With the end of the year (and the decade!) only hours away, I thought that I would take some time and update the Bedouins Blog. I’ve been out on vacation for the past few weeks and have neglected the blog, so, for one last time in 2009, welcome to the Bedouins Blog World.

I’ve been thinking a lot about next year lately; how could I not with the big move coming up. There are a lot of changes in sight for Bedouins this next year…most of which weren’t even on our radar a few weeks ago. Obviously Jessi and I moving to New York means some big changes…most of which I blogged about a few weeks back. But beyond that there are more big things coming.

One of the big changes, which I’ll go into more detail about soon, will be the shift from just providing media back to telling stories. We started by telling stories and using those stories to change the world. It was a simple, but very clear vision. This year we’re going to think a lot about that as we reflect and regroup during our time with Times Square Church.

Some things to expect: You’ll see a new site coming up, a new emphasis on the blog and on story telling and, hopefully, a much more refined vision as we explore, grow and venture into new things in 2010.

I hope you’ll continue to be a part of our story as we disover what adventures lie ahead. You are the people who make our story possible…the ones following it…reading it…investing in it.

Happy New Years from the Bedouins Staff!

it’s crazy to lay here in a nice bed in a nice house with my nice new christmas gifts typing on my nice computer and looking at this photo that I took in October.  There are people living here right now.  They didn’t have a Christmas.  They dug through garbage again for stuff that they could sell in order to survive.  To them, yesterday was just another day of digging.  Pretty crazy to think about that.  Even crazier not to let things like that change you.  This new years, be changed…and in turn…change the world around you.

- S

When we started Bedouins International we were prepared for anything. We had no clue what it meant to own a non-profit, or how we were going to do it.

As the years of progressed we’ve learned. We’ve slowly settled into a place of comfort knowing that we have the reigns and that we’re in charge.

All in all I think that’s a very dangerous place to be. You become complacent, you don’t take change easily and you’re not prepared to do what needs to be done to carry the mission forward, unless it’s easy and goes along with what you’ve been doing.

While I was in Africa God put on my heart a lot of changes that needed to take place in Bedouins. Most of them had to do with leadership and stepping up into our roles here. A lot of them involved tough choices or uncomfortable conversations. All of them were good for building character and for learning how to become what we needed to become. I came back to the states knowing that this was a good time for Bedouins, that, if we were willing to follow, we were about to enter a new chapter-a chapter full of surprises and excitement. Most of all, a chapter that was fulfilling because we were falling into our place as an organization doing what we were called to do.

I had no clue what that meant or looked like realistically.

Last week I got a call from the Missions Pastor of Times Square Church (the church that sent me to Egypt and Paul to Scotland last month). He said that he had an idea to run by me, and he was obviously really excited.

The conversation led to him offering the Bedouins staff all positions as paid interns there in Manhattan working through TSC for a year to tell stories of the work that they’re doing around the world.

We said yes.

What does this look like for Bedouins?

We’re not entirely sure, but we know that it’s where God’s leading us for this year. Mostly likely it’ll look something like this:

We will have a year to grow as artists and individuals. In New York we will be mentored and grown by a highly successful missions organization, which will help better equip us to be leaders of Bedouins as we move forward with the mission. We will learn logistics, and management from people who have been doing it for a long time, and then when our year internship is up we will hit the ground with Bedouins, applying all that TSC has taught us to the way that we lead it.

That’s the best guess that I have.

There will be some noticeable changes right away, the most prominent being that Paul and Josh will be staying down south due to prior commitments, while Jessi, Taylor Gonzalez and I will be heading up to Manhattan (on January 16th).

So please stay “tuned” as we enter a year of unknown and as we re-embrace the excitement and adventure of letting go of the need to control everything and dive into a chapter of freedom.

Thanks for being a part of this and we’ll be back with more soon!

With the rise of the fast-food industry in recent decades and the availability of so much processed food in mass-market grocery stores, the distance between people and organic food is increasing. Sustainable farming and organic food movements are spreading across the nation as a reaction against the trend to be apathetic about where your food comes from, how nutritious it is, or how much it actually costs to get from the farm where it was grown to your local grocery store. Jones Valley Urban Farm is a part of this movement of back-to-the-basics local farming. JVUF is a non-profit organization based in Birmingham that exists to educate the community about healthy food and give people the opportunity to grow their own food the natural way.

JVUF’s vision is to “be a model sustainable urban farm that teaches youth and the Birmingham community about sustainable agriculture and nutrition through outdoor experiential education.” JVUF grows food at a variety of locations, including 3 acres of vacant property downtown and 7 acres of land at Mount Laurel. Their community garden rents 4×8 foot plots to 30 members who then grow their own organic produce and flowers on it under the guidance of JVUF staff. From the months of May through October, JVUF sells their food, flowers, and herbs to the public at the After Work Farm Stand and Pepper Place Farmers Market. JVUF is also involved in a Food Box program which provides family-sized boxes of fresh fruits, vegetables, and healthy recipes at low cost through a weekly subscription.

Jones Valley Urban Farm does much more than just grow and sell food. They also host a variety of educational programs that inform everyone from pre-schoolers to students to adults about gardening, sustainable farming, and nutrition. Their Second Saturday Education Series invites families, adults, gardeners, and anyone else who wants to play in the dirt to learn more about gardening! The next one is this Saturday, December 12, and the topic is Hunger in the Real World, so visit their website if you’d like more information on that class or any of their other great programs.

In an interview in the Tannehill Trader, Executive Director Edwin Marty shares his hopes of changing Birmingham through Jones Valley Urban Farm: “The vacant land all over Birmingham could be the very earth that feeds the people that aren’t getting enough fresh fruits and vegetables. And it could give those same people jobs and a way to make an honest living. Imagine if Birmingham grew 50% of all its own food!” It seems that JVUF is well on its way to making those hopes into realities as it continues to educate the community and promote healthy food in practical ways.

Each week Bedouins International posts a story. Maybe it’s one we’ve helped to tell, or a story we hope to tell, or it maybe it’s just a story we think deserves to be told. In any case, we hope you find them inspiring and motivating. Read more stories here.

So in honor of our story telling tonight I wanted to post an image from the body of work that I’ve been editing through lately. I’m really excited about wrapping this stuff up and getting it to TSC so that we can start sharing some of the stories with you guys, but until then, here are the pyramids. I hope to see you all out here tomorrow night!

To view it larger click HERE