DownshoreDrift

I've been going through some pictures of India in preparation for our trip in October and I thought I would post them here. I don't have much to say lately because I have been so busy - no real thoughts brewing in my brain. Actually, I find that I am out of words lately. But, I am contemplating things more and I am thinking through imagery more through the written word, it seems. So, here are a few pics (some edited) to let you know why this part of the world in all it's beauty and poverty is capturing my heart. Perhaps you will find some time to pray for the lost of Northern India. They desperately need to be reconnected to their Creator through faith in Christ. They have so many gifts that God is waiting to redeem.

I plan to return to India this fall (October) with another small team to do some training in holistic ministry and to try and help with some clean water projects in villages up in the Himalayas. We are also going to start a business through microlending that would enable abused women from a ministry to gain a livelihood and also be able to be a witness for Christ. When you are dealing directly with the work overseas and are dealing with trustworthy people (our contacts go back for 30 years), it is amazing how far a little bit can go. We plan to have a missions dinner/fundraiser at the end of August and I had an idea to frame and mat some of the pictures that I have taken from my travels and auction them off to raise money to put in clean water tanks and support orphans in the children's home we are working with. I thought I'd preview some of the pictures here and ask which ones you thought might be best. This set is from Paris and also from India. I did some pretty heavy editing to some of them. Tell me which ones you like best and it will probably influence me to frame that one. I'll provide more sets for scrutiny later.

 

I took this picture in the Spring. The light breaking along the garden path and through the oak trees really affected me. It was so warm and inviting that it made me want to follow the path into the garden and just get lost there. It made me think of Paradise Lost, or perhaps, a one day Paradise Found. Anyway, I just like the picture because of the light, the path, the tree, the lamp post, and the garden. Lots of imagery there, eh?

I took the top picture in New Orleans' French Quarter a few months ago. It is near Cafe du Monde. You ever feel like you are on the outside looking in? The second picture is of the Mobile Bay at sunset. I started thinking about the pictures, the past, and the hand of God in my life and the following is what came out. It's a bit different from my normal writing on this blog, but hopefully you'll get what I am saying. It just kind of started flowing and took me someplace that I thought was worth going.

I love the water, especially the Gulf of Mexico and it's bays, inlets, and bayous. For me, there's something most serene about a warm Gulf breeze. It wraps around me and carries me down the oak lined avenues of New Orleans and through the dense pine forests of South Mississippi. It blows gently through the attic of my mind and uncovers picture albums of family gathered whole, before any of those I loved had faded into eternity. It reminds me of setting out in a little boat with my Papaw from the Seabrook Bridge on Lake Ponchatrain as a child, or water skiing down the Jourdan River as a teen. It reminds me of summer nights with friends spent dreaming about where the wind would take us, never realizing that we were, in some ways, closer to paradise at that moment than we would ever realize. The Gulf, so warm and inviting - so endless, brooding, and dangerous when whipped into a fury by heat, plunging pressure, and the hand of God. It rose up and devoured so much that had grown alongside its seedy, sandy shores.

But, the memories of what was come upon me like a warm summer rain rising up from the Gulf to cool the heat of day, and to cool the fury of my loneliness - to remind me of home and family, friends and hopeful days, when the future stretched before me like that tropic water, mysterious and unexplored. That future, now unfolding as the years pass, has been full of joy and pain, storms and satisfaction. I look back and see that a true Light was shining in my darkness and another Wind was carrying me along. I see Him there, even in my lonely dark alleys. Endless, Brooding, Dangerous, yet Gentle, Serene, and Warm. He rushes upon my shore and pulls me into Himself with violence and bedlam ensuing, tearing asunder all the sorry shanty towns of my life. He does it to shake my loneliness as though it could ever hold me when He comes calling.

