Moved to Biblefox

We have moved our blog to Biblefox! Visit our new blog at eyestosee.biblefox.com!

Keepin’ this blog alive!!!

I know Liz and I have been back from out trip now for over 4 months…  but I’d still love to use this blog to continue to share updates with you guys.  So….I thought a good thing might be to post some exciting things going on with the organizations and people we met during our trip.  I’ll try and do my best to post cool stories and updates as they come along.  

Here are a couple to get you started…

From Preemptive Love Coalition:

We marshaled all the resources we needed to help Shad and in less than a month he was admitted to surgery in May 2009. Unfortunately, Shad did not respond to the corrective measures of the surgeries as we had all hoped he would. Too many years of living with his heart defects had hindered his body’s ability to operate as it was intended. A series of blood clots finally contributed to Shad’s death a week after his surgery.

Click here to read more about Shad’s story and the Shad Faraydoon Memorial Fund.

 

Heard about this from Chris Marlow of HELP:

HELP has been running a Campaign to End Poverty, and a church in PA decided to have a garage sale to raise money for the campaign, and they raised $3400!!! Click here to read more about this awesome story.

Chris also told me to check out a book called Scared.  Here’s a little about the book:

Once a celebrated and award-winning photojournalist, Stuart Daniels is reeling from debt, a broken marriage, and crippling depression.  The source of Stuart’s grief is his most famous photo, a snapshot of brutality in the dangerous Congo.  This haunting image indicts him as a passive witness to gross injustice.

Stuart is given one last chance to redeem his career: a make-or-break assignment covering the AIDS crisis in a small African country.  It is here that Stuart meets Adanna, a young orphan fighting for her life in a community ravaged by tragedy and disease.  Now what seemed like a chance encounter will forever change their lives.

You can download a free PDF of the book for a limited time, or purchase the book on Amazon.

 

Once a celebrated and award-winning photojournalist, Stuart Daniels is reeling from debt, a broken marriage, and crippling depression.  The source of Stuart’s grief is his most famous photo, a snapshot of brutality in the dangerous Congo.  This haunting image indicts him as a passive witness to gross injustice.

 

Stuart is given one last chance to redeem his career: a make-or-break assignment covering the AIDS crisis in a small African country.  It is here that Stuart meets Adanna, a young orphan fighting for her life in a community ravaged by tragedy and disease.  Now what seemed like a chance encounter will forever change their lives.

THANKS!!!

Many thanks to all of you who came out to our photo exhibit this past Saturday! I was so excited to see so many people come by, and to be able to share a little more about our trip with all of you.

I was so excited to see people participating in the silent auction and wanting to help the Children’s Home in Zimbabwe.  All but two of the exhibit prints were auctioned off and several 8×10 prints were ordered, raising $520 for HELP! We also received several orders for our Eyes to See book, raising an additional $180 for HELP!

Also…we showed our slide show on Saturday, and I’m working on putting it online so that those who couldn’t make it to the exhibit can still watch the slide show online.

We will also have more info soon on how to order the book online. Meanwhile, if you already know you’d like to order one, feel free to email us at eyestosee2009@gmail.com and we can add yours to an order we’ll be placing soon. Books are $35 each, and $5 from each book goes to Musha Wevana Children’s Home in Zimbabwe.

Thanks again for all of your support!

-B

More info!

Just wanted to give a quick update with more info about our photo exhibit tomorrow.

1) You definitely don’t have to stay the whole three hours! (But you’re more than welcome to… ) Feel free to just stop by whenever you can for however long you can. Also, we’ll have some snacks/refreshments as well.

2) We will be showing the 15-minute slideshow at 11:30, 12:30 and 1:30.

3) We will be taking orders for our Eyes to See book. They are $35 each, and $5 of each book sale goes towards Musha Wevana Children’s Home in Zimbabwe.

4) We will also be silent-auctioning each of the prints in the exhibit.  All proceeds over $25 from each print will go to Musha Wevana as well.

Right now, our friends at Help End Local Poverty (HELP) are having a Campaign to End Poverty, and hope to raise money for new mattresses and school uniforms for the kids in Zimbabwe, as well as help raise money for them to build a new orphanage! Liz and I are REALLY excited to do what we can to be a part of this Campaign. For those of you who have heard or read about our experience in Zimbabwe this past January, you know that we were both greatly impacted by the people we met there.

