Words of tribute given by Aim's former UK Director, John Brand, at the thanksgiving service for Jack Buchanan at Burnside-Blairbeth Church of Scotland, Glasgow on 30 April, 2008.

It is an enormous privilege for me to be asked to bring a few words of tribute to someone who was a very dear friend and remarkable and gifted co-worker.

I want to assure Jean and all the family of our love and prayers; not only those of Caroline and myself but also of the international family of AIM, and especially the European branch of AIM of which Jack was a much loved and greatly respected member.

I had the privilege of being Director of Aim for almost all of Jack’s 9 years as our video producer and during that time the contribution he made to our work was truly incalculable.

I want to pay tribute first of all to Jack’s sheer professionalism and quality of work.

Jack was a consummate professional, and in my personal opinion, without a doubt, the best video producer on the Christian Mission scene in UK. The quality of material he produced for us was recognised and used around the world and not many days passed when we didn’t thank God for adding Jack to AIM’s team.

Jack was recognised by his peers in the world of video, qualifying a couple of years ago as a Master Member of the Institute of Videographers. He had to submit a piece of work to be assessed for that award and used one of his Aim videos – interestingly, now that I think about it, one of the very few we produced that didn’t feature me - so there’s a lesson in here somewhere.

I always enjoyed working with Jack and we travelled quite widely in East Africa, in Romania and in UK on occasions.

Like all of us who have worked with artists they can sometimes be exasperating to us lesser mortals with their high standards and perfectionist approach to their work. Jack was no exception.

I may have been the Director but when we were filming I was in no doubt as to who was really the boss – and it always paid dividends.

We were filming on one occasion in Kenya and staying overnight in a really basic and run down college. The facilities were appalling and the water was freezing so in the morning I kept my ablutions to the minimum. Jack set up his equipment and made sure everything was just right. I had the same pen in the pocket of the same shirt I had on last time etc etc and then he lifted his eye from the camera, looked at me in a way only Jack could and said, “have you shaved?”. I protested, reminding him of the freezing water but to no avail and I was sent packing.

I also want to pay tribute to Jack’s commitment to the purpose of his work.

He was never in any doubt that the main thing was to communicate a message and that the video itself must never get in the way. He shunned gimmicks and, in a day when some are more concerned with presentation then content, Jack never made that mistake.

Mrs MacTrellis of Skye often featured in conversations between Jack and David Duncan, AIM’s Media Director who is here today.

Mrs MacTrellis was Jack’s Scottish adaptation of the fictitious person who would write to Humphrey Littleton on I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.

In Jack's usage it was always "But what would Mrs MacTrellis think?"

In other words, what would one of the readers of the magazine, a faithful supporter or just someone who had picked up the magazine, make of what she read and saw. This applied to video and all media output.

His concern was not just to look good and be technically proficient, but to communicate. There was always, if you like, a Mrs Mactrellis, looking over your shoulder reminding you that the medium must never get in the way of the message.

I also want to pay tribute to Jack’s integrity. Jack was a stickler for honest detail. He would always insist, for example, if he was putting subtitles up on screen, that the words in the translation must be precisely the words in the speaker’s mouth at that moment and in that frame of the video. And if I ever chided him and said that nobody would know, his reply was always the same – I will and God will.

I want to pay tribute to his sense of fun. We had great times of fun together and he had a real sense of humour. One of my abiding memories of Jack will be him lying flat on his back in a tent in Juba, in the south of Sudan where we were enduring the most awful of conditions in the most oppressive humidity.

Jack was desperately sick as a result of something he had eaten and the poor hygiene conditions in the camp.

He lay on his camp bed, sweat pouring off him and his stomach doing unimaginable somersaults inside making up jokes and song lyrics about the whole affair - in between visits outside and round the back of the tent to get rid of more of whatever was chewing up his insides.

Most of all I want to pay tribute to Jack as a man of God and a servant of God.

Jack brought a quiet, experienced, godly spirit to times of prayer and fellowship and he was in the business he was in to bring the great news of the Gospel of Christ to as many people in as many places as he possibly could.

Undoubtedly, with his talents and gifts, he could have made a very comfortable living as a video producer but he chose a much higher calling, dedicating himself, and his gifts to the service of his Lord and others.

The first time Caroline and I visited Jack and Jean after he became so unwell and had been in hospital for some time, Jack, knowing my weakness for books, gave me a large old leather bound volume he wanted me to have.

Published in 1870 it is a collection of biographies of some of the great Christians who featured in the time of the Scottish reformation. It is simply called ’Scots Worthies’.

I will always treasure that book and associate it with Jack, not just because he gave it to me but because he himself was, in my opinion, a true Scots Worthy.

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