To Do List for 2009 (Not a Resolution List)

-Take one picture every day

-Quit facebook for six months

-Go to Africa!

-Make b+ and higher in every class

-Actually enjoy learning in my classes

-Hang out with old friends

-Make new friends

-Read a book (outside of my 3600 school books) every month

-Read to Tucker and Tim

-Hang out with my dad more

-Work on my prayer life

-See more movies

-Listen to God and follow His direction

-Call one friend a week to check up on them (this is VERY hard for me--I hate the phone!)

-Learn (at least) one song on the guitar

-Work out (at least) twice a week

-Write in my journal and on my blog (at least) twice a week

-Memorize one Bible verse a week

-Do some type of photography project in the summer

What's on your To Do List?

Wilson - Kenya

For some reason God has laid it on my heart to tell you about Wilson. I hope you will pray about sponsoring him. If you do decide to sponsor him and have any questions (or just want to tell me!!!) please post them in the comment box. Your sponsorship will allow him to attend school and be taught the Word of God! What a blessing! Once you are a sponsor, you can write letters to your child and sometimes they'll write back! You can also have the opportunity to go on a trip to visit your child.

Child Details Name: Wilson Omutsani (KE4030290)

Birthday: May 22, 1990

Age: 18

Gender: Male

Region: Africa

Country: Kenya

Program: Ebusiralo Child Development Center

Personal and Family Information: Wilson lives with his father and his mother. His father is sometimes employed as a laborer and his mother is sometimes employed as a seller in the market. Wilson works at home gardening, caring for animals and helping in the kitchen. There are 6 children in the family.For fun, Wilson enjoys soccer. He attends church activities, youth group and choir regularly and is in high school where his performance is average.Because of your sponsorship, Wilson will have new opportunities to learn and grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Thank you for your concern and prayers.

This child lives in an AIDS affected area. In Africa, the disease has impacted the entire continent, creating a generation of orphans and vulnerable children. God can use you to help ease the pain of a child in desperate need. View additional information about this child.

HE GOT SPONSORED!!! PRAISE GOD!

Growing Up and Faith

Growing up is a necessary evil. There are so many decisions to be made and at this point in my life, they are decisions that only I can make. My parents and teachers can't tell me what I should do with my life anymore. It's up to me. 

This past week I changed my major (again...this will make 4 majors in 4 semesters). I just wasn't pleased with the art program. It had become a burden to me. 

The night before I "made the change," I had a dream that I was an English major. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not superstitious or crazy. I didn't think that because I had a dream, it meant that I was supposed to go out and change my major, but it did get me thinking. I prayed a lot about it and consulted with my parents, Mike (my photography professor), and my best friend. They all supported me but couldn't make the decision for me. Most times when I pray, God will lead me in a clear direction and I'll follow what He wills. This time, though, I did not feel an answer either way but I felt that He was telling me that in my heart I already knew my answer and I had to step out in faith and make the decision. My friend, Brett (who is the most amazing man of God I know), told one of our friends once that we will never be 100% sure of what we're supposed to do but that we need to step out in faith and hope that God stops us if we're making the wrong decision. Plus, because I know that everything that happens is because God wanted it to happen, I know that I was supposed to change it (because I did...even if it doesn't mean long term). 

So, now I'm an English major. Maybe this one will last me until graduation!

World AIDS Day

It's World AIDS Day. Take some time today to pray for the people who have been affected by AIDS.

Shed Those Holiday Pounds

Oh Dave, you slay me.

Using My Brain For The Glory Of God

I was reading Stuff Christians Like and I came across this article. I realized that I am just like this guy. Whenever I try to have "God time," I end up thinking about other things and that leads to me trying to shut myself up. But God wants me to lay my burdens down at His feet. He wants me to tell Him about everything that I think about. God is so gracious to me! He doesn't ask me to use my brain in a way contrary to how He made it; He just wants me to use it for His glory.

A Meaningful Christmas -- How You Can Get Involved

Here are some ways you can give this Christmas!

