Our Never Ending Journey Continues: Uppsala, Sweden to Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tim, Bella and I on one of our many walks through the beautiful Swedish wilderness. 

            This blog will not be much like those I have written in the past. I apologize for my lack of communication for the past few weeks. I have felt slightly unguided and don’t know what I should report back to the people back home that are praying and supporting me. I spent an extremely relaxing spring break in Sweden with my wonderful Swedish friend Izabella and my dear American friend Timothy. Bella’s family provided us with wonderful hospitality and we where able to experience a plethora of Swedish foods and lots of salty licorice that I am now addicted to.  After our month in Ethiopia our week and a half in Sweden was everything we could ask for. We then traveled to Amsterdam where we have spent the past 3 weeks.

Daffodils in the old town of Zaandijk, Netherlands.

            I have mixed feelings about our past month in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a beautiful city and it is clear that God’s heart is for this city. Our school however has quite a tough time here. After returning from our break our first week back in school was a bit misguided and due to our speaker coming a few days later in the week it was much more difficult for me to get back into the routine. The following week our speaker canceled, is actually quite amazing that this whole year this is the first that this has happened. This also made it difficult for me to be self-motivated with out a schedule or routine. Many other people where struggling with this as well. I was able to go to the Van Gogh museum though and see one of the artist’s paintings that I grew up hearing my mother talk about! J Our school is now going on 2 more months of traveling before we return to Hawaii. Many of us have been traveling for twelve months now; many people are getting discouraged about visas, finances and education. More and more students are feeling God is calling them home sooner or later. The number of students in our school will soon dwindle and this also brings discouragement among the rest of us.

  Streets of Uppsala, Sweden.

   I personally have been struggling this past month on being engaged in what we are doing. As well as my personal time with the Lord, which is affecting other areas in my life. I have now recognized that and am stepping back into that but I am lacking trust in God. I feel God has called me to this two-year program, I have now been in it for a full year and now I have one left. I have felt I am to be in this and I am exactly where God wants me but like many of my peers I am struggling with finances and the human that I am this circumstance is causing me to rethink where it is that God wants me. If you could please pray that vision is once again restored to my school and me. That God will reiterate in all of us why he has called us to be a part of this journey. That he will give us that excitement about what the end result of this school will be, to get others passionate about the change of the injustices of the world. I think we all just need encouragement to push through these last two tough months.  

Typical windmills of Holland. 

       This Saturday I travel to Paris with my friends Naphtalie and Tim. We have a week there where we will be working on a school photo assignment; I am very excited to see the Eiffel tower and eat crepes! The fourth of May we begin our month in Malaga, Spain where we will be learning about Islam and do a outreach in Morocco. Your continued prayers would be greatly appreciated. Please read my friend John Paul's Blog

if you want to know more about what is going on in Amsterdam particularly in the red light district, he is a excellent writer it is worth a glance.

Wooden Shoes . . . Netherlands. 

Typical Swedish fence found in a Forest In Uppsala.

All Our Colorful Faces: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Ethiopian student attentively listens to the ongoing debate in class.

This past month has flown by. Ethiopia is full of colors and beautiful faces. Most of our stomachs eventually adjusted to our diet of a plethora of every type of carb you can imagine. We leave sadly with tanned faces, scorched from the Ethiopian sun, each one of us carrying a different story or picture in our heart but anxious to get our hands on a Big Mac in the Cairo airport. I don’t think I solely speak for myself. Our month here started with Andy Byrd, who helped inspire us to widen our prayer life as a community and enjoy combinations of intercession and worship together. We have now started a once a week 24 hr prayer session no matter our location. Two people are assigned a slot every two hrs where they are to pray, sing and read the word.  We have done it two weeks in a row so far and we feel it is a habit we wish to obtain.  Following Andy we received Laura Fisher and her husband Dave. Laura taught us on “African worldview” being from South Africa herself she had quite a lot to say.

    Two young girls perform for us in front of the class.

