NEWS

So I've been able to do some really cool projects lately with some different ministries and people and it has been great to work with different people and do different things, different, different, different.

SPEAKING OF DIFFERENT

Tomorrow I will start working as a substitute art teacher at the Collegiate School of Memphis.  YEAH.  I'll be teaching 7th-10th graders [I hope they're not ALL taller than me.]  I'll be doing that until at least the 16th, maybe longer depending on when the permanent teacher feels ready to come back.

Short story of how this came to be: I know the permanent art teacher, and she had a baby, earlier than expected even, so I knew of this opening that they were trying to fill quickly.  I was working on a video project with them last Friday and mentioned my interest in the position.  I emailed my resume on Sunday, interviewed today and I start tomorrow.

My life just changed so much.

I'm really excited/nervous about this opportunity!  Please pray for me as I start my first real teaching job ever.  I was going to list things to pray for related to this, but that list would be really long/I don't know what to expect...so just pray for any/everything you think I'll need prayer for!

PLEASE check out my India photographs and order some HERE.  Scroll down one post to read more about it as well.

india 1.0

INDIA

A question that never ceases to be overwhelming: “How was [insert country that you recently visited]?”  I usually just reply with, “Good!” to test the waters to see if they really want to know and then I wait for follow up questions or for them to walk away.

Last month I went to India from Jan 1^st-11^th.  I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that, even a month later.

Something that is hard for me about “short term mission trips” or “vision trips” is to accept the cost of the trip.  Is being there for 11 days really worth the money we spent?  I’ve been wrestling with this idea since the time I went to Honduras the second time [in 2008].  The conflict I have with the idea of these trips has been affirmed but also challenged by one of the most insightful and helpful books I’ve ever read, When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert [seriously, read this book]

So going on an international mission trip was a required part of the Academy [my internship].  I knew that my decision to do the Academy meant, I was deciding and agreeing to go on an international mission trip that would cost of a lot of money.

Being a photo/videographer, I’m always wondering how God can use those specific skills He’s given me for His glory.  In particular on trips like these.

On the trip, I took a ton of photographs, of course.  I’ve decided to make some of my favorite shots available for purchase.  In line with realizing how God can use my art for His glory, I’m going to give 50% of the profits from these photographs back to India [I’m going to ask the people that we partnered with where the money can best be given].  The rest of the profits will be put back into my art and internship doing freelance photo/video work here in Memphis.

Check out my photographs by clicking here and buy a print or two, or three, or etc.  Please pass along this post to other people who might be interested also!

More documentation/fun/funny photographs can be found on the Facebook album by clicking here, along with informative [usually] captions.

Thanks for reading and thanks for asking about the trip!  More thoughts about the whole experience to come.

FIRST

HAPPY JANUARY 1ST 2012!

Right now I'm struggling really hard to stay awake.  I'm attempting to get on India time [11.5 hours ahead] to avoid jet lag of sorts.  Which I thought would be all fun and games because I would just get to stay up and play and indulge the night owl in me.  [just realized the sun is up...sometimes my curtains work too well]

But I drove 4.5ish hours today and 4.5ish hours the day before and am really tired.

BUT we're going to India. Today. To. Day. Day. To.

I've never been to the Eastern Hemisphere before and I've only been to lands that I know the language, whether that be English or Spanish. This is going to be a crazy, new, exciting, overwhelming, more adjectives experience.

Pray for us!  We're going to be traveling a lot via plane, train, taxi, and on foot.  We're going to be consuming foods and drinks we're not used to.  And pray that God would not only use this trip to change us but to do work through us there.

And somehow/somewhere I will post photos from this adventure...like a year after or something. jk. or am I?

OH and I won't be able to text/call/access the internet really. So Jan 12th and onward, I'll get back to you!

Thank you to everyone who has $upported this trip! I literally could not be doing what I'm doing here in Memph and will do there without all of y'all and appreciate every penny.  And thanks to everyone who has asked me about this trip already, afterwards, I'll have more to say about it!

