Captivating

The Beginning of the End!

2008-12-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from the beginning to end... For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work."

- Ecclesiastes 3:11, 17

If there is one thing I have learned over the years, it is to never worry about anything because God always has the bigger picture of life. Looking back at the journey I have gone on the last three years, I can only thank God for taking me where I have been. When I set out for my YWAM DTS school in January 2006 I left to find myself and the call that God had on my life. I knew I wouldn't be just anyone in the work place but that I was called to look outside the box and touch the world. Yet back then I had NO clue what God really had in store for me.

I can honestly say that God has captured my heart and completely changed me from the inside out. Taking every core thing that was in my life and transforming it in ways I didn't know were possible. I am so thankful for it all even though its been extremely hard at times and I haven't always understood why God had me doing everything I was doing. Everything that has happened the last three years was all about leading me into a future that is beyond my comprehension. I have been renewed, restored, and rejuvenated so that God can send me into the next season of my life.

With all that said I am home in my beautiful wild Colorado, the place that has always had half of my heart no matter where I was in the world! This next season isn't one that I would have predicted but one that I think I am finally ready for. The other half of my heart still belongs to Africa and that will never change because I will be back there someday soon to live out my God giving long term vision. However, for this season in my life I am stepping off of the mission field and staying home to see where God wants me to go from here!

Identidad Restaurada (Identity Restored)

So what happened to the project in Panama...? Like I said before God always has a plan for everything even if we don't know it. God truly transformed something that looked impossible into exactly what He needed it to be! We were all amazed to see everything come together especially looking at where we started out with it all. Nothing that we had planned all the way back in June turned out as we thought it was going to! It was a God thing from the start and He lead it where He wanted it to go, which we couldn't have been more thankful for.

Wrapping Up!

The last month we worked on getting everything that we might have been missing for the video to put it all together. The video guy, Peter, that I told you about came and took a trip to the Ngobe people in Lechuza which is up in the mountains of Panama with the team. A lot of great interviews came out of the trip and they were able to really get a whole new view of the indigenous people for the documentary. A lot of doors got opened while they were there and they are even going back in December to do a song-writing workshop where the Ngobe people are then going to do a cultural evangelism outreach with the songs for the other Ngobe villages. Which is something we had dreamed of happening on this project and just needed God to make it possible!

Peter worked with the team a lot on how to make outline scripts, the basics of how to make a documentary, and how to edit with the top editing software that he gave us. We went through all the video footage and photos that we had taken throughout the last three months and we started piecing everything together into a script for the video! The project is not done yet but the team there in Panama will be doing some follow up footage when they go back to the Ngobe village and are planning on finishing the project in January! We know that God started this project and will do amazing things with it when its finished to touch the hearts and lives of these people!

So What's Next...?

Well I guess you could say that what we expected the future to be is not what God has planned out for us because for the first time in my life I really want to go to college and work on the technical side of photography, photoshop, and graphic design! The plan is to be here in Colorado for the next 2 years to go to school and plant some much needed roots in one place. After traveling so much for almost three straight years I came to realize that in order for me to be a full time missionary down the road I need roots somewhere and a place to truly call home to send me out! So I will not just be here to go to school and work but to plant myself into a ministry and a core group of people that can send me out in a few years to be the support I need as a missionary! I'm excited and nervous at the same time because this is such a hard transition for me to be making. However, God specifically told me that if He provided for me on the mission field it would be no different at home because He was still the same GOd no matter what I am at! And that is exactly what He has done. Its been hard but God has already shut some doors that needed shut and opened some amazing doors for me to live here and go to school! I know everything will continue to fall into place because He has never stopped being faith!

A New Thing!

2008-10-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise."

-Isaiah 43:19 - 21

This month has definitely been a challenge but such an amazing time in my life. Personally I have been stretched and pushed to new limits as I have helped co-lead this team, along with facing the obstacles in this project. God has taken me to a whole new level in life spiritually, emotionally, and mentally! It feels like I have seen a totally new light in my life and I have concurred a mountain. God told me before I left home that He was doing a new thing in me and that is exactly what He did! I have never had so much passion, desire, and anticipation before in my life!

God has also provide so much throughout this whole thing. Seeing the steps that have lead up to me coming here just blows me away and I can see God's hand all over my life. There are still needs in life but honestly when is there not a need for something else. What matters is that I can see how God has always provided and all I need is me and God to be together so I can concur anything that is in front of me.

While I've been here doing all this its confirmed everything that I've longed to do in my life long term. Being in the villages using media as a tool like this to help them and the world is exactly what I want to do in the future in Africa. God has really used this time to show me that and given me some experience in doing so. Allowing me to see that the desires He has put in my heart can actually be done and make a difference in life. That its just about the timing of Him releasing me into that calling full time!

Identity Restored

There is no way for us to say that we are doing this project without all of it being a God thing! There have been many times that we've planned to go to a certain village only for the people to tell us that it wasn't a good time or something else was going on then. We spent a lot of time taking the whole thing back to God and say where, what, and how do You want us to do this. Putting it back into God's hands every time and waiting for Him to move the mountains. He has been faithful every time and we have seen His hand on this project so much opening all the right doors at the right time and leading us every step of the way.

