The music doesn’t all appeal to me, neither does the dance moves they chose for the video. But the very fact of their being there sends chills up and down my spine. You see, I’ve been there. I spent some time in Eastern Europe six years ago, and stood in this very square in front of the Millenium Memorial. It’s an old, patinaed monument–this wasn’t erected at the turn of the millenium, but in honor of the thousandth year of Hungarian history in 1898. And it sits in the middle of a bleak square with an acre of paving stones around it in the heart of Budapest–a city still very much under the shadow of its years of Communism and repression, when Christians were not allowed to practice openly.

This church that started small in those dark days has grown to encompass a significant portion of the community, now holding multiple services of tens of thousands apiece on Sunday morning. I’m not wholeheartedly comfortable with the trend of megachurches in US mainline evangelical circles, but the Lord appears to be doing a mighty work here. For even just six years ago I couldn’t have imagined so many of Budapest’s youth (and older folks, too) standing joyful in one of the bleakest spots in downtown Budapest and dancing and singing the good news. For the song they were singing was particularly meaningful to me, having seen the damage statism and tyranny has done to their country in the past century.

That day will be remembered as the greatest day in history
The fate of the world changed in one glorious moment
When Life triumphed on Resurrection Sunday

The hope of a people searching for life
The day will be brighter
The message of freedom rings in the sky
Spreading the fire
The flag of a nation ready to fly
Taking them higher
The heart of a land that rises to fight
Full of desire
When nothing is as you want it to be
Look up to heaven
Freedom was paid for on Calvary
The chain is broken
Making a way right to destiny
Borders are open
And Jesus has granted the victory
That Sunday morning

Joy in this life time, utterly free
More than the world gives, beyond what you see
For nations its time to rise their hope is in Jesus Christ
If the giants come, just hold on, the advantage is now on your side
Jesus, will take the final fight

A light dawned that Sunday Morning
It broke through the boundaries of time
Hearts start shining, calling to all mankind
Lets celebrate eternal life

When nothing is as you want it to be
Look up to heaven
Freedom was paid for on Calvary
The chain is broken
Making a way right to destiny
Borders are open
And Jesus has granted the victory
That Sunday morning

Joy in this life time, utterly free
More than the world gives, beyond what you see
For nations its time to rise their hope is in Jesus Christ
If the giants come, just hold on, the advantage is now on your side
Jesus, will take the final fight

Watch it. I can’t hear this without crying. For a country that’s been through so much, come through the fires and flames of secular humanism, it is time to rise, and their greatest hope is in Jesus Christ. Jesus will take the final fight!

With great excitement I watched this trailer for the first time–the sea of lilies, the star’s daughter, the beach at the end of the world, the very appearance of the Dawn Treader, and the Dufflepuds…come majestically to the silver screen, and in 3D no less! It was on my second, and third, and fourth rewatching with my fellow C.S. Lewis friends, that we noticed a couple of significant discrepancies…

• Where does Jadis (the White Witch) come in? The shot in the trailer seems to hint at some sort of vision, so I suppose it could be part of the Dark Island sequence, but somehow she looked more…corporeal…than that.
• Where’s Eustace and/as the dragon? Apparently he is in the movie, as an effects house has been contracted to provide 200 shots of the dragon, but he’s not in the trailer almost at all (only one shot, in his bedroom).
• I was incredibly excited to see the sea of lilies, and the beach at the end of the world. But where do Peter and Susan come in? They weren’t supposed to be there! (H/T: I noticed this one only after seeing someone mention it in a Youtube comment…) One other thing–is that Aslan’s mountain behind him in one of the final shots? I can’t wait for the Silver Chair!
• What’s the deal with Lucy and the snow? I presume it’s meant to be another spell she experiments with, but I can’t remember anything like that.

A friend of mine got to see some very advanced footage from VDT over two years ago, early in production–he stated that he was worried about the final film, because it appeared that they have emphasized the darker parts of the tale to the detriment of all else…

I will be very excited to see it, but I’m concerned about what the new director will do to the film, possibly deviating from the original in the disastrous way Prince Caspian did (although PC at least stayed relatively consistent thematically.) December cannot come quick enough!

P.S. My brother correctly identified the music swirling into the final sequences as “Heart of Courage” by band “Two Steps from Hell”. Can’t say I like the name, but it sure sounds awesome…

Last week one of my classmates introduced us to a most interesting song by Irish band Guggenheim Grotto, Philosophia.

When we’re young we set our hearts upon some beautiful idea
Maybe something from a holy book or French philosophia
Upon the thoughts of better men than us we swear by and decree a
Perfect way to end the war of ways the only way to be a…

Work of art, oh to be a work of art

But in time a thought comes tugging on the sleeve edge of our minds
Perhaps no perfect way exists at all, just many different kinds
Oh but if it’s just a thing of taste then everything unwinds
For without an absolute how can the absolute define…

A work of art, oh to be a work of art

The end of the second verse is excellent…it refutes the central tenet of post-modern relativism in only two rhyming lines! If you deny absolutism (the existence of an absolute truth, virtue, or moral standard) than you self-refute your assertion–how can a statement (the absence of universal truth) then be universal? The video is also quite significant–it’s not just random images or eye candy–the director and DP were very aware of the meaning of the song.

You can find Philosophia on iTunes or on Amazon MP3 here.

…without the absolute how can the absolute define…
John Calvin Young

It was great working with everybody on the project: Paul and Sheilah Munger, Ryan Bruce, and Chuck Fultz, plus the cast. The film website is at www.mydaughtersdates.com. We placed 18th out of 71 entries in the rankings by points but in the first couple of days up we were #2 in total views…not sure where we are now. Hope you enjoy it!

In His Service,

John Calvin Young

There are 9 movies on the playlist at the moment, and more will be added as they are uploaded and I find them. If you have good videos of the ’07 San Antonio events, please reply back in the comments and I will add them to the list!

In His Service,
John Calvin Young

If you have a YouTube account you can comment on the video here–we want to see more things like this in the future!

IHS,
John Calvin

This would be either Stephen or David Bowman, makers of the winning trailer, “A Glorious Sunrise”.

I will post a link to the trailer if and when I can find it. Rumor has it that Doug Phillips posted it on his blog, but I haven’t been able to locate it.