Best Summer Ever: Part Two

Last summer, I knew I didn't want to be in Charleston. It's not that I don't love the Holy City and those that keep me here but I firmly believe that God wants every one of us to see the world, take a step, big or small, out of our bubble we comfortably live in and recognize that we have a responsibility to DO something about the world which will always be broken. Whether that may be talking to homeless people on the street, reaching out for the lonely, or spending a year in Africa, what you strive for represents who you are as a person in this world. I clung to a song by Brooke Fraser after I had returned from Nicaragua a couple summers back. She says, 'Now that I have seen, I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead." Maybe its this 'seeing' that we need to understand the responsibility we have.
After doing my fair share of research, I found myself returning to Christ for the City, the same organization I worked through in Nicaragua two summers ago. I applied and was placed in La Cuenca, a slum outside San Jose. I lived with Hugo, the director of the ministry within La Cuenca, his wife Yuri, their two year old, Samuel, and another short term missionary, Kara who is now my foreverandever best friend.
La Cuenca is dangerous, violent and so broken. For a while before I arrived, nobody was allowed in the area due to all the issues with drugs, gangs, and violence. The three missionaries I worked with in La Cuenca, Hugo, Magaly and Fernando have been returning to this area for the past five years via a two hour bus ride and no salary. Even though the three are all part of growing families, they receive under $100 per month in support to continue thriving.
God revealed so much about His vision for His kingdom coming on Earth in terms of ministry, the arts and our daily lifestyles. Kara and I met another gringo (american) in the city and got to have some great discussions about the lifestyle of a missionary and the balance between recognizing the need to live a different lifestyle once experiencing this disparity and struggling with the need. Like many areas in this condition, many of the children are sold into prostitution, are abused and raised by parents struggling from untreated depression. So many simply want to be held, touched, just have a hand on their knee because when their parents leave them alone to take care of their siblings for the entire day, their childhood is so easily snatched away.

Although my main lens was still pretty much destroyed at this point, with my work funds through CFCI, I got to take family portraits for some of the families we got to know quite well. This was...incredible. It was so nice, in a country where I was normally confused and speaking in unconjugated, broken spanish, to be able to focus on something I was good at, that I often take for granted and be able to show these wonderful people how much their stories and lives mean to me. In the states, its slowly becoming more acceptable to study art. Its not such an outlandish concept anymore, knowing that we're taking the risk of thriving off opinion and uncertainty. In countries such as Costa Rica, the proposed idea of being involved in the arts is such a foreign concept that it doesn't even arise in dreams. Although, yes, basic needs are to be met and medical attention is needed, the change of a lifestyle is only created through relationships and making connections through ways such as art. If we can easily pass on the opportunity to do something you could never imagine being able to, why aren't we doing this more often?
Alongside the ministry, Kara and I had such great adventures I can just squeal from all the excitement that ensued. We traveled to the beach, dressed up as clowns for a birthday party, climbed rocks at waterfalls, slept a lot and bought too much coke.


A view from La Cuenca where we daily worked


Our classroom


One of the alleyways closeby


Another little girl that was standing to my left jumped in the photo and insisted on posing my two cute subjects














These women let us come into their home and make our own tortillas and then eat them with this absolutely delicious cheese. When it comes to cheese, Costa Rica dominates to an unarguable extent.



The rest of these are some of the families I got the honor of photographing























Hugo, Magaly, Kara, me, and then Fernando.
I think I love this photo. Nobody is looking and everybody is messed up but I'd frame it anyday.



So thank you to all who have listened to these stories over and over.
Thanks to those who kept up with me while I was abroad and helped deal with things back at home.
Ask to hear my stories because I am overflowing with joy to share them.

Best Summer Ever: Part One

This summer was by far the best summer ever.
I have the confidence to say that I will never have another summer as glorious, sweaty, tiring and adventuresome as this one has been. The blogging will take a while and the photos can never do justice to the stories I've gotten to live and the relationships I've built, but of course I want to share with you anyway.
Donald Miller says that being able to share our stories with others is one way to prove we're still alive, that we're still kicking and screaming and living life and these three trips within two months are a true testament that I'm still living.

I started in New York City taking photos for an organization near and dear to my heart at their week long conference for high school students. I took this trip when I was fifteen, so I have such a heart for these students. The staff truly pushes them to a level where only God can be the extended hand. From homeless ministry, to individual prayer time, honestly, the trip is uncomfortable and will break you. And even though it took me years to understand, this breaking of our viewpoint from middle class eyes is so necessary growing up in the broken culture we live in.
Those who know me well know I'm in the city a couple of times a year and know how important each trip is and the time I get to spend up there. The week was completely exhausting as it always was, but this trip, like every other visit up, allows me to hang out with some of the coolest people I've ever met. Look for a post about my friends Malerie and Ryan coming up soon!
The conference had numerous awesome speakers that were brought in and those on staff also. As always, the worship was great and passion filled. The two guys were flown in from Charlotte, definitely go check them out.
Its so hard to summarize even a week, but God is moving here. I know that among the hundred or so kids at this conference, God will allow the city to change atlesat one like He did me, years ago-so changed and awestruck by this broken city to come back and be apart of the generations rising up.































An issue that arose this summer was my camera gear. About halfway through the week in Manhattan, the lens I use the most often was ruined. Not unusable, but still ruined for a professional. It didn't hinder me in too many ways, but the nasty flare did turn up in a lot of photos that I wish it hadn't. In a way, it ended up being a weird blessing. Not only do I get to now buy new gear, (yes!) but it gave me a reason to put down my camera and just...enjoy things for once. Everywhere I travel, I always have the pressure to take amazing photos and because I was hindered in this way, I finally got to sit back for some moments and simply be another human being in a story.