Everything with the video has been a challenge from the very start and we have had to get creative in order to get the material we need. I have always believed that God will use the equipment that I have no matter how old or non professional it might be. It always makes things that much more of a God thing then a human thing. We have been using a little sony handy camcorder and a high tech voice recorder for all the filming so far which has actually been working great. We have been working on getting all the interviews with the indigenous people and exactly what God wants us to get in order to capture it the way it needs to be seen by the indigenous people.

God has been providing so much and opened a lot of doors. In October we have a guy coming here to give us a professional video camera and the top quality video editing software there is, which was one of our biggest concerns. We will then be able to get the other shots we need for the video and put it all together by the end of this year. We are using this next month to get all the interviews we need, translating all of them, and getting all the photographs we need. So we can be wrapped up with that part of the project by the middle of November and can spend the last two months putting everything together.

New Season with Amazing Opportunities

2008-08-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

"The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity - in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground - in the land He swore to your forefathers to give you. The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands."

-Deuteronomy 28:1 - 12 (NIV)

The time I spent at home waiting on God was amazing. It was a great time of rest, being able to regroup, spend time with everyone back home, and prepare for the new season God wanted to move me into! I was excited to see everything that God was going to do in this next 5 months of life and exactly what doors He was going to open to me!

While I was at home God started setting everything up for my time in Panama and everything that God wanted our team to focus on in the villages. We really feel God pressing on our hearts to put together a team of people to make a DVD, book publication, and more information about the indigenous people of Panama together. Everything the Base Administer wanted to do was everything that I wanted to do in the future in Africa, so my heart soared to be able to work on a project like this with the passion God put in my heart for this specific base the first time I went to Panama.

I really didn't know what to expect when I came to Panama the beginning of August but I knew God was calling me to come! The day before I left Colorado the base administer, David, last minute stepped down because God was calling him to do something else, so that left me co-leading this team of staff on the base for this project. It is scary and is a huge challenge but something I believe God wants me to step up to. God has given me all the tools I need to do this and I have to step into the calling He gave me a long time ago! I know its going to be stretching for me and push me like I have never known before, but at the same time really excited and what I want to do!

Our team has been praying a lot and work out exactly what we are doing with this project and this is what God has placed on our hearts for this time...!

Within the heart of Panama there are six major indigenous tribes that live in the jungles! Their culture is rapidly changing as they lose hope for the future as indigenous people and are losing their identities. They are caught between their traditional ways and modern culture, not knowing how to hold onto one while embracing the other. So as a team of seven missionaries all working for Youth With A Mission on the Panama base we are called to help them restore their hope, cultural identity, and future.

We want to create a way for the indigenous people to see the hope again for their culture and be able to embrace it for what it is and who they are. Along with creating a way for the indigenous people to be heard for what they truly are. So we are taking the heart of music, video, photography, and storytelling to give them hope for the next generations, along with showing the world their lives as they really are.

Message of Hope

We are taking a message of hope into the tribe to inspire the indigenous people to stand up for their rights and cultural identity. In this we will have music worships in the villages to inspire the people to utilize their traditional music and dance to reach the emerging generation. These workshops will result in recording the music in every tribe and making a CD that can be used both to reach their own people and share with others around the world.

Documentary

We desire to see the older generation inspiring hope in the younger generation through their words and testimonies, showing them the way of living as indigenous people in a rapidly changing world. That it will not be our words but straight from their own people whom have found a way of living in this generation. Their stories will be filmed in order to produce a DVD available to distribute in the communities where we minister.

Publication

We are taking in the aspect of photography to capture the culture and lifestyle of the indigenous people in a real way for the outside world to see it. This will be used on our website and to make a book publication combining their photos and their stories from the documentary in order to distribute into other parts of the world. We dream of their voices being heard and understood for who they truly are today throughout the world!

God's Unexpected Changes

2008-07-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

My team is in Kona, Hawaii now were they will be putting together the publication to raise awareness for the injustices around the world that we have seen, experienced, and studied over the last nine months. I was planning on meeting them there after our summer break but God seemed to have a different plan for me! As I said before God really pulled me aside and was speaking to me so much while we were in Costa Rica. During those quit times the two weeks before we all left for outreach God started showing me why He put me on this school, which was to see God, myself, and the world in a completely new way. Then He started speaking to me that i had come to that place of seeing those things happen and He was releasing me from the school to move on to something else He would reveal to me in His time. I realized it was harder for me to leave my team then to stay with them because I was comfortable with them and had the next year of my life planned out. Yet I knew that if I could walk by faith in everything else in my life, I could trust Him in this too even though I was scared to death to do it. I knew He would give me the strength to leave my team and move on o whatever He had for me next.

While I was on outreach in Panama City, Panama, the base administer started talking to me about coming and putting together a publication about the indigenous people. At first I completely wrote the idea off and thought he was crazy because I didn't have experience in something like that. However, the week after outreach I knew that was the unexpected door God was telling me He was going to open to me that I wouldn't have been able to open myself or think to open. So, I am heading home for about a month to rest, prepare, and wait on God. Then the first of August I'm heading down to Panama to work with a team on a publication about the indigenous people. There are so many things in life that these people need their voices to be heard over, so we are setting up a team to work in the six major villages that are in Panama to understand the culture, hear the stories, and capture their lives with photography and film. We are planning on spending 2-4 months gathering everything and putting it all together, along with praying that God provides all the money, equipment, and people to put this project together!

