I knew that our time in PNG was going to be so different and hard to describe, even with a camera, that in May I purchased a very small, lightweight and fairly inexpensive, Sony camcorder called the “bloggie” (ugh!) along with a monopod which would help steady the camcorder and improve the recorded videos.
I had been practicing using the Sony, both in the US and here in September, to learn the tricks to produce really nice recordings. Just before one of the events that would have been perfect for video recording (the Garoka Show), I discovered that the camcorder’s ability to stay focused when zooming was broken. I was so saddened.
Shipping this back home could have cost $35. With God in control, a couple were leaving PNG within a few days and agreed to take the box back to the US and also said part of their ministry to us would be to pay for the shipping to Sony’s repair center in Texas. I gave the small box to them on Sunday and it was placed in the US mail on Thursday. Wow!
I thought the only downsides were that I wouldn’t have the camcorder for a while and that Sony would only return the camcorder to a US address. I provided the JAARS address in Waxhaw, NC and asked a good friend to grab it when it arrived and forward it to me in PNG asap.
I waited a reasonable time and then tried to check the status of my repair via Sony’s website. Their site said they didn’t even have my repair work order in their system. I then had to track down a phone number to the TX center, and arrange my schedule two weeks ago so that I could make a call over the Internet during their working hours.
When I called, the representative at the repair center agreed that they had gotten my camcorder but were waiting for a backordered part.
When I made a follow-up call last Wednesday, the man told me that the camcorder was fixed but that they were having problems shipping it (??). He said that it should be sent within a couple of days and he’d email me the tracking information. I alerted my friend at JAARS to keep an eye out but I never got an email from Sony and the camcorder did not arrive in NC.
I called again on Tuesday morning (PNG time). Robert, who I hadn’t talked to before, looked up my repair order and told me that they were having problems shipping it, the exact status from almost a week ago. I have to say I got pretty excited. Still, he was very understanding and promised to update me by email by the end of his day. I emphasized that the camcorder was desperately needed for an event that started December 10th, just 18 days and half a world away. I even asked that Sony bite the bullet and send the camcorder directly to me here in PNG rather than having a delay while passing through Waxhaw.
By the way, the #1 reason I’d wanted a video camera is because it has always been a dream of ours since joining Wycliffe to attend the dedication of God’s Word in a village. Despite all my planning with this purchase, my practice, and my efficient (and pretty cheap) way of getting the camcorder to Sony, it was clear that I was not going to be able to take videos of the joyful celebration less than 3 weeks away. I was so very disappointed but resigned to having just my still camera to record the event.
And then I found a note in our Ukarumpa PO box at noon that day (Tuesday) that something too big to fit needed to be gotten at the clerk’s window. You know it was the camcorder, repaired and ready to go.
How did that happen? At first I thought that Sony’s database was just a week out of date, that they had actually gotten it out by that Friday, and that they’d decided to ship it straight to me as a kind gesture.
Not!
When I finally pieced everything together, I learned that Sony had finished the repair the start of November, and FedEx’d it to JAARS. It had arrived in Waxhaw on my birthday where someone in Shipping (no one knows who) quickly turned it around and sent it on to Ukarumpa. While I thought the camcorder was racing here to me, God had decided to keep the slow-but-steady process a secret.
I believe God wanted to provide me this wonderful recording tool in time to practice again but only after I had given up all hope of getting it.
It is a wonderful reminder that we know now and need to remember always that we are hopeless without him. What a delight we experience when we see God provide something that He’d planned and already made provision for without us knowing.
Kind of like the good news about Jesus, whose redemption for me was planned before the foundations of the world.
I had been practicing using the Sony, both in the US and here in September, to learn the tricks to produce really nice recordings. Just before one of the events that would have been perfect for video recording (the Garoka Show), I discovered that the camcorder’s ability to stay focused when zooming was broken. I was so saddened.It’s really hard, almost impossible, to get items repaired while in the highlands of PNG. I’d thought that I’d be able to ship a Sony (Japanese) product to somewhere in this part of the world and get it back relatively quickly (and with inexpensive shipping cost). No, Sony said. I bought this camcorder in the US with a US warranty and could only get it repaired under warranty by sending it back to the US!
Shipping this back home could have cost $35. With God in control, a couple were leaving PNG within a few days and agreed to take the box back to the US and also said part of their ministry to us would be to pay for the shipping to Sony’s repair center in Texas. I gave the small box to them on Sunday and it was placed in the US mail on Thursday. Wow!
I thought the only downsides were that I wouldn’t have the camcorder for a while and that Sony would only return the camcorder to a US address. I provided the JAARS address in Waxhaw, NC and asked a good friend to grab it when it arrived and forward it to me in PNG asap.
I waited a reasonable time and then tried to check the status of my repair via Sony’s website. Their site said they didn’t even have my repair work order in their system. I then had to track down a phone number to the TX center, and arrange my schedule two weeks ago so that I could make a call over the Internet during their working hours.
When I called, the representative at the repair center agreed that they had gotten my camcorder but were waiting for a backordered part.
When I made a follow-up call last Wednesday, the man told me that the camcorder was fixed but that they were having problems shipping it (??). He said that it should be sent within a couple of days and he’d email me the tracking information. I alerted my friend at JAARS to keep an eye out but I never got an email from Sony and the camcorder did not arrive in NC.
I called again on Tuesday morning (PNG time). Robert, who I hadn’t talked to before, looked up my repair order and told me that they were having problems shipping it, the exact status from almost a week ago. I have to say I got pretty excited. Still, he was very understanding and promised to update me by email by the end of his day. I emphasized that the camcorder was desperately needed for an event that started December 10th, just 18 days and half a world away. I even asked that Sony bite the bullet and send the camcorder directly to me here in PNG rather than having a delay while passing through Waxhaw.
By the way, the #1 reason I’d wanted a video camera is because it has always been a dream of ours since joining Wycliffe to attend the dedication of God’s Word in a village. Despite all my planning with this purchase, my practice, and my efficient (and pretty cheap) way of getting the camcorder to Sony, it was clear that I was not going to be able to take videos of the joyful celebration less than 3 weeks away. I was so very disappointed but resigned to having just my still camera to record the event.
And then I found a note in our Ukarumpa PO box at noon that day (Tuesday) that something too big to fit needed to be gotten at the clerk’s window. You know it was the camcorder, repaired and ready to go.
How did that happen? At first I thought that Sony’s database was just a week out of date, that they had actually gotten it out by that Friday, and that they’d decided to ship it straight to me as a kind gesture.
Not!
When I finally pieced everything together, I learned that Sony had finished the repair the start of November, and FedEx’d it to JAARS. It had arrived in Waxhaw on my birthday where someone in Shipping (no one knows who) quickly turned it around and sent it on to Ukarumpa. While I thought the camcorder was racing here to me, God had decided to keep the slow-but-steady process a secret.
I believe God wanted to provide me this wonderful recording tool in time to practice again but only after I had given up all hope of getting it.
It is a wonderful reminder that we know now and need to remember always that we are hopeless without him. What a delight we experience when we see God provide something that He’d planned and already made provision for without us knowing.
Kind of like the good news about Jesus, whose redemption for me was planned before the foundations of the world.
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