It was such a neat opportunity to get to go to the first World Cup on African soil… I have a dear place for Africa in my heart on many levels so I found it really special.

I’ve run out of time and want to post at least a few photos so here are three from the Spain/Swiss match in Durban…

And I leave you with this quote… I came across this last year and it made a huge impact on me, it’s from Nelson Mandela so I can’t think of a better time to share it than during my time here in South Africa. I encourage you to read it several times and ponder what he is saying… We were BORN to make manifest the glory of God. Wow.

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are

powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that

frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,

handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You

are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There

is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel

insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God

within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let

our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do

the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence

automatically liberates others. “

Nelson Mandela Presidential Inaugural Speech

That’s it for now folks, off to Senegal and then back in the States in 3 days!

It all started when a friend, and former soccer teammate Paul Lavender, messaged me telling me he had extra tickets… I had applied for tickets but was a bit aggressive and applied for two matches… the US/England game and the championship match, of course these games were the highest in demand and I didn’t get tickets.

So when Paul called and told me had tickets it got me thinkin… at first i told him I couldn’t do it, especially cause i had just returned from 6 weeks in Ethiopia and i needed time to catch up… but finally one night at like 2AM i was sitting at my desk and started realizing what a great opportunity it was… I’ve had going to the World Cup on my list of things to do before I turn 25 (I’m 24 now) so this was my last chance, and this being the first World Cup held on African soil I knew it’d be amazing.

I thought and prayed about it a bit more that night and woke up ready to go. I booked the flight a few hours later (for a pretty penny) and began making plans.

I ended up getting a two stopovers in NYC and a 2 day stop over in Senegal to help keep my flight cost down… so I immediately started making plans for my time in NYC and especially Senegal. I wasn’t connected to anyone in Senegal directly but googled and found a few orgs doing some neat work there… also sent of some emails to SIM and others working in the missions industry.

After a couple days… I ended up connected to a group called the Beersheba Project that is doing some really cool irrigation/agricultural mission stuff in Senegal. I’m going to be shooting for them for a couple days… really excited to capture what they are doing and to see Senegal.

Photos of the World Cup to follow…

Trent & Tabby Cox are veterinary missionaries in southwest Ethiopia with SIM (Serving in Mission) and CVM (Christian Veterinary Mission.)

This 6 minute piece shares about their work amongst these remote tribes over the last 9 years and also relays their vision to reach the last 3 people groups in SW Ethiopia with medical care and ultimately the Gospel.

austinmann.com
igoby.tk

sim.org
cvmusa.org

Music by Griffin Kelp.

This child hung on the mother the entire time we were in the hut… dependent on her, almost part of her.

Tomorrow (at 5AM) I hop on a bus for an all-day (possibly 12 hours) solo bus ride to Gondar to see Lane Davis. Lane is a stellar photographer in Gondar right now working on a project called To Tell a Story (www.totellastory.org) check it out!

I’ll be documenting this adventure up north and really don’t know what to expect! All I know is the bus was much cheaper than the flight, I’ll be crossing the Nile River in a bus and I speak zero Amharic. I can just hear my Dad… ”Son, why would you do that?”

TK McKamy, who was with me on the trip has started posted some stuff so check it out at http://www.tkmckamy.com/blog!

I don’t expect to have internet til I begin my journey home the 19th! Checking out til the 20th… hope you are all well -

I’m sitting down at a little cafe in Addis called the LimeTree and actually have some time to write and post images.

I really don’t know which images/stories to post first… We left Addis the

March 26th we met up with Trent Cox at the airport in Arba Minch and then drove nearly 6 hours on bush roads into Alduba, where he lives with his wife Tabby and family.

The next day we embarked on a 5 day journey around southwest Ethiopia. First we went to Hana which was an all-day journey on muddy trails they call roads…

On the road to Alduba. Roads have improved drastically in the past few years, which has increased tourism and foreign trade.

In Hana, we ate at pretty much the only place in town, and it’s called the Obama Cafe. It was amazing to see the influx of Obama related places/products in these areas… one dude was evening wearing Barack Obama underwear. WHAT?! I have a shot of it but can’t find it at the moment… will post that one later.

Along the road we went through tons of rivers and mud and stuff so I thought it would be cool to mount my new little waterproof Casio to the front of the cruiser… we got some awesome footage with this thing.

The little Casio stood up to the mud and water test. Got some sweet footage.

The main tribe in Hana is Bode. They’re one of several tribes that take stick fighting very seriously… not only for sport but also to settle disputes between men. Our guard, Barkathule, gave me a quick lesson on how to stick fight… it’s incredible how fast he was! TK shot some video but I can’t upload it now.

We did a ton of shooting along the road and TK got some awesome steadicam stuff hanging off the side and on top of our cruiser.

TK hangin off the cruiser for a shot.

We took the chopper into some pretty crazy areas and went in with a vet doctor that was providing medical care for the cattle. These are pastoralist communities and their well-being and livelihood is directly related to their cattle so this a fantastic mission and is a great doorway into these remote tribes.

CVM vet Trent Cox providing medical care for the cattle after landing by chopper in remote area of SW Ethiopia along the Sudanese border.

AK’s are everywhere. Ethiopia is surrounded by war torn countries and conflict zones… many of their weapons have been picked up by traders and sold at very low costs… although the weapons themselves have been distributed at incredibly low costs the cost of each bullet is nearly $1.50 US in some areas.

A couple of Bode boys in Hana. They live at the foot of the mountain range seen in the background.

We happened to stop for a battery change while driving back to Alduba and TK, sitting atop the truck, spotted this dude in the country side.

The Bunna collect termites by lighting fires all over the country side… the termites fly into the flame and burn off their wings and gather one the ground. Then they scoop 'em up at have them for dinner.

Sorry this post is so scatter-brained!! I am hoping to have internet tomorrow but want to make sure I get this updated in case I don’t… thanks for all your prayers! Look for a ton more soon.

Today, Aaron and I visited the Women at Risk compound. Women at Risk is an organization that has been here in Addis for about 14 years and works with women in prostitution very closely. At any given time they have roughly 20 women that are in their program.

Their mission statement is as follows: To love, accept and reach out to urban commercial sex workers with a view to building community through relationships and improving their quality of life. To challenge civil society about the issues they face through effective advocacy and education programs.

It’s really neat to see how the well-trained staff interacts with the women and shows them Christ’s love. One of their directors mentioned that 87% of the women that join the program come out successful, working healthy jobs to support themselves.

I spent a couple hours with some of the young women and got to spend some time making portraits.  Many of them have come to know Christ through the program and it was really amazing the joy they had, it was so contagious! I wish I had more time to upload images but for now I’ll give you share this one.  I’l upload a more in-depth post later.

Please continue to pray for our team! I will post updates and pictures asap!