The real challenge in starting this project has been in gathering up the equipment necessary to "film" the various classes. When we first started seriously talking about this, I put together an equipment list with a budget of over $16,000.00. Unfortunately, I was very naive in that budget, and left out a lot of the little pieces that are necessary to make that equipment work.

However, God is smarter than me, and He had everything under control all the time. As he normally does, God knew exactly what we would need and where it would come from.

We now have what amounts to a complete portable television studio. The main components of this consist of a "switcher" and the television cameras. We were able to buy a used switcher on ebay with an offering that a couple who supports the ministry sent us. The cameras were given to us FREE by a couple who was trying to sell them on ebay.

We actually have six television cameras (professional cameras), even though there are only two shown in the picture. As of this writing, we're still looking for some pieces for a couple of the cameras, but we have four of them running and ready to go.

The "black box" shown in that picture is our portable editing/control console. We can connect up to four video sources (cameras, titler, PowerPoint output from a laptop, DVD) to the switcher, and output to our final recording medium. This is essencially the same thing that the professionals do at a major sporting event. The only difference is scale, and the cost of the equipment.

The case (which is covered by black carpet to protect it) is home built. Everything except the lights, cameras, and microphones is permanently built in and hard wired to minimize setup time.

The tall tripod in the picture is also home built. One of the problems that exists in filming classes & church services is that when people go to the altar, all the camera sees is the back of heads. "Professionals" use a camera "crane" for getting over people's heads; but, that's not very portable. Nor is putting the camera tripod on a platform. I searched for a tall enough tripod to shoot over people's heads, but couldn't find one. So, I built this nine foot tall collapsable tripod.

We have invested a total of a little over $5,000.00 in buying and building equipment. As near as I can tell, the retail price of what we've bought is over $33,000.00. The difference comes from being creative; building some thigns; and buying used equipment on ebay.

The equipment is just about done. We still need to spend about another $1,000.00 for miscellaneous equipment, and another laptop computer. Once we've done that, we'll have it all ready to go.

Ongoing Costs of Operations:

Although we've just about gotten the equipment part settled, there's still the ongoing costs of operation. This costs will include:

• Internet Web hosting with high speed, high bandwith access.
• Consumable materials
• Paying teachers
• Paying office help (student records)

These costs will be about $2,000.00 per month to start. As our student load increases, and we produce more classes per week, these costs will also increase.

We are depending on volunteer help for much of our work. However, there are some things that require people with special skills; especially the teachers. Although our teachers aren't full-time employees, we still need to pay them something for their time.

Personnel Needs:

• Video
  

  • Camera crew - 3 people - only during filming

  • Taping & switcher - 1 person - only during filming

  • Editing - 1 person - full time
    

• Internet

  • Translating of study notes - 1 person - full time

  • Creation of web pages - 1 person - 1 day/week

  • Student database

Please pray for all these needs. Perhaps God would move on your heart to partner with us in some way to complete this program. Should He speak to you about that, please be obedient to His voice.

Thank You