DPP 2015

It's that time again! I think that this is my 7th year participating in the December Photo Project. The challenge of the DPP is to take a photo a day for the first 25 days of December. I love it and I look forward to it. Taking a photo a day forces me to look at the world around me with extra care, to take time and notice both the details AND the big picture. It's a great archive of life. And we all have a camera handy these days. You can do it too! Join me? Sign up at View from the Prairie Box.

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I couldn't pass that flaming bush one more time without stopping for a photo. Not one more time. Never mind that an old toothless man was standing in the front yard across the street, staring at the lady getting out of the big tan van with a camera in her hands. Never mind that the bush is on the corner of busy street and a school zone no less, so everyone was driving by 20 mph while staring at the photographer. Never mind that the pit bull appeared to be tethered but one couldn't be exactly sure how long that rope would lead. Never mind.
I waved at the kind man, and shouted out, "beautiful, isn't it?!"
I ignored the traffic.
I clucked kindly at the pit bull, and decided I had my shot once he started to stir,
and growl,
and then bark.
Never mind.

dpp 15 or 349/365

but how could we be in San Antonio and NOT take a photo of the Alamo?
we navigated the one-ways and waited on pedestrians and dodged police cars and trailed trolley buses and pulled over just long enough to get one shot.
(ignoring the tourists who might have thought we were snapping them, cropping out the trash can in the way...)

LOVE the inspiration the December Photo Project provides!

Laredo 2013

Laredo 2013

My family has been going to Laredo to serve at Iglesia La Vid for 7 years now. In the first years, we went as members of short-term mission teams from our church. Now we help to lead teams from other churches. I wouldn't miss it.

No where else I know is like Laredo. When you are in Laredo, have no doubt- you are definitely in Texas, though you can stand on the edge of the Rio Grande river and wave at the Mexicans fishing on the other side. But just as in other places in the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo is distinctly different from San Antonio and other towns north. You hear Spanish everywhere, and most likely, it will be spoken to you. The HEB grocery store sells aquas frescas and elote and has a carniceria and tortilleria. It is not hard to find a good plate of enchiladas or a fresh raspa, but there are a couple of Starbucks, too. You absolutely cannot drive through Laredo without encountering semi-trucks, everywhere. Laredo is the largest land port in the United States. Every day more than 5000 trucks and "a billion dollars worth of goods move across the border between Mexico and the United States."

The summer sun is HOT in Laredo. It radiates off the pavement and soaks right through the soles of your shoes. But the air conditioning in local stores sometimes makes the tip of my finger numb. Clouds hang in the skies over Laredo like something you would see in the movies, like the advertisements for the movie Up. Bright green low hanging sagebrush and mesquite trees dot the otherwise brown landscape. Evidences of religion are everywhere in Laredo, both the traditional icons of Catholicism and the crazy inexplicable evidences of syncretism, such as when we saw decals for both the Christian Ichthys fish and Santa Muerta holding the Mexican flag on the back of a pick-up truck. Laredo can seem to be a place of contradictions.

Our primary role while in Laredo is to help out at Iglesia La Vid. In the beginning, we helped to construct their sanctuary. Now we worship in that place. In the last few years, we have come aside the congregation to serve in their annual Vacation Bible School activities. Campo Verano at La Vid is in Spanish; the majority of the kids come from families who speak Spanish in the home. But truly, most of the kids, especially once they are school-aged, speak English as well. This year the theme was Puro Corazon and centered around the life of Old Testament shepherd and king, David. That also gave all the teachers tremendous opportunity to talk about our Good Shepherd and King, Jesus. I took a BUNCH of photos of the kids at VBS, but I've decided not to post them publicly this year. You'll have to imagine the cuteness!

After mornings spent in VBS, our team divided up each afternoon. We helped to assist in a project to renovate bathrooms at the church and do some unfinished painting. And we went out into the community. For the third year we spent a couple of evenings feeding the homeless and impoverished on the streets of Laredo. We spent a couple of afternoons at Bethany House, preparing meals for the "the homeless, indigent, elderly, veterans, disabled, and residents of the emergency shelter complex" in  downtown Laredo. We sorted and folded and hung and organized clothes at the Bethany House Vintage Clothing Store. 

