Mark W. W. Field

Budgets for Zona Juvenil Television

mark — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:01:58 +0000

Television Budgets

TV Commercial: $500K

Network TV Commercial: $1M

To air a commercial on TV: $100-$300K (depending on time of day)

TV Show (CSI): $1-3M

TV Show (1 Episode of ER) $13M

Webisode online: From $1,500 - $8,000 per minute

Professional Set: $50-300K

Professional Lighting: $10-150K

Script Writer: $1-6K per episode.

Sources:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1005111000065

http://newteevee.com/2007/11/28/what-does-it-cost-to-make-a-webisode/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/869035/how_much_do_television_shows_cost_to.html?cat=31

ZJ Television Budget 2009 – 2010

Mac Pro Computer and Programs: $4,500

Two Professional Video Cameras: $2,000

Two Lavaliere Microphones: $1,200

Remodeling/conversion of TV set: $250

Lighting for TV sets: $250

Monthly Budget for TV shows:

La Zona Show (Spanish): $100 (show)

[Preaching/Teaching] Show: $150 (show)

120 shows from Fall 2009 to December 2010.

Total Equipment: $8,200

Total Budget for shows: $15,000

Total for TV: (2009 – 2010) $23,200

How Times Have Changed???

mark — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:01:02 +0000

This week a young guy came over to my apartment to talk. Storming in the door he demanded, “Let me use your internet”, obviously a new modern greeting used in place of “Hi, how are you?”. I corrected him and then allowed him access to the internet.

His fingers typed away and soon he was on YouTube and looking up a song.

“Check this video out!” he declared. “This song is the most awesome new song out and everybody loves it. It’s the perfect song to dedicate to that girl that you love so much”.

I waited to see what song it was. Then it came on. “Under the Boardwalk” in Spanish. It definitely is the Hottest Newest (50 year old song) out today, I giggled to myself, but I let him think it was NEW!

ZJ can be back on TV by Summer’s End

mark — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:59:32 +0000

Television is a scary thing. Watching your favorite shows is one thing, but being on them is another.

We have found 5 primary purposes for being on local cable networks:

1. We can communicate with thousands of young people we cannot see.

2. We can preach and teach freely, training leaders and teaching Bible to young people we may never meet.

3. TV shows will serve as publicity for our youth groups and youth Church.

4. The TV shows will once again let our community know what we are doing and what we are teaching this Department’s young people. (We are often asked what we teach).

5. Through TV production, we can involved dozens of young people, giving them job training and work experience while also creating disciples who understand that God can use them and that they too can be actively involved in ministry.

To make television possible, there are still a few obstacles to overcome. We must raise money to make this a reality. I can create a pretty good show with a few good cameras and a computer for editing. But that takes some money. We’ve already been helped out some, and we have two used cameras and a used Mac Pro in sight.

We don’t plan on paying any salaries, using all volunteers including (Mark as writer).

Mark has offered his apartment as the primary set, so we won’t be paying any rent, just electric.

We already have a trained director, a producer, and two great video editing guys ready to work for free.

Your gift is tax deductible and is an investment in a ministry that will potentially impact 2,000,000 each week. The next step in this process if for people like you to step forward and financially help us make this a reality.

Please prayerfully consider how you can help Zona Juvenil be on the air on at least two cable channels by the end of the summer.

May we spend some time together in August?

mark — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:58:11 +0000

May we spend some time together in August?
I’ve been invited to share in a few churches in North Carolina in August. As I always am, I am willing to share in other churches or groups as well.

I am currently about to confirm a number of opportunities for the middle to end of August. As I do this, I will gladly take into account your church or group.

My purposes for traveling and sharing are:

1. To share about missions and how God is at work around the world.

2. To invite each listener to become even more involved in God’s working.

3. To share about the work we and other ministries we partner with are involved in within Latin America.

4. To meet new people, renew old friendships, and develop ties with others passionate about missions.

While I would love to raise a significant amount support for our ministries here, that is not the primary purpose of this trip. God has always been faithful to provide what we need when we need it. So I travel, share, and spend time with amazing people, and some later on will financially invest in the ministry.

HOW TO BOOK MARK:

To book Mark the following is needed:

1. We ask that you or your pastor contact as soon as possible.

2. We do not charge a fee, but we do ask that your church or group help out in some way with travel expenses.

3. We may have to limit travel and locations due to time and distance limitations.

4. Mark shares about missions and missionary work. If your church is already supporting Mark or ZJ’s work, this is a great opportunity to contact him and have him share. (First come first serve. Sorry!)