The Hydrate Project -- A group from Heritage is raising money to build a clean water well in Shashamene, Ethiopia. We are also in the process of raising money to go to Shashamene in June!

The Mocha Club -- For only $7 a month you can change lives. If you want to join click here and you'll also get a really amazing Dave Barnes comedy DVD (and so will I!).

Compassion International -- For $32 a month you can send a child to school, feed them, clothe them, help with the bills. My Compassion child's name is Lady Villa. She is from Quito, Ecuador and we write letters to each other all the time and I even got the opportunity to meet her on her birthday! You can also make a one-time donation for Christmas presents for the kids that are not sponsored yet.

Soles4souls -- Buy 2 pairs of shoes for $5. If you donate $10, you get a free keychain. Click here to read stories of the children that are receiving these shoes.

Failure Friday

We all fail. I certainly do a lot and in really stupid ways. Failure Friday is a way that we can all feel just a little bit better about our failures as we laugh at others.

Reasons Why You Should Grow A Beard

In honor of No Shave November, I have posted some reasons why it is profitable to grow a beard.

Grow a beard. Grow it long and with pride.

Feeding Jesus

I was recently listening to Francis Chan on his amazing podcast (which you can get on iTunes) and the Holy Spirit convicted me to begin planning for the things that I have wanted to do for the Lord in my life. I always think of these things as so far off, that I don’t have to start thinking about them yet. Life is a vapor. I better be on my toes.

The message was about Jesus telling the people that they saw him hungry and didn't feed him, saw him naked and didn’t clothe him. The people ask him when that happened. They had never seen him hungry or naked. But Jesus says that whenever they did not do those things for “the least of these” they did not do them for him.

I want to do all I can to clothe and feed Jesus. When I reach Heaven I want Him to gather me up in His arms and tell me that I did a good job. I want to die giving my all to please Him.

New Music Thursday?

That title will never stick....or maybe???

New Music Thursday it is, at least for today. On today's menu is a dash of folk. Tyler James is an incredible performer with a full sound. His music is similar to Oasis meets folk. It's a beautiful thing people. If you want to hear some of Tyler's music, hop in my car because I'm pretty sure his album will be on repeat for a while.

My best friend, Breehan and I recently went to one of Tyler's concerts. It was the night before Halloween so all three artists wore costumes for the entire show.

Left to Right: Micah Dalton, Tyler James, Nathan Angelo

Kisses from Katie

I want to BE this girl. She is a missionary in Uganda working in an orphanage.

Prayer in the Election

I notice a lot of people have been trying to persuade people to vote for certain candidates using different logic about the issues. I'm not saying this is bad. I think that we all need to know exactly what we're voting for. But, through all this persuasion, I haven't heard many people say that we need to be praying. Praying for the election, for the next president, for our current president, and for the country. We need to all fall on our faces surrendering the outcome to God, knowing that He will be glorified through this election no matter who wins. We should thank Him for the amazing opportunity to vote and the amazing country and opportunities that we have solely because of His great grace and mercy. Take a moment to thank Him and pray for the direction of our country.

Most Embarrassing Moment

I'm probably making a huge mistake by posting this and will be ridiculed forever by the people who know me well, but I'm going to post my most embarrassing moment.

I was in 7th grade and I was watching our youth group's praise band practice (my brother, Tanner was in the band). Everyone left the room except for me and Chris Vittetoe (who I was in love with at the time...haha). I decided that I was going to be cool and suave and go sit on the stage and talk with him (please remember that I was 11 at the time). I took a folding chair with me and sat it on the stage and began to sit down. Little did I know that the back legs were actually hanging off the stage so when I went to sit I fell off the stage in the chair and landed on my butt. I was soooo embarrassed but Chris was really nice about it (thanks Chris, if you read this).

So, what's your most embarrassing moment? Please, do tell!

Missions on the Brain

Today instead of doing homework I have been obsessing over Africa, Haiti, and Compassion International. This is not a rare occurrence for me, but today I have been even more off task. You see, I was reading Jamie Ivey's blog about her adoption of two gorgeous Hatian kids. Then I went from blog to blog falling in love with the kids and the programs. Then I found a bunch of Compassion video blogs by this guy and watched a bunch of them.

