G.K. Chesterton once said, “Journalism largely consists in saying ‘Lord Jones is dead’ to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.” I so desperately want to change that.

I want to encourage a generation of people to find out what is going on around them. More than that, I want them to know who is alive. I want to hear more good than bad. I want that to be news. I want to show you how a small, community-led organization in Kenya is lending a hand to their neighbors so that they can eat. I want to show you how a church blessed with a generous congregation is sending doctors to Haiti who are providing medical care and offering their services for free. I mean, isn’t that the kind of thing you want to know?

I do not want to live in a world where the only news I hear is sad and horrific and painful – where every story is filled with death and despair. Forget it. I’d rather be in heaven. But if we can share the stories of compassion, of love, and of kindness…those stories are what keep us going. They are the only ones that keep humanity worth fighting for, and for me, the only ones that keep media worth living for.

I’m sitting in the terminal at the Atlanta airport and thinking about the months to come. The last two have been nothing less than insane and the coming months look to be much of the same. I have to admit that it’s the ‘organized-chaos’ of my life that fuels me, keeps me moving. It’s the slow times that are difficult for me.

Here’s a quick recap for those of you who have noticed a lack of updates on the blog lately: Jessi and myself, joined by my friend Taylor moved to New York city in January where we began work at Times Square Church in the missions department. We now live in the Bronx and have braved two blizzards so far. We’ve become a part of the new missions media team, joined by our new friends Cheyne, Erika and Arthur. Together our job this year is to use our skills in media to give TSC’s missions a face.

We’ll be going on trips to shoot and film, putting together new websites, banners brochures etc. and producing a variety of short films and ‘field reports’ to show the world what not only Times Square Church is doing, but what God is doing through them around the world.

To be completely honest it’s been a tough transition for me so far. I’m so used to being on my own, with a team doing our thing. We’ve traveled, produced and created and always with the freedom that is fairly unique.

Since coming to TSC I’ve had to learn to not only work with a large team (much larger than Bedouins has ever been), but to work under a whole organization with several voices and levels of approval. It’s not in any way been a bad transition…just a hard one. I still want to just drive forward at a 110 miles per hour, and I’ve had to learn to slow down, get approval and make sure that not only am I happy with the project, but is the project head, and his boss, and the communications director etc.

Like I said in earlier posts, I believe that God has brought us here to grow us, and I still stand by that. This year will be hard. It has been hard. But it has also been good and, I think, will continue to be good.

Keep us in your prayers and continue to keep up with us here. Now that we’re settled in I think I’ll be back on here more regularly.

Now…I’m off to Mexico for my first field trip with TSC. I’ll be updating a few different TSC blogs from the field (links to come) and hopefully I’ll be able to post a few images on here as we go!

Thanks for your support, your prayers and for taking the time to keep up with us. You make everything that we do possible (seriously).

-S

Yeah! Bedouins International will be flying to Kenya on April 25th to spend 10 glorious days with our sweet friends at the Kiini Sustainable Initiative in Nyeri, Kenya. We will be photographing and capturing video of their endeavors there, including helping out communities through micro-credit and agri-business education. They also educate these communities on how and why to refrain from gender violence by showing them the importance of women, and educate the people on HIV/AIDS prevention while giving support to the orphans left by this epidemic.

This trip has been a year in coming, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally get to see it through. These people so desperately need our help to share their story and get support to continue helping the people of  the Mount Kenya region (including Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Maragua, Thika, Laikipia and Murang’a…and many more to come!)

This project still needs your support. If you are interested in giving towards this worthy project, please visit bedouinsinternational.org and click “Donate” (or just click the donate button on the left sidebar!). 100% of your donation will go to the KIINI project.

Thanks again for your ongoing support. This project would never have been possible without you!