In the beginning I was looking for ideas to record this year in creative ways. This is really the only one I stuck with. After each month of significant ministry in a place I attempted to sum up the experience in a poster style sketch with a bit of writing and a illustration. I made a sketch book and only filled about a fifth of it. Sorry about the quality as its not the best in some of them.
Some are bad, some are good, all are fun!
Mexico - "In Alguilar mexico I looked up and saw a gentle child giving all she had...and saw a house full of bondage be filled with the words of God...and saw a man's eyes crying out so loud I could not walk away...and saw a pastor smile bigger than he was supposed too. And saw a town that wanted our prayers and has them."
Guatamala - "In the land of a thousand dreams, I have a thousand memories"
Peru - "Dust is but water away from dirt, and dirt is but a seed away from life."
Argentina - "Amongst the empty faces, smiles, and smurks, often quick, each step with curiosity. And after the 300 blocks I found little but the urge to walk a little more"
Mozambique "For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means and I also know how to live in prosperity. I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and need." Phil. 4:12
Portraits and scenes of the many places we visited in mozy.
Swaziland "Sometimes you have to live a dream to find out if it is really a dream at all"
Thailand - "Where the loss of innocence finds many, God has chosen to return it to a few"
This is a portrait of Eileen from TOLO
Cambodia - "Like a fly upon the wall, or a bird flying oh so tall, I heard my call, and watched them all. Dirt, filth others may have saw, but I found so much beauty in the dull."
Genesis 3
This is Genesis 3 from a excercise I would do when I would pray over a particular scripture and draw the image that comes to mind. The image in my head consisted plainly of a squirming snake dividing a man and a woman with paradise in the far background as if the snake had pulled them out into this place of division. I added the details as I read, and didn't want too, but decided to put a apple in it like any classic adam/eve esqu piece should. It is fun to read the scripture and find the little hidden things I placed in the image, well I think it is fun. And yes...she is pregnant.
I lost much of my watercolors sadly while in mozambique, others I believe in Swazi. This one had a more lively and happy "genesis 2" themed counterpart of the same excercise that is now gone. My poor little tin of watercolors has escaped me.
Sarah has some good schnitzel. I was craving it all day. I prefer the pita filled schitzel over the baguette, but either topped over with sweet chilli sauce would satisfy. As usuall, the young boy, the son of Sarah, of Sarahs Cafe, had too much energy for such a small place. The norm being he runs and climbs and generally fills the stereotype of a 7 year old boy until his older teenage sister, too bored by the computer chatrooms makes him cry by some cruel sneaky act. Its all the same, except the addition of an older gentlemen of western descent, walking out of the kitchen to talk to Sarah. I order the schnitzel.
Outside the full moon waits for my eventual departure shining as best it can amongst the towering neon lights and general clutter of Khao San Road. China town in reverse, this mardi gras finds Burger King overstimulating atmosphere soon overtakes my senses and I look for a deep alley or walkway to find a bit of peace. A man throws a beer can out a tuk tuk, I begin to sweat in the humid evening, the air is putrid, smelling like many other cities but with a hint of fried this or that. A drunk and high Englishman trys to con me into money and ends up calling me the liar. I walk on confused and with a slight smile. As I leave the clutter a thai women follows close behind, inticing me with the few words of english He knows, if it weren't for His extra high heels He may have been able to keep up. I push through the clutter and find a bit of peace under the golden arches, not Mcdonalds, a grander figure, a tribute to a king hated by no one. I wonder what the Kings real name is, or if I can even pronounce it. I chuckle to find the shiny spheres are actually Compact Discs glued in overlaying patterns onto waterproof gold wallpaper. The King is known to be a bit of a enviromentalist, even the monuments to him seem to be recycled.
