Me and a small group of people are making a book titled Sex and Money The Global Search for Human Worth. It is complied of photos and stories of things that we saw and experienced in our travels...about the injustice we encountered.
Do you know that Sex Trafficking is?
Do you know that it happens in America, in the cities that you live?

PEOPLE ARE BEING ENSLAVED

There are more slaves today than any other time in history...27 million (and that number is 4 years old)

The modern day abolition movement has begun...what are we going to do to help???

I was privileged to see a screening of this movie...it comes out October 10th in select theaters...EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS MOVIE. If you are in one of these cities where it is showing PLEASE go and see it! Make everone you know go and see it.

It will be showing in these cities:

ATLANTA	DENVER	ORANGE COUNTY	SAN JOSE
AUSTIN	LOS ANGELES	PORTLAND	SEATTLE
BOSTON	MINNEAPOLIS	REDWOOD CITY	WASHINGTON DC
CHICAGO	NASHVILLE	SAN DIEGO
DALLAS	NEW YORK	SAN FRANCISCO

GO TO THE WEB SITE www.callandresponse.com

SEE THIS MOVIE... RESPOND

Discovering…Faith

Discovering…Faith

My time in Ethiopia has been incredibly impactful! The first week was focused on finding Jesus’ love for me. It was amazing to begin to understand how much Jesus really loves me and how through His love I can love Him back. I began a journey of really discovering Christ love and it is a journey that will only be completed on the day that I stand before Him!

The next week was about African Worldview. It is incredible to begin to understand other cultures perspectives on the World. Africa’s see the world very different from an American like me. The really cool part about the week was finding what parts of an African Worldview match up with a Biblical perspective. I am beginning to see the World in a brand new way! I am really discovering how Christ views the world.

The third week was learning about documentary photography and then at the end of the week we went on a mini-outreach to document an aspect of African life. I chose to do my project on a family where the mother and her seven-year-old son is HIV positive. It was one of the most amazing experiences. God really showed me the love he has for people living with the HIV/AIDS virus. Four of us took lots of pictures and shared two afternoons with the family. They feed us traditional Ethiopian food, literally feed it to us with their hands. Spending that time with the family broadened my view on so many things but the thing that I really found was that through the families testimony I discovered faith.

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This is my documentary photo assignment on the family…

Amariche means very beautiful and smart, she is about 36 years old. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia she went to Atgabin in the south of the country and stayed there 18 years then came back and joined the army during the Dirk Regime. After her service she went to Asmara, Eritrea for seven years then came back to Addis Ababa. Amariche has six children, five girls, and one son. She became a Christian only two years ago. Along with her older daughters Amarich makes clothes and tablecloths to support her family. Dispite her hard life she holds on to the Love of Jesus and encourages others to do the some, “Since we are the Army of Jesus we need to pray for Ethiopia daily”

Amariche weighed only 32 Kilograms when her CD4 count was 135. Now she weighs 62 Kilograms and her CD4 count is 610. She was very sick but with prayer and Anti-Retroviral Treatment she is now living healthy while being HIV positive.

Yordanos is four years old, not old enough for school yet, she holds her baby sister Debora who is six months old. All of the older children help their mother out by taking care of the younger.

Zarah, the middle child, is nine years olds. Compassion International supports her, her school fees are provided along with some supplementary food. She is one of over 200 children being supported by this organization. Compassion International also supports Amariche and the whole family as much as they can, even if it means only a quick home visit from one of the workers.

Growing up Amariche was not educated as a child, she did not know how HIV and AIDS was transmitted so when she cared for women with HIV, there were no health standards and because of the lack of educated she thinks she got the virus from caring for the HIV positive women. She would wash clothes in poor conditions were she could get scratched and because she did not understand that the virus could be transmitted by blood, took no precautions and could have been infected.

All of Amariche’s children have been tested; all of her daughters are negative. Her son Esubahew shares in her HIV status, he is 7 years old. Esubahew means the will of the Lord, he’s name reflects his mothers attitude towards her only son being HIV positive. Amariche puts her son along with all of her children in the hands of God.

Amariche does not own a house, currently her family lives in a house made out of sticks and tarps in the corner of a hospitals property, they have been living there for six months. Being homeless, if the hospital needs the space then her and her family would have to leave and would be homeless. Her prayer request is that God would provide her a place to stay, “Our God is rich He can give us our needs.” With more faith and trust in God then most people Amariche says, “God will provide”

“If you believe in God when you pray to God, then God will help you and heal you and respond to your prayer, you have to have faith and trust in God because He will help you”
- Amariche

Hello from Ethiopia!

Hello from Ethiopia!

