Volunteering: Film Action

Friday was my first day volunteering with Film Action of Oregon. http://www.filmaction.org/
They’re committed to educating emerging filmmakers, supporting working artists and engaging diverse audiences.
I thought this would be cool and a good way to get out in the community and build relationships, but yesterday I fell in love with what they are doing.
I'll share more here as time goes by... today’s post is about being new somewhere.

I was a little nervous... would they like me? would I fit in or stick out like a sore thumb. The answer to this was something Julie said yesterday... Christians should be the most loving people in the world. Well, I knew I could do that.

The experience of being a volunteer rather than being the staff person who works with volunteers (my day job) is invaluable training and experience. Justen, who I work with, was GREAT! but I still learned something about how it feels to be new and not on staff.

Being a receptionist when you don't know ANYONE is tough. Are they new? or can they tell you are new? Or when someone calls and leaves a message, and you cannot remember the names of the people you were just introduced to... that's stressful.

I met Emmanuelle, a young student from Paris here on an internship. She's in film school in Paris who wanted to improve her conversational English so she's here for 3 months. We had a great conversation throughout the afternoon, which ended with "I'd love to come to your church!" Confession: Sometimes I am a little overwhelmed by all the production in the Eleventh Hour. I chalk this up to being 42 (for a few more days) but for my new friend from Paris, it made Sunset sound inviting. That was WAY cool.

The biggest challenge- they are quiet talkers... this could be an issue for me, since I'm not :-)