A Thousand Words Isn't Enough.

No matter how many times I look at the images on my computer taken by my hands (and from a few friends) I can't fathom them. Images of dirt, blazing sun, wire topped buildings, trash piles larger than cars, children bathing in the midst of the trash - these are what I've been looking at tonight.

I'm speaking at Mosaic, my church's college ministry, on Thursday night. It's not something I normally would do. I don't speak. I don't even speak up in class when my grade is dependent upon it. The whole idea just freaks me out. For some reason, along with being slightly distracted, I agreed to speak about my international mission experiences this Thursday night. I believe I will be focusing on Mexico and Nicaragua.

I've been trying to get some pictures together to show. Pictures that can show what it is like, but all my pictures pale in comparison to the real heartache and situations that I have seen in these countries.

I'm good at having my mind on several different topics at once. I'm great at compartmentalizing and becoming numb to things. These pictures though, I can't become numb to. To become numb to them is to deny the reality that these situations are truly going on in other places and in a way right here at home too.

Now I can't get the pictures out of my head. Although my tears are gone, I can feel them lurking, waiting for an opportunity to escape.

I don't know what else to say. These pictures kind of cause a loss of words...

If you want to see my Nicaragua pictures from Summer 2009, click here.
If you want to see how God reminded me of La Chureca in the fall, click here.

nineteen. twenty. twentyone. twentytwo.

nineteen. unseenbeauty:learningsomethingnew

twenty. unseenbeauty:thelittlethingsthatmakeyoulaugh

twentyone. unseenbeauty:cookingexperimentsgoneright

twentytwo.

sixteen. seventeen. eighteen.

sixteen. Taco making. I've talked about this a bit before on the blog. Counselors, youth and Dan preparing tacos to hand out to day laborers to show them Jesus' love.

seventeen. Read the quote. Living it this semester. unseenbeauty:encouragingquotes

eighteen.

thirteen.fourteen.fifteen.

thirteen. Breakfast.

fourteen. Studying outside in winter is kind of chilly.

fifteen. Gabby's facial expression expresses my love of studying right now.

*Pictures were taken on actual days and being posted today. That is all.

twelve.

Twelve, or as I'd like to call it "Mother Knows Best" or "Should Have Listened to Mom". I'm back up at school, but I didn't need to pack my mousse to bring with me as I had some up here. I reassured Mom on this when I was questioned. I washed my hair and started looking for the mousse. It was no where to be found. Mousse was not an option. Craziness was about to be. Thus, my hair was straightened for the first time in quite awhile. It is really weird to not have a mess of curls on my head. Plus, it's hard for people to recognize me. It's like I went on winter vacation and came back a different person... unseenbeauty:change

eleven.

unseenbeauty:uniqueness

ten.

unseenbeauty:thejoyofboardgames

nine.

Dad's amaryllis from his garden.

eight.

seven.

unseenbeauty:fulfilledfoodcravings

six.

Clyde decided that he should visit the neighbors' yard this afternoon, which is a place where he isn't supposed to be visiting as it is not our backyard. He enjoys going for a ride though, so that's how my Dad got him to come back home. The car door opened and he was practically already in there waiting for the adventure of a car ride, one of his favorite things! Just look at that face, it's practically begging for someone to take him for a drive! unseenbeauty:carrides

five.

unseenbeauty:televisionofthepast.

four for four.

I watched Lori and Clyde after lunch while my parents ran errands, so I had plenty of time to read blogs and work on some photography. I ended up with four and I didn't even realize that it was day four. Nice coincidence.


Clyde was my inspiration for the first. I took several pictures of him whimpering and crying because my Dad was gone. His best friend was gone, what was he supposed to be doing? Completely understandable.

Sarah Rhoads did a really cool project on her blog asking for self-portraits from other photographers. I love it. I didn't participate, but I tried out a few self-portaits myself today.

three

Two pictures once again. I didn't expect to do that again today. The first is my dog, Clyde, in his natural habitat of being what my Dad calls the "table shark" as he tries to convince my Dad that he should eat people food as he is a person. The second is of my friend, Hanna, and our favorite movie which we watched today. We watched 10 Things I Hate About You around twenty times at least during our freshman year of college. unseenbeauty:favorite90smovies

two.

unseenbeauty:relaxation.
Spent the day sleeping, watching television and movies with Mom, drinking coffee and tea and playing Harry Potter Clue with Teejay. Relaxing days is a beautiful thing that I rarely get to fully enjoy as I seem to constantly be on the go. So thankful for the beauty of relaxing days like these!

one.

happy 2011 to you! :)

This is the first day of Project 365. Today, I started to teach myself how to knit. It's a bit imperfect, as the first one should be as I am learning. It's a new beginning though, a new hobby, for a new year. I didn't mean for it to happen that way, but it did. No regrets.