Six Years ago today I hugged my family goodbye for a very long time. I was young and naive but ready for an adventure. I boarded a plane with a one way ticket to Kenya to join a team of missionary storytellers. I went as a photographer, eager to document stories throughout Africa. I remember thinking I was so mature, cultured, and ready for anything. Ha. Ha…Haaa.

The next two years were some of the most challenging years of my life. In a world saturated with media displaying despair and destruction, I made it my goal to show hope and redemption. Beauty from ashes, if you will. Some would argue that I’m still naive to think that there is hope out there…I would argue that they aren’t looking through the right lens. I’ve seen quite a few dark places in my time overseas…war, disease, famine, and death. But for every dark place, there is light.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” - Martin Luther King Jr.