I found myself in a very strange season this year, a large part of my walk with God has been healing and facing 'unfinished business', that meant facing my deepest wounds so that I can be free to fully follow God's plan for me. God has also brought so much new blessing during this time. I feel as if the chapter of this blog will be closed after this, and I am so very excited to start my new one in January (details to come!).
The loss of my teammate in 2008 greatly affected my life and God has brought me back to that season to make a short film about Jen's life, told by her mother Ruth. This has been incredibly difficult, but by God's grace, amazing support (thanks Kevin), I am near the end. Here in this blog is a quick glimpse of it, my written pitch to my professor for the film.
I am forever learning more about God's Grace and I am speechless by it. Sometimes stepping out in faith, you fall on your face, you make mistakes, you sin, you cry, but you live, you learn of God's Grace even more and through it all, if you let yourself forgive and forget, you learn how to love even deeper. I ask for you prayers as I complete the editing process over the next week. Thank-you all.
I pray that you experience the extent of God's Grace and God's Love in Your Life.
This is a tribute to an amazing women that I was blessed to know, Jennifer Kathleen Simpson.
Written Pitch for Short Film
On January 27, 2008 in the late evening hours another victim was taken by bad winter road conditions, Jen Simpson, deeply loved and cherished, left this world. Five years later her legacy carries on by her mothers tenacious spirit and the University of the Fraser Valley rowing crew.
Tracking back to January 2007, 5:30am at the Fraser Valley Rowing Club on the Vedder Canal in Yarrow, British Columbia Canada. The sun has yet to rise from behind the glorious mountains, the ground covered with snow, and the frost bites at fingers and toes. The only sound you would hear is the splash of an oar gliding through the water and the shout of a voice off in the distance yelling “Hard port! Watch out for that log! Let it run!”
Fast forward eight months, same time of day in Fort Langley British Columbia, Canada at the local rowing club. You would hear the same sounds multiplied, more oars in the water, more rowers in the University of the Fraser Valley boats and much more shouting from the coach. The rowers are preparing to begin their grueling three months of competition. They train hard for this all year, on the water every morning at 5:30am and in the gym every evening. They do this all in great hope of a first place finish in what is only a two kilometer, eight to ten minute race.
In that year, 2007, Jen Simpson was in one of those boats, her first year discovering the beauty of rowing, every day she was on the dock, 5:30am, with a smile on her face ready to take on the cold and cheer on her teammates. She spent most of time in an older boat, it was heavy, she was light, the boat was slow, she was learning to push harder and get stronger and this was how the boat the “Big Bison” came to be. Rather than being upset at being stuck in a heavy old boat Jen, the light that she was, made light of the situation, naming the boat “Big Bison”. Now the original “Big Bison” has finished its days and there is a new boat, a lighter and faster one. The name will stay the same, “Big Bison” a legacy that will live on forever and always be a reminder of how we can just as easily choose to grumble over a situation as we can choose to be joyful, despite the situation.
What remains of Jen is a beautiful memorial bench on campus, an athletic scholarship, new rowing equipment and hundreds of wonderful memories. This short film will share Jen’s story, through the words of mother. This film that I will put together, being a former teammate and friend of Jen will raise awareness on the continual fight to keep her memorial bench on campus free from cigarette butts littered around it, as well as the fight to keep her memorial scholarship recipient a rower, who represents the person of joy encouragement and perseverance that Jen was.
