer Intentions for the Week:
1. Our Mailing for our the Final Push Fundraiser. That nothing may come against it.
2. For everyone who is working on Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage
3. For the continue financial and spiritual support for Lumen
How didkeeping it simplego this past week? Today's blog is inspired from Nicol attending the Casting Crowns Come to the Well tour on Thursday November 17,2011. Here are her thoughts...
My brother and I were blessed to receive last minute tickets to see Casting Crowns, The Afters, Sanctus Real, and Lindsay McCaul last Thursday. While we were at the concert, the lead singer from Casting Crowns explained why the tour and their latest album is called Come to the Well.
He said, one day while in prayer he had re-read the story about the Samaritan Woman at the Well(John 4). The Samaritan woman and Jesus were both talking about water, but the type of water was where they were differed. God began to show Mark(the lead singer) we are all like the Samaritan woman, we go to different "wells" to be "filled up." What are the different wells? It could be where we draw our identity based upon what others think about us or we get "filled up" by our jobs. The list could go on and on. We often turn to these wells to fill a place that was only meant for one "well," Jesus Christ. He is our living water, He is the well that is always overflowing and giving us our identity. When we draw from other people or things we end up dry and searching for more, but when we draw from Jesus we are never empty. It is that simple.
It doesn't matter where you are on your faith journey, this is a message we need to be reminded of. Mark is right, it is that simple. When I heard him say the word simple, it made me think of our blog we wrote a week ago and how much the message tied in with our blog. As we head into Thanksgiving, it is easy to get caught up in preparing for the big day and making sure everything is just right. Let us all remember to keep things simple with our prayer life and preparation for Thanksgiving day.
Speaking of Thanksgiving weekend, it is also the start of Advent! Don't forget to visit our good friends at Holy Heroesand The Altar Gang for great ideas to help teach your children or relatives about Advent.
Have a blessed and wonderful Monday! ~Lumen Crew
Song of the Week: Come to the Well by Casting Crowns
Challenge of the Week:
Getting in the habit of turning to Jesus first and visiting Him at the well.
Prayer Intentions for the Week:
1. Everyone who is traveling will be protected and safe from harm.
2. We will get the mail out finished by Wednesday.
3. Continue financial support for Lumen Entertainment and Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage
Quote of the Week:
"Everyone has a past, but through Jesus we all have a future."
What are the chances of the above picture happening?!?!!?! Well if you missed it, don't fret because you have the chance to see it tonight at 11:11pm :)
November is a packed month of different feast days and holidays. Today as we all know is Veteran's Day. Have you thanked a Veteran today? We want to encourage everyone to thank and pray for our Veterans! They all need encouragement and our prayers. Aside from it being a great day to reflect on our freedom, it is also St. Martin of Tours Feast day! St. Martin of Tours is the patron saint of soldiers. As we are praying for our veterans and current soldiers, let us ask for the intercession of St. Martin of Tours.
This month as you are gearing up for the start of the beautiful Advent Season, visit Advent Adventure. It's a great website with exciting teaching tools to help teach about Jesus and the Church. We pray you have a great weekend and may it be blessed abundantly. See you on Monday! ~Lumen Crew
Have you ever meditated on why Moses tapped the rock twice? This past week here at the office we have been discussing and wondering why Moses tapped the rock twice. Here is the text:
" Then Raising his hand, Moses struck the rock twice with his staff, and water gushed out in abundance for the community and their livestock to drink. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you were not faithful to me in showing forth my sanctity before the Israelites, you shall not lead this community into the land I will give them." ~Numbers 20:11-12
We joked around saying "What was he thinking tapping it twice? Maybe the
sun, the desert, and the Israelites whining like babies finally got to
him!" Reading the above passage, made us stop and reflect if we are "working too hard" and not relying on God's will for the film and the company. We are very close to having the film finished, but we need the right people to aid in the rest of the project and we are in need of financial assistance. Sometimes when something is not working our way, we think we have to work harder. We do have to work hard, but many times we neglect to stop and ask God "Am I working too hard in the wrong direction? Is this where you want me to put my energy towards?" Instead of tapping the rock once, we have been trying to break the rock open because we thought the water that we needed was inside. We were losing focus and not having faith that God is going to provide exactly who we need to help finish the film and to obtain the right monetary support. Paul says In Romans 8:28 "We know that all things work for good for those who love God."
Are you punching the rock or simply tapping the rock once? This weekend take some time to reflect and ask God if you are working too hard in the wrong direction. Try giving the rock 1 tap and put it God's hands. :)
Have a great weekend and please continue to keep us in your prayers.