I push past the giant sign that says "Tourist Walkway". The word "tourist" or "foreigner" translates into "money" and "rich" in most languages. No I walk on into moonlit territories and find myself immersed in a sea of lumps upon the grassy dirt. Often this field his home to kite fliers and foot related sports enthusists but every night it is transformed into the cheapest hotel in town. "Sawasdeekrap" I say to one of the lumps, "kap" I get in return. At the far end the grand palace's bell steeples of gold cannot be contained by the tall white wall's. The setting looks cramped, the palace, not the field of lumps. Rats scurry about seemingly racing the cockroaches from trash pile to trash pile. God tells me to give twenty Baht to a women sleeping on a construction block. I try to wake her to give her head a break for it was dangling off the block as if only attatched by the skin of the neck. "Hello, Hello, Hello", despondant, I lay the prize under her jacket. I leave and say a prayer for that lump and that lump and the police officer standing in traffic as well. I look about and gently say goodbye to the nightlife I have come to slowly understand and become comfortable with over the past year.
I walk on and soon, one by one, the lights begin to dim and the neon pink taxi's become thinner and thinner, my routes across the 7 laned streets that normally I require a quick dash through during smoggy sunlit days; I now only briskly avoid thier course. I fight off saying to myself "this will be the last time I walk....I eat...I see..." I've moved over a hundred twenty times in 13 months, I expect to move a bit more. Still the scents and sights I take in with new curiosity. The same curiosity that found the details of the Kings monument and the man sleeping underneath the parked car. I urn down my alley to my room and find Sutteenai up, in his underwear, making coffee, he offers me some and I take a cup while he investigates sounds from around the house. I feel blessed to find a place of peace amongst it all, Sutteenai and his family house have given me a good last thai taste in my mouth. Not that the food here couldn't do that on its own. Where as I could have spent the night in a impersonal concrete cell without windows, I struck a bit of luck and found a pleasant homestay in it's place. I take my bed and dream of the future and remember the past. I find myself in a time of transition, where the past has taken me so far I can't forget it, details too many to recall in a sitting, but the future refuses to remain silent fighting for attention. This place I find, full of reflections and dreams, brings only anxiety and late nights. I smile and sleep.
The World Race may have been over quite some time ago, but it is only now I will begin to see the true impact it has made. That which is normal to me are these nights where everything is different and new. How will I soon handle those nights I can once so easily found comfortable, predictable. Will the states perhaps run on a clock I have a hard time keeping time too? The journey continues...so let it begin...
Yeah, they totally denied us despite our feeble attempts at the Kuala Phil Harmonic, but hey they had shoes and jackets for just such ragged folks as these. I wasnt wearing socks.
Old news, same life. I'm still alive. My travels continue tirelessly as myself, Stacy and Jon have trekked through translation and the bottom half of china, argued our way through Vietnam, jazzed up for a night in Malaysia and lay sunburnt in Phuket Thailand. My friends are leaving so soon, and I will at last be alone and perhaps begin to feel the effects of leaving the race. I am starting to find myself needing a steady environment, of which I presume upon entering will start to find myself needing of an unsteady environment once again. Every new place I go hopes to bring peace to my travel hunger, but at every stop I look to where I am heading next. My addiction in many ways mirrors my faith. Perhaps I should take some time to admire where I've gone and where He's taken me…
Peace.
I have switched blogs if ya so care to gander: www.xanga.com/bush777
Today I said goodbye, some tearful some not. Today, World Race is over for A and B squads. I proud myself to be a part of such a great crew. I will miss you all, and look foreward to using and abusing the web of couchs you have across the US. I hope only the best for each of you as you continue your journeys to greatness. I thank you for being a part of my story and allowing me to be a part of yours. As much as I was annoyed at travelling in such a huge group, at some point I laughed with each of you, struggled with each of you, and found a little bit of Jesus in each of you. I loved so much on this trip, but I am excited to move on and see what we will do. This is the end of a season, it is the beginning of another. Spring happens to sprout from winter's destruction.
