Furnace gettin' fiery; Sleeping thru tornados; Naked Gun rebooted

3 Things this week and a poem

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with Things I Wrote Down.

I finally bought a pump to move water out of my garage stairwell, should the need arise in a rainfall (a real concern this week). Which means I no longer have to pester my kind neighbour in a pinch. It’s amazing the feeling of accomplishment one can have upon finally doing something long required.

I venture to guess you’ll have that same feeling if you follow through and submit to my poetry contest. It’s National Poetry Month up here in Canada, which is another sign that it’s time. The submissions are starting to come in and I’m grateful that people are sharing their work.

Now, here are this week’s 3 Things and a poem.

1. Furnace gettin’ fiery

This is getting fiery! I loved watching this behind-the-scenes video of my filmmaking brothers Matt and

Daniel Kooman

from their recent trip to India. They were filming a project about the reality of leprosy (absolutely gutting) and scoping out the land for the forthcoming feature film DANIEL (about the biblical prophet).

Matt and Dan explored a 600-year-old military fort and palace in New Delhi, built by the designer of Taj Mahal. If you like to see how things are made, this is a fun look at preproduction as this project comes together, with deets about why India is a perfect place to film ancient Babylon.

As brothers who make films together—films that are always a journey of faith, three guys just doing our best to tell the stories God drops in our heart—we sincerely appreciate your prayers and support as we continue to walk out this wild journey of creativity.

The WeFunder for the DANIEL film is closing soon, and

Unveil

has raised close to $700k, but there’s still more to go. If you or someone you know wants to be part of bringing this story to life, a story that will touch millions, check out how you can:

2. Sleeping thru tornado warnings

I’m just fine. I was in the Nashville area this week working on an exciting production with Compassion International. While there, there were tornados, flash floods and an annual mule festival. All the cliches are true.

Waitresses call you “Baby” (I had a few great laughs about this), the Nashville chicken sandwiches melt in your mouth, and Canadian visitors sleep through the tornado alarms.

I woke up at 6 a.m. to a notification from the National Weather Service to shelter in place until 5:15 a.m. so a tornado could pass through. I’m typically a light sleeper, so either the alarms went off and I missed it, or I wasn’t in the path. Either way, I’m glad it all worked itself out and I slept through the danger.

But more importantly, a key part of a project I’m helping bring to life for the last six months went into production. We had an amazing shoot.

Production on a new video podcast for Compassion International

The video podcast series is rooted in Matthew 25:40, and brings together a wide array of influential voices (like a Food Network star, NBA chaplain, famous podcasters and authors) to have nuanced conversations about life, faith, social media, parenting, and a wide range of other topics. I can’t wait to share more soon!

3. Naked gun rebooted

At first I thought this was an April Fool’s joke that I missed, but it’s not. Liam Neeson is breaking out of his Taken template to star in the reboot of Naked Gun, the films made famous by Canadian jokester Leslie Nielsen.

The trailer looks pretty funny, and it looks like a great role for Neeson. Perhaps we now know why he’s not going to voice Aslan on Greta Gerwig’s Chronicles of Narnia adaptation for Netflix (hints this week were dropped online, to much controversy, that Meryl Streep is in talks to voice the lion).

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A poem

This long stretch between winter and summer always brings me back to this poem I wrote about the space between tree branches. There’s so much promise and need in the gaps, where things long desired aren’t here, yet.

If you’re longing or waiting for something you know is on its way—a person, a desire, a promise—then this poem is for you. I hope you enjoy it.

the space between tree branches

if everything was
as beautiful as the space
between tree branches
outstretched arms bare
lifted to the unreachable 
blueness of 
sky
this would not mean dormancy
or bareness
only the promise of colour
formed again
into the passing seasons of life