..long time coming...

I have attempted to write this post countless times—it has been hard trying to figure out how to word this.... I finally decided to just go for it.….. I mean really, it isn’t going to write itself and frankly avoiding it is doing me no good. So here goes.....

I am praying about going to Germany in September 2011.

This past summer during a conversation with a friend of mine came up the topic of YWAM and a new DTS that started this past Sept.

The dts is the Marriage of the Arts. It will be from Sept 3^rd 2011 – March 24^th 2012

It has been on my heart for several years now to travel and take pictures of my life adventure. Lately God has been working deep in my life and purging so much of the gunk that I have picked up over time. Also my heart has been heavy for the nations.

This DTS is a pairing of the regular Lecture phase of understanding God on a deeper level and than the outreach phase. BUT the difference is during the first Lecture phase each student chooses an Arts track. I would be doing photography.

It is amazing that not only would my understanding of my relationship with God be cleansed, strengthened and empowered, I would be figuring out how my photography is to meld with my God relationship.

For those who may be a little confused about YWAM and DTS here is what they are:

Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced “WHY-wham”), their purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known.

When YWAM began in 1960, their main focus was giving young people opportunities to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the whole world, according to His command in Mark 16:15. Today, they still focus on youth, but they have members (known as “YWAMers”) of almost every age and many of their short-term efforts have grown into long-term endeavors that have impacted lives and nations.

YWAM has a decentralized structure that encourages new vision and the exploration of new ways to change lives through training, convey the message of the gospel and care for those in need. They are currently operating in more than 1000 locations in over 180 countries, with staff of over 18,000.

…and DTS stands for Discipleship Training School and is designed to help understand God more deeply, live more like Jesus and identify each individual's unique gifts and purpose to use in missions. DTS is an intensive, residential training course which begins with an 11 or 12 week classroom phase, followed by an 8-12 week outreach. DTS emphasizes cross-cultural exposure and global awareness, preparing students to answer the call to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19.

I am hoping this blog fills a couple purposes:

1. A place to agree in prayer for the nations

2. A place where I can share what is going on in my crazy busy life and share photos, thoughts, inspiration etc.

….There are more, but I don’t want this to get to long and I forgot them… J

Until next time—Much Love

In school, I really didn't like History. Don't get me wrong, I know it has huge importance and implications for us today, but I struggled to see it. I felt it was just random names, dates and events that some mean person somewhere in the school system was forcing me to memorize. I just couldn't connect it to a face or how it affected me now.

Basically it was a mumbled-jumbled pile of information that I didn't really know what to do with.

As I look forward and continue onward I cannot ignore a how faces change history and how amazed I am to see how my perspective changes when a situation has a face attached to it.

Poverty, Human trafficking and natural disasters can seem so removed from us and get categorized in our minds as just humanitarian concepts until a face is attached to them--children in Africa, Girls disappearing in Moldova, floods and tornados and hurricanes all over the US. They can be just horrible acts--that we give maybe five mins thought to--until we know someone affected by it, in short until we see a face.

God sometimes can seem off in the distance and removed from where I am in the here and now. Christ came in a sense to put a face to the name along with many other things. Even after He lived 33 years on this planet, God still can seem like another concept/idea, another thing to hope in until his face is shown and attached to us.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am tired of being disconnected and detached from people around me and especially from God. So here is what I want to do.

I want to attach faces.

The reality is there are those out there who are affected by every action. Just because I don't see their face or know their names doesn't mean tragedy isn't hitting them, or their pain is any less.

There is life in a face---so much meaning in a face—as well as so much can be said in one solitary face.