I feel that God is definitely calling me to adopt later in life, which is very exciting. I also know that I am being called to missions, but how is my current degree helping that? I want to be a good photographer and be able to use that in my missions, but how is taking a drawing and 3-D design class really going to push me toward what I need to be doing? What should I be doing to push myself toward that?

Where do we draw the line?

This question has been plaguing me for awhile now and I still don't have an answer. So friends, at what point do you think Patriotism turns into sin? I'm not saying that I think war is always wrong or always right. I'm just asking for your point of view.

Sidenote: Scroll down to last tuesday to see some pictures!

Friday/Saturday

On Friday we went with Patty and Alexis to Aposento Alto, the other Compassion site where we went to church on Sunday. We got there and were taken to different classrooms where the kids gave us art and sang songs. We got to the 5th grade room and Patty told me which kid was Lady, my Compassion kid. Lady started jumping up and down and ran over and gave me a big hug. It was so sweet. Then they sang us a song and she was still sooo excited. The teacher let Lady walk around with us for awhile and we held hands and it was just so precious. We met her little sister, who was in the 2nd grade, I think.

After that we painted A LOT and whenever kids would come around I would take some pictures with my film camera.

That night we ate our last dinner at the guest house and went to bed early.

The next morning we had to leave for the airport at 4:30 a.m. That was horrible. When we got there Mom cried (of course...hehe) and I teared up a little. We got our bags checked and went to sit at the gate.

Someone got on the speaker and said, "Clements, Victoria. Come to the gate." Kellye and I looked at each other and didn't know what to do. So, we went to the gate and they said that I had something suspicious in my bag that the national police wanted to search. We were a little freaked out. They asked me to come with them but wanted Kellye to stay. We didn't allow that and we decided that she would come too.

The security guard took us down some scary steps and out onto the concourse where they put the bags on the plane. The police looked through my bags and smelled my shampoo but didn't find anything. We assume it was the 10 rolls of film, but no one told us anything.

When we landed in Miami we went to Heaven (also known as Starbucks) and then to Chilis. We decided that we only wanted an appetizer but our waiter was a big jerk and told us to go sit at the bar (we tipped the bartender nicely so the waiter would be jealous).

When we got to Atlanta we saw Dusty (Kellye's boyfriend) waiting at the baggage claim. After we got our luggage we split up and she went home with Dusty and he proposed!

In the car I had a jam session and tried out for "Rent". Haha.

Sorry that this is so jumbled. I'm not in the mood for fine-tuning right now.

Thursday

Thursday we got up early and had another really yummy (Yep, you heard it. I said yummy!) breakfast. Patty and Alexis, the pastor’s at the church we went to the first day, picked us up and took us to Velazco, another one of their church/school plants. We hit a lot of traffic on the way and Alexis (who hardly speaks any English) told us that a group of students were fighting the president. What that really meant was that they were protesting a few different things.

We got there and all the kids at the school came up to the chapel and sang us some songs and gave us cards and artwork. Then we painted a big wall and watched the kids play. After we got through painting, one of the smallest kids, he was probably 3, came and played with me. He told me all about his little plastic horse and showed me how he could balance a car on a piece of pipe.

We came back to the house and went to get dessert at Crepes & Waffles. It was super good!

Some people invited us over for dinner and we had a really good time.

Sorry that today was not very detailed. I’m tired.

Wednesday

Oh Wednesday, you feel so far away. Let’s see if I can remember some of it.

We woke up a little later than usual and were picked up by Tommy Bowen (a really awesome missionary who carries a 9mm…we were safe) who was going to take us on the town.

First we went to “Old Town” which is similar to a downtown area I guess. We saw the president’s mansion and some old churches and other pretty buildings and such. I, of course, took a bunch of pictures which will not be posted on here because I took them with my 35 mm film camera.