For more info on HELP’s campaign, please go here: http://www.campaigntoendpoverty.org/

We are excited about tomorrow! And can’t wait to see you there!

Thanks again, Blanca and Liz

Photo Exhibit and Book Release!!

Liz and I are very excited to announce that our church is hosting a photo exhibit for us next weekend!

Details-

Date: June 20, 2009

Location: Liveoak Bible Church, 7500 WOODROW AVE., AUSTIN TX

Time: 11am-2pm

The exhibit will feature photos from our time in the Sudan. And we will also have a slideshow of photos from throughout our trip. I have been anxiously awaiting to share more photos with all of you, and I hope you’re able to stop by for a bit!

Also, very exiting news – we’ve finished our book!!! Many, many thanks to our friend, Michele Bennett, for helping with the book design. And thanks to Rebecca Evans and Ellen Rees for helping with the editing. I cannot believe we’ve actually done it! We will have a few hard copies on hand at the photo exhibit, but we will also be taking orders that day. (More info to come on how to order the book online as well.)

Also, $5 of each book sale will goes towards helping the children at Musha Wevana in Zimbabwe get new mattresses and school uniforms!

I am REALLY excited!!!! I didn’t realize I was going to be this excited…BUT I AM!!!

I wish I could have printed a billion photos from ALL the countries we visited, but I’m excited to have the exhibit focus on the Sudan. And actually, towards the beginning of the exhibit time, I plan on sharing a little more about my heart and thoughts behind choosing this specific country for the exhibit.

I hope to see many of you there! Feel free to email us with any questions: eyestosee2009@gmail.com

Thanks!!!!

-Blanca and Liz

Crackpot Idea?

Blanca checked the World blog today and found the following comment that made both of us smile.  Kristin Hagen sent us an email a week ago that helped prepare us to rejoice instead of doubt — thanks Kristin!

Women should not be traveling alone to foreign countries. I hate the fact that churches promote women missionaries going to foreign nations without fathers and husbands. Women get crackpot ideas to go be missionaries in foreign nations, and it’s all in their heads. God has not called them.

Food!

Our dear friend, Kristin, emailed us in the beginning of our trip asking what types of food we were eating, and requested that I take pictures of local foods whenever I can.  I must confess, I often forget to photograph our food…  I’m just always so excited to eat it, that I forget!  And then after my belly is full of all it’s yummy-ness, I remember, “Oh yeah!  I should have taken a picture!”

Well…here are a few pictures from food we had in Thailand. 

Pei and I bought some cereal from the Family Mart across the street from our hotel.  I knew we didn’t have a bowl or spoon in the hotel, so I just accepted that I’d have to eat it dry…  But then when we got back, I saw Pei’s smart idea!  And I was a bit jealous that she was enjoying a “bowl” of cereal… 

Ok, some of you may know how much I love popcorn…and I’ve been super-bummed ever since I got my braces because popcorn is a big “no-no.”

But what you may not know about me is how I love anything that’s strawberry flavored.    And if given the option, I’ll always choose the strawberry option…  Strawberry milk, strawberry cupcakes, strawberry ice cream, strawberry yogurt… love it all!  Well, you can imagine my excitement when Liz, Pei and I went to the movies in Bangkok, and they had STRAWBERRY POPCORN!!!  I knew I probably shouldn’t eat it because of my braces…but really, how could I not?!?  So yeah… I definitely had to buy some…   Mmmmm… it was good!!

I don’t know how I’ve gone this long without ever having tried Thai food…especially with Madam Mam’s right there on campus!  I must say, one of the best things I’ve had this entire trip has been Phad Thai….  SO GOOD!!!  I think I had it at every day we were in Cambodia, and once in Thailand.  MMMMM!!!!

And last, but certainly not least…we had some delicious Mango with Sticky Rice at the airport in Bangkok.  YUMMY!!!  I love mango!  And this dessert was pretty much awesome!

