Written by Mike Delorenzo | photography by Mike and Ted Rurup
My good friend Ted and I have, in one way or another, been telling AIM’s stories for more than twenty years. We got our start as young pilots with AIM AIR who found a way to turn a hobby for videography into a side ministry as we witnessed the work of missionaries all around East Africa. In 2007, we took that vision a step further to serve together with AIM’s field-based media team. Some years later, when we both ended up Stateside with AIM’s US Sending Office (me in the Communications Department and Ted as a Mission Mobilizer), our days of rugged adventure filmmaking seemed to come to an end.
That changed when last year, an amazing story of a little church in Basin, Wyoming popped up on my radar and I was asked to go do a video. Besides the story itself, the project promised it all—“exotic” travel, dust, heat, possibly danger (self inflicted to be honest). The first person I thought of was Ted. Could we round up the old guard for one more adventure? Dynamic production trips like this work best with three people and so we also called up my son Zach—a former missionary kid and now a freelance filmmaker based in Colorado—to join us. We had our dream team.
Left to right: Ted, Zach, Mike—The “dream team”. We brought Zach along for his creative and technical skills. He also had better cameras than I could muster up. And a drone. Basin First Baptist in the background.
The story we hoped to capture was how one unassuming church in small-town America was partnering with AIM to make a sizable impact among the unreached of rural Mozambique—and if they could do it, any church could as well. What we found at First Baptist in Basin was a beautiful community of welcoming folks whose sincerity and whole-hearted investment in the Great Commission was not only inspiring, it was also incredibly practical. They were asking the hard questions. Letting God’s Spirit lead. Responding, adjusting, doubling-down. After years of this, they were at a place of rare and rich involvement that was not only bearing fruit in one of Africa’s most challenging mission fields, it was changing them as a church. Pastor Aaron was the perfect host to our video team—he was our “fixer”, tour guide, cultural interpreter (yeah, rural Wyoming is a unique place), as well as the narrator for our story. And the people of First Baptist were amazingly hospitable—from the men’s pancake breakfast at the church, to fun hunting stories and apple pie in the homes of some of the members. If you ever happen to be passing through Basin (it can pass by quick as a town of only about 1200 people), consider stopping by—Sunday or not. Aaron would be happy to share his heart for the community right outside the church doors, as well as his awe at what God is doing through their church for the unreached Ndau people a world away.
At the very least, we hope you’ll watch the video and catch some of that vision. (Video linked below.)
On the road with the production team...
Ted is notorious for taking the road less travelled. In this case, a “scenic detour” through a mountain pass which contained an active forest fire. The State Troopers turned us around.
Mike, meet Mike. Camera trickery with an iPhone (also, boys just being boys). Driving in and out of the “basin” was amazingly beautiful and we’d stop frequently to launch the drone or just take in some of the scenery.
Endless hair-pin turns... this is what you get when your production partner (Ted) is also a race car driver in his spare time.
Basin is a small town, which was part of what made this story so attractive. Ordinary people from an ordinary little town were doing this—reaching out across the world to help bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. Our story opens in the little cafe here.
Shooting the closing sequence. We asked Aaron to take us to his secret elk-hunting spot in the mountains for an “epic” (at least, in our minds) series of shots that would tie our worlds together through the reflection of a pastor who has walked the dusty paths of both places.
A member of the congregation did, in fact, ride his mule to church.
See what God can do in and through an ordinary church that stands in awe at their part in God’s bigger story. Watch their story below.
Psst. Are you a creative like Mike, Ted, and Zach? Do you have a heart for the unreached peoples of Africa? AIM Stories captures the stories of God’s redemptive work from across the African continent and beyond in the hopes of seeing Christ-centered churches established and thriving among all of Africa's peoples. You can join them. Find out more here.