As is always true, I am certain that we received more blessing than any one we served. Being in Laredo is familiar, and yet, forces me to look at the world around me with fresh eyes- more pointedly, with our Savior's eyes. I'm thankful for the church, for Kingdom work, for the fellowship of believers, and for the Gospel of grace. I'm thankful for Pastor Carlos and his wife Andrea and our brothers and sisters at Iglesia La Vid and to the great team from Christ Church Katy and for our teammates, Dan and Becky Young. It was a really good week.

The album includes scenes from in and around Laredo. It's just a glimpse. Even better, come experience Laredo, or the other places where we have opportunity to serve and work and share the Good News of Christ, with us!

Charleston-Savannah Album

I love to go to new places. And I love to take photos of those new sights. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia for a few days and pull out the camera again. I confess, I've been a bit of a lazy photographer lately, and only using the phone some days. It was great to look through the view finder and see the world with the eye of the lens for a few days again. 

See some of my favorite shots from the recent trip at the Charleston-Savannah web album here. 

Reynosa- places

Streets of Laredo- summer 2012

We all notice the guys who stand at the highway off-ramp, with the "Please Help" sign. We ignore them and look away, or maybe give them a little smile and nod, but really, we don't know what to do. It's easy to miss many of the people on the streets, until you start looking. One night last week our job was to look. For the second year, we helped to distribute food to the homeless and indigent of Laredo, Texas.

We went out with Randy Leyendecker, giving meals and water or a soda, offering new and clean t-shirts to folks on the street. We met all kinds of people. There were guys that work at a tire shop, who live outside out back. There were people who live under the highway overpass, laundry hanging on fences. There was a lady who hopped several lanes of evening traffic to get to our bus.

There were characters- the 88 year old man who insisted on lying down and touching his feet over his back for us. There was a sweet old lady who wanted to give me a dollar for taking her picture. (we refused, of course!) There was a man in a hurry to get somewhere, but who took the meal with a smile and kept on. There was the man who buttoned up his shirt and with a sparkle in his eye, put on his best pose for the camera.

And there were people hurting. There was the group of young men, full of bravado and swagger. But individually, two came back to the bus, crying, asking for prayer. They told us of being tired of life on the street, tired of the pull of addiction. One man didn't want his picture taken. "Not today," he told me, "I'm not feeling good."

I met a mom and adult son, whose house recently was destroyed in an electrical fire. They are sleeping in their car in the driveway. I asked the son, "do you know Jesus?" "No, I don't know that man," he told me. "Ahh, but he knows you," I reminded him.
He asked why I took pictures, refusing to have his own taken.

That's a good question.
I take the pictures because every single one of those faces has a story.
I take the pictures because we need to be reminded. It's easy for us to drive by and think "Man that guy has problems" and figure he doesn't really want to change and judge how pathetic is that life under the bridge.
And yet, every single one of those people was created in the image of God.

Ann Voskamp recently wrote, "Who isn’t nothing but a skeleton in the valley of the dry bones — unless they actually pull some skin onto the Word and let suffering make your valleys into sheltered places to light a match and see the face of God."

Randy started offering a meal to the homeless in Laredo because his wife told him a story. She had been homeless as a child, living on the streets. She couldn't remember anyone being nice to her. That story broke Randy's heart. "We'll go be nice to people," he told her. He is. And I'm thankful we had the opportunity to join him again this year.

Once you start looking, you might see similar faces in your own community. We know that throughout the entire world, there is suffering and hurting. The reality of living in this fallen world takes my breath away. Yet, I believe that one person beginning to act in just small ways can make a difference, can be the hands and feet and face of Christ. Voskamp gives some ideas in this article- 10 Real Ways You Could Really Be The Change In The World.

For a full gallery of the faces we met that night in Laredo, go to the web album Streets of Laredo 2012.

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and every once in a while, I get to the end of the day and I haven't taken one single photo...

beach afternoon

glimpses of new years

(taken with friends, at South Padre Island, and the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refugre)

a few more colonia shots