5. The best way to contact Mark is via his email, zonajuvenil@hotmail.com, or you can call him on his international number at 011-502-5931-5359.

6. In the United States, Ronnie McElroy can be contacted for questions, rlm9@sbcglobal.net, or by phone at 817-602-4522.

Read How Drug Money Can Change our Small Towns

mark — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:27:32 +0000

From www.time.com

In Guatemala, a Village that Cocaine Built

By Jill Replogle / La Reforma Thursday, Apr. 16, 2009

Jeffrey L. Rotman / Corbis

The village of La Reforma in eastern Guatemala doesn’t seem like the kind of place that would have a first-rate hospital and a handful of mansions. There’s no bank, no grocery store and more than 70% of the inhabitants of the municipality that includes La Reforma, called Huite, are poor. But officials tell TIME they suspect a few locals are making a handsome profit by assuring that Colombian cocaine makes it safely through Guatemala to Mexico and then on to the U.S.

Former villagers tell TIME that La Reforma’s alleged narco–big shots have secured the town’s love and loyalty by giving to the poor and throwing elaborate public parties. Perhaps most important, they’ve created jobs — both directly for their alleged drug-running enterprises and indirectly through businesses that federal officials say are possible fronts for laundering drug profits. “They’re the source of employment,” says a 30-year-old woman who grew up near La Reforma and now studies law in Guatemala City. “They’re the principal investors.” The woman has family in Huite and asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal. (See pictures of the narco netherworld.)

Guatemala has long been a drug transshipment point between South and North America. But only in recent years have investigators begun to see how firmly a narco-economy is taking hold there, which is always bad news for small, poor and corrupt countries like Guatemala. Experts say it’s hard to know just how much the Guatemalan economy depends on drug profits, but they agree that it’s a significant source of employment and capital today. If trafficking and related businesses were shut down, unemployment would skyrocket in certain parts of the country, like La Reforma, says Leonel Ruiz, second in charge at the federal public prosecutor’s office on narcotics activity.

For one thing, the flow of capital into the country’s financial system is suspiciously high compared with the size of the economy, says Sigfrido Lee, former Vice Minister of Economy and an analyst at the Center for National Economic Investigations, a Guatemalan think tank. This indicates, he says, a likely inflow of illegal money. The U.S. government’s recently released 2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report backs up those suspicions. Guatemala also has an unusually high number of luxury cars and high-end real estate purchases, Lee says, and buyers often pay in cash. Guatemala City has seen a boom in fancy high-rise apartment and office buildings in recent years, which authorities and analysts suspect is driven in no small part by money laundering. “One can find entire condominium complexes that never sold” any units, says Lee. (See pictures of drug lords’ latest cocaine hubs.)

Obscure La Reforma, as a result, could become a more high-profile focus. Federal officials tell TIME they’re investigating one of La Reforma’s most prominent families, the Lorenzanas, who own a construction company, vast cattle-ranching tracts and an agricultural export firm that partners with U.S. companies to ship melons. One of the Lorenzana brothers, Waldemar, was arrested last December for alleged weapons possession but was released soon after without being charged. A Lorenzana representative did not respond to TIME’s attempts to contact the family. But last year, Waldemar wrote a letter to a Guatemala newspaper denying reports that he or his family were involved in drug trafficking. He admitted he’d once sold land to a man who then constructed a clandestine airstrip on it to transport drugs but said “that wasn’t my fault.”

The names of Waldemar Lorenzana and other members of his family under government suspicion, however, do not appear on many of the titles to their assets, officials say. Rather, those documents use front men (or women) to register businesses, which officials note is a common tactic for laundering money. “The families that run [drug trafficking] know they can’t leave a trace,” says the narcotics prosecutor, Ruiz.

Guatemalan authorities have apprehended dozens of suspects in recent years leaving the country with large wads of cash, often hidden under clothing or stuffed into items like shampoo bottles, book covers and diapers. Last year, the Guatemalan government confiscated $3.4 million in suspicious funds at the Guatemala City airport and sent 20 people to jail, most of them from other Central and South American countries, says Leopoldo Liu, head of the public prosecutor’s office on money laundering. (See pictures of South America on LIFE.com.)