Building our Castles in the Sand, or on the Rock? A few pictures from this summer: The first is a left behind sandcastle at dusk down on the beach in Florida. Kids play all day and they leave their creations behind to be washed away by the tide. I saw this one around sunset and thought that getting behind it and playing with the shadows would make a good shot. The second picture is of Dexter Ave. King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL. This is the church where Dr. Martin Luther King served as pastor during the 1950's. From here, he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott that helped begin to tear down the walls of segregation. It is downtown and about a block from the capitol building. 

 

Here are some pictures of our trip to Waveland, MS with Pathfinder Mission that I found interesting. The pictures were specifically chosen to tell a story of faithfulness and progress in the midst of destruction and despair. God is at work in all types of ways in Waveland, MS through His people - and, it's not the first time it has happened this way. Let me know what you think.

   

Against the instructions of Joe Kennedy, I thought I'd post several photos here of some of the summer fun that we have been having as a family. I take off tomorrow to join my family on a mission trip on the Mississippi Gulf Coast with Pathfinder Mission in Waveland, MS. Please pray for us as around 30 people from our church will be venturing down. We'll be taking a lot of family with us that have children, so it should be interesting. I'll try to update if I can. In the meantime, like I said, here are some recent photos of a few outings, such as a visit to the Alabama State Capitol and our recent trip to the beach (some of the photos of the kids were taken by my wife).

   

 

I took a lot of pictures this past week, and some of them tell a great story. The first picture depicts the newest evangelism strategy from the SBC. :) There is the one with Ed Stetzer, Bob Roberts, and me (I'm in the middle). Then, there are some pictures of the Riverwalk . The final pictures are of the Alamo, which I found very instructive. The plaque at the end reminds us of an ancient fight for liberty that did not seem to turn out very well in the moment, but the long term effects were significant. We can learn a lot from history, don't you think? Enjoy. I'm going on vacation - see you in a week or so.

I had a little time, so I thought I'd put some pictures up. I hope to get some good shots in San Antonio of people and interesting sites. Check back later for the visual side of the Convention and what's worth seeing in the city. Here are a few photos from the past several months. They were all taken in Alabama - the first one is a little road at the Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery - with all my "Road to San Antonio" posts, I thought that this one was fitting; the second one is a mural on a building in Fairhope, Alabama, down by Mobile Bay; and, the third one was taken at a park in a little town north of Montgomery called Millbrook. Enjoy!

                                                                  

Over the next few weeks, I'll be travelling quite a bit. So, I hope to get some really good pictures. There is beauty all around us if we just open our eyes. May God show us His beauty through Creation and the creativity of His people.   

My son, Kieran turned 4 years old on Monday. He's been sick this week, so we still haven't had the birthday party. Maybe tomorrow. He is the comedian of the family and is rambunctious as they come, with a real sweet side to him. This is him a few weeks ago tearing up the slip-n-slide at our church picnic. Happy Birthday, Kieran!

My pictures this week have to do with my kids (again!). Last Saturday, we had a party to celebrate Caelan's completion of treatment and his good report on his scans. We have suffered enough and had so many people praying for us, we wanted to throw a big party to celebrate what God has done! It was awesome! We ended up having well over a hundred people by the time it got dark, including church members, family, friends from out of town, and neighbors. We set up about a thousand tiki torches and Christmas lights, set out tons of food, had music playing, and just had a great time! It was a really great time. When my wife and I were planning this, we realized that Christians don't throw parties very much, at least the ones that we know, so we had kind of forgotten how to do it. In the end, we remembered, and it was a wonderful celebration of what God has done in our son's life. Here is just one picture of the back yard after we dressed it up:

I also wanted to give you another picture of Caelan. He is growing hair, filling out, and is very happy almost all the time (except for the other night when he wanted to play and was hungry and kept me up until 3am - it is good for him to be hungry, though). My wife, Erika took this picture last night:

And last, but certainly not least, today is my daughter Ashtyn's Eight Year Old Birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Ashtyn!!! She is the sweetest girl in the world. She is brilliant and loving and she makes me so proud. She goes to a magnet school in our city, which is one of the best elementary schools in our state, and she has never made anything but all A's. She is a great artist and she loves Jesus. Erika also took these pictures this past week of Ashtyn with a butterfly she caught, and I thought they were great. Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

   

I thought I'd give in and join the Friday Photo postings of so many other bloggers. Eventually, I'll get a Flickr account and even upload photos into my own photo albums on my blog, but for now, I'm still doing it the easy way. This is a picture of the kids and I at the park a few weeks ago. I thought my son Peyton was swinging pretty high, so I knelt down and got the picture. I just think it looks cool.