Yes I made it safely to Ethiopia, and I am having a very relaxing time here! But before I get into that let me tell about the last 2 weeks in Cairo. The first week back from Israel was all about photography teaching on lighting, something that is very essential to photography and learning how to do it properly is so valuable so that I can do what God wants me to do. We learned about night photography, painting with light and even had a make shift studio so that we could dabble in studio lighting as well. It was a very informative week on basic techniques to better my photography.

The following week was a complete shift in subject, as it was the introduction to a new course of Worldview. After being in Palestine for three days my perception on, not only my Worldview, but on Worldview as a subject had already begun to shift. It was the perfect week to begin this subject. It is interesting to begin to understand why I think the way I do and the basis for why other cultures think differently. I think that understanding this is truly vital to reaching the World for God.

So what is to come for me? I am in Ethiopia now and will be studying African Worldview. It is so exciting to me to be here and see it first hand. I think that I will be able to grasp the concepts presented in class much more easier. After that we head off to Amsterdam to study Secularism. Though I enjoy Africa I am very excited to be going to Europe! A road trip down to Spain where we will study Islam is next. There we will also visit Morocco. After that we skip over the big pond and end up in Costa Rica. There we will study Latin Worldview. A month will be spent in each of these four locations. Each one holds new adventures and I am so excited to be learning about different cultures.

Along with the Worldview, we will be integrating photography. The first three weeks will be spent in lecture and the last week in each location will be a field trip into the culture to photograph and put into practice what we have be learning.


This is how my next four months look. This week, however, is different. This is a week devoted to reconnecting with God. I have only been here a few days and the quietness of where we are staying is so incredible. I sit out in to sun and just soak in God’s beauty in the silence of His creation (well mostly in the shade not that I have fried my self…I need to get a big floppy hat). I think that this is the chance to really reconnect with God that I, and the rest of my class, really needs.


I will probably only be getting on the Internet one more time this month, probably in a few weeks. It is a long mini-bus ride to the Sheraton Hotel where the only fast Internet is. If you have anything important to tell me it will have to wait a couple of weeks. Then when we get to Amsterdam there is wireless on the base where we are staying so lots of pictures and a full update of what God has done during my time in Ethiopia will be posted. But for now I am going to enjoy being disconnected with the “outside world” and really dive into what God has for me during this month. I love you all and thank you so much for your continual prayers! See you in a month!

Karama means Dignity

Karama Organization in the Deheishe Refugee Camp

This past week as very impactful for me, not in the way that I thought it was going to be. After cutting my toe pretty badly, me and three other girls went out by ourselves to explore. We went up to Tiberius in the Galilee region; it was a wonderful two days. There we stayed close to the Sea of Galilee during that time we went to Nazareth and the Jordan River. It was really amazing seeing biblical sights. We then went to Bethlehem, spent three days there . . . that changed our lives.

15 year old boy killed by Israeli soldiers

Ellie (a Canadian), made plans or us to stay with a Palestinian family. Where we were to work with refugee children at the Karama center. We got through the check point and into West bank. From there we went to Dahashe refugee camp. Down a sketchy ally and into a very run down building, let us to the center. We sat down and where greeted by Laue, one of the two brothers that fun the Karama center. His brother Yassar, soon joined us and we where immediately in a very aggressive conversation about how much they hate Americans. Ellie, who made the plans, had previously told them thatshe was Canadian in her corresponding she failed to mention that all her companions where . . . Americans. So when Yassar asked what part of Canada we where all from, we sheepishly told him that Ellie was Canadian yet the rest of us where Americans. Needless to say when we where all taken aback by the tension that arose with our statement. The rest of the day included much more conversations all out of anger and hate towards Americans. We where than referred to as “the enemy” from than on out.

Palestinian refugee living in Dehishe

It was so interesting to get the Palestinian perspective on the “Israeli occupation.” We felt thrown into a extreme. We later found out that Yassar, one of the brothers had been in jail for five years by Israel and tortured. He was severely depressed and very angry. That first night happened to be Yassar’s birthday. We saw that they had cake but we where confused there the traditional birthday song was not being sung. Later we found out that they normally would sing but didn’t anymore due to fear of the Israeli soldiers hearing them and causing trouble. We sat together that night and prayed for protection and guidance.

Kid in Deheishe Refugee Camp

We found out that the kids at the Karama center where sad and down in spirits because ten days earlier one of their friends, a fifteen year old boy, was shot by one of the Israeli soldiers. The young boy had been walking net to some other Palestinians who where throwing rocks through the separation of the wall. Soldiers started firing and the young boy was caught in the crossfire. This was not a unusual occurrence for them.

