So I am currently working with a dedicated group of Artists, Photojournalists, and Missionaries from across the globe that desire to use art and photography as tools for cultural transformation. The project is called PhotogenX and seeks to use art as a catalyst to see new initiatives start in the most challenging nations, to the most difficult issues and to the most desperate situations. Over the next two years I will be traveling through the Pacific, China, Cambodia, India, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, South Africa, Chad, Germany, and Venezuela capturing the beauty and culture of each nation, but not masking the desperate issues they face (human trafficking, sexual slavery, female genital mutilation, basic gender discrimination and female suicide bombers to name a few). I am self funding this whole journey so ANY AND ALL DONATIONS ARE WELCOME and will go directly to the cause...I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH -
MY TRIP BLOG CAN BE READ HERE:
www.iamthestruggle.blogspot.com/
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It is a beautiful thing when folks in poverty are no longer just missions projects but become genuine friends and family with whom we laugh, cry, dream, and struggle. One of the verses I have grown to love is the one where Jesus is preparing to leave the disciples and says, "I no longer call you servants... Instead, I have called you friends" (John 15:15)." Servanthood is a fine place to begin, but gradually we move toward mutual love, genuine relationships. Someday, perhaps we can even say those words that Ruth said to Naomi after years of partnership:
"Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there be buried" (Ruth 1:16-17).
And that's when things get messy. When people begin moving beyond charity and toward justice and solidarity with the poor and oppressed, as Jesus did, they get in trouble. Once we are actually friends with folks in struggle, we start to ask why people are poor, which is never as popular as giving to charity. In the words of the late Catholic bishop Dom Helder Camara:
"When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist."
Charity wins awards and applause, but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for charity. People are crucified for living out a love that disrupts the social order, that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.
