Well, we arrived....That's always a good start I think. Actually that isn't entirely true, we all arrived, but two members of the team couldn't get into Jordan unfortunately, so we sent them to Tel-Aviv to get some visas from the U.S. Embassy there. Other than that we are all here, finished some training, and now are having a blast exploring the city and getting acquainted with the culture!

The sights are incredible, the history amazing, the differences between the East and West parts though.....Wow. H&M in Jordan?? A Breighton watch shop? Check out the photos to see a bit!

We met with a man who works with Syrian refugees north of Amman and are going to try and meet up with him to work with the refugees for the next bit.

In C.
Nick,
The Towheaded Rambler

Think about that question for a moment.....is it worth it? The odds are overwhelming, whenever progress is made it is celebrated then forgotten about because of some new horror. An estimated 600,000-800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across borders each year. [1] Such a huge number..... It seems to beg the question, "What could I do? It's too big of a problem." When we decide to take a stand against injustice, are we easily dissuaded?  Do we give up when we hit the first wall? 

Some of you may have heard the argument "Why do anything to stop trafficking? It's too big of a problem to solve, so why bother?" and on the surface, it may seem like a valid point. But it isn't. Success is being made by the many organizations, both NGO's and Governmental, that are working to combat this. See for yourself, read the updates from IJM, the International Justice Mission. Progress may seem small, but change always begins small. 

Instead of giving up because we don't succeed instantly (this is the topic of another post/video I'm working on, stay tuned!) keep going! Believe that we can make a difference, especially when God is on our side. Watch the video below, it's incredible. 

I pray that you are filled with a burning fire to go out and take a stand against injustice!

In Christ,
Nick, the Towheaded Rambler

After about 15 hours of editing, the video is DONE!!! Enjoy, share, and donate if you feel led to! You can do that on my "Partner With Me!" page or on our team page V4VMiddleast.Wordpress.com

We're going to do a blooper reel soon, so stay tuned!

My team to Jordan and Israel is insanely awesome, if the video doesn't show it enough.

Thanks for your prayers!
Nick, the Towhe

Well YWAM has been incredible! Lots of awesome friends made, lots of great lessons being taught and an all around good time! In the past couple weeks we have learned about Spiritual Warfare, our Beliefs and how they matter, Godly Relationships and now we are studying theology and how to evangelize cross-culturally!

Other than studying bible courses, taking photos and making videos, my day is pretty awesome! Here are some of the photos I've taken recently.

Unfortunately, disaster has fallen. 
Nothing too drastic, just my computer going kaput! For all you who want to know details, here's an image of the screen....

Sooooo. I think I need a new hard drive. If any of my tech friends read this and are all "Nope! You just need ABC and D" then great! Let me know! Otherwise I need some new parts! Especially when it comes to a media school that I'm in, where the focus is on producing photos and videos to highlight injustice around the world, a computer is somewhat vital!

Prayer that I would get the parts is awesome, but if you feel led to donate some cash so I can purchase them, feel free! 

(Click here to donate!)

Thanks a ton for your prayers and please keep them coming! I can't wait to see what the Lord does in these next couple months!

In Christ,
Nick, the Towheaded Rambler

First of all, this has been an absolutely AMAZING week that I've been here in Kona with YWAM! Wow, has it only been 8 days? Seems like I've known these people forever. 

Yesterday we, my fellow classmates and I, had a tour of the island. We saw fields of igneous rock, waterfalls, lava tubes, an active volcano with steam pouring forth, the black sands beach and a twister! A highlight reel of the day is below, short since it was a class assignment. 

This past week has been mind blowing. I've seen the Lord at work in so many ways and have seen so many lives touched by Him, so amazing even the most ardent skeptic would be hard pressed to disbelieve!

If any of you haven't seen the film "Father of Lights", I'd highly recommend you go the their website and BUY the dang thing. Such an incredible and powerful movie showing the power of God.

Our outreach locations were announced!! After a 12 hour day of driving around the island in vans, we all crashed in the classroom, demolishing about 7 large Costco pizzas, before we heard about where our outreach teams are going. Each team will travel to the country listed and maybe a bit into the surrounding area. 

Team 1 - Jordan
Team 2 - Kenya
Team 3 - Thailand

Even though we prayed and wrote down where we want to go, none of the final decisions have been made. I can't tell you where I'm going yet, but stay tuned! Feel free to leave a comment guessing where I will go! ;)

In Christ, 
Nick, the Towheaded Rambler

Wow. A post on Nick's blog! I know you are all dying to read this new post. "Where has Nick been?" you might ask since my last post was in August, "Has he decided to move to the middle of nowhere and remove himself from the internet?" No. "Has he gone on a trip into outer space to see what it is really like?" No. "Has he forgotten he has a blog?" Yes, I pretty much just forgot that I had this blog. I normally don't have much to say anyways, so posts are sporadic at best! 

