The Lord Provides!

For the last couple years, I've been pretty frustrated with my SLOW computer. My sweet little iMac G4 was top of the line when I bought it back in 2002, but now, it can't even handle the software I use the most.

Last Spring, I'd been seriously praying for 6 months for a lap top that could handle my work load, and make me a little more mobile. One night at Genesis, my pastor/brother-in-law was talking about meeting each other's needs and taking care of one another. He opened the floor up to anyone who wanted to share a need. I spoke up and said "I need a laptop!" From behind me I heard a guy ask, "Mac or PC?" I, of course, replied "MAC!" After service that same guy came up to me and told me that he had a Mac laptop that he rarely used and that I could have it if I wanted it. Um, YEAH! So, all season long last year, I worked on my wonderful new(ish) laptop and things went great. Except, the laptop was also quite slow for editing in Photoshop...


So, I have continued to pray for a NEW computer &/or the money to buy one so that this season I can be more productive and waste less time waiting on my machine. Well, wouldn't you know it? The LORD has provided!! Here's what happened...

I was hanging out at my sister's house one night. My brother-in-law came home and my sister was freaking out saying "give it to her, give it to her!!" I was wondering what the heck was going on, but didn't ask. Eventually, he came over and handed me a gift card to the Apple Store saying "someone gave me this to give to you." I opened it, and there was no amount written inside, so I just said "thanks, that's cool!" My sister freaked out again and made him write the amount down for me (apparently I wasn't freaking out enough :). So, he comes back over and hands me the card and I open it to find that the gift certificate was worth $4500.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shut up!! I, of course, start crying and freaking out along with my sister and we're all screaming and freaking out. I have no idea who gave me this gift - but I believe that in the end it was God providing for me in a powerful way.


But wait! It gets BETTER! I went out to dinner that night with some friends and was sharing the amazing news with them. One of my tech-junkie friends was grilling me on the specs of the computer I was going to get. I had been trying to decide between a really suped-up iMac, or a basic Mac Pro with room to grow. His big concern was the size of the monitor I was going to get. I had calculated that I could afford a 23" monitor with the gift card. He thought I was insane if I didn't get the 30". I informed him that those cost $900 MORE than the other and that it would push me over the limit on my gift card. He nonchallantly says "well, then why don't I pay for the difference so you can get the 30" - you really should get the 30" it will just be so much better." Shut UP! And before any of you get the wrong idea, this is just a FRIEND - there's no interest on either side. This is just a friend who could afford to spend $900 to help another friend become more productive in her business. But, it's pretty freakin crazy!

He went with me to the Apple Store the next day and we picked out my new Mac Pro with a 30" monitor, and bought it online. It arrived just a couple weeks ago and it is AWESOME! It's so incredibly fast and the screen is just HUGE! I LOVE IT!!!




I am so thankful to whoever it is who gave me this incredible gift, and to my friend who made it even more incredible, and to God for making it all happen and for giving me some encouragement in this dreary season!!!

May God bless each of you in ways you would never imagine!!

L-O-V-E

Ahhh, Valentine's Day! A day to think about LOVE. The ones you love, the ones who love you. My Valentines are my niece and 2 nephews. We are in love :)

But what IS love, really? Is it an emotion? A state of being?

We hear it at every wedding we go to (or every wedding we shoot)... 1 Corinthians 13, the LOVE chapter. But, what if we stop on this day of love to really think about what it means?

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If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would I be?

And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody.

If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.

Love is patient
and kind.

Love is not jealous
or boastful
or proud
or rude.

Love does not demand its own way.

Love is not irritable,
and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.

It is never glad about injustice
but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

Love never gives up,
never loses faith,
is always hopeful,
and endures through every circumstance.

Love will last forever,
but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will all disappear.

There are three things that will endure-
faith,
hope,
and love-

and the greatest of these is love.

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Just think about that as you spend the rest of this day telling people you love them - and then spend the rest of your life REALLY LOVING THEM!

Shumba Shaba

After my frightening encounter with the "cops" in Bulawayo, we drove out to the Matopos to a place called Shumba Shaba for a leadership summit with some of the local leaders working with Forgotten Voices. For Adam and I, it was a bit of a break from "work" and a chance to relax in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Check it out...