Liu says authorities almost never detect the origin of the laundered funds, in part because the people who are caught refuse to rat out their higher-ups. “They prefer to take the [jail] sentence than tell us the truth,” says Liu. He also admitted that fear often paralyzes further investigation. In one case, a Colombian woman was caught at the airport with some $140,000 and sentenced to six years in prison. Liu says that after the trial last year, the woman’s lawyer advised Liu not to investigate any further. Liu followed the advice, and says the people the woman was working for “could kill me.”

Guatemala has made some strides against money laundering since 2001. That’s when the nation landed on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of “noncooperative” countries. That year Guatemala finally criminalized money laundering, setting prison sentences of up to 20 years and requiring banks and other financial intermediaries to report suspicious activity and implement “know your client” policies. The law created a special unit within the banking superintendence, which has the authority to obtain information related to any business transaction potentially involving laundering.

Guatemala was taken off the FATF blacklist in 2004. Still, the country’s suspected narcobosses are rarely prosecuted. Nor is there much public outrage about the cash doled out by traffickers. In Huite, says the law student, the majority of her childhood friends are now employed in some form by people she calls drug traffickers. In the past, she notes, most local youth had to migrate to the U.S. to look for work. It’s also common, she adds, to see long lines of La Reforma’s poor waiting for favors outside the homes of suspected narcofamilies, who also send food to remote villages and help pay for families’ funeral costs. “People respect them a lot for that,” she says.

Great Article: A View of Guatemala’s Current Political Scandal

mark — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:23:10 +0000

A Video From the Grave Shakes Guatemala

From www.time.com

Eliot Fieser – Guatemala City

When Rodrigo Rosenberg turned up dead on Mother’s Day in an upscale neighborhood in Guatemala City, his murder was seen as little more than another execution-style shooting in one of Latin America’s most dangerous countries. Now, after a video emerged in which Rosenberg accused Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom of orchestrating the murder, the killing has sparked civic unrest that threatens to topple the President of this fledgling democracy.

Thousands of protesters have demonstrated daily in front of the presidential palace, calling for Colom’s resignation. And politicians have said Colom should step aside during the investigation into Rosenberg’s death. “This is the most serious political crisis the country has faced since the signing of the peace accords” in 1996, said Anita Isaacs, a Haverford College political science professor who studies democratization in Guatemala. “The country is hanging on by a thread.”

The video spread across the Internet after family members handed it out during Rosenberg’s funeral on Monday. In the 18-minute tape, a seemingly calm Rosenberg, sitting behind a desk and microphone, alleges that Colom, the First Lady and two associates were involved in murder, corruption and money laundering. The group, he says, filtered public funds through a state-owned bank for personal gain and to finance drug traffickers. Rosenberg then claims that after Khalil Musa, a prominent businessman and bank board member, had learned of the Coloms’ scheme, Musa and his daughter were shot to death in front of a shopping center in April. Rosenberg says the President signed off on the killings.

On Sunday, Rosenberg was shot in the head while riding his bicycle. In the previously recorded video, he declares, “If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Alvaro Colom, with help from [presidential secretary] Gustavo Alejos … I knew exactly how [they] were responsible for that cowardly murder [of Musa], and I told them so and told those who wanted and could hear it.”

Colom has repeatedly denied the allegations and refused calls to temporarily step down. “There is no proof, aside from the recording, which I discredit completely,” he said. Colom also asked for assistance from international bodies, including a U.N.-backed investigatory body and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations. Embassy officials said an FBI agent arrived in Guatemala on Wednesday to help the government.

Colom won the presidency in 2007 with strong support from the country’s impoverished indigenous Mayans. He ran on a leftist platform that included confronting government corruption and violent crime, legacies of the country’s 36-year civil war. That war ended in 1996, giving way to rampant street crime and drug trafficking. An average of 18 people are killed daily in Guatemala, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the Americas. (Read about the Guatemalan village that cocaine built.)

For Guatemalans and political observers, the implication of Colom’s involvement in Rosenberg’s murder has recalled the days in which tens of thousands of political dissidents were abducted and killed by the government. Colom’s own uncle, a former mayor of Guatemala City, was “disappeared” in 1979. “Rosenberg’s death mirrors the tactics the military government used during the 1970s and 1980s when they wanted someone silenced,” says Isaacs.