Panama Outreach

2008-07-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

After the first two weeks of lectures in Costa Rica we all went on outreach to wherever we felt like we were supposed to go. There were four of us that really felt called to go to Panama City to work with the YWAM base there! We spent 7 days traveling, working on the base, and living in one of the villages with the indigenous people.

The YWAM base in Panama work very closely with the indigenous people and are well established with them. They have started a boarding school at the base for 12- 18 year old kids from the villages. One of the reasons they started to school was to get the girls out of the villages because once they get their menstrual cycle a lot of them get raped. When they become pregnant they are the wife to the baby's father, which means these girls are getting pregnant and married at the age of 12-13 years old. The base is trying to pull them out of there before that happens so they can not only teach them text books and the Word of God but basic life logic skill!

My team of four, plus an old friend from high school, spent 3 days living with the Embera Puru people in the San Juan village getting to see and understand their lifestyles, how they make a living, and tons of other things. They live on the banks of the Pequeni river and are made up of roughly 20 families. They make their living hosting groups of tourists who come to experience the Embera culture, along with striving in many ways to maintain their culture. Even though they are being connected more and more with the technology and the modern world. While the older generation is largely illiterate, the younger generation is now starting to go to university.

It was an amazing time to just get to see the life of these people. We played in the river with the kids, ate in the huts with the women and babies, and worked with the men. Being there in the villages with the people pressed on my heart even more that I want to be doing this exact kind of stuff in Africa one day! Getting to live with the people in villages/jungles to really capture their lives with my photography and then being able to show the world who they really are and how they really live.

[Scott, Christina, David, Greg, me, Seyoung, & Maribel]

Making Plantain

Doing Landuary in the River

Jewelry the women make to sell to the tourists out of seed from the fruit or coconuts

After that we went back to Panama City where we worked with the 6th grades (12-13 year olds) at the boarding school on the base. We had a time of just sitting and asking questions back and forth so we could understand their culture more, how they feel about the boarding school, and much more. The next day we played games with them and then shared testimonies and teachings with them. We also got to see Panama City while we were there and explored the old and new parts of it and the Panama Canal. It was definitely the best outreach I have had and something that really impacted me.

Bridge of Americas & the Panama Canal

San Jose, Costa Rica

2008-07-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Before I came to Costa Rica, I went home to be in a wedding and God really used that time to speak to me in so many ways. The biggest thing God told me to do the second I got to Costa Rica was to go big, bold, and strong the last travel month of this school. So that is exactly what I set out to do. I was so excited to get back with my team and finish the travel part and move onto the publication part of the school.

Costa Rica was all about getting to know the worldview, culture, and lifestyle of Latin America. We lived in the YWAM base in San Jose neighborhood, which aloud us to see the life of the families and community around us in a real way. For most of the time we stayed out of the tourist areas and were able to just connect with the people in the neighborhoods. We spent time on the University campus doing survey questions, so we could see what things are like looking through the eyes of being Latino and growing up in a Latino country. They were really open to us and shared a lot about their lives.

While we were here God really pulled me aside and had me spent time with Him looking at the future vision that He for me, sealing everything He had already done in my life, and drawing me closer to Him. It was amazing to really just be quit with God and see everything that He poured into my heart. I spent time with God in random little things like watching the movie "The End of the Spear", which God used to show me even more that my heart is to only be in Africa but in the jungles and villages of Africa where most people don't go. He really lit a new and amazing passion within me to live out the God given dream I have always had. He also taught me that having quit times was just about sitting down, reading the Bible, and praying. But it was simply about getting alone with Him even if that means going for a run, listening to music, journaling, or watching a movie. Its important to be in God's word daily but there is more to quit time then that. There are times in our lives that God just wants to get alone with us and speak to us through different things, which is exactly what He did during this month.

Malaga, Spain

2008-06-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

While we were in Spain, we spent the first week focusing on understanding the Muslim people, their culture, history, and more about their religion My heart broke for them and it all makes sense why they are the way they are. Its like when people talk about how I have grown up in the fatherless generation, well they have grown up in a fatherless religion/life style. I've seen lives damaged and hurt because of the lack of a father in their lives that I honestly can't imagine living in a community and life where it was founded on being an orphan and no one ever caring about you. It was really interesting and what we learned put everything into perspective for me about what Islam is really all about beyond what our media portrays.

During our second week in Spain, we had a group come from one of the German YWAM bases that God really just gave them a heart for us and what we are doing. It was like our team had been trying to go deeper and further in all aspects of life but we were just hitting a brick wall and there was something big missing. So God sent them to us to start fighting for us and pushing us to brake through whatever was stopping us from getting where we needed to be. On the second to last day, our team had the biggest break through we have ever experienced on this track. God changed our team dynamics completely and the heart within each of us individually!

The community in the city we lived was unfortunately a very touristy town so we really didn’t get to see an authentic Spanish culture. We did spend time down in the town though and there was such a mix of people there. I really liked it there and wish I got to see more of it to get the real feel for everything!

