David Nixon, Letters to God

David Nixon “Letters to God”

ORLANDO, Fla. -- David Nixon has made a name for himself as a director in the Christian movie industry starting with “Facing the Giants”. This movie was brought to him by the volunteers at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. Nixon shared his experiences of working with these people at Valencia Community College on Dec 3.

“Making a movie is kind of like going to war,” Nixon said about directing “Facing the Giants”. He explained that there are many processes a movie has to go through before they can be considered complete. That was his job on the set of mostly volunteers. He explained that the people working on this movie were only there to help a filmmaker at Sherwood Baptist Church.

They didn’t expect “Facing the Giants” to make much money, it was supposed to be put on DVD for churches to watch. When the film was brought to Sony, they decided to premiere it in theaters and that is when producers realized that there is a Christian movie market.

The realization that Christian movies would make money allowed producers and directors to make a new film called “Letters to God”. Based on a true story, the movie is expected to send a message of hope.

On April 9, “Letters to God” will be released in 800 different theaters and may expand depending on how well it does, which is expected to be better than the first 2 movies Nixon has directed.

“Letters to God” is a story about a little boy who is battling cancer and writing letters to God, not about himself, but about other people that are being affected by his disease. It is expected to touch many people and open up their hearts.

Nixon feels that his calling was to make movies that will reach people and send a message, not just films that have no point but to make money. He feels that God had sent him Sherwood Baptist Church’s volunteers so he could fulfill this calling.

No story.

New Generation, New Economy, New Opportunities

By Cristina Bonura

ORLANDO, Fla.----A major concern of graduating students is whether or not they will find a job in this economy. At the University of Central Florida on Oct. 12, Dr. Aubrey Jewett, moderator of the Department of Political Science, along with Stan Geberer, an Economist from Fishkind and Associates, spoke about just that.

“The Economic Forecast: Will There Actually Be Jobs for Us?” was one of the five topics spoken about in the Pegasus Ballroom. Another topic that had a great turn out was “A Conversation with Congress: The Economy, Higher Education and the New Generation” where Dr. Aubrey Jewett spoke once again with Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas and Congressman Lou Frey, Jr. about the current Florida economy and the impact it has on college students in the state.

Other speakers included John Bersia, special assistant to the President for Global Perspectives and Anya Kamenetz, author, Generation Debt, Staff Writer, Fast Company, and Yahoo! Finance Expert. Their presentation was titled “The Economy and Millennials: What Do We Do Now?”

The Keynote Address was given by Dr. Morley Winograd and Dr. Michael D. Hais, co-authors of “Millennial Makeover: Myspace, YouTube and the Future” at 11:30 p.m. Following their presentation, the authors signed copies of their book.

The all day event ended with questions/complaints from the audience. Many students gave Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas a hard time by telling her that she isn’t dealing with the problems people are having with healthcare in Florida. Another student complained about the fact that she had tried to contact the Congresswoman’s office many times and never got an answer.

The students that were coordinating the event said that there was a great turn out all day. The Pegasus ballroom in the Student Union building was full of people all day, for each of the presentations.