Media in Diaspora Ministry
originally created for MissioNexus by Tim Cowley
09.23.2021
The Diaspora
We live in a unique time. People groups that were once living in hard-to-reach lands are now living among us. Instead of several long flights and great expense to find, they live in our own neighborhoods in vibrant cities throughout the western world.
How can we use this opportunity creatively to produce meaningful media?
Who is stepping out to partner with the diaspora to create ministry materials?
Hey there. I’m Tim and I’ll be your tour guide as we take a look at what some creative folks are doing in using media within diaspora communities. We’ll get to hear via video interview from
Joel & Paul in California who successfully shot a film in Pasadena even though it all looks like it took place in Iraq.
Steve in New England who partnered with churches in Sweden to produce a film for Syrian refugees.
Shirin, herself the daughter of a political refugee from Iran who is partnering with both Christian and Muslim women to empower them to share their stories.
We’ll also learn about a ministry in Chicago that started a podcast whose target audience is American-based Muslim youth, a multicultural worship training center in Georgia, a brother and sister team from the northwest who created a realtime translation app for multilingual churches, and a filmmaker in Minnesota with a passion to produce world-class media using the diaspora community.
Baghdad, Pasadena*
Paul & Joel found each other in southern California. One had lived overseas where he had learned Arabic and had a heart to use film for sharing stories of redemption and hope. The other had been running a film festival for Christian filmmakers. They teamed up to produce a high-quality, award-winning film for Iraqis focusing on the theme of forgiveness. Even though it was shot in California (and not on a big studio lot), it has the look and feel of a film shot entirely in Iraq.
Contact Tim to be put in touch with the filmmakers for more info.
I interviewed Paul and Joel to learn more about how their project came together, what the response was like to the film, and how they would offer advice to others interested in producing diaspora-focused films.
full interview, raw, unedited quality
interview short focusing on WHY we should produce ministry films for diaspora communities
Youth With a Mission’s Create Mobile presents
Breeze of the Soul
A widowed Syrian woman struggles to make a new home in Sweden after her husband’s tragic death at sea. In Syrian Arabic and English, 32 min.
full interview, unedited
Empower Women Media
Shirin Taber helped to start a film initiative focused on training women coming from places where freedom of religion struggles to find its way into traditional society. Empower Women Media provides film training, hosts a film competition, and provides a certificate course called “Live What You Believe” looking at the benefits to society that freedom of religion brings.
Of the many short films Empower Women Media features on its website and through its film festivals, one particular story stands out as a diaspora story.
“A Taste of Freedom”
by Meshair Jirdeh (France/Saudi Arabia/Somalia) & Terri Marie (U.S.)
A young Muslim woman seeks religious freedom and travels to a new land. On her journey, she meets the love of her life, a chef, and they build a new restaurant business together.
A chat with Shirin Taber, Empower Women Media, about her initiative. (Interviewed during EMDC Mini Film Mini Preview Online Film Festival 2021)
“Muslims Want to Know” podcast
Eric Mason at the South Asian Friendship Center in Chicago, IL is the host of a podcast originally intended for English speaking Muslims in Chicago. His conversational, non-scholarly style has helped it grow to over 14 countries.
www.safcchicago.com
Proskuneo
Proskuneo is a multiethnic community and school of worship in Clarkston, GA. Located in one of the most ethnically diverse communities in the United States, the vision of Proskuneo Ministries is to help the Body of Christ see, live, and share the vision of multicultural, Jesus-centered worshiping communities among all peoples, on earth as in heaven.
“We create resources from diverse worshipping communities for multicultural worshipping communities around the world. We also offer training and consultations.”
www.proskuneo.org
Theotech
Sibling Chris (CEO/co-founder) & Natasha Lim (co-founder) have created a language translation software for churches.
In the Bible, it talks about that one day in God’s kingdom there will be people from every language that will be worshiping together. And when I was looking just at the majority of our churches in America today, or even worldwide, so many of our communities are segregated by language and culture. And believing if God’s the customer, and if this is what God wants, there is a gap here. So, we wanted to build a technology that can bridge that gap and can enable churches and other organizations to be more (unified)”
www.Theotech.org & spf.io
Silker Studios
This film studio in Minneapolis, MN has a strategy to “Partner Experienced Filmmakers with multiethnic talent in US and International markets to build culture savvy media capacity.” Their goal is to “Create ‘Best in Market’ media for emerging US and international markets hungry for stories in their own culture and language.”
In their context, and in many other cities, Greg believes there is “a unique opportunity to equip talent among immigrant communities to reach international markets.” (1 million 1st and 2nd generation immigrants in Minnesota alone).