George & Tommie

George and Tommie are two very special people to me.  They, in fact, are my grandparents.  This past weekend my family and I went up to New York to help celebrate my grandfather's 89th birthday!  This was a birthday I really didn't want to miss...I mean 89!  It was a really special time for all of us.  While I was in Kenya, my grandfather went to the doctors for a check up where they discovered cancer.  He is also suffering from emphysema and it seems now that one or the other will eventually take him from us.  So, this is the time of life to celebrate him and to enjoy him....to ask him questions about his life and to soak in his answers.  Its the time of life to laugh with him and to hug him.  Its the time to make sure you know him and if there are things you don't know about him, to ask (I found out my great grandfather was also a photographer!).  Its the time of life to make sure you don't regret how you spent it with him.  His birthday was fantastic.  My extended and immediate family and I joined together at my grandparents house to have a bbq and sing happy birthday to "Granddad." My mom baked him a "surprise" cake which has been a family tradition ever since I can remember.  My grandma started it years ago where she would bake two round cakes and before she iced them one on top of the other, she would sneak in between the cakes little treasures for us to find.  Sometimes they would be pieces of candy or money, and other times it would be jewelery or silly jokes.  My mom filled this surprise cake with little trinkets for my grandfather.  One of which was a little pin of the plane he flew in WWII, the B-17.  At night we all spent together going through an old suit case full of pictures and letters written between my grandparents during the war.  It was precious.  My grandparents are coming up on their 65th wedding anniversary.  How incredible is that?  They are quite the testimony to the word COMMITMENT.  My grandparents met on a blind date in 1945...a soldier in the army and a nurse.  The typical WWII love story.  6 months after their first blind date they were married and my grandmother was swept off her feet and on to a new adventure and a life with George Ahrens.  They still look at each other the way I imagine they looked at each other on their first date.  I was blessed to be able to capture some amazing pictures of them together this past week and the house they've lived in for most of their life...

Coming soon...

I am excited about my next post...this little bundle of joy!  But first, off to NYC to see one of my friends from Kenya! {ta-ta for now!}

kiki

I met Kiki years ago while I was still in middle school.  She was the leader on a high school missions trip that my older brother was attending to Ghana, West Africa.  Hearing all the fun stories and adventures he went on that summer, I decided that I too wanted to see what Africa was all about.  The following summer I threw some clothes in a bag with my passport and about 12 disposable cameras to join my brother and Kiki in Africa.  I saw her love for Africa in the ways she would hold a child, hug an elderly woman, or join in the laughter of the Ghanaians...and trust me...Kiki can laugh!  Throughout that missions trip, the joy she had for Africa spilled over to me.  I fell in love with Africa with the same kind of love she too had.  I still remember standing at the airport saying teary goodbyes to my new friends and this continent that had captivated me.  Kiki noticed my tears and came up to me, hugged me, and with a wink said "Don't worry... you'll be back!"  Thankfully I was blessed to join Kiki three more times to Ghana!  I enjoyed all the prep work it took to get ourselves to Africa...hours of shopping and packing, weighing bags, running to the embassy, planning for pre-trip retreats together.  Before long Kiki became an amazing friend and mentor to me.  She poured into my life countless words of wisdom over the years...words that I still hold with me and have helped mold me and my walk with the Lord.  The other day in church I heard a pastor talk about making sure we have friends in our lives that will tell us the hard truth and challenge us in areas in our lives that we may not want to be challenged on.  That is Kiki for me.  Her name came to mind so many times as I listened to that sermon.  I am so very thankful for all our trips to Africa together...for her introducing me to Africa and all the joys that are within...for all our many talks and tears shared.  Kiki came to visit me this past weekend since I haven't seen her since my return from Kenya.  We picked up right where we left off...sipping coffee (Kiki is THE biggest Starbucks fanatic I know as you can see in the pictures), walking around the lake by my house, staying up till 1am on my back porch talking and sharing our lives with each other.  She still asks me the hard questions...and for that I am so thankful!

Continuing the story

If you have read the 'about me' section of my site, you know that I recently returned from THE biggest adventure of my life...Africa.  I went to Africa in January 2009 as a missionary storyteller with Africa Inland Mission (AIM).  It was incredible.  It was life changing.

I miss being on the field...in the action...telling the story of what the Lord has done and what He is doing in Africa.  I miss traveling through Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Rwanda, Egypt, and North Africa.  I miss seeing lives changed, broken hearts healed, and the suffering redeemed.    I miss capturing the joy on the faces of children sitting for hours in a church pew singing praises to God.  I miss walking next to new Christians and hearing about their faith through the words of my translator.  I miss stepping foot in a foreign land and knowing that I had a mission....to use my camera to capture all the things I now miss and to share it all with you.

Just because my location has changed back to the United States does not mean that I have to stop sharing these stories with you all.  No, my calling continues even through this new site.  I want to use this site as an opportunity to periodically share with you my pictures from Africa so that you too can be in the action, traveling with me through Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Rwanda, Egypt, and North Africa.  You can come with me and see these lives changed, broken hearts healed, and the hurting redeemed.  You too can see the joy on the faces of  children.

Come...step with me into a foreign land...this is Africa: