IT'S NOT CHARITY. the documentary film →

SARAH NISCH // JUST SO U KNOW

 Off her new album #BY HEART.

check her out

http://www.youtube.com/nischthedish
http://www.facebook.com/sarahnisch
http://www.twitter.com/sarahnischmusic
http://www.soundcloud.com/sarahnisch

“ITS NOT CHARITY” The official title of our documentary, formerly “Transforming Lives” examines the shift in how aid is being done around the world. 

For generations the west has given handouts to those in need with little lasting results. Today, organizations are rising up, implementing a new model. One of sustainability. One of EDUCATION. One based on the belief in the potential of all human beings, rather than pity for a people we wrongly perceive, as inferior.

It’s been two weeks now that We’ve been in Uganda. Traveling the country asking what Ugandan’s want for the future of their country. The resounding answer is the same every time, Education. We’ve been asking children, parents, teachers, doctors, politicians why the plethora of NGO’s putting children in school hasn’t helped. The answer is they don’t do enough and don’t seem to care enough. Over 50 percent of the children in Northern Uganda who are not in school were once sponsored by various NGOs in the area but have since been dropped. We find more and more that LEAD Uganda is truly a revolutionary model and is making an undeniable impact in the lives of children and communities all over this wonderful country. I cant wait to finish this film so the word can hear this story. It needs to be told.

BACK TO AFRICA

Hey friends,

Ascension is traveling back to Uganda to wrap up photography on the doc, “Transforming Lives” Jonathan and I leave on Tuesday January 3rd, 2012. It should make for an excellent kickoff for the new year. Thanks for your continued support!

CLICK & MEET LAMEK! →

This boy is incredible, he inspires me to try harder. He is consistently at the top of his class at Uganda’s number one primary school . I IMPLORE you to check out LEAD Uganda and set up a monthly donation to help these kids. It will be on of the best investments you’ll ever make. 

This looks amazing!! →

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SOME THOUGHTS ON FAITH AND DOUBT

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” – Paul

My faith is a dirty thing.
Literally.
I have fought and rolled around with her (it’s definitely a she in my life) in the back alleys of my sanctification. With every punch I have thrown, she has thrown a stronger one back. There are moments where we sit as best friends understanding absolutely everything about each other and reading each others every thought.
Then there are moments where nothing about her makes sense to me and she looks at me with pity.
Then we fight again.

I hear people talk about their relationship with God like they bought it at a Build A Bear Workshop at the mall.
If you haven’t been into one of those places…
a) because you don’t have kids or
b) because you are not a sketchy single guy…
…then you have to just trust me.
You walk in, pick the bear you want, take its outsides, find clothes you want to dress it in, then you pick out a heart.
Seriously.
You pick it out and they stick it inside the bear.
Then they stick that a tube into the back of that badboy i pump it full of stuffing.
In about 30 seconds your bear is as cute as Teddy Ruxspin in his heyday.
You name your bear, get a birth certificate, and walk out with a new soul.
Or at least your bear does.
This seems eerily similar to the way I hear many talk about their faith process.

Then I go home, sit on my back porch, drink half a bottle of wine, stare up at the giant oak tree wrapping her branches over me, and scream curses past her at the midnight sky because I don’t get it.
Then we start fighting.
Me and Faith.
And we wrestle, and we shout, and we cry, then she holds me, until I finish throwing my fit, and tells me that this is my way.
That the dirty, confusion and complication of my faith is where I will keep finding Jesus.
The fact that when I hear a sermon, I don’t trust it until I take it home and dance with it in the pages of God’s Word.
And then I end up either saying “Man that pastor got it, or man I need to call that pastor and tell them that the little box and bow they wrapped up that scripture in is like sticking a land mine into a Easter basket.

Right now I know a few things.
1. I love Jesus, the Christ with a fuel and passion like I have not in years.
2. I dislike with a passion the product we have turned Him into that it actually creates a tension in many of my current “Christian” relationships.
3. Everything I once believed about my Faith is being questioned right now, and so we continue to throw punches in the back alley and I actually am winning some of the fights. And that is ok.

Ragamuffins…If you are in a season of dancing a waltz with your Faith, then enjoy the rhythm of the movements of that dance.
But when you look up from the dance and realized that the ballroom lights are gone and your hand is no longer around the waist of Faith, but around her neck, don’t panic.
Fight.
Love.
Trust.
Break.
Believe.

With fear and trembling…
Los

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CARLOS WHITAKER, RAGAMUFFINSOUL

As the saying goes, “It’s not a party without a goat.” Well, for our last Saturday night in Dadaab, We decided to transcend the status quo party and prounounce that “It’s a better party with beef!” So, we have raised over $200.00 and we have purchased a cow. 

out of respect for the animal, we watched it get slaughtered with a dull knife…painful to watch, but again, out of respect for Ray (the name we gave to the female cow) we will joyfully feast tonight.

kryanjones:

It’s our last weekend in Dadaab and we’re having a going-away party.  Usually people buy a few goats for grilling, but being the proud Americans that we are, Shawn and I did something unprecedented here in the humanitarian community: we bought a cow.  Around $200 gets you a whole cow, slaughtering, butchering, and grilling services.  Above is the flier we’ve been hanging around for the event, and based solely on the reaction to that, we are thinking we’ll have a pretty good turnout.

P.S. We watched the cow, which we named Ray, get slaughtered.  Not pretty, but I’ll spare you the details.

"This childish gamesmanship regarding timing reconfirms to the world that Washington is a sandbox full of petulant children who don’t play well together."

 from the NY Times  

David Rothkopf, a former Commerce Department official in the Clinton administration