We saw a camera crew and went down to see what was going on. There was a man with a poster board around his neck with the pictures of two young men on it. We asked Tommy what he was doing. He said that the two young men were killed by the super-secret police that even the normal secret police didn’t know about. This super-secret police had thrown the bodies of the two men in a lake and with them were found many miscellaneous weapons used for other crimes. We think the man was there dad. So sad.

We then headed up a big hill to see “The Virgin of the Apocalypse” (or something like that) statue which is about 100 feet tall. There is also a really good view of the city from there.

After that we went to Centro del Mundo, which means The Center of the Earth. Yes, you could also call it the equator. Kellye was really excited about standing on the equator and took a picture of her feet and everything. There was really awesome shopping there and I got some super cute earrings and bracelets.

Then we ate at Crepes & Waffles, which is an interesting idea. They serve crepes with tons of things. Meats, cheeses, vegetables, fruits. Lots of stuff.

We came home after that and rested while Mom went to class. When she got home we watched Hairspray. It was Kellye’s first time seeing it. I had forgotten how much I love that movie and how I get chill bumps every time there’s a really awesome harmony. (Note: I’m a huge chorus nerd!)

That was our Wednesday. It was quite fun.

...And something I forgot to say

I think it would be really awesome if we could get the church or just a group of people (the College and 20 somethings class?) to support Casa Gabrielle or maybe gather some start-up capital for another house like it. Maybe one for girls? I don't know. Just throwing that out there. If anyone is interested at all, let me know!

What you can pray for: that Casa Gabrielle would continue being a Scripture based ministry, leading many young men to Christ and toward better lives; that we would have guidance if we are supposed to support a ministry like Casa Gabrielle.

Tuesday

I’m writing this a day late because I was so frustrated with the fact that I couldn’t post any pictures yesterday. I tried facebook, flickr, and blogspot, and they all messed up on me. Hopefully I can remember everything!

We got up and ate another awesome breakfast and headed out to do some shopping. We went to the malls which are very “Americanized” but we could not find anything worth our money (the stuff in the malls in Ecuador cost as much or more than the malls in the States). We walked through a park which I guess is like Quito’s Central Park. There was some cool graffiti and a few soccer games going on inside the park.

We had decided we were going to eat at T.G.I.Fridays (Adventurous, I know) but it started raining buckets. Instead we went to Tony Roma’s (his last name is Roma, that makes it slightly more adventurous) where our poor waiter could not understand us at all so he got the manager to wait on us. He was fluent in English and didn’t even have an accent. We ate well and prayed for the rain to stop.

It didn’t. We ran back home in the pouring rain. It was kind of like being at a water park where the big bucket fills up and then pours out on all the kids and they scream and laugh. The only problem was that it wasn’t 80 degrees and sunny; it was about 55 degrees. By the time we got home, we were completely soaked head to toe. We took some pictures on the porch which are pretty amazing.

For the next 3 hours or so, I tried to post pictures, but to no avail.

That night we were invited by Tommy Bowens, a missionary/substitute teacher, to visit Casa Gabrielle. Casa Gabrielle is a home for street kids where Tommy leads a devotional. That’s all we knew going into it.

When we got there, we were greeted by a ferocious (HA!) small dog who was super cute and inside where ten or twelve boys from 13-22 were eating dinner. They smiled and welcomed us and we went into the living room to wait while they finished eating. Tommy asked the eldest boy, Mike (my love, if only he didn’t have a fiancée in Amsterdam), to tell us a little about Casa Gabrielle.

Mike told us about the entire mission of Casa Gabrielle. They take boys in off the street to disciple (around 12 at the time, following the example of Jesus) who are interested in turning their lives around. They have three main rules: no pornography, no drugs, no alcohol. If they break one of these rules they are kicked out of the house. They then begin discipling the boys, teaching them the love that God has for them and how to be a servant. All of the boys are in school and they have a tutor that comes over to help and encourage them in both their academic and spiritual studies. Once the boys graduate high school they enter into an internship with the program where they begin discipling new generations. They have a program where they go to the park (the same one we went to earlier in the day) to talk to other street kids about how they turned their lives around and were saved by the grace of God.