For our last week in Spain, our team had an outreach to Morocco, Spain, and Tunisia; however, God had a different plan for me. Almost everyone on my team left the Spain base and I stayed there for 4 days without them. It was 4 days of just me and God and really just letting Him pour over me what He wanted me to hear. I got a lot of rest physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. After those 4 days I went home to Colorado to be in my best friend’s wedding and see a lot of friends and family that I hadn’t seen for 5 months, which was really refreshing. I was honored and blessed to be in Erin and Jason’s wedding, and blessed with a small but awesome surprise 21st birthday party!

I don’t think I have ever been at such an amazing place in my life before and God has done a total 180 degree in my life, changing everything for/in me! For so long, I felt like I have been waiting in the desert for 40 years like the Israelites; yet now like Amos when God finally gives everything back to him. It’s been absolutely amazing and I literally sense God sending the rain to pour over me continually. God has always promised that He was going to start the future that He planted in me so long ago if I would just keep standing and faithfully wait on Him. Well I’m here to tell you that God is faithful and He has started blessing me beyond anything I ever imagined.

I already explained everything about how God healed me physically and I’m here to say that its still true today. When I went home for the week, I went to the doctor to check on everything with my health, and well there was NOTHING wrong, which is no little thing. For those of you that don’t know, this past July, I began having major problems with my pancreas which gave me food allergies, and messed up my heart, stomach, digestive system, and so on. I was constantly exhausted and feeling sick, which simply effected my whole life especially traveling as a missionary. However, now I am 100% healed and have started the recovery process of rebuilding my body back up so it can function correctly and my immune system can fight for itself.

I also have my new camera and laptop that God gave me, so I really feel the release from God that this is my time and things are all going to start falling into place from here. I can’t wait to see what else God has for me in life and to what new heights He is going to take me. I have a lot

of work to do.

Renewed Faith

2008-05-17T01:49:00.000-07:00

I have been going through a rough time the last month and to be honest I have been having trouble with my faith! It has felt like I have been in this same storm for the last 4 - 5 years of my life and it started to seem endless to me. I have been in this restless place of knowing what I want in my life and yet I have had to follow God so He can take me through the journey His way to get where I am supposed to end up. Its been a hard journey and I guess you could say that through the process my faith started struggling. I just didn't know if my time was ever going to come or if I was forever just going to be giving and obeying God!

Everyone has been telling me these last two months that my time of receiving was coming but I just haven't been able to see it at all. Until I got here to Malaga, Spain! My team was having a time of intercession/worship on Wednesday and lets just say God showed me that miracles do really happen after all...to ME! People started praying out things that they needed to lay down to God and God started sweeping us onto our knees. My classmate, Autumn, that was just recently healed from a broken back three weeks ago, said that were was something God was telling her to do so she was just going to do it. She grab her camera, stood up, and handed it to me, saying God wants me to give this to you!

God had actually told her three days ago to do it but she wanted to make sure it was God...as I think all of us would. Her faith had just been restored when God healed her recently so now she has the faith to know that God can give her a new one and she just needed to step out in this. God was using her that just had her faith restored in the same situation I was in to restore my faith! It was all a part of God's longtime planning!

However, that isn't the end of this story! I have also been asking God to heal my body for longer then I can count and I didn't see it changing! As everyone continued to vocally lay things down to God, God continued to touch me in ways I haven't felt for a while. He kept pushing me to speak out what He was doing in my life at that moment for my team to hear but I just didn't know how. After about 30 minutes of putting it off I started talking about the season i have been in and out of no where I started telling my team that I was heal. The fact is that I'm pretty sure that I have been for 2 weeks or so but its just been so long that I was scared to say it in fear of it not really being true! In order for me to start believing it though God needed me to speak it over my life in front of everyone!

[Royal Palace in Paris, France]

I still have some recovering to do physically that might take a while but I know that if I keep going through this process with God that I will come out on top being totally healed of everything that has been wrong with me! I can also say that in life I feel like I can declare that this is my time and my season of receiving from God what He really has in store for my life. I know that God is going to change everything in life for me and I'm going to come out completely different. Finally in life this is My Time and I'm excited for the journey as hard as it might continue to be!

Paris, France

2008-05-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

We had a week of travel to get from Amsterdam to Spain, so we broke up into groups to see more parts of Europe. I ended up going to Paris, France with another girl in the school for two days and then we planned on heading down to Spain! We took the bus from Amsterdam to Paris, France where we stayed for 3 nights and 2 days!

[On the Belgium grass, busing it to Paris]

After sitting in the bus for 9 hours to Paris, we checked into our hostel, and got sandwiches to eat in the park across from our hostel, immediately falling in love with Paris! That next morning we set out to see as much as we could with a photocopied pieced together map and ended up literally walking across the city that day seeing more then we imaged.

[Tons of tiny Jenn's & Emily's at the Royal Palace]

Prymaids in Paris

Royal Palace

Norte Dame

[me and Emily]

Arch de Triomphe

[me and Emily]

View Outside our window

The Second day we went to the Tour de Eiffel and spent about 3 hours there walking around taking pictures after pictures. Then after dinner, a nap, and warm clothes we headed back out for the night to see the Tour de Eiffel at night. So we could get the full atmosphere and what it was all about!

