iPhone 4s photo, Snapseed edit, and text added with Rhonna Designs app
Loaves and fishes and Compassion
These past few days, I have been writing out the verses from John, chapter 6, in my journal, and have been pondering how God can take what we consider to be a small contribution, and He can turn it into so much more than we could even imagine. In fact, I feel like I need to pinch myself, because at this moment, I am overwhelmed at His plan and His timing and His provision!
Four and a half years ago when we first became Compassion sponsors, and even three years ago when I became a Compassion Advocate, I never thought it would be possible for me to ever (and I mean never, ever!) travel to see one of our Compassion children. Our one income family just doesn't have wiggle room in the budget for us to travel internationally. But I know God knew what He was doing when He provided me with the opportunity to use my gifts and talents to earn money for the Compassion trip my son and I were able to take to Mexico in January of this year. And now, here I am, a week away from the deadline to make the final payment to go on my second Compassion trip!
Just this morning, I was able to make that final payment thanks (huge, huge thank yous!!) to many, many people who purchased pizzas, and cupcakes, and jam, and dishcloths, and baby blankets, and hope ornaments, and many who were generous to donate money for this trip. In just over 100 days, just over a year from my first trip, I will be traveling to Colombia to visit Lina. Lina is the child we have been sponsoring the longest. She is a 15 year old young lady who has dreams of becoming a veterinarian. I believe this is God's way of turning pizzas and cupcakes into an opportunity for Him to show me and Lina what can happen when we trust in Him.
I am so looking forward to giving her a big hug at the end of February!!
But this is not all that has happened this week!
As a Compassion Advocate, I love to work events. And in our area, I have many, many opportunities to work at events. Church events, conferences, concerts, and the Compassion Mobile Experience are just some of the ways my family and I have worked together to help connect many new sponsors with children that are being released from poverty in Jesus' name. Encouraging new sponsors and answering their questions is one way that I can multiply my excitement about Compassion with other people.
Just a couple of days ago, I was talking with my Advocate Manager, and she mentioned an opening for a volunteer position on Compassion's Volunteer Coordinator Team. At that moment, I almost can't even explain it, but it felt like God already knew that this would be my next step...as the new Northern California Event Volunteer Coordinator!! This is just one more way for God to use me, one person to multiply His efforts to connect more people to sponsoring children.
So when I think about that young boy who provided those loaves and fishes, I remember that I am just one person. But I am excited about the amazing opportunities that God is providing for me to help in a small way to make a difference for children that have dreams to do more, and to be more, and to have a chance to learn about the hope they have in Jesus.
Paths of Life
iPhone 4s photo, Snapseed and Rhonna Designs edit
October Compassion Share & Tell
To say I have been busy this month would be a big understatement! But I never want to be too busy to write letters to my Compassion kids. And since I sent a pretty quick note to each of them last month, I wanted to take the time to go back through some of their older letters and answer some of their questions I may have overlooked in the last couple of months. Plus, I wanted to send them each a couple of extras with their letter.
First off, I pulled out all of my binders which contain all of the letters I have received from my kids. In these binders, I like to keep a copy of the letters I mail out also. This way, I can remember what I wrote to each one of them, and I make notes of the extras I mail with their letters.
One of the extras I am mailing this month are these abstract coloring pages I found on Pinterest. I colored one for each of my kids (that took a bit of time!), and I am mailing them a copy to color for themselves. I know I love when they take the time to draw pictures for me, so I thought they might appreciate something colorful from me in their letter.
I also included these stickers I found at the dollar store recently. For each child, I put all of their items together, made sure their name and sponsor number, as well as my name and sponsor number, were on each item, then I just stapled everything together for each child. All of the letters were put into a 9x12-inch envelope and mailed off to Compassion.
As far as the content of each letter, I know I usually share that with you each month. But this month, each letter was so different. So I am not going to share a letter this month. But I am going to encourage you to write to your sponsored child. Your words matter to them, and they appreciate the time you take out of your day to jot down those words of encouragement.
iPhone Photography
One of my goals this year was to 'improve my photography by working through books and tutorials'. Of course when I wrote that goal, I fully intended to be working with my Nikon D3100 camera. But life gets busy and I have not put in the time I was hoping to when I initially wrote that goal.
What I did discover recently though was an iPhone photography course by David Molnar which has really changed the way I think about photography and editing. When I first starting shooting pictures with a digital camera, I was all about trying to shoot the best picture I could without having to do any editing. However, what David teaches in his course is that you edit to recreate the feeling you felt when you took the picture. So sometimes that means a bit of tweaking.
Let me show you a couple of examples:
Here is a before photo of cream puffs...
...and here is the after. Which ones would you rather eat?
Before photo I had to stop and take on our way home from my daughter's class. Not really anything wrong, but...
...I love the way the quick edit transform the basic photo into something much more beautiful!
So you may be asking what apps I am using on my iPhone to take and create these photographs. Right now, I have an iPhone 4s and I must say I am really happy that when we got these phones about a year and a half ago, I went with the 4s over just the 4. Most of the time, I use the native camera that comes with the iPhone, but in some cases, I do use Camera+. The Camera+ app gives you more control over your settings than the native camera on the iPhone. And they have even just added a macro setting in their latest update which I am hoping to experiment with more soon.
For editing, Snapseed is my go to app. For one, it is a free app! And there is so much you can do in this one app to recreate what you saw when you took that photo. Even just minor adjustments to the brightness, contrast, saturation, and ambiance of a photo can turn your blah photo into something you want to share with friends.
Speaking of sharing, my favorite place to share my photos has got to be Instagram. As a photographer, I love to see the bits and pieces that my friends share, as well as having a place to quickly share something about my day. Whether it be books that I am reading, some project that I am working on, and the glimpses I see on the day trips we are able to take.
Even though I still love to use my Nikon D3100, I sure do love the convenience of using my iPhone for my daily photography habit.