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!