it has only taken me two years but today i found a portable document projector (a.k.a an elmo) for $49. i’ve been looking for something that is extremely portable (because tapestry is a nomadic church
in the past two years i’ve set up two mock document projectors. what i mean by a mock document projector is that i arranged a video feed from a camcorder that was placed over a table by attaching it to a ladder. oh yeah it was a pretty high class setup. in fact, it is so high class that i posted a photo on the left for you to see. i did this to display a couple of things that i wanted to use during a message. the 
first was a flannel graph presentation of the bible story i was discussing (i have posted a photo of the awesomeness of the flannel graph to the right so you can see it and enjoy) and the second was a series of drawings that i wanted to use. i was sure that i would use it a little more if i had an easy to use projector but not enough to justify spending the $130 of the cheapest one i had been able to find.
i will, however, use it enough to justify spending $49!
it is even better considering how portable this document projector is. this elmo is meant for traveling sales personnel. therefore, it is meant to travel well. it will do great for what i want to do with it. which is to every now and then be able to break down a passage a scripture directly in front of the threads of tapestry. in other words, i want to display a passage of scripture and begin to write on it as i normally would when i am researching a passage. the goal is to display a method of studying scripture in such a manner that some threads who have no idea how to break down a passage of scripture will see first-hand how to do it.
i will probably also steal a genius trick from pam, my lovely wife. pam uses a smart pen with her elmo document projector to record the writing and audio that she is doing during lecture. she can then post her actual animated handwriting from the lecture. here’s an example. i this is is a pretty cool idea that i will have to steal for a sunday night or two.
i am very excited about this thing getting here.