Preserving Culture

We had an indigenous leader come in today to speak to us today about bringing the gospel to the various tribes that we will be visiting over the next few weeks. One of the most important points that he made was the ability for the tribes to keep their culture while still choosing to embrace the Christian faith. Certainly that is one of the biggest mistakes made in Canadian history - stripping Native Americans of their culture and imposing our way upon them.

Helping the Wounaan

The rain and wind storm that blew through yesterday created problems for many of the local tribes. We headed out this morning to help clean up debris for a tribe called the Wounaan. I have this feeling that "lost in translation" will become a common theme (quickly)! We have Spanish translators and through them the village people asked up to help move a rock that was blocking their water supply and it was nearby. Well, "nearby" took about an hour of hiking through the jungle and the "rock" was more of a boulder. We moved it enough to take some of the pressure off of the pipe to allow water to flow again. I am SO tired, but it was wonderful to be able to help them out in such a practical way.

The picture below shows one of the boats that we used to travel in. This is the view from the village, looking towards the 5-star resort across the water. Two entirely different worlds, separated by only a few miles of water.


Picture thanks to Joanna (our group photographer for the day)!

Panama Canal Locks

We've tried to take it easy this weekend, adjusting to the time change and the humidity. It is rainy season (but the real question is, "when is it NOT rainy season?" since rainy season lasts for about 9 months of the year!) so even though the rains came down this afternoon, we headed out to see the Panama Canal Locks. It takes about 10 hours for a ship to get through the Panama Canal and all its locks. We were able to see one set in action. It took about 8 minutes for the water to level out and then the ship could proceed - talk about patience as there are 3 sets of locks (total of 6 steps) that they must go through. Each lock has 2 chambers, doubling the amount of traffic that can flow through it (in the picture, one ship is passing through the lock at the back, while a ship just passed through the front chamber and the lock is closing behind it).

Safe & Sound

I have arrived safe and sound in a VERY HUMID Panama (with all my luggage - yeah!). I will blog more later - just thankful for this descent internet connection AND some air conditioning in the room I'm sleeping in!!

And so the Journey Continues. . .

I will be leaving Kona this afternoon and flying to Honolulu, Denver, and Orlando before finally arriving in Panama City tomorrow evening. We have a number of different flights and routes between all the students (final destinations being Panama City and South Africa). I would appreciate your prayers as I travel (my longest flight time will be about 7 hours from Honolulu to Denver). For those of you back home, Panama is the same time zone, so hopefully connecting will be a little easier. I will be in touch just as soon as I'm able to! See you on the other side of tomorrow!

Trudi, Logan & Ethan

The goodbye's continue. . .I was able to go out for supper (yep, yet again - it's been bag suppers all week long) with my good friend Trudi (also from Canada) and her kids Logan & Ethan. It was just nice to get away and send some quality time together. They will be going to South Africa for outreach, so it will about 2 months before I see them after tomorrow. Pictures (l-r): me, Logan, their friend Hezekiah, Ethan and Trudi.

Outreach Team

The students are divided into 2 main groups for our outreach: Panama and South Africa. One group is heading to South Africa and 4 groups to Panama. My outreach group will also go to Costa Rica for 3 weeks of outreach. It has been insane around here trying to finish up lectures, packing and cleaning. We will be flying out on Thursday and arrive in Panama on Friday. Tonight, our group got together at our leader's house to enjoy BBQ'ed hamburgers. Pictured on the couch (l-r): Alaina, Jo (leader), Joanna, me; standing (l-r): Marilee, Laura, Caleb, Jenn and Gary.

Roommates Farewell

The goodbye's have started and will continue on for a few days. Last night, the girls from room 123 (minus Amanda) went out to eat at Splasher's, a local hamburger place. Great food and even better conversation. From the left: me, Hannah, Brittany (purple), Joanna (red), Tina and Sarah.

Also as a side note, my aunt Reta was rushed into the hospital yesterday. Her intestine had been nicked during her kidney transplant and her body is experiencing some complications. She will be in the hospital for about the next 10 days, so please keep them in your prayers.

Happy Father's Day! (Yesterday)

Don't worry - this is not a "I forgot Father's Day yesterday and so I need to make up for it" blog! It was also Kelsey's birthday, so I'm blogging about Father's Day today. Happy Father's Day to all the dad's in my life - especially my own! What a huge role you have to play in shaping the lives of your kids, especially given our society today! You cannot underestimate the influence you have, really to change the future, by investing in a child's life. I hope that you had a special day, with an extra long nap - it is well deserved!

Kelsey

Today is Kelsey's (my sister-in-law) birthday and I want to wish her an extra special day! I am so thankful for her. We have so many things in common and yet many things different that we're able to learn from each other. So here's a "Happy Birthday" and many more to come!

Tina

I want to introduce you to my roommate and good friend, Tina! We hit it off right from the very start and have continued on in that friendship throughout the past 3 months. We've laughed and cried together, and had a lot of fun along the way. There was a point where she was considering going on the track, but she ended up deciding on completing DTS and then seeing where the journey will take her - "That's a bummer!" (quoting another of my roommates - Amanda) because I would have loved to spend the next 2 years sharing the experience of the track. Her outreach group is also going to Panama, so we still have some more time to laugh and cry together before parting ways.

