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When I was a child my mother would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I would tell her I wanted to travel the world and help people. When I turned 16 years old that dream began to fade. I developed a very painful incurable disease and was told there was not much hope. In a vision I heard an angel tell me, “Do not be afraid, this too will pass.” For the next twelve years I held on to those words through all the pain.
In 2004 I turned my life over to the Lord and in a vision He healed my body and told me to go into the world and hand other people hurting over to Him. He has burdened my heart with Africa and with the children that are facing the hopelessness that I once experienced. The Lord has given back to me hope and restored my life. In return I give my life back to the Lord, to be His light into the darkness of the
world.
The summer of 2006 I traveled across Africa reaching Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia. My eyes were opened to the extreme poverty, hunger, sickness, devastation and hopelessness of a nation. At the same time I witnessed the endless beauty of a continent called Africa, her land, her oceans, her plant and wildlife, and most importantly the beauty of her people. Their smiles shined brighter than the sun through all their despair and gave hope to my heart that there must be some way I can help to make a difference in their lives.
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While I was in Rwanda I traveled high into the mountains with a mission’s organization. We reached villages where few outsiders had ever been. While I was there I had met a boy that changed my life forever. I don’t know his name and will probably not have another chance to find out. But I will never forget him and his story for the rest of my
life.
As we were loading into our van getting ready to leave a village, a man came up to us with his son.
The boy had a jacket over his head. This man asked if we could help this
child. We asked him to take his jacket off of his head to see what the problem was. As he did, we all shrieked in horror. The boy’s eye hung about 3 inches from his face. His father hurried to put the jacket back over his sons head and asked again if we could help him. There was no hospital to take this child to and no medical treatment anywhere to be found.
There was nothing we could do for this child but to pray. As we drove away it was if I could experience all of his pain. Emptiness and hopelessness filled me as I asked God, “Why? Why would you allow this to happen?” I would have given everything in my life to be able to help this one child…but I could do nothing. As I traveled across Africa that boy weighed heavy on my heart. I began to realize that instead of asking God, “Why?”, I should be asking God, “What?” “What can I learn from this experience? What can I do to make a difference so that another child like this one won’t have to suffer?” I realized that if I don’t try to make a difference, if I don’t tell other people, who
will?
Throughout my journey across Africa I photographed the people that make up this beautiful nation. The faces that persevere through their daily struggles. The smiles that seem to shine forth through all of their despair. In hopes that the world would see that they each have a name, they each have their own story and just like you and me, they are all looking to find hope and purpose in their lives. They need those of us that have seen or have heard to reach out and help to lift them up. To give them renewed hope. I can't do it by myself, but with the help of others, together we can help to make a difference.
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