Where to begin? Let me preface this by telling you that this is, by far, not my most eloquent or organized entry. It's more of random thoughts, incomplete sentences and rabbit trails that may, or may not, connect. Brave soul, if you dare, continue. Life - and this blog - has been so filled with photography and busyness that I haven't really taken time to stop, reflect and process all that's transpired over the last few months.
May was wonderful - busy and wonderful. With five wedding shoots, two out of state, the time flew by. Jumping from the chilly spring (or was it still winter?) of May in Bend, to the 90+ heat of Indiana was an adventure, but well worth it. I'm excited to share the two Indiana weddings with you soon!
June was filled with late nights of editing and planning my own wedding. And July has been a rush of excitement, change and trying to orient myself to a new normal. I must confess that through all this I feel like God has been walking along side me, patiently waiting for me to strike up the conversation again. Looking back, he's always been close, but I just was so distracted with living that I neglected to invite Him into the daily tasks of life. But he continues to pursue us, and this time, he showed his goodness through the friends and family who came to my wedding. I have the best group of friends I could ever ask for. Women of strength, humility and just plain fun who love God with an honesty, a rawness and a passion that I've rarely seen in anyone. Being surrounded by these women for four days in a row filled my heart up and renewed my soul. Between the hours of corn hole, campfires, long breakfasts and running under a waterfall were the conversations I think we all needed so much. I could go on, but to anyone else it'll sound like circles, all that to say is I'm so grateful for my friendships and for the way God uses them to draw me back to Him and remind me of His goodness.
Andrew and I got married on a ranch out in Sisters, Oregon, under tall pine trees with a view of the Cascade mountain range, just before sunset.
One thing I'd been thinking a lot about was how we plan so much for a wedding - the food, flowers, the dress, the photography, and invite our closest friends and family...as I reflected on this, I thought about how important it was to invite God to our wedding. I know, it sounds kinda funny, inviting God to your wedding...but seriously. People spend hours designing, mailing and receiving invitations from distant second cousins, shouldn't God be invited too? My prayer and hope for our wedding was that God would show up. That He would not only be present, but He would be glorified. I wasn't sure what that would look like, but He showed up in the form of a storm and it was beautiful. I've been so blessed by conversations with people who attended, hearing their perspective of our wedding - how dramatic the weather was and how God's power was shown during the ceremony - has been so cool. I wanted God to be there, to be in it, for it to be about Him and centered around Him, and for His presence to be the mark of the whole day...I'm humbled by how He answers prayer.
There's so much to be excited about. Now that the craziness has died down, the guests have returned home and life has gone back to "normal" I feel I have the capacity to start focusing on the next big life event: Uganda.
In September, my friend John and I are co-leading a team from my church, Antioch, to visit Otino Waa, the orphanage in Lira, Uganda for two weeks. I'm so excited to be back at Otino Waa and see my kids again, to see how they've grown over the year and a half since I'd been there, to meet the new kids and to just be back in Uganda. Equally exciting, Andrew is going as well. This will be his first time to Africa. I can't describe how amazed I am that God has opened the doors for us to go to Uganda, a place that has shaped my life so much, together, as a married couple. For some reason Uganda keeps coming back to me, and I keep going back to it...and it's vital that my husband gets to be a part of those experiences too. To have the chance to create to experiences and relationships and build on old friendships as a married couple, so early in our marriage, is just indescribable to me. I really wonder what God is going to do in our lives. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with Uganda...maybe it does. We'll see.
Thinking about our upcoming trip gets me worked up. Once I start talking about it, I just can't seem to stop. Otino Waa is an example of something going very right in a place with a very difficult history. It's a beacon of hope and a place where the rejected, lost and abandoned become the future, the hope and potential.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about the conversations at
board meetings, the history and direction of PATH, the great need and, bottom
line, of helping more of the most vulnerable orphans in Uganda.
This, in combination of talking with a few members of the most
recent Antioch team and their reflections, have got me brainstorming a bit.
Otino Waa is unique. It's a rare bright spot in a very difficult and dark
reality. It's an example of something going RIGHT. The truth is
if I had only seen just Otino Waa, I would not understand the urgency of over 1000 orphans on the waiting list, of what poverty looks like, smells like, and
feels like. It's my eye opening experiences from the villages, IDP camps and
meeting children who have been abandoned and left alone that makes me
understand what Otino Waa truly is and how precious what we're doing actually
is. I had the rare opportunity to be taken by Ugandan friends to places most
people don't see, I want to take people there as well.
That said, I think in order for people to join us and rescue more kids, they
need to see the whole picture. They need to see what kids are being rescued
FROM. They need to know the urgency and that if they don't take action -
nobody will.
Therefore, in September I will be taking a significant amount of time while in Lira to go into the villages and meet some of the kids on the waiting list. I want to photograph, interview and film the need. I want to show where they live, what they eat and don't eat, where they sleep...I to take people to the tension point - where our action -or inaction- lives, breathes and has effect.
Thinking and planning for this project is exciting, I love getting to see village life, to sit and hear people's stories and have the honor of just being with them...But I also know that this may be one of the harder things I've done in life. Very similar to visiting the IDP camps in 2009, learning people's stories, seeing their heartbreak, looking at hopelessness and not being able to fix the problem and be the solution, is very hard. I'm aware that I may never be able to fully tell their stories, that maybe I won't succeed, maybe I'll fail them - and that is scary. Opening yourself up to loving vulnerable people will inevitably hurt. But the thought of what could happen, the change that could occur, the possibility that even one life could be radically changed, that one abandoned, vulnerable orphan could have a home, a family and know the love of a Savior is worth the risk. I know that this is an uphill road, that maybe it will take time and patience for things to change and continue to grow...but with children dying on the waiting list there is an urgency to all this. I can only hope and pray that God would bless this, that He would - like my wedding - show up. That He would be glorified and that lives would be changed.
Please pray for this trip. Pray for our team, pray for the kids and leaders at Otino Waa. Pray that God would be glorified and that change would happen. It's an ugly, uncomfortable truth, but caring for widows and orphans is not someone else's calling - it's ours. I think God has given me the task of telling this story, maybe for a season, maybe for a lifetime. And I can only ask that I do the best job I can at telling it.
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