The cool moist Pacific air greeted me. I sent a text to Kristen, who was waiting in the cell phone lot. “I’m outside.” Three minutes prior I walked off my Southwest flight from Chicago, the last leg of my return flight from Port au Prince. A few minutes later and I saw her pull up in our white minivan. She slid over to the passenger seat, I tossed my bags into the back, and the trip was officially over.
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Travel as a Political Act
Watch the first 6-7 minutes of this presentation from Rick Steves, I think it’ll challenge your perceptions of what it means…
- …to travel. The “why” we need to travel beyond our borders is super important.
- …to share what we know to be true. I’ve watched and loved Rick Steves show on PBS for years, I’d heard him do a couple radio interviews where he was a little outspoken on some issues, but my goodness he is unafraid to use his voice in this 80 minute piece.
In both cases, I hope to see more of that. I know for myself, while I certainly don’t land in the same area code as Mr. Steves on a lot of political issues addressed in this speech… I certainly want to continue to embody the two points above. I want to and plan to continue to travel beyond our borders. And I want to and plan to continue to share what I know to be true.
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My favorite photos from the Haiti Vision Trip
I’ll be sharing some stories and reflections on the 2014 Haiti Vision Trip with Praying Pelican Missions over the next week or so. But for now I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures. (Hover over the images to see captions, RSS readers, visit the site to see missing captions)
For Praying Pelican Missions, Cote Plage is one of their key partners and housing locations. I captured this shot in the early morning light on Saturday.
Dave stopped for this picture while exploring an orphanage near Jacmel, Haiti
Exploring the countryside is more fun in the back of a pick-up
Kristen teaches children how to blow bubbles. Pretty awesome that this was 100% new to them… clearly not a lot of American teams have been here.
Who doesn’t want to do a mission trip with this view? Absolutely amazing place.
A bubble is a surprising difficult subject as it’s always moving and autofocus can’t quite manage. I set my lens and just waited… really pleased with this shot.
A meeting with the school’s director to hear about their work… none of the teachers get paid, 100% volunteer.
This puppy posed for a picture after we met with the school director.
Not exactly Yosemite, this water bottle has been some places… in this case the mountains of Haiti.
Apparently, this gentleman’s flight was delayed and lead to a miscommunication with his ride. For some reason he decided to stand in the middle of the arrival area with at least a thousand people staring at him. Every 15-20 seconds someone would offer him a cab.
Gair looks on as children play in the orphanage. (Jacmel, Haiti)
Gair spotted this old iron at the orphanage in Jacmel, it opens in the middle to put hot coals in… a collectable.
Air dried laundry awaits cool breezes in Jacmel, Haiti
A team had just completed this construction of a boys dorm in an orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti
Loved this shot of Wes, just being Wes. His beard made him a kid-favorite.
We all want to know what Papa Noelle does in the off season, apparently he plays soccer with kids
I captured this shot almost by instinct, she tossed the frisbee and I fired the shutter… the result is fun.
I may have provoked this look with a comment…
Shawn Kiger looking on as Rebecca Hug teaches
I’ve met Anderson a few times at Good Shepherd, he’s always full of great smiles and makes sure to tell you his name, Anderson.
Jim Noreen & Sister Mona at Good Shepherd Orphanage
Praying for the children at Good Shepherd
This cute little guy was curious about my big camera. Shortly after this he crawled behind me on the floor and fell asleep.
One of the favorite things for our group to do was enjoy some good old country jun in the back of the pick-up.
The ride up to Jacmel & Bissen Bleu was long, but awesome.
We enjoyed one of the Western Hemisphere’s best waterfalls… Bassin Bleu.
The team performed a skit sharing the story of the Prodigal Son, afterwards Rebecca Hug offered an application for the story. -
Sharing the Vision for Haiti
In the morning I leave for a less-than-routine trip to Haiti.
I say “less-than-routine” because while it’s easy for me to get comfortable traveling to Haiti, it’s just one of those places I don’t want to ever get routine.
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Cyberbully Action Plan
Last week, a fellow volunteer in our high school ministry asked me for some advice about a student in her small group who is being bullied online. Specifically, the attacks are coming from anonymous accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and Ask.fm. My friend told me that the student had already talked to the school counselor about it, but the attacks hadn’t stopped and were now affecting her school work, sleep, etc.
I wanted to share the advice I gave as a starting point for other youth workers, educators, parents, and individuals faced with the same issue. (Obviously, I’ve edited this a little bit to make it general.)
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The chain reaction of evil
Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies – or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963
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Are microphones a problem?
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
This was part of Paul’s stump speech, a common theme captured in Paul’s letters to various churches. He spoke a version of Robin-Hood-esque democracy into a religious world that was autocratic by definition.
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The New Economy Emerging
“This is a bad economy…”
“Pretty cool, especially in this economy…”
“You know, in this economy, every dollar counts.”
I don’t know about you. But I hear bad news about this economy all the time. It’s at the point where it drives me nuts. You see, it’s one of those things that’s said on the news or people believe that just isn’t true. Want some proof? Read this AP article from today.
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“It’s Not Taco Tuesday, It’s Worship Wednesday”
A few weeks back, on Ash Wednesday, our mid-week youth ministry stuff changed things up a bit by combining all of the generations stuff into a single worship night.
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Am I just a social media guy?
Yesterday I spoke in 3 services at The Place in Wickenburg, Arizona. It’d been a long time since I’d done that… it was really fun.
And it was fun to be reminded that I like that and I’m not bad at it.
The fact is that I don’t get a lot of requests to teach on Sunday morning. I only have one more booked for the rest of 2014.
There’s a very simple reason for that: When you get known as a person who is a subject matter expert on a specific topic, you basically get typecast and only ever asked to talk about that one thing.