A woman walking through the bush on the drive through the Matopos.


Ryan walking up the ridge at Shumba Shaba. The landscape was created from massive volcanic activity like a billion years ago or something. The landscape is like nothing I've ever seen before.


Sunset on our first night at Shumba Shaba


Our first morning, Adam & I both woke up at dawn to catch the sunrise. Here's Adam, filming me taking a picture of him with the sunrise behind


The early morning light on the valley


Sunrise from my balcony


This is my AMAZING cabin. The cabins were all built into the rock, and most of us had these amazing views (though mine was admittedly one of the best :) from walls made entirely of glass. Part of the floor in my cabin was the rock below, as was part of my wall. It was really lovely. Too bad I'm a scaredy-cat and couldn't sleep in there by myself... It was just TOO many windows and one too many field mice popping up out of the rocks in my bathroom to steal a granola bar. I made a mad dash to the main cabin to bunk with the guys. They thought I was nuts, but were nice enough not to make too much fun of me :)


A fence in the early light


One of the rescued horses on the property. They wander freely all over the place and are just beautiful.


One of the cabins from below


A cool rock


The tree canopy


More of the crazy volcanic landscape. These giant boulders are scattered randomly all over the place - sometimes stacked one on top of the other like God was building a tower of blocks or something.


The valley on the other side of the peak


The leaders praying for the nation, and for rain on the side of Shumba Shaba


Obert, one of the leaders at the Mtshabezi AIDS Project


Gordin, another leader at Mtshabezi


Pastor James from The Rock Church


The BEAUTIFUL sunset that evening


The horses in the valley below as the sun set


And then there's me - in the side mirror of our van :)

Zimbabwe - A run-in with the "cops"

Ah! I almost forgot the best story of them all!! The day after we visited The Rock, we ran some errands before heading out of Bulawayo for the week - and I got into a bit of trouble.

Adam and I went into town to buy a rain coat for the Bishop's daughter, who's in secondary school near where we were heading. Seems like a simple thing, right? Not in Zimbabwe...

Adam & I found the store, and when we got there, there was a huge crowd queued up out front. This is the whole problem with Zimbabwe right now - there's never anything on the shelves and when they get something in stock everyone lines up to wait for it. Luckily, we got there just as the doors were opening and so we pressed into the store with the rest of the crowd. As a good documentary photographer, I was taking pictures. Granted, I know that's illegal there, but I thought if I held my camera on top of my bag, and shot without looking, maybe I could get some shots without drawing attention to myself. Sounds like a great plan, right? Well, I was wrong.

We were in line waiting to buy the coat, and a guy came over telling me he was a policeman. (He wasn't wearing a uniform or anything, but he could have been part of the CIO). He told me that I can't take pictures in the shop. I apologized and said I would put it away, no problem. Acted as innocent as I could, smiled real big, and kept saying that I just had it out and didn't realize that'd be a problem. So, I shoved it back in my shootsac and acted like it was no big deal and he walked away. But as we're buying the coat, I see this guy telling everyone he passes that I have a camera. So, I'm trying not to freak out, and praying that this will be the end of it.

We go outside and start walking towards the car when this guy comes up with another "cop" in plain clothes. They tell me that I'm not allowed to take pictures. I say, I didn't realize and I've put my camera away and that I don't have any pictures (not entirely true, but I was freaking out and afraid that I could be taken to jail and start an international incident or something - not exaggerating). I showed the guy photos from the sunset the night before trying to show him that there's nothing bad on the card. I even tried showing them a photo of the store I took outside and deleting it in front of them, in hopes that that would pacify the situation. The guy just yelled at me and said that just because I delete the evidence doesn't mean I didn't commit the crime! They said that maybe we should just go down to the police station (eeek!) and I asked (as respectfully as possible) if they had some sort of badge and could identify themselves as officers. They acted offended and said "let's just go to the central station." So, I tried desperately to call Ryan at TCZ while Adam tried to rationalize with these guys.