God Bless ~Lumen Crew
Here is a new picture of a scene from Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage
Happy All Hallow's Eve or Happy Halloween! This morning as we gathered here in the office, we had a discussion about today's holiday. We are all celebrating today differently, but all agree that today is a wonderful opportunity to evangelize people and tell them about Christ and His Church! Nicol had heard on the local Christian radio station, that instead of not participating in what is now a secular holiday use it to teach people where the holiday's roots come from. They pointed out what better way to evangelize people when they are coming to your house. What a great point! In our own small way we can help to truly spread the beauty behind this once Catholic-Christian Holiday. Let us all do our own part! Enjoy tonight and spreading the Good News! ~Lumen Crew
The week went by fast with the anticipation of the JP II field trip taking place today. We actually spent part of the week remodeling the office. It looks great and smells great(Nicol bought a Cinnamon broom)! You really won't believe the transformation this office under went. It's as if Extreme Makeover came in and finished in 72 hours! Brian did a great job building things and making a mess, Carlos assisted Brian, and Nicol and Ally went behind the guys and cleaned up after them.
Today the office was buzzing with 54 students(babies-Senior's in high school) from the JP II Home School group in Jacksonville. They came through the office in 2 separate groups. As the younger students walked through the office to the back, they got excited as they saw drawings of Skiff, AJ, and other Characters from the Altar Gang. The morning started off with Brian teaching the students how art can help teach about God and truth. He explained to them how everything in this life, including art is meant to glorify our Heavenly Father. After their art lesson, we split them up in 2 groups. We had two stations the students would visit in the office. First station was with Carlos and David in the recording studio. While the students were in the recording office, they learned how to create sound effects with ordinary objects. The second station was with Brian, where they learned how to draw and to not be afraid to mess up while drawing. Brian taught them how to draw Mary the Ciborium and the other characters. In both sessions, the students where actively participating and excited to be in the office where the Altar Gang lives. As the students left they received a coloring book filled with pictures of the Nativity Scene, just in time for the Advent Season that is approaching quickly.
We had a blast with the students and their mothers. We are thankful and blessed to have had them here in our office. Please take a look at the slide show to the right of all the pictures from today! Have a safe and Blessed weekend! ~ Lumen Crew...
Happy Monday! Not too much going on here in the office. This week we
will be gearing up for middle school and high school students to visit
us on Friday. They are taking a field trip up to the Lumen Office and we
are excited to have the office filled with excitement and laughter! We
will blog about it after their field trip. See you on Friday!
Song of the week:
Quote of the week:
“The Holy Scriptures were not given to us to be enclosed in books, but
that we should engrave them upon our hearts" St. Chrysostom
Scripture of the week:
" For I no longer live, for Christ lives in me." Galations 2:20
Please continue to pray for us. You all are in our prayers and have a blessed and joy filled week! ~Lumen Crew
Happy Feast day St. Ignatius of Antioch! to learn more about St. Ignatius play the Youtube video.
Things are full swing here in the office this week. Everyone is working hard to try to complete the Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Adventure. The new computers are up and scenes are being rendered! Please continue to pray for those who are working on the film.
Scripture Quote for the day:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning~ Lamentations 3:22-23
Saint Quote of the day:
"Apart from Christ, let nothing else dazzle you" ~ St. Ignatius of Antioch
That's right Bambino has a name! The Shields have named their precious baby boy, Gabriel Josemaria Shields. Such a wonderful and strong name! Thank you for all of your prayers for the Shield Family. Mommy and baby are doing great. We are sad to say today we won't have Cuban Coffee in the office, because the boss man is not here today. :( We will celebrate for sure next week!
For those who do not know, the month of October is also known as Respect Life month. All around the world churches are gathering together to stand for life and educate their community. In honor of Respect Life Month, check this video out by Nick Cannon. After discovering his mother said no to aborting him, he created this video. Enjoy and spread it around!
We pray you have a safe and blessed weekend. Please continue to pray for everyone working on Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage. We are incredibly close! May God Bless You Abundantly ~Lumen Crew
Happy Friday to all! There is much to celebrate today here in the office. It's Friday, Cuban Coffee, Brian's wife's due date, and the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary.We have had our guests back today as they are working on their video. So the office has been filled with much excitement!
October 7th- Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary/Victory
On October 7th did you know...
1. The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Check out our friends at Catholic Fire, for a great explanation on why we honor Our Lady today.
