Home

I just got back to Texas, from the land of corn. This weekend I plan on catching up on the 2 days of school I missed.

My family

Photo shoot for mi amigos Tom and Britt:

When In Mexico

In the last 2 weeks I have traveled thousands of miles, met hundreds of new people, eaten too many tacos, and too many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches :). I've built a house, painted 4 or 5 others of them, picked up trash, translated spanish somehow, and carried countless little mexican's on my shoulders. I've given away toys, broken up fights and prayed with scores of kids to accept Jesus. I've climbed a small mountain, fallen on a small cactus, injured myself on a merry-go-round and made coffee using paper towels as filters. My body is burnt with a sweet farmers tan, my beard is long and 2 showers later I still can't seem to get all of the dirt off of my body.

37 teenagers have opened my eyes and refreshed my spirit. The mission trip was similar to a christian camp on steroids. Maybe in an office you forget that it is all real; that there are really teenagers who have real problems. Buzz words like "Generation" and "War" seem to make sense when put into the christian perspective. I am personally not fans of the comparison. Maybe it seems like hype. But standing behind a crowd of 750 teenagers, worshiping God as best as they understood. Mountains all around. iPods and internet are turned off. Friends and parents are nowhere to be found, only the night sky, a crowd of piers and worship band up front. I now see how the Holy Spirit was working in their hearts, opening their eyes to become closer to God. I realize how nothing but the power of God is able to save us. The idols of the world work hard for the attention and affection of our society, yes even "fight" for it. Teens are dependant on them. But God can save us.

The process of transformation is not a quick one. They want it to be fast. They feel God's "touch" one night in worship or one day on ministry. They feel humbled at the sight of poverty. They feel loved with the warm fellowship of a team of other teens who are learning to love God and each other. They feel loved by adults and mentors spending time with them, listening to what they have to say, telling them they are special. They may think they are fixed. They may get their hopes up. Transformation takes time. We are trying to reform teenagers. I am trying to be reformed, allowing my will to bend. Allowing to acknowledge that my understanding of life, of the Bible, of God, need to be developed, led by God. No approach works with God except complete surrender, and it seems it is impossible to do even this without his help.

I heard this song that seemed to define my experience on this trip. I'm typically leery of highly romanticized worship songs - this one kind of falls in that category - but I felt so blessed by the chorus:

He is jealous for me
love's like a hurricane
I am a tree
bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy
when all of the sudden i am unaware
of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
i realize just how beautiful you are
and how great your affections are for me

Oh, how he loves us, Oh,
Oh, how he loves us,
How he loves us, Oh

He loves us,
Oh How he loves us
Oh How he loves us
Oh How he loves us

He loves us,
Oh How he loves us
Oh How he loves us
Oh How he loves us

There is so much I don't understand about God. When I think about how he loves us, I'm humbled. I feel compelled to lay down my life. I understand how to do it. Where sometimes a preacher may say "Die to your self" or "Kill your flesh" or some other typical saying. I often hear the preacher's words and wonder if they are designed to somehow manipulate me into feeling bad so that I will surrender to God. But when I think of how God loves us, it's not that I understand why or what it even means, only that I owe everything to him. I want to worship him and lay everything down.

I don't want to pack

Yeah, tonight feels like my first bit of free time for a while. You know when you're really busy, you think about all of the other things you should be doing, that being busy is keeping you from doing, like packing for Mexico, or registering for college, or mailing photo cd's to your customers.

I think I will still pack tonight, but it may still be a bit.

I just got back from DC. It was fun, I enjoy walking around and riding the metro. I guess I'm still amazed that for such a cheap price you can go anywhere you want in such a big city. On the metro last week I met this family from Sweeden. It was fun talking to them / helping them practice their english. The dad said it was their 3rd family vacation to the US, but he thought it would be their last since his teens were older. They were standing next to us. They looked somewhat excited to be in our capital, and somewhat not excited to be hanging out with their parents :).

It was fun hanging out with all of the teenagers. It remindes me of the many struggles teens go through. It also reminds me of a desire to minister to and help teens. I can say that I'm becoming more excited about this aspect of being a team leader in baja, mexico next week.

Here are a few shots from my DC adventure:

(typical TM pose above)

It has been an ongoing debate in my thoughts whether or not to bring my camera to mexico. I have decided not to due to not having enough time to really take any pictures. Hopefully I won't regret it.

Once back from mexico, its back to school. 3 more semesters left as Amanda put it. That sounds good, 3 semesters, better than a year and a half.

I really enjoy taking pictures, I do weddings for this time in my life. One day, who knows. Photography seems to mean more and more to me. A picture is so much more than words. I want to be great. Maybe I'm bugged because I only work at it as if I just want to be good. But I don't think I mind learning over a long period of time, it is just difficult to dedicate a lot to it with college and work and such. I see some photogaphy that is so good and I get discouraged. But, I don't really think my ambition is to be better than any certian guy completely, rather to be able to acomplish beauty in a flat, square, picture.

I did update my site and created new packages. www.aowphoto.com

f

I'm done with school for the semester.

per your request, pics of my life

pic of some kid in the park

... and here are some pics from the "Strother" family photo shoot.

Pay me to take your pictures - www.aowphoto.com

....

JHall - I know you're in America - Call me!

....

This weekend - Sean and Breanna's wedding!

Currently Listening Faithful Anchor By Unwed Sailor see related

How many times have you read the blog post that starts off by saying "I should be doing... but instead i'm writing on this blog." Well, I'm tired of doing stupid homework. Tonight I'm supposed to be building a web page for homework in a program that hasn't been updated for 5 years and was even discontinued! You may think if things are easier in life, then they are more likely to get done, but this is often not true. I learn the least and procrastinate the most in subjects that I'm naturally best at, or subjects that are easy. If it bores us, we put it off (I guess this is where discipline/determination come in huh?) People who are bored with their life typically do not perform well, however when we are faced with a challenge is when we tend to do the best. (or fail the worst)

I went to an Art Show tonight. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peaches come in a can,
They were put there by a man,

If you like dilbert, check out the new website www.dilbert.com they have animation

Currently Listening Ghosts By Sleeping at Last see related