"The mission of the church is missions" – Unknown
The call to the mission field was clear to Ed Everett when he decided to pack up his family, drive across the United States, and eventually settle in Mexico. As is often the case, God didn’t reveal what the next several years would bring, instead revealing only those steps that needed to be taken at the time.
Moving to Mexico to start a school for the deaf was the instruction given, where the students would come from was a complete unknown – how would they learn about this new facility for the deaf?
The filming that took place in July 2007 documented one such amazing case of how
Marisol came to
Rancho Sordo Mudo through a series of connections that eventually led to a twin-engine Piper, and Baja Pilot Jim Gaskin.
Marisol’s family lives in a very remote fishing village near the town of La Purisma. Electricity and phone service is limited at best, and the nearest major town is several hours away. Beyond that, they are situated on the less populated side of the river that divides the community – all factors working against the possibility of someone learning of the young deaf girl living there with no access to education.
The film crew hopped into a couple small planes to head down & document life in the fishing village.
The weather was a mixed blessing – the overcast conditions didn’t lend themselves to optimum lighting, however those same skies kept the normally relentless heat under control. The area itself provided miles & miles of endless vistas…
The filming was tricky – from working in small fishing boats on the water, to setting up dolly tracks on the beach – the results, however, made it all worth it …
T.C. working with cast & crew.
The crew worked in the desert, filmed interviews with the family, and recorded a great deal of area “B-roll” footage.
Reed filming in the water.It turned out to be a very fruitful trip – footage is being edited and planning for the next stage has begun…
Mulege.
FOOTNOTE:
When I was asked to come along to photograph this trip I naturally jumped at the opportunity. My wife of 15 years is deaf herself, grew up about 20 minutes from where we would be filming, and is a former student of Rancho Sordo Mudo. Having been so directly involved with the work at Rancho Sordo Mudo, we were all to happy to be involved in the Hearing Everett project.
