Composing the Vision

I've been meaning to make this journal entry for sometime now. I've been merely an observer of religion down here in Mexico. I haven't joined a church or anything, part of it because I miss my church back home and it "wouldn't be the same", but part of it is just to step away from the church for a short time to merely observe it. My friend asked me a while back "How is God moving down in Mexico?". The answer to that I'm not really sure, and that upsets me. Most of the people here are Catholic. Catholics and Evangelicals have an interesting history, and so its hard to filter through all of that, since I consider myself an Evangelical. Our first instinct is to say, "oh look at all those idols to Mary and Jesus on the Cross instead of an empty cross". Granted, there are a lot of "statues" to various saints, but before you get to quick to judge, Evangelicals have their downfall too. We have "idols" in our Christi...

Sorry I don't have any pictures for you today. I am taking the week off from photography kinda like a vacation, just so I don't go crazy. Next week I should have some more stuff. There is something special about home. I once heard that "home is not where you live, but where they understand you." I am beginning to see how true that is. I am yearning for home. To be with my girlfriend to see familiar faces to do familiar things. I'm looking forward to going back and taking classes and afterwards going to Taza, our local awesome coffeeshop. I'm looking forward to serving at my church again. But more than anything I am looking forward to laughing with those closest to me. I love to travel. I love seeing new things, meeting new people, learning about new cultures. I love taking pictures and capturing a culture. I love trying new foods. I have tasted some exquisit foods and some pretty gross foods too. I have had some pretty crazy adventures from drivin...

These last couple of weeks have been crazy! I've been trying to get together the wedding pictures and they are almost complete. I will put up a gallery soon. I put together this list of dos and donts in Mexico. I enjoyed putting it together, I hope you enjoy reading it. Don't: · Don't Drink the Water!!! (ok I had to get this one out) Although some gringos are really paranoid about this, the water system is improving and you don't have to go to the extreme of closing your mouth in the shower. I have brushed my teeth with tab water and have not died. But in general the water they have told me that the water is filled with a lot of extra minerals which isn't good for you. Just don't go chugging it. · Don't eat street food. If anything will get you sicker faster, it is this. I have never had a successful street food stand experience that hasn't put me on the toilet for two weeks. The hard thing about this is street food is amazing! a...

This past weekend I got the priviledge to shoot a wedding, and it just happened to be a Mexican wedding! The wedding was very fast paced, as I just found out that I was the photographer 9 days before the wedding. But the couple, Gaby and Fernando, were very fun to work with and it was a fun wedding. Some would say that there aren't a lot of differences between Mexican and American weddings. Of course they have a lot of the same things: a church, a bride, a groom, a priest. I mean there isn't much to that. I have never been to a Catholic wedding, so I don't know the differences and similiarites there. But let me just say that I think there are a lot of differences, Mexican weddings are crazy (good crazy)! After the bride finished getting ready, we headed off to the church. They didn't have a driver, so I quickly switched from photographer to chaufer in a matter of seconds. So I drive to the church with 15 minutes until the wedding. I was worried about getting t...