Review: Taken

Just got back from watching Taken. Apart from the terrible seat that I had, and the resulting bad angle that I had to look at the screen from (it's my own fault--we got to the theater late), it was a pretty well done movie. I'm not going to review any of the cinematography or script writing. Those of you have been around here for a while know that this blog is about something more. There are people far more qualified than I am to tell you what they did and didn't like. What I am here to do is to spoil the plot for you. But first, some of my own backstory that I brought to the movie when I watched it tonight. 

I watched the trailers on TV, and thought that it was going to be a great action movie. Guy kicks butt and fights an organization of kidnappers to try and find his daughter. It sounded a lot like Man on Fire 2.0. I showed the trailer to a couple of guys that I live with, and they also were immediately intrigued and wanted to go see the movie. I grabbed one of them, and another guy off of my floor, and we headed to our local movie theater. 

The movie was everything that the trailers said that it would be: lots of fighting, vengeance, and all around action that kept it going pretty smoothly. There was just this one thing that the trailers didn't mention: that the girl was kidnapped by sex traffickers. The rest of the entire movie gives a glimpse into the world of trafficking, and it worked me over pretty good. The directors and producers did a great job keeping the movie pretty clean, considering the subject matter that they were dealing with. 

Like some of you, I watched Christ in Youth's "Baht" film this summer. It also covers sex trafficking, but in Cambodia. Baht broke my heart for the women, the girls that are forced into prostitution over in Asia. One of my friends that came with me spent part of his summer in Cambodia, working with an organization called Rapha House that rescues girls out of trafficking and gives them skills so that they can re-enter society without reverting back to prostitution. 

When we walked out of the theater, I asked him "How much harder was that movie to watch once it became about sex trafficking?" His response was simply "Oh, yeah." He told us that a few of the scenes in the movie were not too far off what he saw last summer. 

Like I said earlier, Baht was heartbreaking, but Taken hit closer to home for me. I've got a strong paternal instinct, which I think come from having a sister that is so much younger than I am. I found myself sickened by the thought of someone that I loved being forced into sex trafficking. So here's the deal. It's time to get the word out about the travesty that is sex trafficking. Talk to people about it. Support organizations that are fighting it. Show people Taken (heads up--not a great date movie) and Baht. It's time to do something. 

The Stakes Are Higher Than Ever

Last night, I started hanging out with a D-Group of 8th Graders from the youth ministry that I have volunteered in for two and a half years. I was (and still am) pumped to start getting to know these guys better. I've felt like I haven't been connected well enough with the students for most of the time that I have volunteered in this student ministry. 

But something happened last night that really drove home a point that one of my profs had mentioned. The way he put it was that "students today are biblically illiterate." Our group is going through a book that the point leader selected, and last night the topic was about integrity. The tagline for the lesson was something "If I have integrity, my behaviors will match my beliefs, which will match what the Bible says." The question "How do make sure my beliefs match what the Bible says?" then came up.

The guys all just looked around the room, staring at the ground, each other, anywhere but at the person who asked the question. Finally, one guy said "Well, I wouldn't know because I don't read the Bible that much." Without knowing it, he had answered the question. 

What are we doing to make sure that our students are learning the Bible?

Perhaps more importantly, what are we doing to make sure they are learning how to study the Bible on their own?

The Future is (Almost) Here!

I recently wrote in my Suggestions for 2009 post that I wanted wireless power. Well, a huge step towards that goal was recently introduced at the CES show in Las Vegas. This will be awesome if it is implemented on a large scale. 

Power of a Moment

Something really cool happened to me last night. I got to attend the large group programming of the youth ministry that I interned in this past summer (it's also the youth ministry that I grew up in). When ever I first walked in, I went to where the middle school students were. I was walking around, and I ran into a student that I had met at a week at camp during the summer. 

This girl, Izzy, was in my life group, and decided to get baptized at the end of the week. I had to leave the camp to go pick a guest speaker up from the airport a couple of hours away, and wasn't sure that I was going to make it back in time to baptize her, like she asked me to. 

I pulled on to the campground just in time to see all the campers heading down to the pond, where the baptisms are done. I got out of the church van, ran up to the dean, and he said "Blake! Glad you're back. You're up!" I emptied out my pockets, and walked into the pond. I got to baptize two girls because of the time I got to spend with them during the week., 

When I saw her last night, she freaked out like only a middle school girl can, and ran up to me. I honestly did not know that a middle school girl could hug that hard. I was shocked to see her, and that she would recognize me after six months.

Obviously, the point is that we should never underestimate any amount of time that we are able to spend with a student. Whether it is a week at camp, an hour at a midweek youth ministry program, or even a minute catching up with them in the hallway. The time you spend pouring into them may just end up being one of the best decisions and investments you could have ever made. 

Suggestions for 2009

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen who control our society,

For the most part, our society runs fairly smoothly and is pretty well off. I commend you on this. You are excellent masters of concealment, and are also fantastic spin-masters. Not much gets by you guys (except for the **** that happened New Year's Eve on ESPN).

However, in my humble experience, I offer four suggestions that I believe will help make our society even better for the future. Please consider them carefully and send me any feedback you find helpful.

1. Make Everyone's License Plate Their Cell Phone Number.
(Ok, so I stole this idea from Erwin McManus, but it is still a good one!) Do you know how much frustration you could eliminate from my life if I were able to yell at the person who just cut me off instead of just keeping it inside my car? Maybe this would require a serious reworking of the license plate and cell phone industry, but I think that we can agree that this will be for the better in the long run.

2. Create Wireless Power
My laptop isn't very portable when I have to be sitting close to a wall outlet in order to keep it going for longer periods of time. If you guys could invent something that would allow me to wirelessly transmit electricity across a room, that would be great. In fact, once you get this done, feel free to shut down the patent office, because there is nothing else that will ever further society beyond that point. Unless, of course, you come up with something that will plug the wireless power thingy in for me. That would be great too.

3. Give me an iPhone.
Ok, not really. This is more wishful thinking (Seriously though--let's make this happen).

4. Allow me to never make a bonehead mistake when working with students.
I realize that this is pretty unrealistic too, but can we at least make sure that the camera isn't rolling when it happens?

Thank you for your considerations. I look forward to what you have in store for this New Year.

Sincerely,

Blake Park