Sound, Light & Dark, Freedom – a photography blog

 i love that God made beauty

and our sense to sense it

what is this blog? 

A photography and journal entry collection of of our time in Washington with all three World Race America squads.

Debrief and awakening were life-changing and centered around discovering our God-given identity.
Sound, Light & Dark, Freedom - the senses of Christ's beauty and glory. An incredible Baptism moment...

 

Sound

We walk down a street in Seattle and with my flesh empty and my Spirit sensitive.

I see hope as God puts a deaf woman in front us. (That’s her in the above photo) and we have the only person able to connect to her through the language of signs. In her lonely world, Annie speaks in kindness without sound. Though I believe the sound of love resounded from this spontaneous moment.  

Annie said this woman wanted us to buy her McDonalds, in reality she tried to get us to buy her cigarettes. Even so, in this interruptible moment we let a houseless deaf woman lead us. We followed her as she marched quickly up the street.

This is the team in motion. 

All 30 World Race America participants lived out #lifeisministry #ministryislife. It would seem wherever we went God had a specific person for us to encourage.

I’d love to share some more of those encounters with you, as evangelism to strangers has become one of my favorite things. It’s not forcing something. It’s loving people with the person of Hope and Light and seeing them, calling them by name. 

It’s learning that every person reflects a part of the Father’s heart, that from every person we have something to learn. (like this freestyle rapper who tried to get our attention)

Can you hear the sound of the Shepherd’s voice? The sound of the cry that He wants you to go towards?

El Roi – The God who sees

Stopping for lunch on our way to Washington, was a Mexican family. This bright joy named Natalie complimented us. The 6 year old, Eli, asked if I was a Youtuber. Raquel talked in Spanish to the mom. I happened to bring my Bible out. Natalie asked to see my Bible that looks like an “old book.”

I showed Eli where Malaysian kids had scribbled on it, and asked him to as well. He was so excited. The oldest daughter was a tomboy sweet soul. “God bless you.“

On our way out of Washington, I feel led to pray for this Walmart and town of smoke. I think if I were to just talk to one of them maybe it could usher in Kingdom light and hope.

I see him from afar, and his dog. 

Kenz offers one of her tacos and we take him an orange and he’s kind and real. He can’t work because of covid and how it inhibits him from getting essential documents.

We prayed for him and he said well that felt good. Raquel said he teared up. He said people have given him Bibles and have prayed for him, but none stop to talk. He said be safe and God with you. 

For two hours my friends sat with these homeless people Raquel saw out of the corner of her eye when we went to get cookies. Kylie said Jesus would just sit and listen, and so they did. Lauren from afar noticed their hands were crossed and prayed they would change their body language. Annie minutes later was convicted to change her body language. 

Selah, an infant, and her mom come say hi to us as we sit outside for lunch. They are staying in Washington because their house is in danger of the Oregon fires. Hannah Rose, I’ll show you her later, feels led to pray for them.

We go over and after we do pray, the mom sheds tears saying it’s been really hard and that we made her day even though she’s no longer religious. This was one, I didn’t have the desire to be interruptible but my friend Hannah and God cared so much.

TT, the founder of WRA who has done 40 day fasts only water and chosen to live homeless at times, is the most bold evangelist. So when she asked me to go sharing Jesus with her I was intimated. But once we did, I felt less afraid and more bold than ever.

I pointed out a man in a pink turban. I saw TT literally chase after and go to extreme lengths without fear to reach him. She knocked on the door and opened it. He didn’t speak English, but this was the same guy Eva saw in the grocery store. Jesus chases after us like that, oh how he loves us.

With TT, a local, Hannah Rose, and one of my favorites on WRA Eva (I wrote a blog about her), we talked to many others during one lunch.

Like HB, one blue eye. God designed him just that way. He sits by a door opening it for every person that walks by. He seems to be miserable inside yet he gives himself each day trying to be good to others. He sees good and bad in everyone; yet he doesn’t like most people. He’s had a hard life and says he focuses on reality rather than God. TT, says what about the reality of us talking to you right now about Jesus.

Eva hugged, crooked toothed HB, like there wasn’t a worldwide pandemic. I suggested that she share her story about saving a girl held up by gun point in a car (read her blog about it!). Eva has this toughness that could relate to him in power.