So what spurs this new post after a couple months? Why now? 

Well you might know that I am leaving in a few days, Thursday the 3rd of January to be exact. I am beginning a new adventure, one that will undoubtedly change my life. Since I'm sure you all want to hear about my life, I'll sum up the past year, but mostly the past couple months. If you don't want to hear about the past and just about the future then scroll down until you hit the giant text that says "THE FUTURE!". 

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING SECTION MAY BE A BIT RANDOM. 

I graduated from High School this past school year, but decided to take a gap year. So for the 2012-2013 school year I am doing little more than traveling the world, taking photos and making movies, and hanging out with friends. Sound fun? Well you'll have to read about that in "THE FUTURE!" section. The past few months have been a whirlwind. Full of college applications, tests, working around our ranch, taking photos, hanging out with friends, enjoying my family, and celebrating the Christmas season. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I love the holiday cheer, the friendship, the lights, the food, the cold (to some extent). It's hard to say why, but I just love it! 

(This song does a pretty decent job summing up the feeling I have about Christmas)

Aaaand one more. I just love Curt Smith's "This is Christmas". So different, yet undoubtedly filled with holiday spirit!

Ok. Enough about Christmas, though you're all dying to know what I got I am sure. My aunt and uncle gave me a great and useful gift that will be used very soon, sunscreen! (You'll find out why in the "THE FUTURE!" section. Am I hyping it up enough?) My parents gave me a joint Christmas/Birthday/Graduation gift which was an external flash for my camera! Yay! 

I also bought a new lens for my camera, a 70-200 f4 with IS! I'm proud to finally own an L-series lens! 

Both of these things came in super handy this past Saturday when I was the second shooter for a friend's wedding. Congrats Dani and Sean! Interesting note, I'd met his family through debate before realizing it was his family. Then I show up to the wedding and was all "Whaaa? Whoah." neat little connection. I'd post some photos from the wedding but I don't have any done yet. So you'll have to check my Facebook page for those at some point.

On Friday night there was a murder at our house! Ok so no one died, and it was just a murder mystery party, but it was super fun and I got to wear a tux. Score! My dad did an AMAZING job on this, and he pretty much did it by himself and even though my mom was recovering from surgery she made a great dinner! Talk about great parents! 

This was a Going Away/Graduation/Birthday party apparently, thanks to everyone who came! (Oh, and we were supposed to look scared in this photo, instead we just had interesting facial expressions....)

For Christmas we had our traditional birthday party for Jesus complete with musical chairs, cupcakes, a piñata (that I held while the kids hit it with a Maasai war club) and my uncle's family. And for Thanksgiving we now have a new tradition! Have Thanksgiving the Sunday before with our extended family so they can go to wherever they need to for Thanksgiving, then just watch the football games and have Hors d'œuvre and leftovers on the day of!

Aaaand I forgot, I had surgery on my wrist. So I know have a purple line about an inch long running across it. I just wish I had some amazing story like, "I ripped it up while rafting down the Nile in Jinja. We flipped over going through a class 5 waterfall and I had to grab the boat with one hand and pull us to safety, tearing my wrist in the process!" Yeah. We did have a great time whitewater rafting on the Nile, but nothing like that story. Stupid cyst. 

Hm. I ran backwards through this time, weird. 

In other exciting news, I SURVIVED THE END OF THE WORLD! (and if you are reading this, so did you). Take that you Mayans! 

Well that's probably enough from me about the past, what about,
THE FUTURE!!!

Well on Thursday the 3rd I am leaving California for Hawaii! (Tough life, right?) I will be going over for a Discipleship Training School (DTS) that Youth With A Mission (YWAM) has on documentary filmmaking! It involves three months of training in Kona, and then three months traveling around the world putting what I've learned into practice. It is going to be loads of fun! Check out the promo video they have! 

Once I get back in late June, I will be working around our ranch until I leave for college sometime in August. Don't ask me where I'm going, I don't know yet, but it'll most likely be either Azusa Pacific University or Point Loma Nazarene University. 

It is going to be a SUPER busy year for me! I'd love to have your prayers as I go about this next phase of my life, that God would show me the plans he has for me, which college to go to, and what to get a degree in. All areas that I have a feeling, but prayer that God would make it clear would be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks to all of my family and friends, I love you all!

In Christ,
Nick
The Towheaded Rambler

The story behind the movie "Blue Like Jazz" is quite an incredible one. On September 16th, 2010, Donald Miller announced that after trying to raise money for a film adaptation of his best-selling book "Blue Like Jazz", he would put the project on hold due to a lack of interest. That week, two guys from Tennessee started the website SaveBlueLikeJazz.com in order to raise money to finish the film. A Kickstarter campaign was started to raise the bare minimum to keep the project going, $125,000. A grand total of $345,992 was raised, making it the largest crowd-sourced film in America. It was also recently released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and as an iTunes download! Read more on the film's site. www.BlueLikeJazzTheMovie.com

Even though the internet here in Kenya is pretty slow, I purchased the HD version from iTunes, let it run for a while, and then finally watched the film. Figured I'd give it a bit of a review and my thoughts about the film. 