2. 10 years ago The War in Iraq started. Ironic it started on the Feast day of our Lady... I think not! With our Heavenly Mother's aid there will be peace in Iraq, it may not be as quick as we want it. "I believe that the
Blessed Virgin chose to be known as "Our Lady of Fatima" as a pledge and a
sign of hope to the Muslim people, and as an assurance that they, who show
her so much respect, will one day accept her Divine Son too!" Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
3. Brian's wife, Cristi, is due today with her 6th child! We know the baby is a boy, but no official name yet. Please keep her and the baby in your prayers! We pray for a safe delivery!
"In
1954, Joanne Schiebel was a young unmarried college student who
discovered that she was pregnant. In the 1950s, her options were
limited. She could have had an abortion – but the procedure was both
dangerous and illegal. She could have gotten married, but she wasn’t
ready and didn’t want to interrupt her education. Joanne opted, instead,
to give birth to the baby and put him up for adoption.
And so
it was that in 1955, a California couple named Paul and Clara Jobs
adopted a baby boy, born out of wedlock, whom they named Steven. Choose
Life. Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs..."
What a powerful testimony to the importance of choosing life in every situation. Steve Job's the owner of Apple inc. passed away on October 5th, 20011. He battled Pancreatic cancer and liver ailments. If his mother had aborted him, we would not have our iPods, iPad, Mac Books, iPhones, iTunes, and Pixar. Steve Jobs helped fund Pixarwhen it was struggling financially in the beginning. If Steve Jobs had been aborted we would not have a Pro-Life Movie. As most of you know we have animators from Pixar doing free lance animation for our movie. Steve's wife and children will be in our prayers.
We pray that you have a great weekend and please remember to keep the Shields family in your prayers and for a safe delivery. ~Lumen Crew
Today's blog is inspired by Brian's 2 year old son Jacob:
Over the weekend Jacob would spin around and then fall. Everyone would start to laugh and he would get right back up and spin around again. Do you remember when you were a child and would enjoy being spun around? There was much joy found in just being silly. To start the week off we thought we would provide some laughter. Enjoy watching! Oh yeah this clearly not Brian's son. May God bless your week abundantly. We are praying for you and we ask you pray for us. :) Lumen Crew
About 2 weeks ago the unthinkable happened to my eleven year old baby sister Violet. She fell in a cheer leading stunt at a middle school basketball game and was unconscious for about 20 seconds . She was rushed to Shand’s Trauma pediatric ER where she was diagnosed with a skull fracture, but no swelling or bleeding in the brain. Praise God! My mom and Violet were in the hospital for about 72 hours. I would have to say the scripture above summed up my experience of being there for my sister and family. Violet fell on a Wednesday night and it was not till Sunday that it truly hit me with what occurred to her. All of the what if's began to fill my head and I became very down, hopeless, and fearful. An analogy to describe what was happening inside: Deep inside I was a little girl trying to keep my head above the water and calling out to her Heavenly Father, but hearing no response. I didn’t even want to go to Mass that evening and I normally enjoy going to church. As I sat in Mass, I kept calling out to God to please provide His joy back into my life! After I received Him in Holy Communion there was a drastic change in my emotion. I didn’t feel 100% “myself”, but the sense of drowning was no longer there. That night God provided 2 friends to speak wisdom into my life.
The 1st friend reminded me (though I had heard over 1,000x), but I needed to hear it again, that God never left me or my family. She said “Nicol you keep looking behind you and asking God ‘where are you?’ when all you have to do is look ahead and He is right in front of you. He is guiding you along the way.” Her statement was so simple, but yet it pierced my heart. She encouraged me to continue to express my emotions to our Heavenly Father and walk through them with Him knowing that He is leading me, not behind me.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
“ Praised be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation! He comforts us in all our afflictions and thus enables us to comfort those who are in trouble, with the same consolation we have received from Him. As we have shared much in the suffering of Christ, so through Christ do we share abundantly in his consolation.”
The 2nd friend He provided gave me the Corinthian’s verse above to cling to. From the moment he began to read this scripture verse to me, I started to feel the presence of our Lord. It was my friend who was talking, but God clearly using Him as His instrument. My friend reminded me, the Lord uses the times we feel helpless to increase our Trust and Hope in Him and Him alone. The Lord also uses these times to take us into a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him. As we continued our conversation, the Joy of Christ began to fill me up and I had energy that I had not experienced all day. Before we got off the phone he reminded me to cling to the Cross and to the scripture verse he gave me. He reminded me that these experiences are not just for me, but God gives them to us for us to be able to have compassion and share with others.