She offered to buy him a meal the next day. He said he’s never had a lady buy him a meal before… The next day she did in fact show up. I told him that God loves him and is proud of him and wants to give back all he has gives to others.

Other moments included praying over an open and kind guy in the store named Angel that was highlighted to multiple of us. We also sat with a tough guy, sweet but bitter, and Pam asked about his relationship with his father and Heavenly Father which caused him to open up about a whole lot (that we should intercede for.)

One of my very favorite interactions, was with a man named Forrest. This was on a day we intentionally went out for outreach. 

Lauren thinks maybe we should leave the Bible here on the gas station building’s ledge. And I say I was just wondering if we should go give this Bible to that man in the truck (he had just walked by me).

So we go, in a little fear – you know us ladies with a sunglassed man in a truck. He receives the New Testament Bible and prayer so well…afterwards he says he’s spiritual but not religious. And I share how going in nature I met with God (not very eloquently but nonetheless with more of TT’s boldness). He’s all for the positivity. I tell him if your spirituality ever leads you to read that Bible maybe start in John. He’s trying to pay off debt and works a lot. So Lauren suggests a Christian financial guy, and he writes it down with eagerness! 

We pray one day he’ll open that Word in a time of searching for Jesus, and He’ll encounter the living God. 

Life and ministry are powerful when you let God go before you. So we ask the Holy Spirit what he wants to highlight, often before going out. 

This time, I prayed and imagined a man, so I drew him: an older man sitting on a bench with one leg over his knee and I added the cigarette last minute – I knew I had to. I thought he’d have a hat.

The hat matched his beautifully kind presence and poise when I saw him right by where we parked in Lighthouse missions’ parking lot. His eyes were watered royal softness as he told his story.

Lauren sees a vision when we pray of a black rock formed by the waves of life, God is his rock. Hannah Rose prays about the prodigal son – he says “it’s uncanny! Our last two groups have been about the prodigal.” He invited us to the church alcohol group. I just can’t believe God let me see him before we got there, so that we would go talk to him. Because God wanted to say I see you, I’m proud of you. 

Also that day inside the gas station was a man who gave us the keys to the bathroom. I wasn’t sure if the Lord wanted me to talk to him. Lauren and Hannah encouraged me to after the second time we went there. I gave him a note about trust that I had written beforehand and also a purple sea shell. I blessed him and found out he was from India. 

 Evangelism with my brothers and sisters in Christ gives me so much courage. Even so, one day I decided to stay back from the whole crew to have alone time. 

I took the weirdest way walking and in that exact moment, an old man came walking out of his house. I followed behind. My heart is now open to the doors God opens, but I wasn’t going to force it. 

I said hi, walked past him, he kept talking to me. He’s done missions in Haiti and has a disabled wife. And he prayed for me. I prayed “thanks for his missions work he’s done and that he’s still a missionary here being Your fire to his family. Let him play banjo again, don’t let his vision ever be lost”-he thanks God everyday for it.

He owned a barber shop and did people’s hair and played bluegrass gospel music. He said no one is better than anyone, everyone knows him in this town. And in his prayer “a lot of people are hurting right now.”

With Covid, social butterflies like this old man are brought into isolation, so it was a joy to fellowship with him. 

Light & Dark

In worship the Holy Spirit in my imagination:

I still cross crossed and sip a thin plastic wooden colored bowl. I drink the cup lowly and offer it to the lowly homeless person across from me

I’ve been to Seattle numerous times, and I have never seen the city darker. Fasting, I could sense spiritual darkness that made me want to cry. The weight on this security officer. Thousands of people isolated and in economic distress and social unrest and without hope that’s bigger.  

 Erica, from B-squad, during testimony time, started crying as she spoke about the urgency we need to have for people to know Hope and Healing and Light in Jesus Christ. Urgency

Ryan, a World Race Alum, had a vision of Americans around campfires spreading Jesus in America. Due to covid, the numbers on WRA went from 5-30 missionaries, really 5-550 (since 550 missionaries were sent home). 

I can honestly say I’m glad to be typing this in Vegas rather than Africa right now. The Lord is spreading Revival here and let me tell you together we experienced joy and freedom after breaking strongholds in prayer that I’ve never seen. We danced. And danced. In bliss, everything in the world faded away and the Kingdom of God was Here!

