Northrise Media Team Takes Off

 

By Jim Jordan

When my wife Christine and I returned to Zambia for Impact Ndola 2015, I was back on the Media Team and we started out working with over ten excited Northrise students, but this year two things had changed. First, this time the students had more and better tools to work with – several had cameras and those who didn’t have a DSLR used their phones. The students quickly became engaged in the process and every afternoon we would gather to download our photos and video. The second change was that the students had a Northrise staff member to guide and encourage them. Madalisto Kalombe had joined the Northrise team and he worked closely with the students all week.

I am both an English and journalism teacher in California and I enjoyed working in my element with these tremendous young people. We worked, laughed and served the Lord together. We had a week that none of us will forget.

As the new school year began in the fall of 2015, changes were taking place on campus. New student life activities were underway and photos being taken by former members of our summer media team were being posted regularly on the Northrise website and on the newly started Northrise Media and Communication Club Facebook page.

Then the Lord gave me an idea. Wouldn’t it be great to help the Media Club by raising money to provide them with more tools that could help them begin to create and publish more of their own work? After getting an OK from the Northrise leadership, I started a crowd funding page and prayed that God would provide the funds for a MacBook Pro, Adobe Creative Suite software, and several other items for the students to use. Several friends at my church and many more of my friends in the journalism world donated all the funds I needed to purchase the computer and all the extras. I also planned to go to Ndola for the 2016 graduation ceremony and dedication of the new Campus Center and present the computer this past June.

I made it to Ndola in June and was able to present the computer to the club president Kedwin Silole. I was able to sit and show him the functions of the computer and the software and challenge him with several projects that will help develop his skill in graphic arts and page creation just as I do with my own students. Pray for Kedwin and his team as they grow in their photography, writing, and page designing skills and look forward to seeing their own publications they will produce.