Round Trip isn’t just about both American and Kenyan mission teams—it was shot by a multinational team. How did you find one another?
Nate Clarke: Getting a non-American involved behind the camera was a high priority for us. We wanted the way we told the story to reflect the fact that the future of missions is multi-directional. Also, we had to do it that way for budget reasons! We couldn’t afford for me to make several scouting and shooting trips to Kenya. So while I was in Kenya with the Chapel Hill team, I kept my eyes peeled for someone who had experience in video and could be a good partner. The very first full day we were there, Pastor Kyama introduced us to the media team from Mavuno Downtown church, and I sat down on a concrete bench next to Ken Oloo. It was quickly clear that not only was Ken interested in helping, but he asked good questions, had an eye for composition, and was willing to take direction. So I continued to ask Ken to join us on shoots. He immediately became an important part of our production team and invaluable to us while we were in Kenya. At the end of our time in Kenya, I asked Ken to continue filming the preparation of the Kenyan team. I left a camera and audio gear with him and headed back to the States.
Ken Oloo: I think I was initially apprehensive about the Kenyan team being filmed. Most of the documentaries that I had seen that were made in Africa had a negative perspective. They dwelled on the wars, dictators, and famine. I wondered if Nate was in Kenya just to capture the negative stuff that happens in my part of the world. All that was quickly put to rest. Nate and the other crew were deliberate in forming relationships with the Kenyans that they were filming. They were clearly interested in the people whose stories they were telling.
I had just started volunteering with the media team at my church, and I was not sure what direction my life was going to take that year. I remember standing next to Nate at the back of the church and looking at his camera and just being wowed. His camera was five times the size of my church’s camera and it was about 15 times more expensive. I remember telling him that I would like my camcorder to be like his when it grew up. We both laughed at that joke and I was sold. When you can laugh at something together, you know you’ve made a great start.
Why did you film Round Trip in documentary format rather than as a more traditional training video?
Andy Crouch: Certainly the “teaching video,” with a talking head who tells you what you need to know, is a much more common format for the church market. And we do have some great commentators woven into the training sessions—Lisa Espinelli Chinn, Tim Dearborn, David Livermore, Oscar Muriu, and Ruth Padilla DeBorst. They say some terrific things very clearly and concisely.
But short-term mission trips are a learning experience that happens as you go. A short-term mission trip is very little like a planned-out lesson from a master communicator. It’s much more an adventure into the (partially) unknown. If you go expecting a series of cookie-cutter experiences or lessons, you’ll be disappointed. But if you go seeking to learn and grow, you will likely be amazed at what God is willing to do.
We wanted to capture some of that adventure in the way we told the story, and also to give short-term teams practice in listening to and learning from others. In a way, the journey you go on watching the sequences in ROUND TRIP—getting to know the various characters, seeing things from their point of view, wondering about their motives and assumptions, hoping for them and mourning with them—is very much like what a short-term trip requires of us.
Why follow a Kenyan team as well as an American one, given that most groups that watch this will be Americans?
Andy Crouch: It’s crucial for several reasons. First, this is the reality of mission in the twenty-first century: it is “from everywhere to everywhere.” No matter where you go in the world, if you are visiting Christians you are visiting people who feel called to mission. It’s especially important that no one set out from the United States on a “mission trip” imagining that mission is what “we” do to “them.” The people we will meet are also called to, and in all likelihood actively engaged in, mission work. So we wanted to make sure no one could miss that crucial idea.
Second, I think seeing the Kenyan team’s story helps clarify that cross-cultural experiences are both hard and rewarding for everyone. It’s not just “ugly Americans” who are puzzled or disoriented by being in a new culture. Crossing cultures always requires us to depend on God in new ways, no matter which culture we are coming from.
And finally, it sure doesn’t hurt to see American culture, however briefly, through the eyes of visitors to our country. When you are part of a dominant culture like the United States, you can imagine that “culture” is something that other people have. But the truth is that all of us have been shaped in deep (and sometimes humorous!) ways by the culture we grew up in.
What is your favorite moment on the DVD?
Andy Crouch: I love it when Ken is looking warily at a tea kettle on the stove in his American hosts’ kitchen. So familiar yet so unfamiliar! The expression on your face is priceless, Ken—I interpret it as something like, “I know I’m supposed to be making tea, and I make tea all the time at home, but I’m not sure this is tea!”
Ken Oloo: The tea scene makes me laugh every time I watch it. I was thinking, “We are making tea, but this is a very, very different way of making it.” I think I was a bit dumbfounded.
My favorite moment in the film is when the Kenyan team is being briefed about what to expect during the church service at Chapel Hill Bible Church and there is a communication breakdown. The Kenyan team felt like we were being asked to tone down our “Africanness” to accommodate an American audience. The stunned look on the faces of Kenyan team is so precious. You can feel the raw tension! We really didn’t expect that level of culture shock. I thought that our team was so well exposed to the American culture that we would fit in easily. But that scene shows that this was indeed a cross-cultural experience.
Nate Clarke: I love the moments when somebody does something subtle that speaks volumes without saying anything. We have a shot where Kungo is standing in front of a wall of TVs in an American electronics store—and they are all displaying African wildlife. What a surreal moment.
But my favorite moment (both in the finished product and while we were filming) was the scene where the Kenyan team visited an American prison. It was actually the last thing we shot and up to that point, the Kenyan story lacked a strong finish. Once I did the final interviews with Karimi and Ken, I had a clear sense that our work had not been in vain. What a great experience to witness the Kenyans doing ministry in a forgotten American context, to be concluding primary photography, and to have the story come to a finishing point, with a beautiful sunset as well.
How has working on ROUND TRIP affected you personally?
Andy Crouch: The experience of working on this project has caused me to recommit myself to international friendships and partnerships. We are so privileged to live in an era where we can meet and learn from brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, in person and through media like ROUND TRIP. I want to spend more and more of my life in the kinds of friendships that began on these trips, because I think they are the future of mission.
Nate Clarke: Because we’re not on camera, you can suppose that filmmakers are invisible, objective observers. And certainly we worked hard to remain objective, both in the filming and the editing, but when you are with some interesting people, it’s hard not to develop friendships that last beyond the project. When the cameras were not rolling, we had great times laughing with the Kenyans in a fast food restaurant in Raleigh, and we had memorable conversations with the Americans that harkened back to high-school summer camp.
The people we worked with were great people, far beyond what you see on the DVD. We were fortunate to form long-lasting friendships with them. I am proud of the finished product we created, but the friendships are the part of the project that I cherish most.
Ken Oloo: I learned that relationships carry the day. People give you access to their lives when you have a relationship with them. The deeper the relationship, the deeper the access. The camera crew would always take time to just talk and bond with the team, and that made a huge difference. I also learned that the camera doesn’t shield you. During the prison visit I was very much moved by the prisoners who had come to ask for prayers. I did something that might be considered unprofessional: I put down my camera and went to pray with one of the prisoners myself. But it was exactly the right thing to do.
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