Teresa took off her shoes, and the holy ground thing in Exodus keeps coming up. Like Susan said, we have to die to ourselves and our identity, become holy (by the work of the Cross) to let Him rush in. And while we were praying one of the window shades fell down and landed on Teresa’s shoe

Im sitting as the sun hits the contours of my face at the bench you made for me. And the trees circling the sky. Information after information surrounds my head, new experience after new experience. Where am I, I don’t know. But in the Father’s love. And the Spirit like the wind coming and going from where, you don’t know. And Jesus’ heart for broken people 

 The joy of the Lord is my strength when Oregon is burning and the darkness surrounding. Light in community, depth in reunity 

____

If you haven’t been broken yourself how can you begin to walk into the brokenness of the world?

Jonathan (the pastor who led Awakening) says people come back from the Race and are broken but then experience the Garden. But you leave the garden and see a world not like it; your job becomes making the rest of Earth like that garden

spreading light in the forest

Idaho was really a tipping point of all the identity issues that wrecked me in the last year and the abandonment of my life to show me it all was worth it. You found him in this Chuttes and Ladders process of falling in breakdowns and rising in seeing moments like your Indonesian friend coming to Christ, or that “ask the Lord” day in Idaho, or when God lifted your character and gave you poetry in Utah.  

Being broken for prostitutes, being broken in the enemy’s lies, and the state of the world it mattered. – the Lord will lead you out of that dark spake…it is there where you learn to depend and there where  I have to ask for more healing 

 

Fear  not,  I  am  with  you

There’s this oxygen following from my quickly pulsing heart out my lips and nostrils. Acutely alive, I’m on fire for Christ. And the fire hasn’t went out for like 8 whole years; it’s only got stronger. And God’s only got better. Jesus bigger. The Spirit more powerful. The Father more loving. One of my Race squadmates said it’s real tonight.

It’s real.

I took a deep breathe knowing it’s true. Partaking in the foolishness of Christ as Ashes would say, who am I to judge? Waves 

Freedom

Bellingham and its most popular park was packed full. We had minutes until we would miss the sunset, and thereby miss the moment for the biggest moment. Two parking spots opened right in front.

Back in my first week in Indonesia with Ashes our squad leader and Kenz my OG teammate, I didn’t think I’d be watching Ashes baptize Kenz in these waters. 

Boy, was it beautiful. May this photography point you to what it’s like to receive new life and freedom through trusting your life to Jesus –  the one who overcame death on the 3rd day to show you the Father loves you and cares about everything you’ve been through…

Crowned

 The stories that God entrusted me to hear changed me forever.

As promised, this is Hannah Rose. She joined our team for our time in Bellingham, because she couldn’t wait until she launched in October; she wanted to do something now!

She left saying she had never felt this free

When we all prayed and laid hands on her, I saw a vision (imagined vividly) her look up with such joy, wonder, willingness at God. 

God has favorites, we all are. 

I DONT TRUST ME, BUT I DO TRUST CHRIST IN ME.

It was Hannah who came with me to approach two girls who were worshipping at this park on another day. We all prayed for each other and worshipped together. They were on fire. I had my big talk in front of everyone that night, and they were leading a worship service that night. This was the peace and freedom I needed to do something that scared me. One prayed – it’s all about you God not us!

HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE FOR ME AND US ALL 

You lack nothing

Maybe debriefs aren’t an anxiety inducing burden but actually God trying to fill you up with more blessing to bless others.

Maybe you’re meant to bless others now, maybe He’s ministering to your heart. Maybe He just wants to enjoy this refreshing cool sea air with you and blue splashing of the waves. That is who you are through Him, this ocean of His cool and refreshing grace lives inside of you like a spring to fill others up

Well I spent my time with daughters of the King who deserve as image bearers to be given so much

-People spoke death into her from a young age but Christ Jesus will show her completely entirely victorious and I think God let me be a part of writing that story for her. 

-I thought gold oh thats something I made up, nope 2 seconds later Ryan gives a prophecy about gold arrows. And a gold pot and feet with gold dust. And the men pray over her to restore what was done. We passed on our tiaras to those we love

-I said I felt such peace and protective love for her as I held her hand and prayed (glory in that moment). Lauren said she felt energy coming from my hand holding hers in that moment

This cool sea breeze takes my breathe away

____

Because when he’s in me everything else dissipates his Spirit hovers over me like this fog slowly hovers and moves across this reflective pond.

 

The beginning.