SAM!!!!!
Sam was selected as a finalist for Photographer of the Year for NZ Geographic (which is NZ's version of National Geographic--all pictures dedicated to NZ and the life here).
He debated going to the award dinner because it was last night....2 days before I was due (and about 2 1/2 hours away). After much debating and me praying like crazy he would go, he decided to go. The midwife also told me to tell him yesterday that Max isn't coming tonight so he is safe to go to Auckland and back.
I stayed at my friend Sally and Andy's for the night so Sam knew I was safe. We were all dying to hear the results. Even Georgia stayed up WELL PAST her bed time waiting to here. Finally at 10 or so we got the call.
HE GOT SECOND PLACE!!!!!!
We weren't sure what it meant to be a finalist but the top 6 pictures were selected and the photographers were invited to this award dinner. There was a couple categories there last night, but all in all it was the top of the top. He not only got 2nd place (the first time EVER entering a picture to NZ Geographic) but his picture is the front cover for the Nov/Dec issue coming out in a few short days!!!!!!!!
Ironically the first place lady did not get a front cover, nor did any of the other category winners. Evidently the other pictures weren't cover good enough, so others got the title of first, but Sam got the front cover! Such an accomplishment!!!!
There were 3 categories with 6 pictures each (Landscape, Wildlife, and Cultural) There was a winner and a runner up in each category. There was also an overall winner--Photographer of the Year. Sam was up against some of his favorite photographers in NZ. The other photographers were ones that work for NZ Geographic and work for some of the big papers, too. Sam got to talk to his favorite NZ photographer that shoots for NZ Geographic (he won Photographer of the Year) and to a lot of people that were in his specific industry of photojournalism.
I am SOOOOO proud of him and SOOOOOO glad that he went. He not only made some really good connections with people in the news paper and magazine industry, but also just had a great night. While I was SO bummed to not be by his side, it is so exciting to see God move in his career. He knows he is created to take pictures that document life and call HOPE to others. At times that means he does the hard work of working at small town papers doing things like taking pictures of kids dressed up as clowns. All of those moments build character, skill and are stepping stones we know he needs to take to be in a position to do the stories he longs to do and call attention to things in humanity that the world needs to see.
A year ago this week we flew into NZ a bit shell shocked and definitely wobbling on our feet. It was less than 6 months ago that he sat with Laura (who actually went with him last night) who has mentored Sam this last few months. She has been used by God on so many occasions to speak life, hope and vision and clarify what Sam's vision is that is God given has been. Her husband is Sam's dad's childhood best friend and they have stayed very connected to Don over the years. They run a very successful photography portrait business and Laura has really invested in Sam. They had a great mentor when they first started and want to be that for Sam. She is the one that helped him define his gifts and see that he was talented and gifted in one area (the photojournalism part of photography) and challenged him to think through his strategies. He has flourished once he jumped off the cliff and took the risk of following what he is gifted to do. I love his risk taking heart and his heart to fight for what he knows he can communicate to the world.
I got an email from my mentor from LA, Janice, yesterday, too. People investing in people is the heart of God and to see the difference it makes in our lives just makes me want to continue to move when God places people in our paths. Janice has always challenged and pushed me to persevere and see God in the midst of challenge and pain. She had lots to push me in this last year :) But her godly advice and words were so true and now on this side of this year I am so glad that God saw fit to allow all that He did this year. I am experiencing a level of freedom I honestly did not know existed. I said I did, but I never truly experienced it. There have really been three dreams that have dictated my life over the years. Loving people tangibly in foreign countries that have so little, helping people discover their value and gifts from God specifically within churches so I can be a bridge to people who think God (masked as the church) will never want them, and being a wife and a mommy.
Along the way the incredible people and churches in my life and my parents have helped me put words and feet to those dreams over the years. My brother was just teasing me about flitting from country to country and place to place and especially about always needing to go to where people have less than me and are living in situations we would not dream of living in over the years. It's true, for me to be in a dirty little village in Mexico or an orphanage in China my soul is alive and thriving.