Amsterdam, Neitherlands

2008-05-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

We were in Amsterdam for 3 weeks really learning about the history of Europe, government/economy, and stuff about the Middle East. It was really interesting looking at how Europe and specifically how everything in Amsterdam got started. When you look at everything that is going on within the City, it is amazing to see that the Netherlands were founded on Christianity more then any other place, yet they couldn’t seem more away from Christianity then any country. It just really shows that when God’s hand is on a place so much that is where Satan is going to try to tare it down as much as he can. I was challenged in the area of government and economic. I think as Christians we pull away from that area in our society because it is so “worldly” when that is one of the places that we should be getting involved in more then ever.

While I was in Amsterdam I started working on night photography, which is something that I have never really explored before in a serious way. I know God wants to take me to a deeper place in my photography, so this was one of the ways that I have started doing it. There was a carnival in the center of town that I went to shoot a lot of photos at. It was something fun to explore doing and seeing what all I could do with my photos!

In the YWAM base that we were staying at there was a prayer tower that overlooked the whole city and got to see God beauty in the meantime. As we prayed over the city, our team, and more God really started showing us more and more of His presence and heart for our team. The heart God gave us for the injustice in this world and the fight that we are trying to make for it, He continued to renew us and constantly fill us back up!

As I walk down the streets of the Red Light Districted my heart is literally torn out and trying to understand where is God, is impossible! There are no quick answers to explain what happened here and how things have gotten so bad. Walking the streets with red lights along all the buildings and women standing in the windows in bad enough to see but then you have to watch the way these women are treated. Its like people are looking for the newest fashion window shopping. Groups of men and tourists walk past a window, start pointing, and talking about what they see. They walk up close to the window to examine the "thing" thats there. Its just not something that makes sense! How did our world come to this place of being so broken that we have women standing in window to be sold for sex and men that come from all around the world to satisfy a need within them! My heart is so broken for the world I live in and that all I want to do is fight for it anyway I can! Standing up against a world of injustices with God, prayer, the Word on my side, and my camera!

The second we all get to Amsterdam and within the community, God poured into our hearts the desire to be in the community and making an impact some way! The YWAM base that we lived at while we were there started a Prayer Tabernacle in the middle of the Red Light District, so our team spent as much time over there as we could.

As we went in groups to pray over the city, God started putting a lot on our hearts individually to do something within the District for the prostitutes. A group of about 12 of us that really felt like God was calling us to buy a ton of rose, pull messages on them and then splitting up into couples to go to the door of the prostitutes giving them a flower. It was hard at first to get the courage to go up to each window but as we did God started working. These women whole faces changed as they got handed a flower. There were women that just stood there staring at it like an 8 years little girl again, others asked why we would do something like that. We would tell them different things that God laid on our hearts like you are not forgotten, you are loved without a price and many more. One of the groups even got a chance to sit down with one of the women and really just hear her story and minister to her by just wanting to listen. The response was amazing and it felt like we just didn’t have enough roses to give away!

Spring Break in England

2008-04-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

Over spring break I went to England to stay with a friend from video school and had the most relaxing time! It was great being able to catch up with old friends and just be able to hang out! I not only had fun but was more the blessed but everyone that I was with! It was a true blessing and joy to have during that week!

I was able to get around quit a bit to see England. I stayed in a Village called Bourn, outside of Cambridge where the family I stayed with lives. We explored Cambridge 2 days and even went Punt, which is in a narrow boat that someone rows with a role along the cunals. We also saw some of the sites around that area with Stamford, a small old town and Wimpole Estate, an old estate that the Nation Treasure takes care of now!

The Cambridge Canal

[Blathnaid in the Punting Boat]

Wimpole Estate

Town of Stamford

We also spent some time in London looking through the streets see all the different cultures and sites! It was fun experiencing the culture there and how fast pace it really is. Not a place that I could ever live but definitely appreciated it for what it is. There are so many parts to the city and definitely more there then meets the eye!

Overlooking the City in the London Eye

The London Eye

Tower Bridge

The Metro

Part of the City of London

The Tate Modern Crack

The Buckingham Palace

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

2008-04-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

The first week we got there we started learning so much! We started learning about intimacy with God and through that learned about prayer and intercession. It blow all of us away at how we could change so much of the world just through prayer and how God has given us the ability to change the climate in places we go. The second week we learned about African world view which brought so much understanding as to why things are the way they are within Africa. I got so much understanding from it all and more knowledge to be able to see Africa for what it really is. There are so many things that people in the western world amuse that why the people live the way they live, why HIV/Aids has spread with it did, and why people are treated the way they are! Yet that is what we see on the surface and not what is deep down in the hearts of these people!

God has taken me to a whole new level in Him and literally lit us on fire to be using prayer so much more! He showed us that we need to start declaring over each other the gifts that we have and praying hardcore for the world we live in. We started a 24 hour one day a week prayer and intercession time for whatever God puts on our heart during that time. He also really challenged me to dive into the book of Daniel for the next four months. That He wants to teach me the foundation for my future vision through the book of Daniel and the life He lived.

During one of our 24 hour prayer/intercession times, God gave me Daniel 9:18-19, which says, “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my Lord, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” I really felt like this was God's heart for the people of Africa. That its not about the people being these great righteous people but its about the heart that God has for them so that His mercies would pour over them! God would see the humity thats in their hearts and His love would pour over them!

We spent a lot of time around the community and getting to know the people. It gave us the opportunity to really understand the culture and be apart of the peoples lives in the month we were here. Really being able to see the world view of Africa in front of us and truly understand it!

The last week and a half we spent the whole time just being out in the community. We split into groups that focused on different areas of the community to minister to the people and captive their stories through our photography that God had put on our hearts. Me and another teammate, Emily decided to stay on the street because there was so much beneath what the eye could there. Anyone can walk down the street immediately seeing the poverty, physical disabled and mentally ill, men sleeping under trash, street kids, baggers, and people trying to sell things. We wanted to be able to show the dignity that these people had and the beauty that is within them. Isn’t of showing boys that just lived on the street, we wanted to show the pride in the little jobs that they did to survive the streets. It was a challenge but really what God laid on our hearts and we started see the people in a completely different way!

One way that God gave us to do that was to make it about the people instead of getting the picture. As two white girls we wanted the attention off of us as much any white person can, so instead of holding the camera to our eye to shoot, we shoot everything without looking through the camera. It made it to where we got the true looks on their faces and showed them at work selling or living on the streets exactly the way they always are. We didn't go into it expecting a lot of great pictures but in the end God had really given us some really good pictures that we couldn't have gotten otherwise!

Cairo, Egypt Again!

2008-02-28T06:09:00.002-08:00

The first week we were in Cairo we worked on our photography. We did a lot of different things, like night photography, studio portraits, light painting, and light in general. I learned a lot of new tools that I can use throughout my life and even some fun ones that I will continue to play around with.

The studio portrait were a fun way of seeing the way lights work and all the different things you can do with them. We also played with a lot of the everyday natural lights that you can see all the time but don't realize what affects you can get with photography by using them.

[In photo: Sonya Graham, teammate]

We did a lot of night photography and played with lights to see what we could do with them. We played with a type of photography called light painting, which is when you use camera flashes and /or flash lights to make different affects in the dark. It would take a lot more practice to master these affects but we had fun playing with them.

[Cairo traffic at night]

[Using light painting on the roof of hotel]

[More light painting of the roof of hotel]

[In Photo: Emily, teammate. Using Light painting]

The Holy Land of Israel

2008-02-14T07:52:00.000-08:00

[The Old City in Jerusalem, Israel]

We spent the first three weeks in Jerusalem studying the Bible. We worked on the Old Testament from Joshua to Ezekiel! It was amazing to really study that part of the Bible and be able to see the history of Israel. I was able to picture everything I was reading because I was there to see the modern rebuilt cities and everything around it for myself. It was no longer just studying the Bible but I was able to live around the cities and visualize what the Bible was talking about! I was also really challenged in my photography while I was here! We had a speaker here that talked about the heart of an artist. It seriously renewed in me the fact that God has given me a gift that I need to be using it to touch the world. So through that I was able to really push myself and work really hard on my photos and taking pictures in Jerusalem almost everyday! On top of that we got to experience the snow here. It was wet and slushy but we still had fun trekking around from home to class everyday in it.

[Morgan, Tara, Naphtalie, Emily, and me out in the snow]

We lived right outside the West wall of the Old City and were able to be in the city everyday if we wanted to. It was so awesome to experience the culture there, and really see the division within the Old City. There was such a difference in each of the four quarters, it amazed me. We literally walked from an area of shops after shops with people yelling everywhere to this calm clean quiet family area. You can also really see the way people here have gotten caught up in worship of things, instead of God Himself. People expect to come to Israel and be so much closer to God, but the fact is that God isn't here in these places more then He lives in us everyday. Coming here you get more knowledge of what happened in the time of Jesus and can get more of a picture of where Jesus might have walked. Yet no one really knows exactly where anything was when Jesus was here. They have guesses but the city has distored and rebulit 4 times, so there are layers upon layers over this land.
Then there were things like the Wailing Wall, Mount of Olives, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Doom of the Rock! They were all so different within each other. To be able to see how Jesus would have walked from the Mt. of Olives and then into the town, was beyond my belief and totally blew me away!

[Dome of the Rock]

[The pool where Jesus told the man to pick up his mat and walk]

Fountain for cleansing at the Wailing Wall]

[Some of the millions of papers in the Wailing Wall]

[Burning candles in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre]

[Women lighting candles at the Holy Sepulchre]

The last week we were in Israel we split up into teams and traveled around to see the parts of Israel we hadn't been able to see. My team and me spent 3 days around Galilee, a day at the Dead Sea, and then part of a day at the Dome of the Rock. It was amazing to see more of the places that Jesus went and how He traveled from one place to the other. To be able to get a vision for what the Dead Sea and Galilee really looked like. Things are different now and updated and modernized but it was really being able to see the culture here so that I could understand the culture better.

[ On top of Arbel Mountain]

[Arbel Mountain]

[The Ruins in Bet She'an National Park]

[The Theatre in Bet She'an National park]

[The Dead Sea]

[The salted rocks at the Dead Sea]

[Dead Sea shore with salted Rocks]

[The Sea of Galilee]

We volunteered at the Nazareth Village, where they dress up like the 1st century people and live like they do so that people can get a visual for how it really was. As they give people tours of the village they tell the history of Israel straight from the Bible and are the only people that tell the full gospel message completely open. It isn't just a place for tourist but is a missionary to these people and an opportunity to preach the gospel to every person that walks through their doors. While we were there we got to see the tour first hand and then got to help them around the village. The boys got down and dirty doing yard work and the girls cleaned up around the village and made the lanterns for all the visitors.