It really has opened my eyes and my mind to better understand the world. When you understand a person’s worldview and what they believe and why they believe it you can understand them so much better. As in the African culture, being in Ethiopia we where able to better understand them because we knew the basics of their worldview and interact with them on their level. One of the most basic concepts found in all African cultures in some form or another is that of the concept of “Ubuntu.” This is their main concept that contains all the virtues that society attempts to achieve to maintain harmony in sharing throughout its members. Africans are extremely hospitable people, but it is built into their worldview. Often as westerners we feel when they go to great leaps and bounds for as, as in their culture, we feel guilty or that we owe them something. But they think nothing of it, it is second nature to them to invite us in for coffee or injara (Ethiopian specialty) Putting others before themselves, is one of their worldviews that should be more incorporated into ours from a biblical perspective, than I feel in most cases that if is.

                                     A young child at the orphanage found my hair bands very fascinating.

Dave Fisher directed us in our ending time in Ethiopia in the aspect of documentary photography. We where taught, or refreshed in this area for about three days and then depending on what God places on our hearts we went out to document for the final week.  Some people where led to a tribe down south as well as one up north, some to the Rastafarian community and others to the conflict of HIV/AIDS issue that is large everywhere in Africa. I primarily felt a bit unguided. Here in Addis we are staying at a pastor’s house, there is a young eleven-year-old girl living her by the name of Radit. So my friend Naphtalie and I decided to visit Radits school for a day and see the children and document an Ethiopian school. We where able to stay for several hours and view how various classes worked. The students appeared very excited to have us foreigners among them. They performed several songs and one child even showed us his Michael Jackson walk. Radit introduced us to all of her friends and the many boys that fancied her. The teachers also appeared very friendly to us.  Despite the disruption we inevitably caused in their classes with the clicking of our cameras. Documenting their learning and smiling faces was not a difficult feat. Often getting them to remain still and not making faces at the camera was another matter.

Through a minor connection we where also allotted to visit an orphanage made up of HIV positive children. The children where adorable and eager to play duck, duck, goose and any type of clapping game. I am now heading off to Stockholm, Sweden for a much needed relaxing spring break with some friends. Following that we will head back to Amsterdam to continue our worldview course.

A young smiling boy at the HIV orphanage was eager to have his photo taken and his hand held. 

The Never-ending Road We Travel Circles Back: Cairo To Addis

Natural Light: Silhouette of my friend Anna in the hostel window.   

The past few weeks have gone by quickly. Our two weeks in down town Cairo where spent practicing different ways of using light in our photography and hours in various coffee shops doing homework assignments. Our first week back in Cairo was spent with Wally Nell a returning teacher from last fall. He taught us on a number of different ways we can use different light sources in our photography. Wally is a brilliant photographer and he taught and inspired us that week. We practiced using natural light, night photography, and painting with light as well as studio work. That week was stretching and fun at the same time, it really opened up my eyes to so many more exciting ways of photography. One night we where able to view real “Sufi” dancing, a practice by Muslims that is a act of worship and the closest they come to having intimacy or a spiritual experience with God. We also spent that week finishing up homework for our biblical studies core course we have just completed.

                    Sufi dancing continues, it is amazing how long they are able to spin with out throwing up.

Last week we opened up our next course that we have just begun and that is “Humanities and Science.” We began a look at the various worldviews as an introduction. We spent the week glancing at Theism, deism, naturalism, nihilism, existentialism, monism and so on and so forth.  We have begun by reading “The Universe Next Door” by James W. Sire to begin to more widely understand these world views and to help us better understand exactly what our personal worldview is and why. I feel there is so much I have yet to learn and understand regarding these issues, it a good thing the next four months will be spent studying exactly these things.

Light Painting: Putting my camera on a tripod and opening the shutter, my friend Autumn poses for 30 secs  as I painted her with a flashlight.

We have now safely arrived in Ethiopia. Here we will be studying ‘African Worldview.’ And out last week here will be spent using our newly acquired knowledge to outreach in the community. Our School leader has come to visit us this week; it is very encouraging to have him among us for a few days since we have not seen him since early November. Along with him he has brought his friend Andrew Byrd. This week Andrew will be guiding us in a much-needed refreshment with the Lord. We are all very excited for this opportunity, after months of traveling we are all very warn out and our excited to be given a new perspective.

                 Two Sufi dancers take off their layers of skirts, after spinning for a good ten minutes.