As a small girl I can remember wanting to help the kids at school that had clothes that were dirty or that were made fun of...ironically half the time I was that kid--dirty clothes and getting made of fun of, but I was oblivious most of the time. I couldn't put words to wanting people to feel valuable when the culture told them different, but it is what I can see now that I SO badly wanted, even as a 2nd grader. God was always stirring my heart for his kids I believe and seeing people as equal. The other dream I have had since I was so small which just seemed like a normal thought for me, is to love people and help them see how valuable they are in God's eyes and give them a space to be who God created them to be and specifically do it in a church where they can walk into what is represented as "God's House" seeing that they have a purpose and a space to be. People that feel unloved and or unwanted at churches BREAK MY HEART. It is just not God's heart and I have always wanted to move into positions where I can bridge the gap and show people that God loves them. I have failed miserably at times and have hurt my share of people in the process but my heart for it never changed. I just heard a great quote the other day that spoke to my own heart. "We will honor people for who they are and not get tripped up on who they aren't." Wow, I am glad that is how God sees me. I made mistakes along the way but He saw who I could be and then even in his goodness put people in my life that saw the faint glimmers of goodness when the bad and ugly and broken were more prominent. I want to be that for others!
I have got to live moments of those dreams over the last 10 or 12 years and have learned so much more about God's love and grace for me and I know that those two dreams will still be there and dictate my life, but there was one more dream. I wanted to be a wife and a mommy. I played house non stop as a kid and I have always dreamed of getting to be a mommy. I wanted to be a wife that believed in her husband and her little tribe that God gave her. I loved watching my mom with my dad through all the wrestling teams, tournaments and hunting extravaganzas. I wanted that. I stumbled along the way wondering if that dream would ever come true.
Funny, to see how God works isn't it? Perseverance and pain is a part of life sometimes, trials and challenges we can never avoid (though I try like crazy to avoid them at all costs...but to no avail!) Yet in these moments I am reminded that our dreams are God's dreams. Janice's email was so timely, and the emails from my girlfriends reminding me of how I wondered if I would ever see that final dream, but who also held hope for me while I waited, cried and doubted are tangible reminders to God's bigger vision than are own. Community is such a "hot topic" word in churches sometimes, but at the end of the day community is "where you feel at home and safe and able to be you, no matter if that is via the internet or sitting in a house with someone every week." (That quote is from one of my cheesy books I read that I just finished last week. :) How strongly those words ring true for me) This week to see what God has done in this last year and to see Sam and I both getting to walk out some life long dreams is so breathtaking. Why do I ever doubt in the middle of chaos and pain? Because I am human and have so much growing God still wants to do. As I read Janice's words of hope and encouragement yesterday and my girl friends reminders this week, I sat very still taking in those words of truth. My life is sometimes TOO much of an open book, but the beauty of walking through life and allowing others close enough to hurt you when you stumble and fail is the risk you take, but the sweetness of people truly rejoicing with you when you succeed has a sweetness to it that is better than chocolate! While I desperately tried to run away from pain this year, I am so thankful God saw fit to leave me in hurtful conversations, a crazy brain that was too emotional, and unhealthy thinking only to discover health at the end of that journey.
A year ago Sam and I were jet lagged and heading to Sam's little brother and sister's school Gala, I was terrified to run into people I didn't want to, and I was spinning while trying to enjoy being back in NZ with my husband. I PROMISE you if you would have told me (us) what this week would hold a year ago I would have laughed at you and found some hole to hide in for then next year our of fear! Following God and trusting Him is the hardest thing to do some days and living a life where risks are taken and gut instincts He places in you are tried with no real plan or guarantee is hard, but I would have it NO other way. The pain SUCKS, no way around it, but the other side....the other side is always worth it.
While I fully embraced the pain (even in the attempts to run away and make the pain go away this year) this last year I will fully embrace the goodness that we are experiencing this week. Life is full of both. God's goodness is consistent. It never changes, in pain or our version of good things. He is just good, He can be nothing else. My perception of circumstances is what can tell me if He is good or not, but that is absolutely not TRUTH. As Pastor Bill in Redding says, "God is gooder than you think, change the way you think." Hmmmm, and God's grace to help you get there when you can't get there on your own is so amazing. To know that seasons are just that seasons---they have a beginning and an ending. I will enjoy this season and experience God's goodness in good things to it's fullness just as we stumbled through the hard waiting for God to point out his goodness in the hard.
Most importantly, though, Max did not come while Sam was gone!!! Seeing how this little turkey has had a mind of his own the entire pregnancy we had no idea if he would decide to make his appearance last night, but in the end he stayed in his cozy little condo and let daddy enjoy his night! GOOD JOB MAXIMILLIAN! Now as my friend Lorna said, "He has the green light to come now!!"
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