Ok not really...but it would be cool if Agape installed a railroad, just not sure what they'd use it for. 

I've actually been working on a driveway, nothing too hard, right? But we are now about half of the way done with the driveway part, have a lot of work to do on drainage, pathways, pipelines, conduits, etc., and it's only taken us about 2 weeks! We did have to smash up the old concrete..so that didn't help speed it up.

Today we poured the part with all the rebar in it, so now it's setting for a couple days. Blake Gibbs, the head honcho, has many more big projects planned, so we've got a lot more work ahead of us! Put together a timelapse video of us working today, so check it out! 

Hope this finds you all well! 
Nick, the Towheaded Rambler

It has been quite a while since I've posted on here, so I apologize. I've been rather busy with the media/webpages/advertisements for a project some of you may have heard of, a documentary called "The Forgotten". 

Below is some concept art by yours truly, with some tips from my pal Hayden of One Little Corner.

I've been spending most of my mornings going out on the streets of Kisumu, Kenya, filming the boys where they work, eat, sleep, and survive. Because of the time I have spent with them I want to share their stories with the world, as most people are woefully informed about street boys. 

The purpose of the documentary is simple. Increase awareness of the street boys, and the different organizations helping them. I hope that by showing the example of Kenya, people will take the next step and learn about the street boys in their own country. 

In order to help produce, distribute, and sell the documentary, I'll be having an online fundraiser that will go live on March 1st. In addition to the fundraiser, the website, Facebook Page, and additional videos will go live as well that day. I'll be sure and post links to all on March 1st, so keep that date in mind! The fundraiser will run until April 30th, and the goal is to raise around $5,500. I know many of my friends cannot afford large (or any for that matter) contributions, but I have a number of perks that come with donations! ;) Even if you cannot fund the documentary, please share it on Twitter, your blog, Facebook, talking with people, wherever you happen to be! Chances are that if you cannot donate, you know someone who can, thus word of mouth is a powerful tool.

Please help me with this project, even through prayers! 
I'll post again on March 1st! 

Until then,
Nick, the Towheaded Rambler

Today I was reading through a book by Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle and the surrounding area, called "The Radical Reformission". Reformission, a combination of "reformation" and "missionaries", is a term that is used to describe the change in the hearts of Christians so they are reaching out and evangelizing the communities they live in. It's really been on my mind how we can just ignore those who are around us, to primarily focus on our friends and fellow church members, and this is something I struggle with quite often.

In the introduction of his book, Driscoll lays out three formulas that tend to define most churches, and to which most people think their church is the exception.

Gospel + Culture - Church = Parachurch
Culture + Church - Gospel = Liberalism
Church + Gospel - Culture = Fundamentalism


He goes into much more depth on these types of churches and their respective problems, such as:

Parachurch: These types can connect unchurched people to Jesus without connecting them to the rest of Jesus' people, leading to theological immaturity. Once one has been saved they are encouraged to do little more than get other people saved.

Liberalism: These churches are so concerned with being culturally relevant that they  convert people to their church, but not to Jesus. They are involved in the social and political fabric of their culture, loving people and doing good works. Their failure is that they bring to the culture a false gospel of accommodation, rather than confrontation.

Fundamentalism: "Fundamentalist Christianity flourishes most widely in more independent-minded, Bible-believing churches. The success of these churches lies in that they love the Church and often love the people in the Church. Their failure is that it is debatable whether they love Jesus and lost people in the culture as much as they love their own church… …Over time they can become so inwardly focused that the gospel is replaced with rules, legalism, and morality supported with proof texts from the Bible. Fundamentalist Christians are commonly found to love their Lord and their brothers, but not their neighbors."

Most churches fall into one of these three categories, to some regard. 


By focusing on our brethren and shutting out the lost we can gain some great sharpening of our theology, philosophy on life, family values, and political ties. But we lose the focus of the Gospel. 

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen" ~ Matthew 28:18-20


We are called to evangelize, whether it is in our own communities, another state, or another country. 

"God's mission is not to create a team of moral and decent people, but rather to create a movement of holy, loving missionaries* who are comfortable and truthful around lost sinners and who, in this way, look more like Jesus than most of his pastors do." ~ The Radical Reformation pg. 35 

(*Missionary being anyone sharing the gospel and love of Christ.)


We are commanded to love the lost, just as Christ did, but we need to guard our personal lives. Time and time again, Christians have fallen into the very sin they tried so hard to fight against, all because they became accustomed to it.

"One of the underlying keys to reformission is knowing that neither the freedom of Christ nor our freedom in Christ is intended to permit us to dance as close to sin as possible without crossing the line. But both are intended to permit us to dance as close to sinners as possible by crossing the lines that unnecessarily separate the people God has found from those he is still seeking." pg. 39-40


We are called to go out there and eat with sinners, to interact with them in order to evangelize, not just simply shake our heads and wag our fingers.  David Bruce, host of HollywoodJesus.com, a site dedicated to shining the light of Christ into the film industry, says, 

"Instead of throwing rocks at the culture, as the church often does, it needs to build bridges to a hurting world in need of a healing relationship with God. Bottom line: let's find some common ground and build bridges to a world that 'God so loves'."