Lately routine and community living has been wearing on us and we are all getting under each other’s skin. Prayer for our month in Ethiopia is much needed. We are all tough but our living situations are not as privileged as we have been in previous places. Understandably in Africa we have a shortage of water with twenty-five people using it and our food nutrition is not what we are used to as all. I ask that you pray for strength and unity of our school this month, as well as new revelations and deep times with the Lord. Our Internet is limited, and extremely expensive for the Internet that actually works. So I will not be able to update until the end of this month, the 26 we leave Ethiopia and begin spring break. Which I am very excited for, I will be going to Sweden to visit one of my friends. Once again your prayers are greatly appreciated.

 Sufi dancer twirling his "skirts."            

Night Photography: My attempt at a panning shot.

A Walk Through The Bible: Jerusalem to Galilee, Israel

Sunset on Tubha, Sea Of Galilee

The past two weeks we finished up our School Biblical Studies core course.  After a week with Ashley Smith, who walked us through the prophets and finished up the Old Testament. It was defiantly, once again a packed week but it was great to dig into the prophecies in relation to what is happening today in Israel. This past week we split into groups of fours and fives and traveled throughout Israel on a week of Image Mapping. We have begun this “Image Mapping” in the past few weeks that is recording the actual historical sites in relation to various verses in the bible. So this past week this was our assignment to go as many historical sites as we could, using our photography to walk through the bible visually.

              Bet' Shan . . . Where Saul and his sons where hung on the city walls after their death. 2 Samuel 31:8-10

            Our first three days we rented a car and headed up to the beautiful area of Galilee. After taking several wrong turns, the two-hour drive actually ended up taking us 7 hrs with a short stop at McDonalds. We stopped at the Arbel cliffs where historically many Jews died, jumping off the cliffs for fear of the Romans.  We settled in a quaint hostel in Nazareth. The next day we visited the Nazareth Village. Which is a reenactment of biblical times, after visiting it and dressing up in biblical clothes (Which I personally wasn’t a fan of), we volunteered with digging and cleaning.

Mt. Tabor  . . . Deborah commands army, Judges 4:14

            The next day we traveled all around the Sea of Galilee. Unfortunately it was raining quite a bit that day. But in the random spurts when it wasn’t raining we ran out of the car to document our surroundings. It was actually a really fun day seeing a place where Jesus spent much of his time and ministry. We traveled around the Sea of Galilee, up to the Mt. Of Beatitudes, and Capernaum.  We where able to view sunset on Tubha, this place was where Jesus called the disciples to be fishers of men. At this section of the Sea, there is a place where another stream flows into it and there are lots of minerals and hundreds of fish just gather in this certain place and never leave. The story makes much more sense now when Peter’ net became so full of fish.  (Luke 5:1-11)

Dead Sea at sunset. Near En Gedi where David hid from Saul. 1 Samuel 24:1

           

  After staying one more night in Nazareth we headed back to Jerusalem, then off to the Dead Sea. Here we spent the day reading some of the gospel of Mathew and taking photos where David spent a lot of time when he was hiding from Saul at En Gedi. We had a lot of fun taking sunset photos here as well. The last day of our travel week we visited the Dome Of The Rock where the Temple once stood. We visited with a prayer group of local believers that visit there once a week to pray. Overall the week was a good time getting out and seeing Israel where many parts of the bible took place.

            Dome Of The Rock. Now Muslim holy place, but also the place where Solomon built the temple. 1 Kings 6

We are now back in Cairo, Egypt. We will be here for about twelve days before heading off to Ethiopia. This week we are studying photography, and the different uses of light. We have a lot of projects but our teacher Wally Nell is really great and I am excited to learn a lot this week. This past week I accidentally took my hard drive with my laundry to the laundry matt  . . . an hour after I dropped it off I realized what I had done. When I ran back to get it they had already placed my hard drive in the washing machine for five minutes! I though I had lost all my photos, but It is now working! So that is a sure answer to prayer. But during our week of travel one of our teams got their car broken into and many items where stolen including two laptops and two cameras among other things.  Please pray for God’s provision of these items for my friends because in a photography school these are very difficult things to lose.  Thank you for your continued prayer! 