After Mike told us all about the ministry, we were asked to give our testimonies. This was the first time that Kellye had ever given hers aloud. It was a really cool experience telling these boys a little about our lives and how, in Christ, we have so much in common.

As we left they thanked us for coming and one of the boys who was probably 15 or so came up and kissed us all on the cheek. He was so precious and he had chubby little cheeks!

We then came home, talked about our love for Disney movies, and went to bed.

If you have any questions about Casa Gabrielle, please ask me. I know I’ve left some things out.

The Dump

Monday

Sorry, still no pictures. I have to charge my camera battery before I can get them on here. Suspense is half the fun!

Today we woke up and ate breakfast that consisted of some weird fruit that none of us really liked (but we ate anyway because we don't eat a whole lot), a roll, and eggs (huevos!). We then were picked up by Alliance Academy's registrar, Stu (the one that picked us up at the airport), and went over to the school to meet some people, see the classroom, and wait for our ride to the mission project.

The project we were working with is called Extreme Response. They are a non-profit organization that sets up grassroots mission programs in different countries. Technically they are not a Christian organization, but they are all Christians. The reason they decided to not be a "Christian" organization is so people would be willing to give their money and let them work in their countries.

We got to the dump and were greeted by the Pastor that is over the ministry. He told us a lot about what they do and the five areas of life which they try to improve for the dump workers. I don't know if I can remember them exactly, but I'll try. First and foremost they are concerned with the spiritual health of the people, but of course they have to build relationships with them. So the pastor and the Extreme Response guy, Mike, visit the homes of the workers and try to get to know them. Once they are interested in becoming Christians, they give them Bible studies and other things that will help them grow in their faith. As of two years ago, none of the people who worked in the dump were Christians, but as of now around 20% of them are! Praise the Lord!

Next they make sure the people are healthy. They have an on-site clinic which the people have to pay $.50 to see the doctor (in order to add some value to the experience) and get free medication if needed.

The organization builds one house a year for the family that is most in need of housing. These houses only cost $13,000. Friends, we can raise money for this and build a house for some people in need! As of right now, many of these people live in lean-tos with cardboard or plastic roofs. But with the new house they can have cinderblock walls and real roofs.

Lastly, they have a program for the children of the dump workers (which is where we worked today). The kids range from about 6 months old to 6 years old. They have a school-like program for the older kids and the younger kids just get to play. It's soooo cool. At mealtime, all the kids (some of these are 2-year-olds!!!) will sit and feed themselves quietly until they are done and at naptime they put 3 or 4 babies in a crib and they all go right to sleep. There are some sad things about the children's program. The workers are overly strict with the kids and have not-so-good ways of punishing them, but they do love them. And those kids are so so so cute.

After that we came back to the guest house and mom went to her class while Kellye and I read and studied (ok, ok, and I napped). Then we ate dinner and I had some awesome Cinnamon and Clove tea. Yum!

Tomorrow we will be touring the city a little and finding ice cream somewhere! Oh, I forgot to mention, this morning we met a man at the school whose parents were missionaries here (and now he is too) who wants to take us sight-seeing (and he carries a gun and pepper spray so we can be safe!)! So hopefully we will get a chance to see some more of the sights. We're hoping and praying that it will not be so cloudy for the rest of the week so Kellye can see the volcanos!

I'm off to bed? Or off to read more of The Great Gatsby which is super-good so far!

Good night all. I love you and God bless.

Sunday

Wow, that last post was a little messy. That is mostly due to the fact that while I was typing it we realized that we had already been called to board our plane, but they only called us in Spanish. I was in a hurry.