Solomon tells us "Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not inquire wisely concerning this."

Instead of laying back and reminiscing about the early days of the church, when there might have been, "Less sin" or "holier people", we need to fight in our culture. As the Phil Wickham song goes, 

"The time is now for lifting souls, the time is now for letting go. From your skin to your core, let light and love go rushing through the door."


All ages have been filled with sin, and it has been the mandate of Christians to go and share the love of Christ with the lost, freeing them from the clutches of sin. Let us not now sit on the benches, commenting on how badly the other players are doing, but let us enter in with the passion and love of Christ.


In Christ,
 Nick, the Towheaded Rambler


P.S. Here's my video of the week. I wanted to play around with different shots (eg. Jib, Slider, 4fps, etc.) So pardon the shortness.

Well it's been a bit since my last post, but this one will just be a quick update! 

Everything is going well! A bit hot and humid, but otherwise great. The "President's Award - Kenya" club I've joined (some background info here) is just kicking off and it should be a good experience! 

What is great is that I've recently been asked to help with a number of different organizations videos. Everything from helping to tape an event, to creating a promo video! So I'm looking forward to that! 

I know some of you have already seen this, but here's the most recent video I put together. Hopefully I'll be able to post a different one later this week. 

Most of the time street boys are forced to find food in trash bins, or beg for shillings so they can buy a "Mandazi" (a Kenyan pastry). We were able to find a couple who were preparing and cooking some potatoes they had found. 

Hoping this finds you in good health! 
Nick, the Towheaded Rambler

As some of you know, I started going out on the streets of Kisumu with Abel (a member of Agape's outreach team) and Steve (my bro), so I could get some footage for various reasons. We've been out a couple times in the past week, both in the early and late morning hours, to interact with the street boys.

Though filming at 5:45AM was a new experience for me, it was pretty fun! I've compiled some of the footage shot on the occasions I traversed the streets of Kisumu, Kenya.

The boys in the video are street boys; homeless, without food, cold, fearful, and in pain. Often they will resort to sniffing toxic glue in order to dull their senses and feel safe. It was a new experience to see them as they slept under bags on cement, wood, or whatever else they could find; and I'm looking forward to being with them again as they start their mornings on the streets.

In Christ, 
Nick, the Towheaded Rambler

The other day I was a bit bored, so I decided that I'd try and build a pinhole lens for my Canon T2i. 
If you don't care about stuff like this, skip to the bottom, otherwise here is a summary of what I did. 

First of all, you'll need the following:

A needle (the thinner the better) 
A pencil with an eraser (optional, but it sure makes it easier to make the hole)
Thin metal (aluminum foil, brass sheet, etc. The thinner the better!)
A spare camera body cap
A drill
Some very fine sandpaper
A vise (also optional, but it will make drilling the hole in the cap easier)
And tape (to attach the metal to the camera body cap)

The process is fairly simple, but a bit time consuming. 

1. Cut a small piece of metal out of whatever material you are using.
2. Taking the pencil and /or needle, carefully poke a dent in the metal, you don't want it to go all the way through.
3. Sand the very tip of the dent off. The goal is to make as small a hole as possible. 

And that finishes the lens! Now for the mount.

1. Take your camera body cap and tighten it in the vise.
2. Drill a hole in the center of the cap. The size doesn't matter all that much, just make sure it's quite a bit bigger then the pinhole.
3. Sand off the rough edges if there are any.

Finally, combine the two pieces by taping the pinhole piece inside of the camera cap.

And that's the finished product!

Below is a photo with the lens, without any editing or anything. 

Of course it needs a bit of touchup work, and maybe a couple settings tweaked. But overall it's fun to play around with!

_______________

Now the part completely unrelated to the lens, or even photography for that matter. 

If you are particularly observant, you may have noticed a new page of my blog up top called "The Bookshelf". Basically it's a spot for me to put books I've read recently, and what I thought about them! I don't know how often I'll update this, but I'll try and update it a couple times a month depending on how many books I can find in Kenya!

Hope you all have great weeks!
Nick, the Towheaded Rambler

I'm sure many of you have heard of an Organization called "I Am Second". It's quite an incredible organization where they have different people such as Lecrae, Jason Castro, Michael W. Smith, Brian Welch, Bethany Hamilton, and others, all telling the stories of their conversions and tribulations they have faced along the Christian path. In addition to being a great site to hear testimonies, the premise of their site is amazingly simple. 

I know it's a bit late, but here is a summary of our Christmas in Kenya.

Church was quite an experience as they decided to have "one service", but since they were having one service it needed to be translated into Kiswahili, creating a 2 hour long sermon. It is safe to say that by the end of the sermon most people had dozed off for a bit. 

After the sermon our family headed over to the Agape campus to experience Christmas for the boys.