So after some research I went ahead with this redesign to create more of a portfolio to give people a more clear view of the places we’ve been and work we’ve done. I’ve also broken out the He loves. Photography store into it’s own section.

It’s still all a work in progress and we’re still working out the many kinks and little things you find along the way when you redesign. But all in all we like where it’s going and we look forward to sharing more of what God is doing in Thailand and in our own lives.

Let us know what you think of the new site!

One of our resolutions for this year was that it would be a creative year. My wife & I wanted to try new ways to have fun and create together. We’ve had great opportunity so far as we have just moved to a new apartment. We have some amazing friends who paint for a living so we decided on a bright blue to give our living room some life.

The blue looked great up against all our furniture but the wall over the couch was bare. So the race was on to create something for that wall. As it was, it was like a giant blue monster threatening to devour us all.

So to Pinterest we went for all our shabby chic wall art needs! We collected ideas and I researched how to beat the crap out of wood to make it looked distressed and we were on our way. It was a lot of fun to search through together and pick out the styles/approaches we liked. We had decided a while ago that we wanted our wall art to say “Nothing Is Impossible”. This piece is the first thing you see when you walk into our apartment so we wanted it to not only be bold, but something that would remind anyone who sees it of this hope we have in God.

So here’s a few photos of our crafty adventure:

We love it! I’ve been enjoying seeing this everyday before I leave for work and then when I return. I love words (and especially the word of God) and they help to remind me of who I am in Christ.

Matthew 19:26
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Are you on Pinterest?

]]> http://www.helovesphoto.com/2012/04/our-first-attempt-at-distressed-wood-wall-art/feed/ 0 http://www.helovesphoto.com/2012/04/hey-twitter-dont-steal-my-purpose/ http://www.helovesphoto.com/2012/04/hey-twitter-dont-steal-my-purpose/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:30:45 +0000 DanielF http://www.helovesphoto.com/?p=560 I love Twitter. I think it’s fun, informational and keeps me connected to daily happenings in the world. But sometimes it just makes me feel lazy.

Sometimes work is just plain slow (I’m a graphic designer). When I have deadlines and projects to juggle, my day flies by and I feel quite accomplished at the things that I’ve completed. But what happens when the deadline passes and there’s nothing new on your plate? In comes Boredom and Lack-of-purpose walking hand in hand through your office door. You don’t even remember inviting them in but here they are, so you might as well tell them to pull up a seat and take a load off, right?

“Hey guys!”, I say. “What’s happening?”

“There’s SO much going on,” they reply, “it’s all on Twitter! Check it out!”

And in floods the endless cycle of 140-character-long nuggets of information. All GOLD (not really though).

You think, “surely this will kill my boredom”. But instead something far worse happens. You (and by ‘you’ I really mean ‘me’ but I’m hoping I’m not the only one in this) start to think that everyone out there has such interesting lives. One person posts what they ate for breakfast but because they’re using instagram it just looks SO cool. “My life doesn’t look/sound that cool,” you think. You feel like you can’t tweet anything because it’s’ just not interesting. It’s a downward spiral if you’re not careful. Boredom begets a lack of purpose and a lack of purpose begets boredom. And somewhere self pity gets thrown in the mix.

This is our culture. Busyness = Purpose.

But does it really? I could spend all day doing a million things but not really touch anyone’s life. Or change, myself. It’s a struggle not to equate the value of my existence with what I do. God does not love me more or less based on anything I do. God doesn’t care about who follows me, but that I follow Him. So why do I give myself such a hard time?

Like anyone during the slow times and feeling quite aimless, I did a word search on biblegateway.com on “purpose”. And this passage spoke to my heart, in a time of boredom and self pity:

Every moment of every day may not feel like I’m accomplishing anything worth while. But this word reminds me of the big picture. Circumstances sometimes do not reflect our God-given standing in His kingdom. But God appointed a time and place for me to be so I can rest assured knowing that it’s right. I am a word from heaven. If my heart is submitted to God, I know I’ll be doing exactly what God desires for my life. His purpose for me is bigger than my ability to “miss” it. I love that about Him.

And then when I look up I realize Boredom and Lack-of-purpose left my cubicle so silently I’m not sure when it happened.