Door in Refugee camp

We taught the kids at the center some English and also photography, mostly we just tried to have fun with them. That led to Laue, one of the brothers, taking us out to a water pipe bar, where we talked to him for three hours with him. The conversation consisted of him telling us his hate for America and how he aggress with violence as the answer. He looked at us and told us how happy he was when 9/11 occurred. This whole time we where there Terrorists where referred to as martyrs. That night we tried to talk to them about Christ and we told them that we where Christians. It was difficult to communicate because they kept bringing the conversation back to anti-American violence.

Ellie, Laud, Kate and Morgan looking out at the separation wall

The last day we taught the kids more photography, then we where shown a slideshow of the most horrific mutilated human bodies. After that, Yassar asked us if we still believed in God. What do you say to that? We all said yes! He went on to explain to us that a god who gives land to a people and condones killing “I damn that God” where his exact words. We prayed for them and left.

Boys at the Karama Center performing for us

We are all safe and back with the rest of our group. It was really hard for me to hear there perspective on what is happening in Israel. Palestinians are the descendents of the Canaanites. Israel was suppose to wipe them out when they where coming into the promise land, but they failed to do so. What can you say to these people about God’s love when they are not suppose to be here? For the first time I understand where they are coming from. I don’t agree with it but I really understand why they are so angry. What do you tell them about God’s love? How can a person believe in a god of love when things like that happen. I don’t know many things, but one thing I do know is that God is love! I look at the faces of the kids in the refugee camp and I know how much God loves the people. It was because of his love that Jesus came. I may not understand the Israeli / Palestine conflict. And honest I don’t know what side to take. But I have some thing that both sides don’t . . . hope. I am hopeful that Israel will step under the second covenant that is Jesus blood. And begin to love there enemies. I have hope that the palatines will find Jesus hope and love for them and that they will end the violence and hate, that through Jesus love peace will come. This is the only way these things will be resolved.

Ellie playing an English game with the Karama kids

Those three days in Palestine shock me and made me question a lot. But I can honestly say that I walk away from that experience more in love with Jesus, because he gives me hope. Please join me in praying for the Israeli /Palestine conflict and all of the Palestinian refugees. If you have any questions about my time please feel free to ask more questions.

GRAFFITI ON THE SEPARATION WALL

History At A Glance...

Me on the Mt. of Olives

Greeting from the Holy Land!

It has truly been an amazing couple of weeks. During this time I have been learning about the History of this great Nation. It is very fascinating to learn the history while being here. I think that this hit home for me when reading 1 Kings 2:10 "Then David joined his ancestors. He was buried in the City of David." Then I was thinking, wait a minute the City of David is like a 20 minute walk from where I'm staying. King David and all of his royal family is buried right here. Cool!

View from Mt. of Olives
Looking at the Jerusalem/Palestine boarder

"Those who do not learn history are condemned to repeat it". A common quote that someone forgot to tell the Nation of Israel because man did they make a lot of the same mistakes. I have found a new desire for the Word of God and how important it is to truly know and understand not only the New Testament but how absolutely important the Old Testament really is. Walking around here I am really living out the history of this place.

View from Mt. of Olives
Old City Jerusalem
and the Doom of the Rock

Golden Gate

With learning about the history books of the Bible we also looked at the Wisdom and the Prophetic books. I think to myself; how did I never know that all of this was in the Bible. The poetry, knowledge and God's Word. It is beautiful and historical and wonderful! While looking at the Psalms we wrote our own:

Girl at the Wailing Wall

Oh God, my God I long for Your voice
My Creator, give me Your utterance
Though I sit and I wait for Your direction I hear the silence torment my heart
Though I long to be close and know you I feel the emptiness; the formidable void of abyss
God, draw close to my soul, whisper mysteries to my inner being Father, come alongside my mind, express Your extraordinary nature to my spirit
I know that you speak, and that You are always there
I will sit and wait for your words to be imprinted on me
Though the enemy tires to take me from you
You are my Savior, and my provider and I know that you will never Leave me

Garden of Gethsemane

Learning the Word of God is so vital to living a life for Christ. If I have learned anything this week it is that to live for God, we as believers need to know the Word of God. Having this passion for the understanding of God's Word is something that every person following Jesus needs to find to truly understand and really know God the Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit our Helper!

Statue at the Church at Gethsemane

Inside the Church at Gethsemane

This next week we are traveling around Israel going where Jesus went, we are going to follow Him! I would love to hear from you or if you have any questions, I would love to hear from all of you!

Bath pools at Bethesda

Church where Pilot sentenced Jesus

Path of the Via Dolorosa (The path Jesus walked to be crucified)


Prayers at the Wailing Wall


Wailing at the Wall


Two girls at the Wailing Wall

Prayers