Mark & Mary

Some of you may know my uncle Mark & aunt Mary (I lived with them during university). I would just ask that you keep them and their kids Micah and Aby in your thoughts and prayers. Mary's mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor about 2 weeks ago. She had surgery earlier this week and there were complications. She passed away early this morning and the funeral will happen late next week. Mary's dad away passed about a year and a half ago from a heart attack, so especially keep her and her family close to your heart.

Love Feast

Tonight was our celebration banquet called the Love Feast. We still have a few more days of lectures, but between that and packing and traveling, it was time to celebrate - we've made it through DTS lecture phase!! Our staff worked extra hard to decorate the room and create an intimate ambiance. Supper was DELICIOUS, including salad (with all those greens that you're sure you're eating weeds), fresh vegetables & fruit (a luxury), a special rice, a noodle dish, AMAZING chicken and steak. I wanted to go back for seconds on the chicken, but it was put away by then, so I decided to go seconds on the dessert (chocolate cake)!

The most fun part of the evening was towards the end. We each had a paper with our name on it and it was passed around the room for others to write a memory, etc from our 3 months here. How in the world did these 3 months fly by SO quickly?!?

Reta is also Doing Well

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but thank you goes out to those of you who prayed for my aunt Reta during her kidney transplant. She is already back at home and doing well. Her sister is also doing well, but must remain for 2 weeks just to be sure that she's o.k.

Grandma Leaves the Hospital

Thank you to those of you who have been praying from my Grandma since she fell and broke her hip. She's had surgery and has been working really hard in rehab to gain some mobility. My aunt Helen emailed to say that they moved her back home today and I know that my Grandma was very excited to be back. Helen also said that one of the staff from rehab (the physiotherapist) did not think she would accomplish this, never mind in such a short time, and as well as she did. Again, my thanks goes out to you for your prayers on her behalf!

Contrast Exhibition

Our local outreach last week involved photography (no duh!) and we'll be setting up 2 exhibitions this week. The first will be on campus for our Thursday night gathering. The local public one is happening this Saturday on the boardwalk by the water. Our topic was "Contrast" and one of our fellow students (Cale - as in Cale to the rescue in a previous blog) designed the poster/flyer for the event. We will all take turns during the day to answer people's questions and talk about our experiences. Our photography class tonight will be a lot of work trying to assemble how we want to display everything.

How Good is Your German?

Our speaker this week is from Germany and he is talking about missions. . .in German. Thankfully one of our leaders is originally from Germany and she's translating for him. I am able to catch a few words here and there, but he speaks really quickly. My German is quite rough (certainly not able to carry on a conversation). Certainly makes me miss sitting around the table when I was younger and hearing my parents and family members converse in Low German.

Sunday Market

A number of our students (including myself) got a spot at the Sunday market. They block off part of the street along the water the 3rd Sunday of every month. We had some of our publications (Sex + Money, Hakani), some of our photos and I also had the Threads of Hope bracelets to sell. It was a great afternoon, with a lot people stopping by to check things out. My goal was to sell 200 bracelets and our grand total was 212! It was really great to get our information out to the public and let them know that there are issues and that they can do something about it. To start off, they can use their voice to let others know what is really going on in our world - not just what the media wants to portray.

TassaTag

A large part of my work duty in the photogenX office has involves working on the revisions and updates to the new English version of the 30 Day Prayer Booklet - A Voice for the Voiceless. It includes 30 different women's and children's issues from around the globe. Each issue gives current statistics, a personal impact story, a Bible verse, prayer points and an action plan. Because of my work, I've been able to include some organizations that are near and dear to my heart including Ten Thousand Villages, Mennonite Central Committee and so on. I've already blogged about a few of the action plans - Threads of Hope, UNICEF & IKEA. If nothing else, I encourage you to check out the websites and get informed on the topics.

Check out www.tassatag.org/ today to learn more about their work against sex slavery and trafficking. You can order TassaTags for your luggage - a great way to strike up conversation as you travel near home or around the globe.

No Place Like Home

I can't believe how fast the weeks have flown by out here. But I guess it's the same back home, especially for those of you counting down the days until the school year ends! It's been a good time, with some bumps along the way. But I just want all of you back home to know, that as good as it's been, I am missing you all so much! Dorothy was right in The Wizard of Oz - there really is NO place like home!

Final Day of Local Outreach

Today was our final day of local outreach. Half of the group went to the Pregnancy Crisis Center and I joined the other half of our group at a local pastor's house. They had an area of overgrown grass (at least twice my height) and we went at it. It was almost as if we were in the Panama jungle already! I have the scrapes and blisters to prove my efforts. We also had a lot of fun along the way with their 2 little girls who are incredibly cute. The picture shows all the grass that we cut - the space along the left side was not there when we started!

Kidney Transplant

My aunt Reta has been on dialysis for a number of years now and tomorrow she will receive a kidney from her sister. I know that she and her family would appreciate your prayers as the surgeries happen throughout the day tomorrow. Pray especially that her body will accept it and that her sister's body will do o.k. without it. This may also be a good time to discuss organ donation with your loved ones and make sure that they know your wishes.