For a serious take on the upcoming IMB Board of Trustees meeting where they will make a final decision on the private prayer language and baptism policies, read this post.

To lighten things up, however, I thought I'd post a few pictures from our weekend with a little commentary. It started with me taking the kids to Birmingham yesterday to fly in a small twin engine plane with an organization called Dreams on Wings. They provided a day of fun for families who have had a sick children by taking them for a flight over north central Alabama. Caelan qualified, so we took advantage of it. It was a blast! Here are some pictures of my kids enjoying the day with a few caption for laughs:

Here's Peyton chasing after bubbles before our flight. All the kids loved going after the bubbles and they spent about 30 minutes doing so. I have decided that for Christmas this year, I am just going to spend $5 on a bubble gun. That and some empty boxes and wrapping paper should satisfy them. Seriously, I think that they would be just as happy.

                            

The kids and I with our pilot, Brandon, just before "blast off" as my three year old called it. Brandon is the cool looking guy on the left. I'm the other not so cool looking guy on the right.

                            

Peyton and Caelan travelling first class. It goes without saying that Caelan did not stay in his seat long and ended up in my lap.

                            

Here's Ashtyn flying the plane. Brandon, our "pilot" fell asleep or something, and Ashtyn had to take us down. It was a bit bumpy, but she did a pretty good job considering it was her first time. She's a rock under pressure, just like her old man!

Kieran is looking quite presidential, no? This picture was taken right before he started freaking out over the question of should he try and pop his ears or just let the pressure build until his head exploded? The picture captured the calm before the storm, so to speak. Popping his ears was quite terrifying to him as he kept saying, "Daddy, I can't hear anything." He was actually yelling it. Soon, he was in tears, afraid he was going deaf. So, I proceeded to stick my finger in his ear to see if that would work. Nothing. I tried to tell him that his fears of a life of deafness were irrational, but he just wouldn't listen. Kids.

Today, we had our annual chuch picnic. Immediately prior to the picnic, we have our AWANA Grand Prix. This is a fun time when the dads, er, kids get to show off their slot cars that they have made and race them. Seriously, this is cutthroat. Bragging rights are on the line for the entire year and unfortunately, my daughter has a father who stinks at anything that has to do with cutting wood into any discernable shape besides a triangular door jam. So, she got her annual door jam car again. I told her that I was sorry that I wasn't very good at this. She put her arm around me and said, "That's o.k. Daddy, winning isn't everything." She then proceeded to tell me that she really wanted a trophy. Riiiight.

Well, our Door Jam on Wheels was pretty fast, even though we didn't place. We kept losing by a nose. I still think the race was rigged, but we'll have to try again next year when I get to make TWO door jams (one for Ashtyn and one for Peyton). Peyton and Kieran just raced Hot Wheels cars because they were too young. They didn't win either. The Cross family did not distinguish themselves today because they have an incomptent for a father. Hey, at least I know how to blog! They can always comfort themselves by telling their friends that their Daddy may not be good at anything, but he DOES have a blog. Sigh. :(

                              

One of the guys that helped with AWANA got a pie in the face. Hey, it's a church picnic! SOMEBODY'S got to get a pie in the face, right? It's a church tradition right behind "Throw the pastor in the pool" at the pool party. I did think this was a cool picture, though.

