PANAMA and beyond!

Hi everyone!

So I made it to Panama!! We have internet kinda whenever it works, its wireless so it depends on the mood of the adapter i guess. I will try to update my blog once a week from now on to keep you up to date!

So I guess Ill just share a little bit of what I will be doing here. I also will share a bit about track since I haven't officially announced anything about it!

So first of all, about Panama! The YWAM base here was full so my team is staying in a church now! I am sleeping in the sunday school room, its quite cute! :) We do have to sleep on the floor, and the showers are just faucets outside...but thats okay because the church is literally a stones throw away from the Panama canal...which is super cool! The town that the church is in is called Gambo...its this little town that used to be where all the US citizens resided before the canal was given over to Panama. Now just some scientists from the Smithsonian (yeah i know random, good evangelism opportunity ;) ) are here and canal keepers. There is no road out of Gambo so people are either coming in or going out, no passing through. Interesting huh? So today we got oriented and we found out about the orphan problem in Panama which is probably what we will be working with during the time we are in the Panama city. Apparently there are 50,000 orphans in Panama and the adoption/ foster program pretty much doesn't exist. People do not want these orphans. So there are a lot of orphanages where a lot of horrible things go on like sexual abuse and physical abuse. Plus, they don't get normal attention... they are emotionally deprived and babies are left in their cribs- never held or loved, so they dont develop correctly. So this couple Matt and Misty from North Carolina moved here in October (they left behind a very well off and comfortable life!!) to start making changes in the adoption system. They are trying to raise awareness about the problems in the orphanages and get adoption on the map as an option for Panaminians. All the while they are loving on kids as much as possible. So over the next few months we will be helping them with these things!! I am very excited, God has really stirred up my heart for this issue! I am sure I will be doing more here, and I will let you know when I know. Our schedule is pretty flexible which I like!

The rest of the time we are here will be spent with indigenous tribes. There are problems with some tribes losing their culture because they were taught about Christianity i't allowed to speak at all, and their musical backgrounds are forgotten about because music is "wrong". So we are hoping to try and help them bring their culture back!

Not all tribes are like this, in other tribes we will just learn about their culture and teach them about Jesus if they haven't heard!

So, as you can imagine I am very excited to be here!!

We will also be speaking in schools and churches about what it is that PhotogenX (the program I am in) and Voice for the Voiceless (the ministry that our leaders started) do to get people excited and interested :)

Next, I want to share briefly about track.

Track is something I am so excited about.

Track will take me around the world for the next year.

It is an extended version of PhotogenX)

I will be doing school (studying photography, the Bible, worldview and religion) as well as using my photography to fight injustice. It is such a unique tool. Not only does photography impact people who see the photos, but it can impact the people you photograph. It is so neat how taking a photo of someone can validate a persons existence. They say "why would you want to take a photo of me?", or, "I am so ugly, no one loves me, don't take a picture of me" And thats where I as a Christian photographer step in and say "That is not true. You are a beautiful child of God. He loves you more than you can possible imagine" People want this love. And I am so excited that I am able to bring them God's love through Jesus.

So that is our goal. To address issues like sex tourism, human trafficking, infanticide, child pornography/prostitution, hunger/starvation, and many more by bringing the Word to people oppressed by the issues and bring them God's love.

We will photograph them and then at the end of the year traveling we will go back to Hawaii and make a publication (maybe a movie or a book) that addresses these issues...and then we will tour the western world (Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand) and share about what we saw in churches and schools using our publication. It is very exciting. This is going to be an awesome year.

Here is a VERY brief schedule

September-December 2009- South Africa- second photography course

January-March 2010- Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Turkey, and other parts of the middle east- we will study the Bible ON LOCATION!

April-end of June 2010- Europe, India, Asia-studying worldview and religion

July-December 2010- Kona- producing publication

January-March 2011- Western world- sharing our publication, raising awareness about issues

April 2011- Debrief in Kona- IM DONE!

LONG trek huh? I feel so blessed and excited to be able to do it!!

The track is 1,200 a month, so if you feel inspired by what I am doing and would like to help support me that would be AMAZING :)

THANK you for reading!! Sorry this was so long! Hope it was informational!

Thank you for all your prayers and support thus far, I REALLY appreciate it :)

God is so good isnt he? When i was flying into Panama the sun was setting, the clouds were beautiful, the landscape looked amazing, and I got this overwhelming feeling of God's love...and care...for every single person in this country and the world. And how he pays attention to detail, he delights in creating beautiful clouds for us to look at. He delights in all of His children. AH. I seriously was tearing up and all I could do was sing worship because HE IS SO GOOD! Just wanted to share :)