Let me introduce the new crew...
we are not completely new, just rearranged and...apparently deranged. Till just shy of xmas, we are tackling our SE Asia dreams and sort through this past year together.
this life, crazy, overdramatic, lovely and ugly all at the same time is nearly at an end. While others are immediatly hitting perhaps our greatest culture shock of the year, returning into what used to be normal, I just can't do that quite yet. At the end of college I spent 5 weeks in cape town pulling together my life, whats happened, whats next, who I am, five weeks. I am led to a similiar circumstances, as I have given myself an additional over 2 months left in Asia. We have been challenged by Seth this week to ask ourselves..."So what" What will I do with this year. These and hundreds of other questions will hopefully be tackled in the nearing time. Thier is an enormous trap to fall back into our lives exactly as we left them. That this year was a cute fluke, that the U.S. doesn't play by these rules, that the bills and contracts and credit debt is inevitable. And for me that I would wander out of this thing just as I wondered into it. Like I wondered into a theme park, rode the rides for a bit, and found myself in the empty parking lot at the end of the night. I got two months to start off on the right foot, to not only find out what the hell happened this year, but to use it too my advantage when I do finally return to the cushy. Just like this year had a winding up motion with preparation and training, I hope to wind out with a long stint of processing. I would appreciate your prayers and continued financial support for my debt to AIM for this crucial time.
So it is ONWARD, I got my little green bag, Vietnam and beyond!
Don't worry I'll be taking a plane not a slow boat, though this monster would be fun to take out. CHINA is next and with it new adventures, new cultures, new people, new language to overcome, the last hurrah for my squad. So you may ask me . "Are you ready for it to end?" And I respond "Thats a trick question Mr/Mrs. Sneaky." This life is a journey, its the journey. World Race was just putting a label on it from time period A to time period B. And if I really ended it now, I just don't think I would be satisfied. Which is good, our thirst for life should never be filled. So here we go China, then here we go Vietnam/Laos/Thailand/and beyond. Life begins (and sometimes ends) when you want it too.
Double post!!!
Angkor Wat
Lacking in the camera category hasn't always been the worst thing in the world. Gets me a chance to find other ways to record people and places. I saw everybodys Angkor Wat picture blogs and thought I would share with you all how I am remembering my second wonder of the world.
I actually had a great day riding my bike around the temples, painting. You almost become part of the show when you paint. People come up and watch you, ask about your pictures, even take pictures of you! I had one guy for nearly 5 minutes climbling all over the ruins behind, in front, looking for a good angle of my work. Can't lie, I like the attention.
Unfortunetly my bike ride home was in a storm, and my lil sketchy book got quite a bit wet during the miserable ride home. Watercolors live and die with water. This one lost the most colorful part in the corner.
Fortunetly however, the reason I didn't leave till after the strom hit was that I met some wonderful vendor 10 year od girls that spoke really good english...and spanish. We went back and forth between languages and had fun running around the ruins together till dark. Its always a rare treat to find people who can speak you language well, especially kids, love em. One girl, Tea, even let me follow her back to the house in the middle of the rice fields and fed a hungry boy rice and fish lettuce wraps, all with coconut juice with not one but two dead flies in it. I love that stuff. Those folks blessed me beyond belief, the grandma even gave me her flashlight for the several mile ride home in the dark rain.
I just couldn't do some of these places justice. Ta Prahm (sp) was an amazing site as huge trees slowly destroyed ancient buildings. Watch Tomb Raider and you'll see plenty of this temple.
Lest this is what I recently came to a realization of during church the other day. Believe it or not this phrase speaks so much of my life right now, in many ways I just can't explain. But I'll try...
