Just wanted to post a quick update so you guys would know what’s going on here at Bedouins! We’ve wrapped up the main editing to the KIINI video as well as the 3 ‘vignettes’ that are going to be used as testimonials to show the impact that KIINI’s had in their community there in Kenya. We’ll be releasing some of the vignettes soon on here as soon as we get the score wrapped up and that’ll help us set the tone for the release of the whole project, which will happen in tandem with the release of our new site/brand!

Phil Moody, the designer behind the new Bedouins look, will be posting on here soon with a teaser of our new look and some insight into what changes we’re making to our brand and why…so stay tuned!

It has been a year of change so far in every way possible for us here at Bedouins. Change of location: We were in NYC last year (which was a change in-and-of itself) but now we’re back down south in Alabama again. Change of faces: The bedouins staff has slimmed down lately, going from (at one point in time) a staff of 5 to just me and some really amazing volunteers plus our board of directors. Change of identity: on the surface level, we’re rebranding, redesigning and restarting our entire web prescience (remember those amazing volunteers I mentioned – Phil Moody is the man behind the new look that’ll be coming soon!). But beneath the surface re-design, Bedouins is also doing some looking in and figuring out exactly who we are. Story telling is our thing and helping those with amazing stories that are going untold is our mission, but we’re still thinking, talking and praying about what that looks like for the future.

So all of that said, I’m really really excited about everything. From the re-brand to the look in the mirror; from the slimmed down staff to the unknown that lies ahead for Bedouins: everything about it has me buzzing. I can’t tell you how great I feel knowing that we’re going to be doing something awesome…whatever it may be. We’ve had some amazing opportunities these last few years to tell stories from all over the world. Some of them we knocked out of the park and some of them we struck out bad, but we’ve learned quite a few things and the one thing that’s stuck with me and has me grinning ear to ear as I type this blog is this: There is a never-ending supply of AMAZING stories out there that are going untold and there is a MASSIVE audience waiting to hear them.

Anyways…enough of my blog-rambling, here’s a more important update: Not only will be we launching the new site in the not-too-distant future, We’ll be launching it filled with the KIINI project as the new content! I’m so excited and overly anxious to share the project with you as well as the beautiful new site, so make sure you stay tuned, keep an eye on our twitter feed (bedouins_intl) and spread the word…we’re back with stories to tell and we would love for you to be a part of the audience.

Thanks for sticking around through our blog-drought…here’s to a new season and some really amazing new stories!

On a trip to Kenya back in late 2009 I had the opportunity to visit dozens of schools throughout the country and see the youth being educated. It was so encouraging to meet the teachers and students and to be able to see and feel their zest for learning and their understanding of how important a quality education is. We’re working on the new Bedouins website and in the process of sorting images I came across some shots from my time with the students and teachers in Kenya that I thought I’d share. Can’t wait to go back and visit all of our friends in Kenya…but until then we’ll remember them and all of the hard work that they’re doing to bring up an educated next generation of Kenyans!

This past year at Times Square Church was an amazing one that pushed us so much further in our understanding of production, the use of media to impact ministries and causes and simply in working with a team effectively. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard; changing pace from Alabama life to NYC life, changing from freelance to working on a staff, and changing from a few projects a year to a few a week…all of those things were challenges that we were faced with upon our arrival in New York. But those challenges increased us in so many ways that we’re not even fully aware of them all yet.

One of my first travel assignments for TSC was to go to Reynosa, Mexico and to document and create a ‘trip report’ of the work that’s being done there. It was the perfect transition piece into my new job at TSC because I’ve worked in Reynosa countless times over the past few years. In fact, I’ve worked at the exact canal with the same people. Here is the final multimedia piece produced as a trip-report for TSC on the Mexico project:

Mexico 2010 Trip Report from TSC Missions on Vimeo.

Okay, so it’s a bit late. But trust me, we’ve been busy. This year is going to be big. After our time ‘off’ working in NYC, we’re so excited to be back and working with Bedouins International projects again, starting with our friends over in Kenya at KIINI. We’ll be kicking this new year off (soon) with a new website, including new work, new photos, new information and a refined vision and mission statement. We’ll also be launching our first new project in over a year, the KIINI project…which is going to be amazing.

This year we have big plans, big goals and a re-ignigted passion for storytelling. The blog will be rolling again, starting now, with fresh photos, videos and stories from our time in NYC with Times Square Church. We’ll be showing you what we learned, and what we produced while we were there.

We’ll also be continuing to tweet and blog updates on the KIINI project as it goes through the many stages of production. Currently we’ve finished editing all of the photos, transcribing the audio interviews and have started sorting and cataloguing the video clips for editing. If you want to keep up please check us out on twitter: HERE or follow us at @bedouins_intl

Thanks for your support, thanks for lending us your ears and thanks for sticking around. It’s great to be back!

-S

some woman show off their shop in Kenya that they own thanks to the mirco-loans and support from KIINI