Faith like Potatoes

Global Creative Studios' first feature film premieres to rave reviews
Global Creative Studios' first feature film, Faith like Potatoes, premiered to a star-studded line up at MonteCasino and has already been selected for two international film festivals. The MonteCasino premiere included the who's who of South African actors, moviemakers, entertainers, sports people, Christian leaders and musicians.

The movie Faith like Potatoes was inspired by the autobiography of Angus Buchan and adapted to the big screen by award-winning director and actor, Regardt van den Bergh. It tells the moving life story of a Zambian farmer of Scottish heritage, played by well-known South African actor, Frank Rautenbach, who leaves his farm in the midst of political unrest and travels south with his family to start a new life in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Faced with ever mounting challenges, hardships and personal turmoil, Angus quickly spirals down into a life consumed by anger, fear and destruction. The movie captures the life journey of a man who, like his potatoes, grows his faith, unseen until the harvest.

Central to the story are the relationships between Angus and his wife, Jill, played by talented newcomer, Jeanne Wilhelm and his Zulu foreman, Simeon Bhengu, played by veteran actor, director and writer Hamilton Dhlamini.

Produced by Global Creative Studios, this movie was a personal journey for all who worked on it. Motivated to tell stories that inspire and motivate people and to impact communities wherever they go, nowhere was this more evident than in the little town of Greytown, where the movie was shot, with over R3 million being injected into the area.

Global Creative Studios, a relative newcomer to the movie industry, is creating quite a stir in the film industry as far afield as Australia and America with Faith like Potatoes contending in two prestigious international film festivals, The Fort Lauderdale International Festival and the Australian International Film Festival. The studio is currently working on two other exciting projects, The Hansie Cronje Story and The Choice, the story of Gayton McKenzie, which will be released in the coming year.

Frans Cronje, producer and owner of Global Creative Studios and director, Regardt van den Bergh, opened the movie with a moving speech about the inspiration and motivation behind the movie and the belief that this movie will bring the message of hope into the world.

After the screening, guests were invited to a private function room where they could mingle and chat to the cast. South African actress Kim Engelbrecht described the film as "a soothing tale which made me question my faith", while Springbok rugby player Pierre Spies commented that "Faith moves the world and the world needs to be moved" adding laughingly, "God will use potatoes if He needs to."

Cricketers Justin Ontong and Garnett Kruger were also there as was Olympic champion Ryk Neethling who found the movie emotional and was deeply touched by it. Other guests included well-known South African singer, Sonja Herholdt and Flava-Xolani Alexander of clothing label `Flava'. Londi Sibisi from eTV's The ShowBiz Report was also there interviewing Frank Rautenbach and Jeanne Wilhelm on the red carpet before going in to view the film.

The movie opens at cinemas around South Africa on the 27th of October and will also be shown in town halls, churches and other venues in towns where cinema complexes are not available.

A significant share of the profits from the movie will go towards Angus Buchan's work, part of which is the Shalom Children's Home, a charity established by Angus and Jill Buchan.

For more information visit the website: www.faithlikepotatoes.com or contact Global Creative Studios on (021) 981 6927.

Minutes of meeting

Present
Ps Marcia Francois
Vanessa Yusuf
Karen de Beer
Madelaine de Beer
Etienne Kalp

Apologies
Anthony & Teresa Olckers
Barry de Beer


Open in prayer
Ps Marcia

Praise and Worship
Ps Marcia

Offering - Ps Marcia
What you are grateful for that God has done in your life. God’s grace.
Karen prayed over offering
R70 was received and R7 tithed

Business Ps Marcia
- Look at updated list – is it correct?
- Update on group assessments – feedback on success (Madelaine)
- Gauge where consultants are in terms of motivation levels

Updates
- Feedback on PDM course & impact on our ministry
- Feedback on Ministry Meeting – Ps Greg spoke about success, Ps Jackie showed Ministry Fair video and thanked the ministries who were involved

Food & fellowship Marcia
(tea/coffee, muffins and hot cross buns)

Tribute to Steve Irwin

I heard on the news yesterday that Steve Irwin died.

Steve was definitely someone who lived his passion. I don't even like crocodiles or any animals for that matter and this man had me so hooked that I sat through a show on crocodiles! His passion was so contagious and he inspired people.

I talk often on the Consultants Course about Steve, who was also known as the Crocodile Hunter. I'm sure you all saw him on Oprah and the Discovery Channel.

If you want to go read some more, visit his official website. At the moment there is nothing about his death on there.
http://www.crocodilehunter.com.au/

Stephen Robert Irwin was born to Lyn and Bob Irwin in Victoria in February 1962. Bob Irwin was a keen enthusiast of reptiles and moved his family to Queensland in 1970 to start a small reptile park at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast. Australia Zoo became a true family business, flourishing until 1991 when Bob & Lyn retired, turning over management to their son, Steve.
Living in the Zoo, Steve grew up with animals of all kinds, taking part in the animals daily feeding, care and maintenance. His 6th birthday present was what he had always wanted – his very own scrub python! It was 3.6m (12ft) long and while most other children were opening cans of pet food for their cats or dogs, Steve was out catching fish and hunting rodents to feed to his crocodiles and snakes.

Bob taught the young Steve everything there was to know about reptiles – even teaching his nine-year-old how to jump in and catch crocodiles in the rivers of North Queensland at night. This father and son’s proud boast is that every crocodile in their Zoo (the numbering some 100 animals) was either caught by their bare hands or bred and raised in their Zoo.

As he grew older Steve followed in his father’s footsteps and volunteered his services to the Queensland Governments East Coast Crocodile Management program which saw him spend years living on his own in the mosquito infested creeks, rivers and mangroves of North Queensland catching huge crocodiles single-handed. His record of successful catches is still staggering to this day.

Since 1991, Australia Zoo has flourished and expanded under Steve’s guidance. In 1990 a chance reunion with his friend, television producer John Stainton, filming in the Zoo for a TV commercial, gave Steve the opportunity to show his diverse animal talents to the world when they both took a punt and make the first documentary, "The Crocodile Hunter" in 1992.
The tremendous success of this one program quickly encouraged the making of more and so over the next 3 years, 10 one hour episodes were made and on television screens all over the world. Steve has now filmed over 70 episodes of "The Crocodile Hunter", 53 episodes of "Croc Files", 43 episodes of “Croc Diaries” and his next television series is called “The New Breed Vets” for release in 2005.

Steve has the greatest respect and understanding for all animals – something that has been instilled into him by his family for all of his life – and he's proud to share his passion with everyone who visits his Zoo and with his five hundred million viewers world-wide. In June 1992, Steve married Terri Raines from Oregon USA. They had met a few months earlier when Terri visited the Zoo whilst on holidays in Australia. They now spend their lives together educating people everywhere to care for all of our world’s wildlife.

Have a passionate week!

Ps Marcia

Update
I was catching up on some blogs that I read and I found a link with some news
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/ap_on_en_tv/obit_irwin