[Roof top of a lookout tower]

[Olive tree]

[Roof of the house made with wood, stone, and mortar]

[The oil candles some of us put together and package]

Sinai Desert

2008-01-20T13:50:00.000-08:00

While we were in Egypt and heading to Jordan and Jerusalem we were given the opportunity to climb Mount Sinai. We didn't do it because it is something to check off a to do list but we really wanted it to take us deeper with studying the first five books of the Bible and have God take us to a new height with Him. To really be able to understand what Moses did by climbing the mountain twice to get the tablets from God!

We started climbing the mountain at 1 am because we wanted to see the sunrise at the top (what photographer won't do to get a good picture)!! We were wrapped up in multiple layers, coats, gloves, scurfs, hats, and even blankets going up the mountain because it is still winter and absolutely freezing when the sun isn't up. I was determined to get up the mountain with my own two feet the whole way up but I knew with my heart rate and chest problem still not being 100% God was going to have to carry me up that mountain. So that was my prayer as I headed up the mountain. As much as I believed that God could get me up the mountain it just wasn't God's plan for me right now in life.

I climbed for about an hour until my heart just wouldn't let me up any farther. At that point I was frustrated and didn't understand why I couldn't just get up the mountain but after one of my friend/staff paid for me to ride a camel the middle part of the climb. During that time I struggled with God and really just felt Him tell me that it wasn't about me getting up the mountain by foot but my heart to get up the mountain. That I had the heart which is exactly what He askes of me right now in life. That I am willing to do anything and everything for Him even when I can't physical do something because of money, equipment, or health. He taught me that its what's on the inside of my heart that He cares about. So I took the camel to the bottom of the 500 stairs that lead to the top. Climbed the stairs with God carrying me every step of the way!

When we got to the top we tried to sleep for an hour or two but it was simply too cold. So we curled up in blanket and sleeping bags together waiting for the sun to come! Around 5:30 the sky started to change colors and about an hour late the sun was shining bright right at us. I was amazing at the site of the sun and felt God whisper that one day soon the sun would rise in my life! That He has amazing things planned for my life and I just have to keep waiting for the sun to rise! I know that when it does it will be beyond anything I ever imagined in my life!!

Right after we climbed the mountain we drive about an hour to the middle of no where and met some of the Sinai tribe people with camels. We loaded all our stuff onto the camels and headed into the desert, where we spent the rest of that day and half of the next day. It was an experience of a lifetime and let me tell you it definitely took me and my camel so time to get comfortable with each other! At first it was not my favorite thing the world to do and completely different from riding a horse. However, in the end I loved it.

[My Smelling but oh so faithful camel]

After we traveled around on the camels and hiked around in the rocks, they cooked for us and we spent under a little canopy. It was so cold and we were so tired that we went to bed at 8:30 that night, trying to not freeze. The view that night was amazing! I didn't know that many stars were even in the sky. Its amazing what happens when there are no city lights and buildings around. Its like nature comes alive! After that night we eat breakfast and took the camel ride back through the desert to the cars. It was hard and tiring but something that I can say I did and have a better understanding of the people that live out there.

[Rock formations in the Sinai Desert]

[All of our uncomfortable faithful camels]

Cairo, Egypt

2008-01-20T06:59:00.000-08:00

To start off the year my team met in Cairo, Egypt where we spent our first two week studying the first five books of the Bible. We were able to go into the city and explore a little bit here and there but mostly spent time in the little city of El Maadi. God blow my mind as we studied the five books. I think we overlook those books very easily and don't realize how much is in them. We learned a lot about the Egyptian history and culture which put the books into context and gave me a clearer understanding.

[Boat on the Nile River. Cairo, Egypt]

[Man crying in front of the Temple. Cairo, Egypt]

[Market in Cairo, Egypt]

[Guard on a camel at the Pyrmaids]

[Me and Melanie at the Prymaids]

[Me in front of the Prymaids]

There is a place in this world where people not only have jobs working in other peoples garbage but they live in it also. As we walked through the streets of Garbage City, I was blown away that these people live in this place and know nothing else in their lives. They live in a city that has big walls and door on both ends of it that seem to separate it from the rest of the city and they live among the trash. But if that wasn't enough to blow me away, I noticed the looks on these peoples faces. The men and women were more proud of what they do then anyone I have ever seen. Their was no shame in their world for doing what the rest of the world would find shame in. Then there were the children that were beaming with joy! Not feeling sorry for themselves that they live in the world that they do or don't have the newest toy. Instead they are happy and love their lives.

[The Streets of Garbage City]

[Rooftops overlooking Garbage City]

I feel in love with this city and God really gave me a huge heart for them. While we were there me and two other girls on my team met these two little girls that took us into their house. To get into their house we had to walk through the first level where trash was everywhere, up a flight of stairs that were still covered in trash, and inside a three room house. Their home had barely anything in it. In the first room there was two couches/beds that I couldn't even tell what they were made out of. The second room was as big as a walk-in closet that was there extremely run down kitchen that didn't work. The third and final room had no furniture in it and piles of rag clothes, blankets, and other tattered things. It was amazing to see their home and the friendship that these girls gave us. I will remember them and hope to visit them again when we go back to Cairo in about a month.