Colom has said the Rosenberg video is part of a right-wing conspiracy designed to destabilize the government and ultimately bring him down. In a broadcast interview, he suggested that Rosenberg was coerced into making the video. Colom pointed to a radio journalist, Mario David Garcia, as the key link to the conspiracy. Garcia, a presidential candidate for an ultra-right-wing party in the 1980s, told TIME he helped Rosenberg record the video in his office the week before the murder. “It’s outrageous. There was never any coercion,” Garcia says. “I even left the office while he was recording the video.” Garcia says Rosenberg came to him for help and to appear on Garcia’s radio show but changed his mind and decided to record the video. (Read a story about the turmoil in Guatemala in the 1980s.)

Nevertheless, Colom supporters have seized the conspiracy theory to defend the President. “We’re here in support of our President and against these lies trying to bring him down,” said Anita Lopez, 32, as she rallied in front of the presidential palace on Wednesday. Students of the left-leaning public university and indigenous Mayans joined her. Many said the government bused them to the city from the suburbs.

Steps away, thousands of protesters, including students from right-leaning private universities, marched in front of the presidential palace, carrying signs calling Colom an “assassin” and demanding his resignation. The competing protests are the most visible sign of a politically charged environment that has the potential to cause Colom to resign, Isaacs says. “This country has for so long been paralyzed by the pervasive violence and the potent mix of gangs and narcotraffickers,” she says. “Now that paralysis has turned into rage. And if these demonstrations pick up momentum, they could have a snowball effect.”

Organizers are planning to continue the demonstrations and anti-government activists are collecting signatures on a petition against Colom. Says Javier Ogarrio, a leader of the group opposed to the President: “We plan to keep the protests going and collect signatures until we put enough pressure on him.”

Zona Juvenil Guatemala

mark — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:10:09 +0000

Muchas personas me preguntan acerca del ministerio Zona Juvenil en Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Y pues, en esta oportunidad les queria informar acerca de que es ZJ como tambien como trabajamos este proyecto.

1. ZJ es un una organizacion Cristiana de apoyo, motivacion y educacion para la juventud en Guatemala.

2. ZJ no pertenece a una iglesia especifica. Los lideres asisten a diferentes iglesias y la mayoria de nuestros jovenes no asisten a una Iglesia Cristiana.

3. Somos una asociacion no-lucrativa, y contamos con menos de $600USD / Q5,000 cada mes para hacer el tabajo que hacemos.

4. Lideres son voluntarios, y todos trabajamos en otras areas para poder pagar nuestros gastos.

5. Nuestra passion son los jovenes y trabajamos arduamente para llegar a ellos y ofrecerles amor, oportunidades y esperanza que no reciben de otras maneras.

6. Trabajamos en mas de 35 instituciones educativas dando platicas, conferencias, y clases de moral y valores.

7. Zona Juvenil lleva 10 aNos trabajando en Huehuetenango, Guatemala y seguiremos trabajando para los jovenes en esta area. Pero necesitamos muchas personas mas y recursos para trabajar exitosamente.

Para mas informacion acerca de este proyecto y lo que estamos haciendo aqui, puedes ver la pagina de ZJ que es www.zonajuvenil.org.

Orale,

What if you only had $100 and 10 days?

mark — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:50:49 +0000

So, let me pose a question. If you only had $100 and 10 days, and maybe two friends who might help you out, what would you do to impact the world? How would you spend or invest the money? What do you think you could accomplish in those 10 days? Would you be motivated to work and strive towards some goal, or would you be too limited in your resources? With only two half-committed friends, could you motivate them to help you out, or would you dive out and try to do something on your own? Would you dream big, or focus on one or two people you might be able to help?

Ministry is always a challenge. This past year I have felt limited in so many ways, and some days it is very difficult to come up with a plan and execute it wisely. When I returned to live fulltime in Guatemala in 2007, I had $300, a dream, a few friends, and a lot of debt and doubts. But I knew this was the place God wanted me to be. Part of this journey has been sharing with you what has been happening, and writing about my successes and failures. I hope that you have enjoyed this journey and if you are new to my posts, I also hope you will continue to read and keep up with what is happening in my life and ministry.

Back to the question: $100 is not a lot of money, but I have had months where that is all I have. How would you invest that? Which directions would you go and would you dare to make a huge splash….or hold back and just make a small drop’s worth of difference each day? I know I have done some of both, but these decisions are not easy. And as I struggle with where we should go and how broad our impact should be, I request your prayers and ideas, and words from God as we move along.