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.

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

The home where many of the boys live at the Kakabalika House in Lusaka Zambia.  These boys were ’street kids’ before being taken into the home.

Preparing a typical meal made of corn meal or ‘mealie meal’

Two of the boys cary the finished meal into the kitchen to be served for dinner.

To say that we’ve been busy is a gross understatement.  What a journey…we’ve really fallen into place here at Times Square Church and are helping to produce some killer media.  It’s been quite an adventure, starting with a few weeks of wondering what we were doing here, and if this was where we were supposed to be, quickly followed by a steady stream of meaningful work that we could see huge potential in.

The last few weeks, for me, have mostly consisted of traveling with Times Square Church on various missions projects as a journalist of sorts.  My role has evolved from simply photographer to capturing video, creating daily blogs (often video blogs, but mixed with photo blogs), creating long term projects out of the trips (known here as ‘trip reports’), capturing audio and even getting my hands dirty doing some construction and ministry work as well.  It’s been amazing, refreshing and a huge blur all together.  Now, back in NYC for the first substantial time period in what seems like months, it’s been great to sit back and catch my breath…to feel grounded again for a little while.

Although I can’t post any of the project images up here yet (because they haven’t been released on the TSC site yet), here’s a shot of me in the mirror in Mexico a few weeks ago that I’m sure they won’t use for anything or care if I share with you.  The rest of the stuff is looking incredible so far, video and photo, and I can’t wait to show you what we’ve become a part of up here.  You can check out some of the work that I’m doing in the field as I go at some of the TSC missions blogs for BrickThink and OnCall.  I’ll try to do a better job of updating this blog from the field as well, and also linking to the places that I will be blogging on during my trips.

One cool thing that I’ve learned about missions at TSC while I’ve been here is that they’re very similar to Bedouins in heart.  They team up with missionaries and non-profits around the world to aid them in their work for many of their projects.  It’s great, because not only do we get to serve Times Square Church with our media while we’re here, but also dozens of other organizations in the process.

All in all it’s been a huge blessing to have this time here and we’re excited to see where it all goes in the end.  For now, we have an item of Bedouins specific news for you, that we’ve touched on before.  Jessi and I leave in 2 WEEKS for Kenya to complete the KIINI project finally!  We are so excited, and, thanks to TSC and a project in Zambia we were able to afford my ticket over to Africa at a much discounted rate, which was a huge blessing.  We’ll be landing in Nairobi on April 26th and spending about a week in Nyeri with the folks from KIINI traveling to their communities and sites to help paint a picture of what they’re doing there and why we should help them.  I can’t wait to get there and to be back in Africa.  Honestly, I’ve missed going by Stephen Kamau

Thanks for sticking with us through our slow period (as far as blogging is concerned at least!) and know that we’re still working hard, still believe in the power of media and still plan to use it to change the world!

-S

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

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

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!

- 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!

To view it larger click HERE