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

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!

Living in the city has been incredible. There is such beautiful diversity here that I really don’t think you can find anywhere else. And the people are wonderful. New Yorkers really seem to take care of each other for the most part. I love that. It’s like family.

We’ve been working with the Missions department of Times Square Church, and I think it has been a growing experience for all of us. We are asking questions we have never had to ask before – like how can I fit my art and what I do to really serve these people? I mean we have always used our art to serve, but I think now we are learning to use it differently, if that even makes sense.

I dunno. But what I do know is that we are learning and growing and, I hope, becoming better artists AND servants in the process. Please pray for us as we learn how to be humble and patient and wise…

Sorry for the belated update but please keep in touch – update on Kiini coming soon!!!

Love,

Jessi

B Metro is an independent city magazine with a unique voice and perspective full of colorful stories about living in Birmingham. Stories focus on local personalities, the arts, dining, travel and healthcare. We are very excited to be a part of this up and coming mag!

To read the full article and see photos from our travels, click here.

In September of 2008 we had the distinct pleasure of partnering with Humanitarians Initiating Progress in Haiti in order to help them tell the story of Haiti and HIPH’s work there.

The incredible women we went down there with (who founded and run HIPH) landed in Haiti the day before the quake, but thankfully made it to the north of the country before the quake hit. We have heard from them and they are fine. However we have another dear friend who went with us on that first trip in 08, who fell in love with the country and people, and who has gone back and forth to serve them ever since. He was in Port Au Prince when the quake hit, and we have not heard from him. Please keep him, and all of the people of Haiti, in your prayers as we wait to see what develops.

Love love love, The Bedouins

From our first trip to Haiti…

In October I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Cairo, Egypt with a team from Times Square Church (the Church that we will be working for this next year in New York). There were two distinct purposes of the trip: to send a medical team into areas that needed medical attention and to send an evangelism team to work with and support the local church.

I spent the first part of my time in Egypt with the Evangelism team documenting the work that they were doing, which varied from teaching kids clubs, to leading worship services with local churches, and much more. We spent a day working in an area of town where the Sudanese Refugees have been living for the past ten years. It was a really incredible experience, to get to go visit families from the local church in their homes and to pray for them.

We spent the majority of that week doing a wide variety of things, all aimed at sharing the gospel and supporting and encouraging the local church. It was beautiful to see a group of people give up their money and time to fly across the world and invest into the lives of others, not knowing day to day what they’d be doing, only that whatever it was, they were going to do it well and do it with the love of Christ.

After my time with the evangelism team I ventured across town to meet up with the “On Call” (medical) team. When I arrived they were doing free medical clinics for a Sudanese Refugee Primary school. It was a really awesome thing, working all day long to give the kids the same sort of medical screenings that we would’ve gotten going into a new year of school. These kids may not have seen a doctor in a long time and it was obvious that the parents and teachers were very grateful for the blessing.

Later in the week the two teams joined together at the school and while the On Call team was doing the medical clinics the Evangelism team performed skits, gave testimonies and sang songs with the kids.

We ended the week by going to the Garbage City, a place where people live in and amongst the garbage, making their living by digging through it and finding anything of value to sell. It was a very dirty and very very poor place…removed from the city and outcasted by society. We provided a full day of games and bible lessons for kids and just spent some time loving them. It was a beautiful way to end the trip…trying to teach these egyptian kids how to play whiffle ball and American football, and just hanging out and loving people who so seldom are even acknowledged.

Times Square Church sends missions trips all over the world, and it was a blessing and a privilege to get to be a part of this one to Egypt. They are doing some really great work and are reaching out and touching lives in a tangible way through their efforts there.

As I got into my taxi and left my hotel for the airport, headed for Kenya alone, I was really sad to leave my time with the team there in Egypt. It was an amazing period and a wonderful story to be a part of. I’m so excited about joining up with them this next year and can’t wait to see what stories come from our new partnership!

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!

- S

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!

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.