No matter what type of day it is. You have purpose. And that’s something to tweet about.

Returning from another culture is always a struggle for me. There are certain things that bring much joy to me; like a hot shower, not stepping in water when going into the bathroom, and being able to flush toilet paper (I guess I never get used to the bathroom experience in Thailand!). But other things rush at me almost instantly when my feet hit American soil again and I must always make a conscience effort not to be swept away. The most noticeable difference between missions and daily life here is the busyness.

I don’t know how to explain it. Missions can be busy too. You often have only a couple weeks to do as much ministry as possible to maximize your time in a place. Then you add some sight-seeing on top of that and it can be, in a way, very un-restful. Yet in those times I’ve actually felt rested. I’ve felt at peace in the chaos of that place. Yet when I come home I have to catch up on emails, facebook, balance calendars and events with friends, small groups, do house work. And all of these things are not bad things, in fact, I enjoy all of those things! So I’m thinking, “what causes this stress here, as opposed to when I’m traveling?”.

FOCUS. That’s the word I hear when I stop and pray. Focus.

When I’m in Thailand I have an opportunity to daily, sometimes hourly, focus on what matters most. There is an extra filter on what enters my life. It’s a firewall that says “I’m in Thailand, serving God and loving people. So you’ll understand if I don’t respond to your email”. Things come at me but, without much thought, I know which issues to drop and which ones to attend to because I know I’m there for a purpose. And if certain things will distract me from that purpose, I let them fall aside.

Now please don’t think I’m going to start ignoring everyone because they don’t serve my “purpose” in life! It’s not like that. It’s this extra “step” I take in my day in Thailand that I don’t take when I’m home. It’s slowing down and not allowing the mundane things to pile up and steal my joy.

And lastly, it’s dispelling the lie that says “You have no purpose in the mundane things”. I still have a focus and I still have a mission. Every single day. To love God and love people. The confidence I have when I walk with God through the red-light streets of Patong, I can have when I walk through the streets of Atlanta. There is no difference except in my head. God has not changed, only I have.

I struggle with keeping this focus, but I’m reminded of it each time I return home. So I’ll keep on working on it.

So, what do you do to maintain your focus on the things that matter?

Some of our other time in Phuket allowed us to spend time with the Thai women I love and have become good friends with over the past few years. Nothing says lovin’ like sharing a meal together, so Daniel and I enjoyed a Thai staple (Isaan style – referring to the Northeast region of Thailand): BBQ chicken, sticky rice and som tum (spicy papaya salad) at least 3 times with different Thai friends. Our friend Nong was one of the girls who came to work at SHE out of the bars some time ago and now she has her own food stand making this yummy combo, so many an afternoon included walking down the street to this hangout and catching up with old friends, laughing, sweating, swatting mosquitoes and just loving each other. Such precious moments.

In between the eating and the class time, we also fit in a prayer walk to Patong (the main red light district area of Phuket), photography projects, a day of going to the land SHE is building their community development training center on (this is such a cool project – at the moment they are building a coffee shop out of earth bags and other recycled materials), some times of leading worship together for the teams, and hours of intercession. Another highlight for me were the conversations with the volunteers and missions team members staying at SHE. I love meeting new friends, and the people at SHE this time around stole my heart in a special way. I have a feeling I’ll be seeing some of them again. And did I mention eating? Seriously, between Magnum bars, the amazing fruit stands, fried bananas and iced Thai tea, I think I was putting something to eat or drink in my mouth every two hours…

So now we’re in Chiang Mai and just getting started on our newest new adventure. Can’t wait to see what will come of these next three days or so. I’m already loving the change of pace and scenery. So until next time, picture us here still sweating and swatting mosquitoes, but with new faces around us, learning new people’s stories and seeing God’s heart for another region of a country He loves so much.

Cause at the end of it all that’s what matters most. He loves.