The next morning sitting at the breakfast table, my mom and I began to talk about everything that happened. As she began to express her emotions, tears streamed down her face and I could see and hear the sadness that only a mother can express. As I began to share with her my experience from the previous day, the Lord showed me the message that my friend had given me was not just for me, but for my mom! As I began to tell her my experience and the message I was given, you could see peace overcome her and the anxiety she was expressing leave. Praise God!
I have learned from Violet’s accident that God truly does Glorify Himself in every situation. He does not plan for bad things to happen, but when they do He will glorify Himself and remain true to His promises. As long as we remain faithful and persevere in prayer, He will provide and bestow graces and blessings beyond what we can humanly fathom. I encourage you all that as you go through trials to remain faithful to our Heavenly Father. We may not understand why things happen the way they do, but there is a greater purpose to it. I pray that this 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 will bring you comfort in your life wherever you may be and bring you closer to Jesus. May the Joy of Christ fill your heart! ~Nicol
Pat had been hitting the bottle once again. Father(the priest) sat down with Pat to have a talk. Father took out 2 glasses, he filled one with water and the other with Whiskey. He then took out a worm and he put the worm in the glass of water. The worm swam around as happy as can be. Father then took the worm and placed it in the glass of whiskey and it died almost instantly. Father then turned to Pat and said...
Priest : "Do you get what I am trying to tell you here?"
Pat replied in an Irish Accent: " Aye Father, if you drink whiskey you won't have any worms."
Poor Worm
Written by a guest Blogger today Ally Lynch Pirrung:
"For we brought nothing into the world, just as we shall not be able to take anything out of it." 1 Tim 6:2c - 12 Detachment has been the topic for today. The scripture quote from Timothy pin points the reasoning for why we should be totally detached from everything. I would like to share an example of detachment.
I was altar serving for a funeral one morning. The hospitality president came to me and gave me an envelop. She explained that it was from the family and they wanted to say thank you. When I returned home I opened the envelop and found a substantial amount of money. I was dumbfounded at the amount of money she had given me. I began thinking about getting new glasses, school books, cloths for fall that I would be able to get out of this money. However, in the council of my mother, I was going to call the hospitality lady back just to make sure that the money was in deed for me. As I reached for the phone, it rang. It was the hospitality lady calling me and explaining to me that it was a mistake in giving me the envelop. She asked that I return the money and was coming to pick it up later that evening. I hung up the phone disappointed, but at the same time liberated. I found God in the situation and thanked Him for helping me to let go of my will and hold tighter to His.
Updates:
1. We are continuing to stay in our office space, until we hear differently.
2. On Monday, we realized we needed $12,000 in order to render the movie in a timely fashion. We humanly did not know how to come up with $12,000 so we entered into deep prayer and turned it over to our Lord. On Tuesday afternoon, our prayers were answered and a generous donor is helping to provide the money to order the 2 computers we need! GOD IS GREAT!
3. We now have less than 15 seconds of animation left for Skiff and AJ's Fantasitc Voyage!
We thank you for your continuous support and prayers! Don't forget to spread the news around about Lumen Entertainment. Have a great weekend and don't forget to enjoy some Cubano Coffee :) ~Lumen Crew
Eli is a beautiful, intelligent, forthright 4 year old. Below is a scene from this Morning between her and her Papa.
Papa: Eli don't smile, because it will make me happy
Eli: No smile
Brian: After a few seconds go by and noticing she wasn't budging says "Go ahead Eli give him a smile"
Eli:No Smile
Papa: With another attempt to make her smile he sings..."Nobody loves, everyone hates me, I'm going to eat some worms. Big Fat Juicy ones, tiny little skinny ones, I'm going to eat some worms
Elli: Says to her Papa with a straight face..."Papa eat the big juicy ones first, there are some in the back yard."
Fast forward to 2:17 and even Timon and Pumba agree with Eli!
We have to laugh and admire Eli's perseverance in refusing to give her Papa a smile. As we gathered in the office, we realized we could apply Eli's perseverance to our own lives. When trials and tribulations occur in our lives, do we have steadfast perseverance in prayer and keeping our eyes on Christ? Recently there have been many distractions happening around Lumen's office. The Holy Spirit showed us these trials are distractions and to continue to persevere in prayer. With this revelation, please join us as we pray for the grace and intercessions from the Saints to help us focus and continue to finish Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage. We have 35 seconds left! Have a blessed and wonderful weekend!