[Christina and Me with two girls in their home. Garbage City]

[My crazy curly hair friend and me]

[Little girl sitting in front her front door]

[Little boy sitting in the back of a truck]

[Little girl laughing at her little brother]

Selcuk, Turkey

2007-12-28T06:06:00.000-08:00

While we have been in Selcuk, Turkey God gave us many opportunities for our team to minister in the community. We made contact with the Governor, who was very excited about us being there, and wanted to work with us! He gave us an opportunity to take pictures around the town of the women, men, villages, ruins, and many other things. As we went around the town taking photos we were able to build many relationship with the people. We weren’t just any foreigners, but we became friends to these people and were really able to understand their culture. So many things in the muslim culture are misunderstood and we were able to brake down those walls and see things for what they really were.

After we took extreme amounts of photos we put together a selection of pictures that we thought God could use to touch the people. The theme God gave us was exposing beauty and that was exactly what we aimed for. In each of the photos we put a word that matched that photo and the theme of the whole exhibition.

[My exhibition photo meaning friendship]

[Hanneke and John Paul putting up photos]

[The exhibition. Photo: Christina Tyler]

During the exhibition we had many of the people come to look at the photos. Some that we had seen before and some that we had not! It was a time of being able to minister to the people and sharing with them what we were doing there. The people were very excited to see the way saw their world and how we could take something that they saw everyday and make it look beautiful. It was not only a blessing to them but also to us.

Greece

2007-11-30T16:34:00.000-08:00

This last month I was beyond pushed academically while we studied the New Testament through the Inductive Bible Study method. I was determined to get the most out of learning and really driving in deeper into God's Word! God pushed me so hard and I was really able to see myself rise above what I thought I could do. However, the best part wasn't even about my own abilities but really about the depth God took me to. He showed me a lot of who He is through looking at the history of the Bible. That He is still the same today, able to do all the same miracles and wonders that He did back then. Challenging me to expect Him to do those things in my life and the lives around me today on a daily bases because He didn’t change, we did!

[Cafe in Athens, Greece]

[Old Coins in the market. Athens, Greece]

As we have been studying we were able to see exactly where Paul was in many of the book in the Bible! We were able to be at some of the places he was in a lot of the passages. Like in Acts 19 when he was in Ephesus at the Theatre preaching about all the idolatry that was going on, we were right there standing in the exact place that Paul and the disciples were. A lot of the stones are now missing and fallen down, however, it really brought home all the passages that we as Christians have read for years! It was such a personal thing to be able to see it in person, imagine all of it in my head, and then to try to capture it with my camera!

[Ruins in Corinth, Greece]

[Ruins and old church in Athens, Greece]

South Africa

2007-10-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

The whole PhotogenX Track School is made up of 23 students (6 boys and 17 girls), 4 staff, and Paul and Susi Childers, the leaders over the whole school. We are from 8 countries (America, Canada, South Africa, Costa Rica, South Korea, Australia, Holland, and Denmark) and all have the same common vision to reach the nations using photography.

(Selcuk, Turkey. Photo: John Paul Vicory)

The first month we were in South Africa was all about taking our photography to a new level and learning about photojournalism. I was really able to redefine some of the technical styles I learned back in college and put them to better use. It really stretched me to not hold back and to go out there and find that story/pictures that I want to tell. I was stretched to not just be satisfied with the photo I can get but to be willing to ask people on the street to move around for me so I can get a better photo. All of it was really good for me and stretched me to be better at what I do.

The last week we were in South Africa we separated into groups and went on outreach. My team of 5 went into a township called Guguletu, where we worked alongside a soccer coach named Eric that is linked with an organization called These Faces for Numbers. It is an organization to minister to some of the old kids within the township. The organization supports the team financial for soccer equipment and challenges the kids in the area of academics because they have to have good enough grade to be on the team. We were able to minister to the boys and take pictures for the organization to continue to raise support for them. Along with that we were also able to work with the locate church there that helps people with HIV/AID. They give them food and have become a big support to these people, going into their homes and taking care of them when they are too sick to get out of bed, and praying with them. We also spent time just walking around the community and hanging out with the kids. It was an amazing opportunity to reach out and really be able to see into the lives they live.

New Season

2007-09-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

I have been a part time missionary for a little over a year and a half with YWAM (Youth With A Mission), along with studying photography. However, God has not only given me a vision as a part time missionary but a full time missionary photography. He has given me a heart to be in Africa using photography to get His message out to the world. To capture the heart of Africa the way God wants the world to see it and the love that is burning deep within Africa!

[Cape Town, South Africa. Photo John DeVries]

God is moving me into the next season in my life right now, from being a part time missionary to a full time missionary. He has really been opening doors for me, leading me towards my long term vision. One of the doors He has opened for me is to do a YWAM course called Photogenx Round the World. It is based out of the Kona, Hawaii YWAM base and run by Paul and Susanne Childers and their staff. The school is from September 27, 2007 to April 2, 2009, where we will be going all around the world doing missions work in addition to learning about world views, the Bible, and photography. During the school we will be going over 11 countries and I will be getting the hands on training to be a full time missionary photographer in Africa.