but guess what…..i’m taking my mom in January…can’t wait to go back. I’ve been wanting to surprise her with this for a while. 35+ years ago she was on her way to India….but met a guy in Holland (My Dad) and went to America with him instead. She never finished her dream of traveling to magical India. So excited for us to finally take a trip to my favorite country in the world together. I’m going to be a real tourist for 2 weeks. Let me know if any of you have favorite spots that we just can’t miss. :-)
My brother Josh Havens has a band called The Afters…. If you haven’t checked out their music. You should…. it’s pretty awesome. One of his songs Star Over is in the new trailer for the movie “New Years Eve” coming out next month. Starts about 1:10 if you want to check it out. I thought it was pretty Neato ;-)
We thought we were going on horseback for 3 hours…
Last month I was in a meeting in Austin with A Glimmer of Hope discussing how we were going to get to Robit Village to document the progress of the projects and capture stories there. Last year I rode to the same village and had to take a boat and ride horseback for hours to reach the remote Ethiopian Village. The Rains cause the ground to become mush and our vehicles can’t get through. I mentioned to them that I thought if we were going that far we should stay in the village to get to know the community better and capture the stories around them. If not..we would pretty much have only a few hours there and have to turn around before sunset. When we arrived on Friday….we were met halfway by a handful of village leaders with their horses ready for us to ride.. but we decided to push through with our cars and see if we could make it all the way. We did! I also really wanted the cars to stay so I would have a way to charge my equipment at night. ;-) I worked very closely with Courtney Holder throughout the weekend….following several stories. There was one after another….we were running around like a chicken. My favorite moment was asking Ketema, the village midwife, how many babies she’s delivery. Her reply, “why, every child you see here!”. She’s delivered the whole village! I told her I would love for her to deliver my babies one day. She said she would be happy to.
Pam and Mike are the proud parents of Blake Mycoskie you all know as the founder of TOMS and Paige Mycoskie the founder of Aviator Nation.
Emily and Moody Alexander have 6 kiddos and one more on the way from Ethiopia. They are doing so much in Ethiopia and I am thankful to know such a power team. Check out Emily’s blog and see what they’ve been up to. If a mom with 6 kids can impact the world…so can you.
What a week! Light The World far exceeded my expectations of what I Imagined it to be. I am so very thankful for each of our photographer/storytellers who took time to travel to Ethiopia to be part of the first workshop put on by Austin Mann and myself. We traveled to Lalibella to visit the buried churches and learn about Ethiopian culture. We then went to Gondar to photograph the Meskel Festival and then to schools to capture education stories for A Glimmer of Hope. It was so wonderful to see everyone connect on such a deep level with each other and with those they were photographing. I saw so much respect in each of our photographers….beyond thankful.
Check out their current work at the links below. We will be launching our education stories/photos in the near future….but for now….I wanted to show you a little behind the scenes from the trip. Such cool people! honored to know each of them.
I LOVED STORY CHICAGO. What a great group of creatives in the church using their gifts for the kingdom. I left inspired, challenged and encouraged going to this conference and I highly encourage others to check it out next year. It was so great to connect with Heidi Burkey, Matt Knisely, Tim Dyer , Vera Leung and finally meet The Trey Hill. Thankful to Ben Arment and staff for putting on such a great gathering and inviting me to be a part of it.
This morning I woke up thinking about the incredible organizations I have the privileged to work with….they are impacting and improving lives across the globe each and everyday. I support and advocate for the organizations I work for and I would support each one of them with my own money. Here are just a few of them…….
Warby Parker – By purchasing a pair of designer sunglasses or prescription glasses you enable the gift of vision to someone who can’t see and give them the opportunity to read, to work and to live a fuller life.
A Glimmer of Hope - Exists to help lift women and children out of extreme poverty in rural Ethiopia with an entrepreneurial model to provide clean water + schools + health clinics + micro-finance loans, one village at a time.
Makarios International – A faith-based non-profit dedicated to educational development in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and other impoverished areas of the world.
Can’t believe it’s been over 3 years since I’ve come to visit my Grandpa Havens and Aunt Nancy. They are pretty much the only family I have in the United States besides my mom, brothers and sister. Grandpa is a huge Green Bay Packers fan and today he is sportin’ one of his many cool hats. So thankful for this time to visit with them.
