Loving Links

Tonight, I'll just be posting a bunch of links to get y'all seeing a bit of what I see on the web that I like, so enjoy the short blurb about each and hit the link in the middle to see more.

Social media engagement is changing as more and more ordinary people don't blog themselves, but rather link to other "better" blogs, aka what I am doing right now.

I wish I could nap like Jesus.

Men think they can fix anything and apparently they do so in creative ways.

I fell in love with these vintage postcards for save the dates. Maybe you will too?

Christians and bubble wrap are remarkably similar.

What's better than combining vision, photography and love?

Defeat and Hypocrisy hit home in a way that never seemed more clear.

Have a fabulous weekend!

The Shift in Global Christianity

Last night, I attended a lecture on the The Shift in Global Christianity. I had originally wanted to go, decided against it and then one of my professors emailed me about the extra credit opportunity of attending and writing a summary of this very lecture. I will probably be posting all of my notes on here soon in a very non-cohesive way. In the mean time feel free to be enlightened/challenged by my summary of the lecture that just brushes what's bouncing around in my brain:

I usually hate being given factoids comprised of numbers. When Dr. Jenkins started spitting out at statistics, at first I was weary but this quickly changed. He started spitting out these astounding numbers of how the demographics of Christianity is shifting. In 1900, 1/3 of of the worlds' inhabitants subscribe to Christianity. 80-85% of the Christian population was in North America and Europe. In 2050 the projection of this will still be 1/3 of the world's inhabitants subscribing to Christianity, however, only 25% of the population will be in North America and Europe.

This is a huge demographic shift for Christianity away from ancient lands of Christianity. Where is it going? Africa, Latin America and Asia is where they will be residing, otherwise known as the global south. The big question that Dr. Jenkins seemed to be answering was why? In the future, there will be a larger proportion of people to be living in the world and the demographics will be distributed differently was the short vague answer.

However, there was another answer, a powerful gripping answer that those living in poverty (typically seen to be those located in the global south) have a different take on reading the bible in today's world as well as having a different conversion process. One of the African theologians who I was unable to jot down a name said that “If any African can't identify with their old testament, then they've lost their Africanness.”

Jenkins goes on to talk about the many hymns (upwards of thousands) that we don't know because they are in Swahili and other languages that we do not know. There are 16,000 hymns in the Dinka language alone. It was interesting to hear how the Psalms related the Bible to their actual lives as lions would leave the entrails behind in one of the hymns demonstrated during the presentation. He spoke of how whoever wrote Psalm 126 knew famine and that's what the African people can relate to. They can relate to a widow tearing up her whole house searching for a coin. Reading the bible with a global perspective changed what we otherwise would have thought what the bible was saying to us.

Two other major changes will be that the majority of the world's Christians will be chiefly a poor society. The other being that they will live in a very different spiritual universe than Europe or US, a more charismatic one which believes firmly in healing and exorcisms. Also, instead of the U.S. and Europe sending missionaries to places such as Nigeria, they instead will be sending missionaries to us.

This is going to be a very scary thing for the traditional churches in the U.S. and Europe. The closing remarks were Jenkins talking to a woman who feared the counter current movement of right now saying instead to “Look south. Don't want to? Don't worry, it'll come to you.”

life sucker.

Do you suck the life out of people?

This has been mulling over in my mind and opened on my tabs over the past couple of days. Think about it.

Naming Things Is Hard To Do

I've thought about going ahead and naming the photography company I dream of having. Whether or not this dream will ever become a reality is something I'm not sure of. I want to make a simple logo for it, but choosing a name seemed so simple yet I have made it complex.

I originally chose joyephotography. The name is simple and clean cut. Then, I parked my car at my duplex underneath a singing bird sitting in our lone tree. I started thinking about how our joy for the Lord should be singing out from us. I then thought about naming it joyesongsphotography or joyesingsphotography. I've decided I like joyesongsphotography better. I still haven't made up my mind so it will remain joyephotography for the moment.
This is a rather lengthy way to tell y'all that I've changed the blogheader. It is a picture I took from my Saturday shoot with Calli. I love it and instantly knew that it would be shared soon and in this capacity.


& If y'all have a preference on the name, let me know! I obviously need help deciding.

Get Excited!

Y'all may remember something awhile back about Shaun Groves and Compassion International doing something excited for Haiti, well this is it! Get excited!

Compassion is also heading to Kenya this week and one of the bloggers that I follow, Brad Ruggles, will be heading to Kenya with the crew and blogging about it. You should go read his stuff. I'm definitely excited about following the trip to Kenya.

