Manassas, Virginia Mission Trip 2006

What an amazing trip with the students from my church. We had an adventure on Amtrak, spent some time in DC, served in the communities surrounding Manassas, met students and leaders from churches in other areas of the country, and found God blessing us in amazing and unexpected ways.

I spent most of my week working with children with Autism. I fell in love with these kids. beautiful, amazing, stubborn and wonderful they were. A unique challenge. I didn't believe I was cut out for it, but I have to admit they changed me forever.

The slideshow also includes some of my favorite images from our trip into DC. I fell in love with photography on an 8th grade trip to DC. My family didn't even own a camera at the time. I knew it was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Walking around there I remembered how things just came alive for me visually so many years ago.

Destination Virginia

I'm going to be on the road for a week starting tomorrow. I'm catching a train to Washington, DC and then going to Virginia for a week long mission trip with students from my church. This is going to be an exciting, exhausting and rewarding week. I'm really looking forward to the time to serve others and revisit the place where I first fell in love with photography.
DC is my photographic home. I went on an 8th grade trip there (a very long time ago) and the whole world exploded visually for me. My family didn't own a camera at the time and I started borrowing cameras from everyone on the trip to shoot what I was seeing. When I got home I started saving money and dreaming about my first camera. It's hard to believe my career as a photographer started on an 8th grade trip...
Pray for me while I'm gone. I can't wait to come home to show you the photographs!

A Different Kind of Week

Every year I pour myself into a week of VBS at my church. I love kids and I love my church. It's a natural thing for me. Take a peek at my week.

Key Largo 2006

Key Largo 2006

I spent the last week in Key Largo with some amazing students from my church. We do this trip every year. We spend the week at one of my favorite places on the planet, Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort. The location is beautiful, the staff is excellent and the diving is outstanding. We all look forward to this trip every year. I've been there 9 times and feel like they are my family.

If you are at all interested in diving, snorkeling, nature and peace and quiet, this is a great place to visit. If you are an UW photographer like I am, this is paradise.

Welcome to 30 Hours Famine

Welcome to 30 Hours Famine

This weekend I'm taking 30 hours of my life to stop eating and start helping others. The statistics are chilling. 29,000 children die every day from hunger. Every $30 I raise this weekend through your support saves a child's life for 30 days. That's a fantastic return on your investment and mine.

Visit World Vision's site above and give generously. If you give because you saw it here, plese drop me a note so I know.

The People of the Passion

Wow! My church is doing a world premier of an original musical this weekend. Brad Trumbull, our keyboard genius wrote this amazing musical based on a sermon series our senior pastor, Jerry Van Dyken shared last year. I was blown away when I went to the dress rehearsal last nght. You have to come see this. Very, Very Cool! Go see the slideshow with a few selects from last night. I wish I had some of the music to add to the background of the show. Maybe when I shoot the final performance.

Quiet Times at St Simons Island

I came back from an amazing weekend with some kids from church on Monday. When I'm away on trips like that I always make sure I get some time every morning to be alone with God and get spiritually prepared for the day. St Simons is so beautiful at sunrise that I couldn't resist using part of that time to make some photographs of God's hand at work in the beauty of our world. I think He makes the world so beautiful so we can see a peek at His beauty.

Concert

Just a quick note. We had an awesome concert last night at my church. I just wanted to show off a little bit.

The band is

My Rocket Heart

. They are a great group of guys, just recently became big time rock stars with a record deal, but they still remember how much fun it is to rock a church gym! The neighbors all liked what they heard as well...

Also, here's the

slideshow

too!