I couldn't get through to the seminary, and they just kept harassing us. My friend Adam was trying to be very diplomatic and helpful, but basically made me freak out worse. As I'm trying to text Ryan, I hear Adam ask the guys to call over the police officer in uniform on the other side of the road. What the crap?!?! I think he thought that if these guys weren't cops, that that would scare them off. Well, it didn't! So, in a swift move, I formatted my memory card and got rid of all the pictures (in the end that wasn't necessary, but better safe than arrested in Zimbabwe!). The real cop comes over and talks to the guys in Ndbele and then the guys decide that we should drive them to the police station. They actually want to get in our car! I'm freaking out! Adam is trying to talk to them about "compensating them for their time" dealing with us. Meanwhile, we've been there for 30 minutes and are drawing a crowd. So, the guys get in the car, we drive around the corner and Adam starts trying to bribe them. That takes so long that 2 real cops come stand by the car - which freaks out the fake cops and we drive around another corner. Adam tries to bribe them with the equivalent of $3 US - they're offended and let us know that the bribe will be split with the real cop too so it needs to be more. So, then Adam tries the 3,000,000 Zim plus American cash. Instead of using a larger bill, he tries a ONE DOLLAR BILL! By that point I was almost more angry with my friend than these guys. ONE DOLLAR?????? Either bribe them or flatly refuse and drive away, but geez! They were, of course, offended again.

In the end, we got away with giving them 7,000,000 Zim dollars ($7 US) and a couple bags of chips.

It was the strangest experience of my life. And I thank God that they weren't actually police or CIO, and that we made it out with our freedom in tact, if not our dignity and definitely not the photos...

Very cool video

I found this video at my new friend Jamie's blog the other day. It's from a ministry called Watoto in Uganda that I've heard a lot about. It's very cool!

Zimbabwe - A Day at The Rock Church

And now, back to our previously scheduled programming... Stories from Zimbabwe!!

My first Sunday in Zim, we went to The Rock Church outside Bulawayo near where we were staying. The Rock shares a building with many other groups in the community - it serves as a mosque, temple, church, meeting hall, etc. throughout the week.

A little girl listening intently to the message.

Some of the girls after the worship service.


After worshipping at The Rock, Pastor James took us around the community to meet some of the families that the church supports with the help of Forgotten Voices. This woman takes care of her 2 grandchildren, who's parents have died.


this is the only "chair" in her house


This is her granddaughter. She was a bit shy, and couldn't stop laughing at us crazy white people with our big cameras


This is her grandson. He can't go to school because he can't walk. So, he sits here all day. If you click on the image, you can look closely to see how damaged the skin on his knees is from crawling around on the dirt. He was incredibly sweet even though this picture makes him look like he's got quite a bit of attitude!

The kids in front of their home


A neighbor


The next woman we visited was yet another Gogo taking care of her grandchildren.


She thought I was HILARIOUS and could not stop joking with me, laughing at me, posing for me, and just generally being her spunky ol' self. I love her!!

This is her grandson. I think it's pretty hilarious that the most popular TV show in Zimbabwe is big-time Wrestling. Everywhere we went, kids were talking about it, wearing t-shirts, had posters on their walls, or were watching it. How random is that??


He's a handsome kid, huh?


Here the ladies busted out singing and dancing for us


they couldn't do it too long before they started laughing uncontrolably!


After visiting some families, we went to see The State House - otherwise known as Pastor James' new home which will be used as a refuge, meeting place, and temporary home for people in the church. Pastor James has been building this house all by himself - even making his own bricks until Forgotten Voices decided to chip in and pay for the construction and cement blocks. James is very proud of his new home, and can't wait to open it up to the orphans in the community who need a home. He is literally, the nicest man I've ever met - and I am blessed to know him.

The State House under construction

Pastor James (center) with 2 other men from The Rock.

A neighbor who came to visit

The view from The State House


After all of that visiting, we were pretty tired, so we went back to the King's home to rest. Some of us still had plenty of energy to play on the trampoline...

That afternoon, Warren wanted to take us for a drive to see the sunset from the highest point in the area, on his friend's farm. Well, we got a late start, and ended up seeing the sunset from the road. But, it was still beautiful...


That's it for our day at The Rock Church! I've got lots more stories to share, so stay tuned...