This Is History: Jerusalem, Israel

Graffiti on the dividing wall, Palestine and Israel.

These past few weeks have been spent in Jerusalem. Our hostel is right outside old city Jerusalem, right near the Damascus gate. Our first week here our teaching was on “The Heart Of An Artist.” Our teacher Mauricio stretched us incredibly with daily photography assignments that helped us see beyond what we would normally perceive going out and taking photos. Such as going out and taking 5 photos that show God’s love, believe it or not these assignments where very difficult. But it really helped me to have more direction and purpose to the photos that I take. This past week we went back to the bible. We covered Joshua to 2 Kings, as well as the Wisdom books, Job to Song of Songs. A lot of material was covered that is difficult to discern the overall things I have learned in this pact week of bible. I have been able to pick out one overall thing I feel God has been pressing on my heart to learn, and that is patience.

Folded prayers at the foot of the 'Western Wall.'

West Bank, view of wall from the road.

In 1 Samuel 13 there is a story of Saul as a young king, here Saul gets tired of waiting on God and takes things in his own hands. Before going to war against the Philistines Samuel, the prophet, gives him the word of God not to go into the battle until Samuel himself comes to give up offering to God. “He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter.” So Saul, afraid of losing his men and anxious to go into battle just gives up the offerings to God himself. Immediately after this, Samuel shows up. “You acted foolishly,” Samuel said “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.” So as a result of his disobedience to God, his bloodline would not remain in the line of kings. This story really spoke to me in a sense that there are often things I really desire or want to reach out for but God is asking me to wait. God is asking me to have patience, and trust him that his timing is perfect. If Saul would of waited just a little longer then Samuel would have showed up and the history of the Kings of Israel may have looked very different. So I am learning to wait patiently and trust in God’s perfect timing.



There is a lot of history here in Israel, for more than I am fully able to grasp. I was able to visit the Dead Sea, two places where Jesus possible lay among other things. This past weekend I was able to travel over to west bank the Palestine portion. To see the wall that divides the country between Palestinians and Israelis. My knowledge of the whole conflict is not as informed as it should be, but I know God has a heart for both peoples. This next week we will be digging into the prophets, which will be exciting. It will be our remainder week in Jerusalem. The following week we will be traveling throughout Israel and then returning to Egypt, it is not quite all clear what that week will look like. Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated.

More graffiti on dividing wall.

Women praying at 'Wailing Wall.'

A Week Of Travel: Cairo to Dahab, Dahab to Petra, Petra to Jerusalem

Doors in "City Of The Dead."

Much has happened in the past two weeks, I will try to condense it the best that I can. Our last week in Egypt we spent studying the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. A week was not nearly enough time to get the depths of it, but it was a good week of looking at potential boring books with a fresh perspective. Last Saturday before we left Cairo, I was able to visit City Of The Dead which consists of Ancient tombs that people live in. We where not able to meet as many people as we hoped but it was quite a site to see a rather large city full of these old tombs. Following the study of the Pentateuch, this past week we have traveled through parts of the Middle East, visiting the places where the Israelites themselves traveled from Mt. Sinai, the middle of the desert, to Mt. Nebo and ending in the holy land of Jerusalem, Israel.

Mt. Sinai at sunrise.

Traveling to Northern Egypt, we spent a night in the coastal town of Dahab getting a good nights rest. The next night we all bundled up in . . . MANY layers and drove two hrs to the bottom of Mt. Sinai. Being a Alaskan you would think I would be able to handle a little cold. But as we began to trek up the mountain, as exciting as it was the cold was miserable. In these past months of traveling I of course have stayed in great shape . . . after slowing down my team several times hiking in the cold, I quickly opted for a camel ride up most of the way. After a short camel ride and 750 steps later we had arrived at the top at 4 in the morning, two and a half hours of death cold later we awakened to the sun rising over the mountains.

In light of the cold I did not have time to reflect on the reality of the significance of where we where that morning, and barely the motivation to take photos. God met Moses on that very mountain, that is where he received the Ten Commandments for the people, the very commandments that we live by today. After reading the book of Exodus and then hiking up Mt. Sinai, the book became so much more alive to me. I can picture so much more vividly how the Israelites felt in the cold as they camped at the bottom of the mountain, awaiting to hear God speak to them through the thick cloud atop the mountain.

“Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered in smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.” Exodus 19:17-19

Overlooking on Mt. Nebo towards Israel.

Following our Mt. Sinai adventure we traveled into the desert on camels and spent the night under the stars at a Bedouin camp, it was a very bonding experience as a team all huddled under the stars. Leaving Egypt we traveled onto Jordon where we visited Mt. Nebo. By day thankfully, but it was still quite chilly, with the wind blowing we where able to look out and barely make out Israel in the distance. The same place where Moses looked out on the promise land before he died.

Another view from Mt. Nebo.

“Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land . . . . . Then the Lord said to him “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” Deuteronomy 34:1-4

Rock walls of historical Petra.

Sadly we only spent two days in Jordan, the morning we left though I was able to visit historical Petra and see the old treasury and tombs. And finally after a week of lugging out stuff everywhere we have arrived in Jerusalem, Israel. Here we will remain for 3 weeks until we return to Egypt, it will be good to be settled down for a while. This week we are having a teaching on “The heart of an artist.” Looking at how God can use our passions for him. You can keep in prayer sicknesses as some people are coming down with colds; I am hoping to not be one of them. As well as ministry opportunities here in Jerusalem. Thank you for your continual emails and prayers they are very encouraging.

Colorful door in "City Of The Dead."

Back to the World : Cairo, Egypt

Camels herded together at the Camel Market.

            When I was home I was made aware in an even bigger way of how many of you are behind me, and daily lifting me up in your prayers.  This was a wonderful realization, and I thoroughly enjoyed sharing with you what God is doing because of your support for me. I feel that it is unfair of me to neglect in constantly sharing with you what I am experiencing since you are just as much a part of this as I am.  So please forgive me for my previous lack of communication, I am going to try to do much better this year.

            I arrived in Cairo, Egypt on the second of January after a very restful time home. I was also very excited to get back to my other home that is my school family. The first few days the airlines lost my bag, but I heard many of you where praying and 2 days after my arrival at 3 am my friend John Paul was awakened to pounding on the door . . . and the arrival of my bag! We have spent the past few days adjusting to the culture and the new time zone. Friday morning we where able to go to the camel market, it was very interesting to see. It was the beginning to see a large part of the culture here in Egypt. For the most part the people where very friendly. My friend Morgan and I where invited in for tea, and we where both offered five camels for a hand in marriage . . . . We now pretend we have doting husbands awaiting us at home.

            The next day we all piled into two vans and headed off to see the pyramids and Garbage city. The pyramids where interesting enough, considering they where built thousands and thousands of years ago. But what I really enjoyed was Garbage city. This large area of Cairo, is where all the garbage of the city is taken and sorted. The streets are lined with bags and bags of garbage. But the people are very proud of what they do. At first I was not excited at the prospect of visiting this place because the smell is not pleasant. But as I walked around with my friend Ellie, my heart felt warmed to these people. Not long after we had walked we where quickly invited into a house of two young women and their children. Their smiling faces as the talked to us excitedly in Arabic, as if we may understand.

    Grandmother, baking bread in a small house in Garbage City.

As they ushered us into their house there was a lady making bread in the stove, but they quickly led me into the adjoining room where there was a young girl on the bed with a broken leg. We were given permission to pray for the healing of this young girl Amira. Although with the language barrier we where not quite sure they fully understood what we where doing. But shortly after we prayed, they took out these large posters of paintings of Jesus and marry, and where pointing and trying to explain to us.

Garbage city is largely made up of Coptic Christians. A religion I don’t fully understand, but I think it is a lot like the orthodox religion. I do not know what their full understanding of Jesus is, but I think they did understand our prayers. After leaving this small flat in Garbage city with giant pieces of bread, I felt extremely blessed by their hospitality and a love for the people of this city. I hope to have a opportunity to return to this city and revisit that family.

Young Christina saying goodbye in Garbage City. 

Tomorrow we begin school, a week on the Pentateuch. The last of our school is finally arriving and we are ready to hit our studies again. You can continue to pray for the finances, as several members of our school are in great need. As well as God will have divine appointments with every person we come across. I am very excited to see what will happen this month.