Blessings and Raindrops

seeking joy in the midst of the ordinary

Ethiopia Creative Trip {Guest Post}

I fell in love with the country, the people and the culture of Ethiopia years ago, without ever stepping foot on the soil of this beautiful land {I hope to go next summer but that’s another story for another time}.

Today, I want to introduce you to a friend who has faithfully served in Ethiopia and continues to use her gifts and talents to advocate for the vulnerable children and families there. Alyssa is looking for fellow creatives ready to serve in a unique way on her upcoming Ethiopia Creative Trip for One Child Campaign. Read her post below for all of the details and prayerfully consider joining her on this life-changing trip. I can’t wait to follow along on this journey!

I’ve watched medics go on medical trip or teachers go to work with students and secretly wished I possessed a “useful” skill that I could contribute. As I traveled with One Child Campaign and did humanitarian photography, I simply thought of it as a tool I could use to advocate. 

Then one day, in the middle of yoga class of all places, enough blood had flowed to my brain for me to have an epiphany. The photos were ending up in my hands; and unless a ministry specifically contact me to use them, that’s where they stayed. While I may be able to make a small difference by using them, how much more could be done if the photos were tailored to the needs of the ministry and then given to them to use for advocating and fundraising?!

One Child Campaign was all over the idea and has asked me to lead Ethiopia: Creative 2016 trip from February 12-22. We are in need of videographers, writers, web designers, and photographers. We want to gather team of artists who want to learn how to hone their skills in the area of humanitarianism while also creating beautiful content and telling stories for partner organizations of One Child Campaign, while engaging their areas of influence to be a part of the solution.nDuring this trip we will be traveling to Addis Ababa and Awassa and coming alongside four different organizations that have my mad respect for their work with street kids, poverty, at risk families and women, and child trafficking. We will be providing them with tools and art to use for their websites and social media. 

 But hear me on this- whether or not this is up your alley, YOU have skills and talents. Pray, seek, and ask our multi-faceted God how He can connect your passions and His work. 

If you are interested in more information on this trip, please contact me at alyssa@alyssaannephotography.com


beauty in the midst of the ordinary.

A paradigm shift has slowly occurred in our house over the year or so. Layers have been peeled away. Eyes have been opened and worldviews have changed. Hearts have been broken and tears have been shed for people we have never met, in places we have never visited.

We have felt a stirring in our hearts courtesy of that mysterious Holy Spirit whisper.

We have prayed to be His hands and feet.

We have prayed to learn to love like He loves.

We have prayed for opportunities to serve. In our own community or around the world. We’ve prayed for our path to be clear and for our feet to move.

These prayers have led us to our path of adoption. They have also led us to experience moments of transformation in our hearts. Moments in the midst of our everyday, ordinary lives.

Just last weekend, we experienced beauty in the midst of our ordinary.
Saturday evening, Dave and I had the honor of serving alongside 200 members of our church’s congregation for a Samaritan’s Feet shoe distribution event.

We were given the opportunity to show tangible love to the children of our community through the distribution of new shoes {children also received new backpacks, school supplies and sacks of groceries}.

The real beauty?

Shoes weren’t distributed from a nameless volunteer behind a table. They were lovingly placed on the freshly cleaned feet of each and every child.

Each child experienced the act of having their feet washed while listening to stories of Jesus and learning of the significance of this seemingly mundane act of foot washing.

Beauty in the midst of the ordinary, the mundane.

{Jesus washed the feet of His disciples on the night of His betrayal. He served them despite the fact that He knew what was to come. He knew of the betrayal. He knew of the denial. He knew that the very feet He tenderly washed would be the same feet that would flee in the coming hours}.

A sacrificial act of love and mercy and grace.

The sacred moments with each of these children concluded in prayer.

It was an incredible event. The children beamed as they tested out their new shoes. I watched as, over and over again, a child would rise from their seat with a smile of pure joy on their face. Each child would take a few tentative steps before jumping in the air, testing the limits of their new soles.

Because of the overabundance of volunteers {what an amazing problem to have!}, I served as a greeter for the majority of my time. I spent the time talking to the children and their families preparing them for the experience to come and rejoicing with them after they received their shiny, new shoes.

I did have the chance to wash the feet of one precious little boy. Michael was shy and a little unsure about the entire process. He timidly allowed me to wash his feet and talk with him. As he set his feet back down after having them dried, he accidentally hit the tub of water causing it to spill and soak the floor {and my pants} completely. As the floor was being mopped up, I wrapped my arms around the shoulders of that sweet boy, along with his brother Noah, and prayed over them.

That sweet moment will forever remain in my memory. We stood in a puddle of water surrounded by noise and people shuffling back and forth to find shoes of the right fit as we prayed. In the midst of all of the distractions surrounding us, we had a moment of silence and peace. Jesus met us in that moment.

Beauty in the midst of the ordinary.

Coincidentally {or not at all, I know God’s hand was all over this}, the next morning, Dave and I led our Sunday School class in a discussion surrounding the topics of Jen Hatmaker‘s book, Interrupted. We discussed our call as the Church to set aside our personal ambitions. To set aside the desire to have the best church campus, the best worship music, the best Sunday sermon. And, instead to strive for solidarity with the poor, sacrificial compassion and tangible action.

We watched this video {well worth the ten minutes to watch, I promise} where Jen discusses the call on her and her husband’s hearts to become a “barefooted church.” A church where you literally leave your shoes at the altar when asked to give to the homeless community and walk out into the cold morning feeling your Savior’s arms wrapped around you. {Jen had this experience while visiting a small church in Austin and knew that was what the Church was meant to be}.

The most profound words in the book for me, were a message God sent to Jen’s husband loud and clear: “You can trust me when I call.”

Dave and I are learning this truth time and time again. We can trust our ever-present, sovereign, walk-on-water Savior and King. Our Abba.

Earlier this week, I again felt God’s leading to trust Him. To be His hands in the midst of my ordinary life. I was in a hurry to arrive home after a long day of work when I drove past a young homeless man in a parking lot holding a sign asking for work. I drove by feeling strongly that I needed to do something. I prayed for God to lead me. He led me to turn at the next place on my right – Chick-fil-a, to purchase the man dinner.

I was afraid because I didn’t know what to say to him. I simply handed him the meal and he proceeded to explain his situation. He had kind eyes and I felt a prompting to get his name and number to give to Dave. He was in desperate need of work after losing everything when his small business failed. Dave knows he can find him work and will do so. I don’t know where it will lead, but I knew that I couldn’t drive by and not stop.

The song that played on the radio as I drove away was “If We Are the Body” by Casting Crowns…

But if we are the body
Why aren’t His arms reaching?
Why aren’t His hands healing?
Why aren’t His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren’t His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way

Please don’t misinterpret this post. I’m not sharing any of this to prove how great I am. Believe me, I’m not. I’m selfish. I’m short-tempered. I’m impatient. I’m scared of risk. I’m afraid to choose the wrong path. I don’t like change. I like comfortable {I adore comfort and coziness, in fact}. I am 100% a work in progress.

Despite all of that, thankfully, God has been doing the hard work of transforming my heart. He is allowing me to see His children as He sees them. And, I can’t unsee what I’ve seen. I can’t go back. I have to seek Him in all things. Only then will I see the beauty in the hurt. The beauty amidst the pain. His beauty in the ordinary, even in the mundane.