We landed in Quito at about 10 p.m. (Ecuador time) and struggled our way through customs. Then we met up with our ride, Stu, who works at Alliance Academy (the school where mom will be teaching her class). He's super nice. He took us to the guest house that we are staying at and helped us with our bags. When we got to our room door he messed with the lock. We opened the door and SURPRISE(!) there were two men in there laying on (separate) beds watching TV. Yes, in our room. So Stu talked to them and told them that that was where we were supposed to be staying. They moved to another room (apparently one of them was the woman who owns the guest house's son, so he had a key to all of them). After that ordeal Stu gave us an idea of what mission work we would be doing this week. I can't remember all of the days (because I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep over a period of about 40 hours at that time) but tomorrow and Wednesday we will be babysitting at the dump. What does that mean? Well, some of the people in the city go to the dump to collect things that they think they might be able to sell or recycle for money, so we will be going to watch their kids while they work. Sad and amazing. I will definitely blog on that tomorrow.

We went to church this morning at Atucucho (literally, a city on a hill...or side of a mountain). It was a Spanish speaking service so I could pick up some words and phrases here and there but not much more. I found out that Lady Villa (my Compassion kid) lives ACROSS THE STREET from that church and the school that we're helping at on Thursday. There was a kid at the church who "helped" in the praise band. Really, he carried morracas and sang into them like they were microphones (hopefully I will be able to post a video). He then set next to Kellye because he had a huge crush on her. So cute!

We went to lunch with the pastors of the church afterwards at KFC which was an interesting experience because neither of them spoke much English. Then a translator came and took us to the market where we scored some pretty awesome deals. I got hippie earrings! So excited!

We then came back to the guest house and went to the grocery store to get some random food for dinner (what ended up being Pringles, Fruit Loops, and sweet rolls...there isn't much in the store). After we ate we took a marvelous 4 HOUR NAP!!! Since we woke up (about 1 1/2 hours ago) we talked to the fam online.

So far that's what we've done. I'm super excited about playing with the kids (and babies!) tomorrow! Pictures to come!

Love you, friends.

Currently: sitting in the Quito airport waiting for mom to come back and watch the luggage so I can go to the bathroom, listening to Backstreet Boys (just for fun), Boarding the plane!

Ecuador, For Starters

Well friends, I have lost my journal (gasp) and I'm going on a trip, thus I had to start a new blog. I know what you all are thinking. "Hooray! I get to read about Tori!" I would be excited too.

But seriously. Tomorrow morning at 4:35 a.m. (gross) I am leaving my house to head off to Ecuador and since I can't find my journal, I plan on writing here instead. Plus, I already had a Tumblr blog, which in theory is pretty cool and sleek looking, but on the downside none of my wonderful friends could comment. Needless to say, I wasn't all that into it.

Awesome news: God is ALREADY working in our trip to Ecuador. Randomly some guy emailed Reggie (our totally amazing Pastor at our totally amazing church!!!) and told him that he was moving to Jonesborough from Quito, Ecuador sometime within the next few months and wanted to get involved with a church who needed a missions pastor. Um, hello?! My mom and I are going to Ecuador tomorrow! Soooo, we have emailed him to see if we can do any missions work with him while we are there (no reply yet because it's only been about an hour since we emailed). Also, my mom googled him and it looks like he may work at a Christian radio station on the same road as the guest house we are staying in! Whoa! So we are definitely praising God for being thebomb.com as He always is by presenting us with this opportunity. I can't wait to see what else He will do this trip.

What can you pray for, you ask? Please pray that we stay safe the whole time (and don't get stuck in the country forever now that the Ecuadorian government has passed a law that says the president can abolish the congress, thus making the government a dictatorship). Pray that we can minister in any way possible and that we would be able to overcome the language barrier easily (I can say "I have a bycicle" and "to the left", but that's about the extent of my Spanish). Pray that I can see my Compassion International kid at the Aposento Alto Compassion site (and that we would totally hit it off and be instant friends--by the way, her name is Lady and she will be turning 9 on October 17th, yeah girl!). Pray that I diligently study for my upcoming midterms. Pray that God would open our mouths when we need to speak and close them when we need to be quiet.

Here are a few pictures from the last time my family went to Ecuador in 2006.

Warning: CUTEST CHILD OF ALL TIME

I asked repeatedly if I could take him home. Mom said no.