I applied to a number of Christian colleges, and choose to attend The Master's College in Santa Clarita, CA. There, I majored in music, with no emphasis. I had no idea what I wanted to do in the music field. There, I became involved with musical theater, experiencing the technical and administration side of things, as well as the media center. I had always loved computer animation and was fascinated by it, and when I heard that Chapel Media had an NewTek Video Toaster, I was there! I got involved in numerous video and Multi-Image productions and found I had a knack, and a love for media.

As time progressed, my love for media grew. I loved taking images and sound, and using them to tell a story, whether fiction or not. Through my travels in music, I came into contact with several members in the Christian film industry who fanned the flames of interest. On one occasion, I had an immediate opportunity to quit school and start working, but I knew that I should stay in school.

I still didn't know what I wanted to with music, so I began to brainstorm. Ultimately I decided what better marriage was there than a music degree and media! Music is such an important part of video and film. Imagine: seeing Star Wars without John Williams' score. Darth Vader would be much less intimidating without the ominous Imperial March sweeping through the speakers. It made total sense to me that having a intimate knowledge of music, its structure and theory, that I could better use it to enhance visual images. With this marriage in mind, I began conversations with the Music Department Chairman, as well as the Chairman of the Communication department, with the end results being a major of Music and Communication.

After graduation, I stayed at the school, working for the music department in a technical roll, managing live productions and traveling with music groups. God used this time to build my leadership and administration skills, as well as build a love for his church. In addition, He brought me to my wife, meeting her while being the technical director for The Sound of Music.

After two years, working at the school, and now engaged, I knew it was time to move on. With a modest salary, and the cost of living so high in southern CA, I knew I couldn't properly support a family living there, so after getting married, we moved to Visalia, where I established a business with my brother, Physician Computer Services, which provided billing systems to doctor's offices. For seven years we've built the business, putting in long hours and huge effort in everything from learning industry demands, and the solutions, to writing our own software when there we no other options. Through all of this, I was never satisfied. I knew what I was doing, and enjoyed parts of it, but it was far from what I would call fulfilling.

In the mean time, God found it fitting for me to use my music degree extensively by placing me in the roll of music leader at our church. After attending the church for six months, and finally becoming a member, I decided that it was time to put my abilities to work for the Lord, and though His sovereignty, that meant taking over the music program, growing it to include a choir, worship band and expanded worship team. As all of this was on a volunteer basis, I've been juggling church music and a business for quite a while.

Being this involved in the church, I was brought into good contact with a number of missionaries. These men and their wives, that I have had the privilege to visit with, are inspiring by their love for the lost, and passion to see people saved. It's contagious, and I spent much time wondering if the passions stirred in me were being used to direct me into full-time missions.

As I served in the church, I had the opportunity to see the work being done by media centers at various mission agencies. I learned about work being done for missionaries, and the need that existed for missionaries to be equipped with tools of telling their story, the story of their lives, and the lives of people that they minister to.

Two years went by, with each passing month building more of a desire to use my talents in this way. As I spoke with missionaries that came through our church, I learned that the need was greater than I had imagined. I learned that one agency based media center was inundated with work, having time booked out 6 months in advanced. In addition, any missionaries wanting to produce the work would need to travel to the east coast for a while to do it. With a center available on the west coast, it would be much easier for a west-coast based missionary to put in the time to produce a quality product.

With friends who are missionaries, I often spoke at length with them about my thoughts and desires to proceed in this direction. Each time, I came away encouraged. They were almost more excited about it than I was (which is pretty hard). After much prayer and discussion with my wife and other friends, I decided that this is where God is leading me. To establish a media center dedicated to productions to further the cause of Christ.

Now, I see the need, I have the desire, I've decided to move forward, now what?

Where could I have such a venture? Being a non-profit entity, funds are limited for facilities. The amazing thing is that God had already been at work on a solution before I had even made the decision to start this studio. In the summer of 2003, my parents expressed the desire to purchase a large-ish piece of property on which to build a home. Their desire was that me, my brother and my sister, with our families would be interested in building homes as well, making a family estate. We were all interested and we got rolling. A year later, we closed escrow on 30 acres of land along the bank of the St. Johns river, containing plums and walnuts. We proceeded to sell our houses, and prepare for the move. Part of the plan included putting up a shop/office building to move our business into. As the Lord prepared my wife's and my heart for this media venture, He also prepared the rest of our family. But first, I had to let my family know.

The hardest part was sitting down with my brother, and communicating this turn. We are partners in a business that is quite busy, and I hated the thought of dropping such an unexpected bomb, in that I was going to move in a new direction. After expressing my desires, and where the Lord was leading, I decided on a 12 month transition from Physician Computer Services to Media With A Mission, slowly moving from one full time, to the other. I couldn't have asked for Him to be more supportive than he was. The next step was my parents and other family members. Sitting down with my parents was a little humorous in that, whenever you have a son and his wife say, "Can you come over, we need to talk" you expect the worst. So after telling my parents, it was great to see their excited response. My mother immediately said, we'll have guest space for visiting missionaries where they could spend time relaxing in out pastoral setting, adding that when we purchased this property, we dedicated it to the use of God, and this is obviously one of those uses. With their blessing, space to build a studio exists in one of our "community" buildings, and will be available at little cost.

So where am I now? Well, the decision to make a 12 month transition was made in April of this year. So I am determined to be dedicated to this full time by the end of April, 2006. The first step is building up information about the venture, like through this web site, and the forming of a non-profit corporation. It is my desire to raise monthly support so that costs can be minimized to the missionaries who use our services. Please pray for God's wisdom as decisions are made, and we move forward. We cannot do this without His blessing and His paving of the way through legal red-tape and other obstacles. Pray that we will be successful in raising support so that more and more missionaries are able to tell their story in the most effective way possible.

If you would like to consider supporting this ministry, contact me at andrew@mediawithamission.org. We have not yet formed a non-profit corporation (501c), and are in the midst of this, so currently donations are not tax deductible, however with a little money raised for the cost to form the 501c, that will be changed soon.