Restoring Grace |: Thailand

I am a photographer. This is my occupation. This is my profession. This is my calling. Every time I do somebody's portrait or take a landscape through my lens I am overwhelmed with the privilege and honor of holding a camera in my hands. I feel incredibly blessed by the Lord in this calling, and I pray that He gives me the grace to use it to His glory.

I desire to use my camera to document the faithfulness, grace, and redemptive love of God in His people throughout the world. I want to use my images and the stories that accompany them as a tool for discipleship. "Take a look: this is our God. The same God that redeems girls from brothels in Asia, the same God that preserves the faith of His people through persecution in Sudan, the same God that frees children from slavery in Egypt, the same God that calls American street kids to become pastors and evangelists... this is the same God you serve. This is YOUR God. He is faithful. He fulfills His Word. He is trustworthy. And He never fails."

Two weeks ago a friend called and asked me to go to Thailand with her to do this very thing, and after much prayer, God has confirmed that I am to go.

We leave February 4th, and arrive home the 24th. We go a place called "House of Grace," a girl's home and ministry that protects and cares for tribal girls that are at risk of being sold into prostitution in Bangkok. Our purpose is to document, in book, form the transforming work of Christ in the lives of these girls, and in this part of the world.

Our purpose is to gather images and text for a book focused on the transforming work of Christ in the hearts and lives of the girls themselves, attesting to God's faithfulness and loving watchcare over them. Several years ago a book was written about this ministry, and the impact it was making on the prostitution industry in Thailand. This will be a follow-up book. We don't go so much for the impact we can have during this trip, but for the future impact of the images we capture and the stories we tell, both documenting the redemptive love of God.

A friend of mine is the head of a group called Revolutionary Media, a team of artists, writers, photographers, and graphic artists who seek to change the world through beautiful and true media projects. "Rescue the Beauty," a division of Rev Media, focuses on finding truth and beauty in seemingly lost and dark places and accurately communicating Christ in that situation.

Rev Media and Rescue the Beauty has graciously taken on creative sponsorship for this project. This means that Rev Media team members will give logistical, creative, and spiritual support on as many fronts as possible. Project organization. Graphics. Marketing. They can’t go with us to Thailand, but they desire to help us from home. Together we hope this Rescue the Beauty project will inform, inspire, and challenge people every where to confront the difficult and heartbreaking issues of our times.

Want to help? Subscribe to the project blog [at www.RestoringGraceProject.blogspot.com]. Hannah and I will update there as often as possible about our adventures and what God is doing. And please join our support network. Pray. Donate if you can. Send emails of encouragement. As we seek to live on the edge in faith, please support us as much as you can.

I have two prayer requests I would like to present to everyone now:

1. Pray for our hearts as we prepare to go. I know I will see and hear and experience things that are totally new, and even the nature of our trip is heartbreaking. If prostitution was obsolete, I would have no need to go. I want my heart soft and open to what God would place there, yet wise and discerning as well.

2. My primary prayer request would be that I would stay centered on the Gospel in my preparations, in my travels, in my interactions with people, and in my work following the trip. I firmly believe that the Gospel of Christ is the only thing that redeems horror into purity, brokenness into beauty, and sinful creatures into saints.

Thank you all for lifting me up to our God in prayer. Please continue those petitions on my account.