                           

And of course, the slip-n-slide. Peyton got a good head of steam going, but he was still thrown out at home plate. It was a bad call, but what are you gonna do?

                               

We had a HUGE turnout for the picnic with a few hundred people present - or, was it several thousand? Not that I'm counting or anything. :) Anyway, we rented several inflatables, played volleyball, basketball, and relay races, ate a lot of food, and got to spend time with our church body as well as quite a few people from our community. We also had an international contingent with visitors from Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. They were international officers from the local Air Force base and training school.  I thought that a debate on who really has a right to be in Palestine would have been fun to watch, but I decided against it at the last minute.  On a serious note, I actually got to have some spiritual conversations with them. It was really cool.

We also had a GREAT service today. It was the second largest service (after Easter of this year) in the past several years. We baptized several kids and we got to pray for healing for a child suffering from seizures and a man with cancer at the end of the service. I serve a great church that really loves the Lord and desires to honor Him. I truly am a blessed man.

I am really enjoying this photography thing. I am seeing the world through a whole new perspective and am finding that, when looking for pictures, I focus so much more on the beauty and brokeness of the world around me. As Easter approaches, I am reminded that Jesus came to redeem this world and restore us to our original purpose of glorifying God. This world can be pretty amazing as it is, so I can only imagine what God has in mind as He reconciles the world to Himself through Christ. Over the past month, I have travelled into the Himalayas and walked along the Ganges and Siene Rivers. I have wandered through Hindu and Sikh Temples and the Cathedral de Notre Dame in Paris. I have gazed upon the Eiffel Tower and eaten beignets at Cafe du Monde.  With my family, I have climbed waterfalls in Alabama and tromped among the animals at Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. It has been amazing. For reflection, I picked out a few pictures that I feel display of the beauty of God's creation, as well as the estrangement of His creation from Him. Although they are not perfect, I am interested to know what you think. Tell me which ones you like, and for those of you who know a little about photography, tell me what I might be able to do better. I'm still just getting started, so I appreciate the feedback.

India is a country that is constantly moving. I said that before in one of my previous posts, but that concept is the overwhelming take away from a visit there. Constant motion and stimulus of all the senses through the decay of the country that is all around you, as well as through it's intermittant beauty that surprises you. It is almost too much to take in for Westerners who are used to order and predictability. Aesthetically, much of India is not pleasing. It is dry and dusty, and fairly filthy. But, we had the pleasure of being able to do most of our work in the northernmost part of India - the foothills of the Himalayas (we're talking about 7000-9000 foot mountains). Here are a few pictures of the juxtaposition of beauty and decay of India, always more than meets the eye:

   

You can't travel very far in India without being overwhelmed by the incredible number of people, so many of whom are children. It is said that by 2015, 500 million of India's population will be teenagers or younger. While there is much promise for India through it's young people, there is also a great deal of poverty and suffering. The children's home that we worked with is doing an incredible job of taking in Hindu/Sikh/Muslim orphan children and placing them in their residential homes and schools. They have also opened up several after school programs. Altogether, they work with approximately 2500 children from many different backgrounds. They teach them academics, give them a vocation, love them, and share the faith with them. Many become believers and then replicate that lifestyle as they move on. The work is absolutely incredible and is so needed. While they help give so much joy to so many neglected and hurting children, the pain and loneliness is still there. Here are just a few of the pictures of the beautiful children in India that touched me deeply through their joy and the darkness that surrounds so many of them (click on the picture for a larger pop up):

Today was my 5 year old son Peyton's first basketball game. He did great! He played really tough defense and was named the Defensive Player of the Game for his team with 5 rebounds and tight defense on his man. It was really fun! After that, I took him and my three year old boy, Kieran, to the park (Shakespeare Festival) for some exploring and picture taking. I'm pretty new at the photography thing (so cut me some slack), but I thought I'd put a few of my favorite ones up. Hope you had a great weekend. It was sunny and in the 70's here!  Really nice day! (Click on the picture for the larger size.)