-Breezy

OCTOBER

Happy 10th month, everyone!

It being October means that I've been here for over a month now, whoa.

I'm starting my first big-ish video project this week for SOS.  It's going to be a "Day in the Life of a Summer Staffer" video for them to use for recruiting purposes.  We're going to have to do some faking though since it isn't actually summer...hmm, they should've asked me to make it this summer maybe?  Although, I wouldn't have had the time because I was busy making these and running chapel.  It should be a pretty fun project to do though, I'm looking forward to making it!

As well as planning for big video projects, I've been going to the Urban Farms Market twice a week to take photos to upload to their Facebook page, check them out in the FALL 2011 album.  I've also been attempting to convince them to learn how to use and accept Twitter, haha.

Another weekly thing that I've been doing is helping out with an after-school-program of sorts at Caritas Village, called "Peacemakers."  This has been a really great way to interact with the community and meet some kids from the neighborhood.  The ages of the kids range from 4 years old- 5th grade.  I'm excited to get to interact with these kids twice a week.  And this is definitely going to stretch me in some ways.

With The Academy, we get assigned a mentor that we're supposed to meet with once every couple of weeks.  Mine happens to be a really awesome freelance graphic artist, which is perfect since I'M freelance photo/videoing!  She also does work for some of the same organizations that I'm partnering with. Check out her website!

My boss, Philip, introduced the world to me and Maggie (another Academy intern/roomie/bathroom sharer) in the SOS Blog a couple weeks ago, read about us/look at our faces/read the part in orange at the bottom as well!

I'll leave you with our memory verse for Downline for September:


Matthew 22:37-40
And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."


A common memory verse, but it's good to revisit and it's also really encouraging to me right now.

peace y'all

MEMPHIS

LIFE UPDATE:

- I'm doing a year long internship called The Academy with the urban home repair organization, Service Over Self (SOS) in Memphis, Tennessee.

Ok, now we're all on the same page, right?

It's been almost a month since I, along with the other 3 girls doing The Academy, have moved into our house in Binghampton (the inner city neighborhood where SOS focuses). The usual intern of The Academy gets a job with a ministry or non-profit here in Memphis. However, because of my unique skill set, for my internship I'm working as an "Artist-in-residence" of sorts.

What does that look like?

Well, it means I'm going to divide most of my time between 5 different organizations:
SOS
The Binghampton Development Corporation
Caritas Village
Cornerstone Prep School
Eikon Ministries (don't worry, their website is being redone...)

With these 5 main groups, I'll be making videos, taking photographs, helping update their websites/blogs, and really any other creative assistance that I can offer.

Another element of The Academy is taking classes with Downline Ministries. We attend class on Monday nights, Wednesday mornings (5:45-7:45am!) and the occasional Friday morning. The classes focus on discipleship training, Biblical overview, and missions.

I'm still getting settled and organized with my job and my weekly schedule is going to change based on the freelancing nature of the work I'm doing...

BUT you can check out the new staff/intern headshots that I took for SOS here.

AND you can read what our boss, Philip Walkley, wrote about us on SOS's blog here.

Feel free to ask me any questions about my life here. And please pray for me and my roomies as we continue to adjust to living life in Memphis!

...

...post to come...

soon

new post!

look! I'm blogging like I promised!!

I have a new computer so I can use the internet and blog whenever I want!

Maybe this will help me fulfill the promise I made about blogging...but I still hate you, blogger! And I'm still wondering about WordPress...

Right now, I am liking my life and am hating certain school things.

But if I think about life post May for more than 60 seconds, I feel light headed and like I'm going to barf. Please pray for God to reveal plans about my life... I'll probably mention this many more times/commit posts to this subject. It's all I can think about and it seems like every conversation I've had the past few weeks SOMEHOW comes back to what I'm doing after I graduate/with my life.

So, prayers for peace and clarity and direction and anything else helpful in this time would be swell.

Happy weekend before Thanksgiving break!