I feel like it’s always a challenge and learning process for me everytime I return to Thailand as our roles change. The first time I was here was a typical team-mate role, going into the bars and making friends with the people there. Last time we came in June as team leaders. Helping with logistics, finances and team decisions. This time our focus is Liz’s teaching and some of the photography work I’m trying to accomplish in these few days here. I guess if my role was the same I’d be able to just put my self on default and go through the motions. But it seems like God always makes a change so that I have no choice but to rely on Him. We have some free time outside of Liz’s classroom so instead of sitting around we need to stay motivated and listen to the Lord for what He wants us to do. Sometimes that’s hard. And I feel like I’m always learning with the photography thing so I’m really stepping out, trusting that God will use my talents, even if I don’t feel up to par. Some of the downtime has been great for us to share our story with the other people passing through SHE. We’ve gotten to have some really encouraging conversations with some of other volunteers here, which we enjoy so much. It’s like we get to counsel together!

But all in all it’s been great being back here. It really is amazing to have this home away from home for us to visit. To see the place we fell in love in. To re-create our first date (we did that tonight) and to witness the many changes of this great ministry, SHE Thailand.

We’ll be here in Phuket until Monday afternoon. We’ve booked a flight to go up north to Chiang Mai, which is really exciting. Everyone always says that Phuket is not “true” Thailand but north is the genuine Thai experience. We’ll be visiting and learning about a ministry called Lighthouse in Action that does similar work as SHE Thailand though a little more of a broad demographic. Some of the work they do is with children in slums that are at high risk to be trafficked into the sex trade. That will be a new aspect of the evil of human trafficking we have yet to see in Thailand.

Thank you to everyone who’s been praying for us and for everyone that made this trip possible financially. It means so much to have faithful friends and family back home. We love you!

We are t-minus 48 hours until we leave for our next adventure to Thailand. This week has been amazing so far (and busy) as we’ve been preparing to leave. Not just the travel-rolls-of-toilet-paper-logistical preparation, but refreshing times with the Lord. For me it began Sunday at church as the worship and movement of the Holy Spirit brought me closer to God’s heart. My joy and excitement as I think about Thailand has steadily been increasing since. So as we prepare we find ourselves focused on the following prayers for our trip. Please join us!

We want to see souls saved and people transformed by the Father’s love. May we be bold and fearless as we love them. May God give us words to speak that touch their hearts. May we be bold to pray and see God’s physical healing if the circumstance arises.

We are so excited! We feel that God is doing a new thing. It seems each time we go to Thailand it’s in a new way, with a new focus/purpose. This time will be very different from the last times and we can’t to see where God takes us, what He does in us and through us.

Thank you for your prayers!

This article is worth your time. It’s 8 pages long but it chronicles a single case involving an 18 year-old girl who was sold into slavery by her aunt in Connecticut in 2003. It takes you from the beginning of her story, through her horrors, and the trial and federal/state laws that are now in place and led to her freedom. It’s educational and eye-opening.

I paused when I read this one sentence:

Family matters matter. They control where the future of our world goes. And they matter to God. Let us not just be whistle-blowers, but be willing to love others and build them up, tell them they’re worth something and instill confidence in them. It can have a profound effect on their future.

I know it’s been a while since we’ve updated our blog. I assure you it was for good reasons! Most of you received our newsletter back in the fall where we shared so much of what’s been going on with jobs and life.

The busyness continues… but in a good way! S.H.E. Thailand, the ministry in Phuket, Thailand, which we’ve been a part of these last 2 years, has just launched a Mission Training School. What’s that you ask? Well, according to the SHE website:

The leaders at S.H.E. Thailand have honored Liz by inviting her to teach a week of lectures on the topic of “Healing and counseling the abused”. We are so excited to return to the ministry in Phuket, but it in a different role this time. This is confirmation of prayer and what we both felt when we were there in June 2011. God is always doing a new thing, and it seems His purposes for us are always evolving.

So we will head back to Thailand, March 3rd – 16th. Which is not far away at all. We covet your prayers for the next 2 months as we prepare. Pray that the Lord speaks clearly to Liz what her teaching will look like. Pray that we are not overwhelmed by the details prior to leaving. Pray for creative ideas to be birthed in us to support the ministry of S.H.E. and further the Kingdom of God.  Pray that all of our financial needs are met.

If you feel you’d like to support us financially you can do so in two ways:

1. Order prints of our photography right here on our website.
2. Give a tax deductible donation in our name to Global Infusion. You can do so here.