Local Outreach

We are working within our outreach groups this week, heading out within Kona and various other parts of the island, meeting new people along the way. My roommate and fellow outreach member, Joanna, hit the old airport (you actually drive on the old tarmac). We took pictures and met some skateboarders first. Most were high school students, enjoying their summer break already. We were also able to sit down and talk to a group of Special Olympics kids - they were a lot of fun! Joanna had a "boyfriend" by the time we left!

UNICEF and IKEA

UNICEF and IKEA have partnered together to provide solar lamps for children in Pakistan. Check out www.unicef.org/media/media_49833.html for more details. Starting now in June 2009, for every SUNNAN solar powered lamp sold in IKEA stores worldwide, one lamp will be given to UNICEF to light up the life of a child and I encourage you to get on board and support this cause! These lamps are especially sturdy for the developing world (wear, tear, temperatures, etc) and will given children the chance to play, read, write and study at night without electricity.

SUNNAN comes in five bright colours and is available in an IKEA store near you, or online at www.ikea.com. SUNNAN work lamp combines low-energy LED technology with solar panels. Just charge the panel for 9-12 hours in the sun and get four hours of full light! And I don't know about you, but it's just another great reason to go shopping at IKEA!!

Isaiah 58

I've come across this Scripture so many times in the last few weeks. A number of speakers have highlighted it as well.

Isaiah 58:6 - 12
"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

Evangelism

As I blogged yesterday, it has been a great week of teaching! "Evangelism" usually brings to mind people going door to door or standing on corners with loud speakers speaking the name of Jesus or trying to scare people out of hell, into heaven. We were challenged to be a people of captivated worshippers of God - a lifestyle of living in His love and bringing that love to others through our lives. God created each of us to be in relationship with Him - exactly the reason that He also gave us free will and the choice to accept or reject Him. A relationship is not a relationship unless you are able to decide to love or to walk away. It's never about 1 person - it requires 2.

When God knit us together in our mother's womb (Psalm 139), He breathed His dream into each of us - to be in relationship with Him. And no matter how great our dreams are for our lives, our dreams fall at least a trillion times short of His dreams for our lives. What would happen if we let OURSELVES out of the box we've confined ourselves to, in order to discover the true purpose for our existence?

I've spent so much time trying to figure out God's plan for my life, which is important. But in the process, I've forgotten that He has plans for EVERYONE. It hit me like a 2x4 right between the eyes this week: even people that live in utter and complete poverty, people that live in million dollar mansions and all of us in between, God has a specific path for all. It's hard for me to comprehend that God has a plan in poverty, but He created each soul on the planet and desires an intimate relationship with each of us.

Sounds like we got far from the idea of evangelism, but really, if we don't start here, then we haven't started at all. We cannot live OUT love, unless we live IN love (that's Christ's love). And we start to live in love when we have a face to face encounter with the cross. And it's a process - whoever came up with the idea that we should be able to figure out all things at specific points in our lives was crazy. It's a journey, and I'm so thankful to be here right now. But I'm even more thankful for everything and everyone that has got me to this point. Every day I feel more and more blessed and, I'm guessing that as I travel and encounter poverty and the destitute, I will feel that more and more!

Why Am I Here?

This week of teaching has been excellent. Dave and Laura are part of the leadership of Voice for the Voiceless in South Africa (which is where the track will be situated from September - December) and I am so excited to be able to work alongside them. Laura was speaking on evangelism this week, while Dave taught on photography. Both are very passionate about the work they are doing. All of our weeks of teaching basically came to a head in this week - how to tell others about Jesus, using our photography, which is exactly the reason that we are all here. The vision for photogenX is to use photography as a tool for cultural transformation so that issues such as gender based injustice will be issues of history instead of the future. To be a voice for the voiceless, knowing the power of photography. We will be able to use pictures to bring stories back home, as well as validating the people who we take pictures of - they are important, they have a purpose on this planet and they are loved.

3 Weeks and Counting. . .

Unbelievably, we only have 3 weeks until we leave for outreach. The time has definitely just flown by! Now that routine and schedule have finally fallen into place, it's time to start cleaning up and getting ready to move again. For a majority of the group, it's a 3 month travel and then they return home. For us "trackers", it means a year on the road. How do you pack for a year, ready for all types of weather and situations? That's the million dollar question around here!

Skype

I don't know if you've experienced the joy that Skype can bring, but I'm SO thankful for it. I've been able to connect with my family - for free! Now that my computer is finally up and running, and we have Internet in our building, it is so much easier to be able to connect. Mind you, I don't know what the connection will look like when I'm on the road, but we'll deal with that later. If you haven't already, download Skype and let me know so we can connect. I can also make phone calls via Skype and have really appreciated being able to connect with friends back home over the past week or so. If you would like to chat, email me a good time and we'll see what we can do!

Welcome to our World!

I just want to send out a big congratulations to my friends Jamie and Lisa, on the safe arrival of Hannah Marie on May 19! Welcome to our world, girl, welcome to our world!