Forever Steal My Heart

When words become unclear,
I shall focus with photographs.
When images become inadequate,
I shall be content with silence.

~Ansel Adams

Ever since my sophomore year of high school, I have been an Ansel Adams fan. There's something about black and white photography that I think will forever steal my heart.

A photograph is an instrument of love and revelation
that must see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities
of nature and humanity which live in all things.
~Ansel Adams

After going on a photoshoot with my friend Calli, who was an excellent companion and gorgeous model, there must be hundreds of photographs that don't make the mark of what I want. However, Ansel Adams made me smile about that:

Twelve significant photographs
in any one year is a good crop.
~Ansel Adams

Studying on a Friday Night

This week, I've been a horrible student. I don't even want to tell you how I finished my two papers for today, how long I had until the deadlines when I turned them in or what time I woke up to get this all done.

Actually, I will tell you what time I woke up. 4AM. That's a little on the ridiculous scale, but I got everything done and then some. So why am I studying so late at night? Shouldn't I be snuggled into my bed with a mug of hot cocoa and a good read instead of laboring away at my kitchen table while overlooking a game of Quelf.

This answer is simple. I am enjoying studying. I'm not studying for my classes, but rather for photography. Tomorrow I'll be out in the world with a lovely model, Calli, as I attempt to practice my photography skills. In preparation for this, my camera is lying by my side as I pour through the quick start guide that came with the camera as well as websites such as Ken Rockwell's that make photography a bit easier for those of us who don't really know what they're doing. I've taken notes. There might be more notes on this notecard over things like ISO, aperture and exposure than I have taken during some of my classes this semester.

One of the things I came across makes me want to rethink the photography side of my life. This is the typical day of a professional photographer:

• Before dark - wake up and get to location
• Dawn: shoot
• 8 AM: breakfast, shower, nap
• Day: scout out new locations
• Afternoon: lunch and/or dinner
• Sunset: shoot
• After dark: later dinner
• After dinner: shower and bed early to shoot at dawn

The beginning before dark is the part that gets to me. I woke up at 4AM this morning for school. I can't imagine getting up this early always for photography, granted I'd probably love it. I'd grab a cup of joe and drive in the wee hours of the morning with no one on the wide open road with me as I get to a location to watch the sun peep around the world as it causes the sky to wake up in an explosion of color. Maybe that's a good idea after all, it could be the love of my life.

Call+Response

Screen the whole thing tomorrow night at A&M UMC, 7pm.
Hope to see you there!

Sneak

Sometimes, the days just get by you. They all mesh together and it's hard to figure out exactly what happened when. That's how I'm feeling this morning. Did y'all realize Ash Wednesday is tomorrow? It just snuck up on me!

I would have completely forgotten sans this interesting video:
I kind of spaced out while watching as I began to think of what the next forty days would hold for a sacrifice.

After some thinking, I still have no idea what I'll be doing for the next forty. I'm hoping through enjoying my day with a class out early and another cancelled, I'll have some extra time for something to come to mind...

Understanding.

Haiti, I won't forget you.

Collision

The youth minister I work with, Clay, and my roommate Zara had the great idea of our youth group starting their own blog called Collision. I was asked to help out with it since I'm a little attached to the blogging.

I wrote a posting on their last night that y'all might want to check out. A million thank yous to Curtis Honeycutt of Just Wallpaper for letting God be glorified in his amazing skills.

Hope everyone's having a fabulous day!

Cries Among the Trash

I read a lot of social justice stuff in a given day. I don't always focus on it though. A lot of days I like to read, meditate for a second on whatever issue I'm reading about and then click over to a "happier" blog or to facebook or to whatever else will distract my mind from the hurts of so many in this world.

While reading Pete Wilson's blog today about a girl named Puja Ghosh, a sentence struck out at me and made me take notice of it.

"She lives with a family here in the Khalpar slum who found her in a pile of trash. Her mom literally tossed her out like you would a loaf of moldy bread."

Soak the reality of that sentence up.
That could have been me. That could have been you.
God has crazy plans that are for each of us. I don't know why I was allowed a loving, generous family while Puja, a sweet daughter of the King, is growing up with a different family than her own. I don't know why I don't have to deal with the pain of that situation and Puja does. I don't know why, but I am thankful that I got to hear her story. You should go read the rest and pray for Puja.

Pray for love. Pray for her future. Pray for her relationships. Pray for God to shine through her. Pray for her new family. Pray for her parents that tossed her into the trash. Pray.

I like funny things.