Remnants of War

When I was a little girl someone told me that my father had been in a war.  I distinctly remember asking him once, “Daddy, did we win the war?”  He said, “No.” My simple young mind equated defeat with the death of every single soldier, so I incredulously asked, “Well, then how are you alive?”  This is where my memory gets fuzzy.  I can remember imagining a black and white war scene, other soldiers covering my dad with gunfire, and my father running to safety.  I highly doubt that’s what he told me, but that’s how my child’s mind interpreted it.  That’s the only conversation I have ever had with my father about his tour in Vietnam.

Yesterday as we drove down the busy streets with whole lanes devoted to motorbikes, despite the familiarity of shop fronts reminiscent of those lining the streets of China, I felt a bit of culture shock instinctively rising up within me.  My mind wondered what my teenage father felt landing in this foreign place made even more strange with the subtraction of over 30 years of progress and the addition of a gun and orders from the U.S. Army.  I could only imagine.

Today we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Cu Chi people were forced underground for 21 years due to the designation of their homeland as a free fire area.  The video we watched repeated an ideal of the time – Every person is a soldier and thus a hero. It highlighted a young girl, fueled by hatred of the Americans that killed her family, who took up arms herself killing so many she was given the award of “American Killer Hero”.  Others were not so successful, apparently 50,000 children died fighting.  In a time where the use of child soldiers in Africa is viewed as a violation of human rights, I could not imagine. Can a true hero be born of hatred?  Is it choice that makes the difference?  Is a hero anyone who freely decides to defend one’s land and liberty regardless of age?

Later as we walked doubled over in the dark through the modified tunnel, I took another shallow breath longing for the fresh yet humid air above ground.  I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to be trapped beneath the surface for years coming out only occasionally at night.  I felt claustrophobic.  I then thought back to those soldiers ordered to enter newly discovered tunnels only to find themselves the victims of booby traps.  The words “booby trap” seemed too light as our guide said them, conjuring up fun memories of the movie The Goonies from my childhood.  These gruesome contraptions all involved sharpened poisonous bamboo spears.   I doubt laughter was the response of GI’s as they heard of the use of such booby traps.  Were the Cu Chi people driven to such brutality or is it simply the unveiling of our true human hearts blackened by sin?

In the afternoon we visited the War Remnant Museum in the city previously known as Saigon on maps now as Ho Chi Minh City.  It was almost entirely a museum of photographs.  I saw my father in every picture of the American GI’s …. almost.  I couldn’t see him in the soldiers dragging the enemy behind tanks, the man wearing the skull of a Viet Cong fighter, and never ever in the one holding up remnants of the shredded body of a human being.  How could I imagine that?

Over the last two days my heart has both relished the sudden unexpected connection with my father and mourned for what his eyes must have seen and for what his scarred heart most likely still carries as a result.

Laundry

I wanted to share a couple more photos from India…there are more, but my crazy computer seems to hate me these days…and it won’t let me upload them… 

But here are a few photos of some men doing laundry by the river in Delhi:

Remembering Sudan

Blanca found this on Ashley’s (one of the nurses from Harvesters in Sudan) blog a few days ago.  We decided to post it here to remind us all to continue praying for justice to come to Sudan.  A link to Ashley’s blog in located on the sidebar.

We have a new orphan. Today a baby girl was brought to us by the father saying the mother was killed by the LRA. It is a horrible story and the father is completely traumatized. Looking into this poor man’s eyes was like looking into a desert of sorrow and loss. He was bringing the child to us because he could not care for a four month old baby. She is beautiful. Her name is Sikili and she is adapting well so far. This was a difficult decision to make because it is most the time best to keep the child with their parent. But truly this man seemed incapable of caring for himself let alone a four month old baby. I dont think I have ever seen eyes that looked so lost, or desolate. I had a very hard time during the initial time of questioning hearing his story and watching him with the baby. He was so gentle and caring, but we could see that he saw no other option.

So please be praying for this man who has lost so much through violence. I pray that he can turn to the only One who can give him peace and rest. I struggle when I hear these things because my strong sense of justice cries out at the horror, that its just not fair! How can there be people like this out there that would do such things. Please be praying for the hearts of these people doing these horrible things. They are so lost and need to be brought back Home. Please also continue to be praying for all of our new children. They need prayers for smooth adjustment, building of friendships and a sense of belonging. God is so good and He has a great plan for each of these children. I pray that they will follow Him and set their feet towards His path. God Bless all of you!!