Tim Euken (photographing the world's poverties)- update

Hey everyone, so below is an excerpt from Tim Euken, a guy who is traveling around the world documenting poverty and sharing stories and photos with Ode and many others as he goes...

by Tim Euken
Throughout this first few months God has been revealing
some unbelievable truths to me that I will walk with for the rest of
my life. With one hand God has shown me my flaws and with the
other extends grace. I believe comforting the hardest issues before
they become giants, is the only way not to burn out.
In Brazil I saw boys under twelve years old smoking some
crack and police officers just turning the back to it. I met people
that have lost there entire families to floods, I found that in those
floods the government said 900 people died but the local census
was around 12,000. In South Africa during a feeding I saw a
woman beat her three year old baby across the street as an older
man laughed. I met children from child headed homes and
helped feed children that quite possibly eat only once a week. I
have lived with a family that has no electricity and has running
water only once or twice a week, with that water they feed all 15
family members, 7 of which are adopted from dead relatives, as
well as water there crops. All this I have seen through a lens of a
camera, standing in the midst of beauty and pain I realize in
these moments I discover Jesus in a deeper way, I discover his
heart and the way he sees the broken and poor.
During my time in Brazil, in the flood zones with the farmers
I worked the fields. Many times I would just run up to farmers
that are already in there crops and say “Posso ajuda?” which
means “Can I help you?” in portuguese. While I was there one
night I went out to the fields that I had worked and it was pitch
black, no street lights and just watched the stars. It was an
amazing time with God. Here, I began to realize how I can relate
God to pretty much everything in nature. Also this is around the
time I realized how many times God spoke in the wilderness: he
spoke to Jesus, Moses, and Jacob - just a few off the top of my
head.
During my time in South Africa and Swaziland I felt like
God really talked to me on humbleness and the ability to have a
joyful spirit in the most dire situations. I learned so much from
the people I lived with that I am not sure if I’ll ever be able
express to how much it meant to me that they spent time with
me. While in South Africa and Swaziland I was very much
needing the Lord because of all the depressing stories and things
I had witnessed. It’s here when I came across the verse where
Jesus says, “Pick up your cross and follow me”. This was shocking
to me that he had said this before he was told he would be hung
on the cross. Than I thought to myself what does that look like?
Jesus picking up his cross; it wasn’t glorious, it wasn’t gracious, it
was painful and wasn’t for himself. When Jesus picked up his
cross he knew that when he got Calvary where he was going he
would be nailed too it - is this what Jesus meant by pick up your
crosses? And I asked myself “is that how far I am truly willing to
go?” Is this dream God put in my heart something that I’m
willing to pick up and walk with even if I know I will be nailed to
the issues in my heart for the rest of my life? That night I told
God that this is truly something I want to give my whole heart to,
something that seems only right after I was saved from a life of
underprivileged and given parents willing to see me go where
ever I’m called and walk like I am asked to walk and love the way
we are demanded to love.
I honestly want to thank all of you for investing in my life as
well as the lives of the people I encounter. All this couldn’t be
possible without you and I truly want to get to know all of you on
a one-on-one basis, please e-mail me whenever you just want to
chat with me. Its honestly an honor to talk to all of you guys. Plus
after traveling so much, being able to communicate with people
that speak my language well is always a plus! Also I have lost 27
lbs sense the start of this track.

What of Lazarus? (Under the Cover of Light)

A song about holding onto your faith when times get hard.

by Bill Boutin

Don't you know, your life is but a moment in flight

Don't let go, for joy is worth the pain of the night

Don't you know, the fog hides the ocean from the rain

Let them go, the tears only come to ease the pain

It's all right, the Son remembers well

Hope burns bright, as time will never tell

And someone finally fell for you, just be true

The Son brings His delight, hidden under cover of light

Without a word, you languish through the lonely years on end

And times get hard, when emptiness becomes your constant friend

It's all right, cherish all the sorrows

Don't lose sight, there may be no tomorrow,

yet someone soon may follow after you, just be true

The Son brings His delight, hidden under cover of light

Maybe when you find your body resting in the ground

Maybe then the peace you never knew will be found

It's all right, the Son remembers well

Say goodnight, your story's ended well, the one who finally fell

Was you, and you've been true

The Son brings His delight, hidden under cover of light

It's all right, the Son remembers well

Hope burns bright, as time will never tell

And someone finally fell for you, just be true

The Son brings His delight, hidden under cover of light

And It's all right

(C) 1997 Bill Boutin

Something for the Underprivileged

by Maddie P.

I look at them, and my heart breaks.  I hear their stories and am hit by overwhelming pain.  Although I shouldn't be the one breaking.  I shouldn't be the one with a tear filled face, because I am not the one suffering here.  Yet, I break all the same.  I see the beaten, battered, abused, broken, distraught, and orphaned children, and my heart collapses at the sight of their despair.  It hurts to know, to see, to come to realization with how much they suffer.  It hurts to find that there is nothing they can do about it.  After all they're just kids, mothers, fathers, forgotten people, fearful and alone.  What they don't know is that they will never truly be alone.  There is one greater than all who will rescue them, who has saved them, who cares for them.  This is the one who will never abandon them.  He will never forsake them.  He's the one who made us this promise, a promise saying that he'll come back for us.  Even them, those who are forgotten.  In his eyes, and in mine, they are beautiful.  They are treasured, sacred, and most importantly as I say again and again they are LOVED.  And by him, they are remembered.  He remembers them and their pain, he remembers the plans he has made for them, plans to prosper and grow.  So let us remember, too.  Let us love as he loves, move as he moves, and through him save those who some would say are not worth the time, the effort, or the money.  Now we remember, it's time to move.  To take action.  To bring attention to the underprivileged and not forget through the distractions and time wasters in this world that they are still there. Broken.  They still need help, and they still need to know about the overwhelming joy and salvation that their savior brings.  They need to be loved, and they need to be remembered.  They are our neighbors, our friends.  So let us join together and pray.  And serve.  And run to them with arms wide open. Letting them know they are loved, and that they are remembered.  Words aren't enough to capture their sorrow, their grief, and their hurt.  They aren't enough to explain the help they need.  But they're at least something to start a movement that had been ignored, forgotten.  To start an inspiration.  Enough to pull people off there couches, away from there TV's, and to get them thinking, moving.  There are the so called least of these right next door, and they need to hear something.  They need to hear that they are not forgotten any longer.  My heart yearns to tell them this, to show them this love that surpasses knowledge.  To tell them they are His beautiful creation.  He needs everyone to step up, to tell them, to show them, they are loved, and now, they are remembered.  I long to do this, so won't you join with me.  Join with me on a journey to share with His people that he loves them.  It breaks me to know that they long for this undying love, salvation, help, and they don't find out because no one remembers to pass on this radical news.  He hears there sorrow filled cries for help, even when no one else cares to listen.  He yearns for them to know of him, of his everlasting love.  So, once again, let's remember.  Let's run to them, let's move, get up out of our lives and step into one much more important, one that we were called to.  So that they may know the joy that is to come.  So that they know they aren't waiting for nothing.  He's still coming.  So let's tell them, let's show them, remember them, and now, it's time to love them.  Join with me as we venture out, let's love the forgotten.