catching up, and catching my breath.

So once again, it has been a long time since my last transmission. When last left you I was about to tell you of my adventure in Sydney and beyond, which is where I will pick up now again.

After leaving Townsville on the 2nd of February, part of our team (Sonya, Seyoung, and myself) went on to Sydney, Australia, meanwhile; Deni and Hanneke went ahead of us to Tarunga, in New Zealand.

I left Townsville for Sydney not exactly sure what was in store. You see I had been the one to plan the first month of the outreach, so I new at least the majority of what would be happening. I have also learned however that part of leadership is delegation and so I had delegated the planning of two weeks in Sydney to Sonya, one of the girls on my team.

For Sonya, Seyoung, and I, Sydney came with a much needed breath of air. We had a bit more time to rest and take in some of the scenery there. Which is indeed beautiful. We were all able to absorb the start of our tour and reflect on how things were going, while also taking the time to really reconnect with the reason we’re doing all this, and thats our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Sydney wasn’t just a relaxing time for us though, we also had a great connection on the ground there who was able to get us several bookings with local churches, ywam bases, and even into a k-6 school (we even got to meet with the Hillsongs hills campus church to discuss our ministries and how we can work together). Sonya, Seyoung, and myself each took turns presenting at the different venues. Some nights we even had to split up to cover multiple speaking engagements. For me, being uncerertain of what this time was going to hold for us ministry wise, we were immensly blessed by our local conctact and their hearts for our ministry. Their willingness to drive us from place to place, and their persistence to line up the places for us to speak could not have been matched. God really hooked us up with some great people, whom I hope to reconnect with in future ministry.

We have been having awesome prayer responses at each of the churches and ywam bases that we have spoken at. I’m really excited about the headway we are making in the spirit. We are also seeing young people being engaged at a heart level with this issue, so we are definatly accomplishing some of the goals we set out from Kona with.
On some other notes, Seyoung had a birthday while in Townsville, which we were able to celebrate in real tradition with pizza and ice cream. (oh the memories) And then we celebrated again once more with Hanneke in Sydney shortly before she jetted off to New Zealand. (she had already left Townsville and missed our classy celebration) So we went out to Pancakes on the Rocks for some chocolate pancakes with chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup on them! Pancakes on the Rocks seems to be a semi-annual tradition for us, as we were previously there during our outreach to Australia in July ‘07. Our time in Sydney was definitly blessed.

One must have an understanding of history in order to properly interpret the present.

Okay, so when I last left off I was leaving for Australia to begin the tour of raising the church to awareness and activity in human trafficking.

I have just completed the first leg of that tour through Australia. So once again I will recap for you a bit of that journey.

I left home, after the Christmas and New Years celebrations, on Jan 4th. And then, after 27 hours of flying and 16 hours of layovers, I arrived in Perth, Australia Jan 6th very travel weary but ready to begin a new journey.

Perth was unbelievably busy, our contact in Perth (the "lost in traffik" crew) were amazing. They arranged for us to display pictures in two local cafes and hosted our photo exhibition in the YWAM base. We could never have pulled off our first exhibition without them, and they definitely helped us be prepared for more to come. We also got to speak to two dts classes and the frontier media school there. And I got to teach a photography seminar for almost 2 hours. I didn't know I knew so much about photography.

Perth was a huge success thanks to the lost in traffic guys, and a great kickoff to our tour.

^
our books table


our exhibition!



sharing the message

The lost in traffic crew

After saying goodbyes to our new friends we headed off across the Australian continent to the city of Townsville.

This wasn't my first trip to Townsville, I had actually been here for a week during my dts outreach, and it was amazing to see just how far God has brought me from that point until returning again this year.

Sometimes we merely need to reflect in order to see God at work in our lives.

Townsville was, like Perth, very busy.
In Townsville we stayed with a Tongan family in one of the base houses. It was super convenient for us all to be living in the same house.
(In Perth we were several blocks apart, which meant lots of time spent walking just to meet.)
ALSO, we were enormously blessed by a new friend from the base with a vehicle to drive the entire two weeks we were there. I felt so British driving on the left side of the road... even though I was driving in Australia... go figure. But, I enjoyed driving immensely.

For ministry we were able to set up a booth in the local mall, displaying some of our photos and trying to discuss with people about the issue of trafficking. We actually had our picture in the local paper and a write up about what we've done and are doing.

While in Townsville we also spoke at a youth detention center, telling the boys our testimonies and where we've all come from and sharing with them our dvd and the mission that God has brought us on, encouraging them to make a change in their own lives.

We also were able to lead the entire Youth Street program the base runs every Saturday for kids 12 - 17. The kids were really into the program and we got a great response from them. Also during the week we were able to teach photography at an after-school mental health center. This was a place that encourages young teens to express themselves an tries to equip them with different arts and mediums to give an outlet for their emotional stress.

And back at the YWAM base we were able to speak to the music for missions school who is also focused on human trafficking. It was good to encourage them and set before them the focus about what they're doing and why. It was also encouraging to us to see new soldiers with passion for justice and using their gifts coming into the field.

While we were in Townsville, the amazing holiday of AUSTRALIA DAY! had its annual festivities. It was a truly Australian experience, with meat pies for dinner and Pavlova for dessert. The guys all played "footy" (Australian rules rugby) in the afternoon while I took a much needed nap.

And that brings us to Sydney.

My sincerest apologies for my lack of communication. If you've kept up with my adventures personally, much of this may be a review but nonetheless I want to recap.

April '06 - I began honestly, and earnestly seeking for truth, and then reconciliation with God.
After finding God for myself, my focus began switching off of myself and to what more can I be doing with my life than what I had been. Once having a revelation of the grace of God, I felt the need to extent that out of myself as well.

Februay '07 - I left Pennsylvania for Kona, Hawaii to do some volunteer work for YWAM. (restoring an old house, that will be used for missions training and missionary leader meetings)
While working there I caught wind of an opportunity to use photography in missions to expose injustice around the world, and to receive further discipleship in my walk with God

April '07 - My Discipleship training began. This was a six month commitment with three months of lectures learning more about God and deepening my relationship with Him, and really dealing with things that needed healing and changing in my life. And then, a three month outreach which took me to the northernmost region of India.

September '07 - After completing my discipleship training, I set out on a 9 month track around the world using photography to meet people and then writing their stories. This track to me to 13 different nations with 20 other photographers. Each one displayed to me different aspects of God through the people and landscapes. Each nation also has its share of challenges both for me, and the people living there.

July '08 - After completing the 9 months of travel and arriving back in Kona, it was time to process what really touched our hearts and what made sense for us as a group to bring together from our experiences during the travels. We all discovered that what touched our hearts the most was seeing and meeting people who had been affected by the abuses of sex and money.
From July until October we worked tirelessly on recounting our experiences, photographs, and formatting them and designing a book and two dvd clips to display them in.

We decided that since the focus of the book was around the abuses of sex and money that we would focus on a single issue that is truly the international expression of these two in one, human trafficking.

January '09 - I set out for Australia with the book and dvd to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking, and to encourage the church to pray/give/go to bring an end to this horrible injustice.

And that pretty much brings us to present day. This is an incredibly brief overview of what has been going on in my life for the last few years, but gives a bit of a framework to were I've come from and where I'm going right now.