First of all, I have to say it's an incredible step forward for the film industry. To have a project of this magnitude and quality that received quite a bit of funding from people, like you and me, is nothing short of incredible. Films are normally backed by several large investors, not by over 4,000 fans. Add a great story, great cast, beautiful filming and editing, and filming on location in Portland OR, and Nashville, TN. All of these pieces put together allowed it to be an Official Selection of the SXSW (South by Southwest) Film Festival and allowed it to open in about 150 theaters from NY to LA.

Before I explain about the film I want to make one thing clear. This is not your typical (Facing the Giants, Fireproof, Courageous, etc.) Christian movie. This is a movie that deals with the real world and acknowledges that fact. After all, it's pretty hard to make a film with this storyline family friendly. Hence its PG-13 rating. 

The film is about Danny Miller, a young Southern Baptist living with his mother in Texas. He is an assistant to the youth pastor, heading off to bible college, and basically is what everyone would call "the perfect Christian". When Danny is betrayed by those whom he holds dearest, he turns his back on the world and in a spirit of rebellion heads off to 'the most godless campus in America'. Once there he realizes that in order to fit in he has to hide from his past and pretend to be what everyone wants him to be. As his father has told him many times, "Life is like Jazz, it never resolves." Throughout the film we find him time and time again trying to find out who he really is and what his purpose and meaning are. 

Donny has many "friends" that are all trying to help him in one way or another. Whether it's the campus "Pope" who is quite a bit less than holy, the do-gooder, the lesbian, friends from back home, or anyone else. It seems like everyone is trying to influence him and he keeps pandering to their wishes. The roles were cast very well, even some surprises as I recognized a face or two from other shows and movies.

The storyline of the movie was one I hadn't seen before, at least in this light. Probably all of us have seen those generic "coming of age" movies where the main character looses who he is, and somehow fixes his whole life by the end of the movie. It might even have been through believing in Christ! But this movie is different. It shows the dark side of trying to please everyone, the sin that occurs on campus, the predicaments that Danny willingly flings himself into to try and get away from his family and church. It is definitely a new look for a "Christian film. Some have criticized it's lack of a clear Gospel message (eg. Jesus died and took away all our sins so we can be forgiven). Granted, it could have thrown a bit more in there, but that wasn't the point of the movie. This was a story about finding one's self and how without God, we fall away so quickly into sin. This is a film even a non-Christian could watch and probably enjoy, maybe even taking a bit of the Gospel message away. 

Be sure and watch the trailer below! I definitely recommend this movie!

This movie hit a bit closer to home than most as I am filling out college applications now and heading off to college next year. I am definitely applying to Christian schools, but also to some secular ones as well. It serves as a great reminder to me that I need to hold fast to my beliefs and not give them up for popularity's sake. 

In Christ,
Nick

Earlier this week I said that once I finished the video I've been working on, I'd share it with you guys. 

The video was created for Disciples of Mercy an amazing organization helping teach, train, heal, and evangelize outside of Kisumu, Kenya. Read more on their website! www.DisciplesofMercy.net (the video hasn't been posted to the website yet).

Hope everyone is doing well!

Nick

Wow, been a while since I posted on here. Since it's been so long I think an update on both what I've been doing and where I am going from here is in order. 

Our family arrives back in California on November 4th, actually only four of us do, the other six will arrive on the 5th. Once in the US our family is there to stay! Sort of. 

In January (I'm super excited to announce this) I'll be going to a six month Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Discipleship Training School (DTS) called "Voice for the Voiceless". The focus of this school is documentary filmmaking and showing the plight of those who otherwise wouldn't be heard. 

Three months are spent in Kona (really tough, I know) and the other three months are spent putting everything I've learned to use. I'm really excited to see what this has in store for me and all the possibilities for God's work. 

I'll get back in late June, but then it's off to college that fall for me! Still praying on where the Lord would have me go, but I know it's all in His hand. 

Enough of the future, what have I been up to? 

Other than helping out at Agape with work projects, loving the kids, and Saturday morning bible study and activities, I am also tutoring some of the kids from a local international school. The most recent "trip" I went on was down to Agape's Farm, the vocational training center. 

It teaches three different professions: carpentry, masonry, and mechanics, in addition to farming skills. 

Plus it's right on the shore of Lake Victoria and has amazing sunsets. 


In addition to all of that, I've been working on a promotional video for an organization based outside of Kisumu. It's a great ministry with lots of different areas it works in. I'll be sure and post the finished video when it's ready.

Overall it's going well here and I am thankful for all that I have, seen and learned. 

In Christ,
Nick