Dear Friends:

The filming with NBC went very well. The crew arrived Friday around midnight. Although they were supposed to have a waiting van and driver, they actually ended up with a rented station wagon and no driver – for 4 crew and 17 crates of equipment. So I was glad I was there with my van because we had an early start in the morning.

The graduation ceremony Saturday morning was the highlight of my year, and I was thrilled that NBC was there to capture it. On Sunday they filmed the chapel service and did interviews. They were pleased to have IBA member Paul Husby, just retired VP of 3M, visiting Hope for the weekend to provide a corporate investor perspective. On Monday the NBC crew went to visit graduate Thayan at his new workplace (Third year law student Thayan just landed a well paying internship at a prestigious law firm and -- as he excitedly told me --. "They did not even know I was from the City of Youth!") NBC spent the rest of Monday filming the campus.

The crews one moment of excitement was filming street kids at the central square (I was not with them at the time). Some drug traffickers with their kingpin happened to be there and threatened the crew, and were going to break their cameras. Do you remember Leo, who I recently wrote a story about Evangelizing the park? Leo happened to be walking by, returning from his own graduation, and saw what was happening. He recognized a barber who owned a mobile barber shop because this barber had volunteered with a group cutting hair at the City of Youth. Leo talked to the barber, who knew everybody in the square, and the itinerant barber in turn talked to the drug lords, explaining about the City of Youth, and convincing them to leave the crew alone.

Bob Faw, the reporter, seemed to be very taken. At one point over lunch he turned to Paul Husby and said, with apparent awe, "These kids really are transformed"

When will it show? Producer Slivie Haller believes the "Making a Difference" piece will show in the next two weeks, before Christmas, but cannot know a date. The exciting news is that Bob Faw told Paul that they had the material to produce a longer segment which he hoped could air on the TODAY show. Now that could be a blessing for this ministry, and for Brazil's street kids.

We are gearing up with preparations for this airing, and will let you know just as soon as we have a firm date.

In His Hope,

Philip