http://jeffreycortlandjones.blogspot.com/
I was taught in school so much about the beauty of composition. I now have a hungry eye, scanning this lovely world for any chance occasion with a object or two sitting ever so perfectly in a space. Jon Hiebert once told me "You can borrow my camera yes...only if you promise to take pictures of people." It is perhaps better that I did not have a camera this whole time, as many shots would be like my professors' above, boring a majority of the audience that happens across my blogs. The people that go to modern museum and say "A black paint splatter on Mona Lisa? I could have painted this!" I find the picture above absolutely beautiful, but I know some people probably don't. Though I hate to be a conformist, I must to some degree to get along with people. We must all give each other grace and try to understand each other, less this world would be full of wars and violence...hmmm...check out my last blog. Back to beauty and composition. I am learning that I cannot survive on composition alone, both in life and in art. I must add depths of love, of human struggle and emotion, of the reality of life. I am on this trip, traveling the world, given the chance to have a taste of so many cultures and peoples this year. I love it, but it has also been one of the driest seasons of my life. I don't pity it, I can only ask what God is teaching me through it. Still don't understand? Here's an example. In Thembeni, Swaziland, it seemed as if I was in a great place of ministry, it looked perfect from the outside. Me, 30 or so orphans, and three Gogo's (grandmas) spending a month in a hut in the Swazi bush. No where else on this race would I had thought I would be more alive than in these conditions. No where else on this race was I further from being alive. I and you must be careful in making life decisions based on how it looks, the composition; for true life, the beautiful life is found in so much more. Five oranges arranged perfectly to please the eye on a 4x6 framed foto, will in time still rot or be eaten in real life.
My pursuit is a life that will be beautiful on paper and off.
Each rain brings more. We were startled to see a jar of teeth in a glass box in a field full of holes. You can only imagine our reaction when we noticed more teeth lying at our feet underneath the box. We walked on through this place, where bones and clothing recently unearthed by mother nature appeared to belong, to be normal. The workers seemed to be more occupied with keeping the grass free of fallen palm tree branches than human remains. "Tree to kill babies and small children" one sign pointed out, as our guide motioned in a baseball swing fashion towards the tree. Another tree marked "Held speaker system played loudly to cover moans." "Mass grave of 166 victims...without heads." also found its place in these horrific grounds near Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. Needless to say, the car ride home was rather quiet.
I wish not to give a history lesson, any google search of "Kmer Rouge" or "the killing fields" will bring words to try to describe these horrorific events. I only wish to do exactly what this once high school, once prison, once torture chamber, now memorial attempts to do…stare into the faces of thousands shortly before their murder.
A 3 story pillar memorial filled only with shelf after shelf of skulls asks for homage at the gate.
Thanks to Bri for lending me the camera. All pictures are unaltered RAW.
F
is for Fotos
is what this blog is Full
of. Like this
Fantastic view from Buri Ram Thailand.
F
is for Fierce
in em aviators. I was rockin that scooter, all those other 9 year olds on the track knew my name
Fis for
Fil and me rocking it like we belonged on Broadways cats, once again...so
Fierce
F is for
Funky which is exactly what we do right before bed time ...glowstick rave
F is for
Free time in the Korat town square with Jon's camera
F is for the
Fr
iendly
Faces here in Thailand. Oh, how happy everybody is around here.
F is for
Fern and me foto opping it asian peace sign style.
F is for
Fancy walks near silk cities.
F is for the
Faces
that we find ourselves in sometimes in the back of trucks. Brutal Emily...
F is for
Final touches which I was just putting on my own addition to the Tree of Life Orphanage.
and finally
F is for
FINANCES which I need for my World Race trip to continue, I have been blessed already with a little over $10,000 thus far, but still need over $2000 to finish. I would love if you considered praying about helping me through this final leg of my journey. Thank you again for so many of you that have provided us racers with prayer, guidance, and financial support thus far.
My frisbee's broken, but I'm still goin'. At what lengths does a guy have to go to find himself. To find your purpose, the reason he was suddenly were 4 years old and consciousness began. I'm learning its gonna take a bit more than a year without hobbys to find passion. I may have to screw up a few thousand relationships to find out what a real one is like. I may have to spend countless days not understanding me, that guy on the corner, that friend I haven't seen in 10 years, a lucky leprachaun and Jesus, before I really get it.
What price will I pay? Have my broken piece of circular plastic and more.
