Hello World
Risk Taking Artist
Hello World! So most post I do will be a lot less words and a lot more Photos (because words are hard and pictures are my thing)! But this one is so you can know a little about me...so I am a recent graduate from Southern Wesleyan University with a BS in Intercultural studies and a concentration in Media Comm. I am currently a freelance Photographer/Videographer and a Barista at Leopard Forest Coffeehouse in Travelers Rest SC. I love Photography and Videography and the way it has tells a story. it has the potential to inspire, motivate, and impact in a way that mere words might not be able to. A few summers ago I spent two months on a discipleship training program through FORGE and through my time there they helped me develop a mission statement that really explains who I am.
“I am a risk taking artist that exists to show and inspire people that there is joy in passionately and fully living for God”
At the time I didn’t know what that meant and I still don’t really, but it resonated with my heart so well. The past few years since then God has reawaken my love for photography and has given me a passion for videography as well. I love photography and using it to capture moments, events, experiences of people and for people. It all started with a small little red film camera that came from cereal box. I took pictures of the snakes and frogs that I found around the house and then the family vacations we went on. It kind of died off through middle school and high school but I still had a little digital camera that I used here and there. The love for photography really came back during the summer with FORGE in 2012 after my freshman year in college. I took thousands of photos that summer. It took me all over like Colorado, Utah, & Arizona and overseas, for the first time, to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. I became my teams unofficial photographer. By the following summer I had bought my very first DSLR camera and really began getting into photography. My "business" (I still don't know what the heck i'm doing) kind of started when a friend asked if I could do some photos for her and her friends. I've come a LONG way sense then but still learning new things all the time. In this business you HAVE to be teachable. Now I am booking photo sessions and filming weddings as a freelance photographer and videographer. I have found a love for doing these things. Even though I love doing this my heartbeat is for something slightly different...
My heart beats for overseas to become that “Risk Taking Artist” that I am. God has really given me a heart for missions and continues to gives me glimpses of my vision and future. I won’t go into depth but the overall vision is to use my love and passion for photography/videography and my call to missions to do three things ( not sure if its by starting a non-profit, join one, or doing it on the side).
1. Go to areas that are dark, dangerous, and despised places that are unreached and establish connections there and find out the needs of the people there, from humanitarian needs to spiritual needs or anything in between. From there either see if God places on one of us (if its a team) to start a movement there or if it is for someone else, in which I/we would capture the heart/need of the people in that location and bring back to share with people and hopefully inspire someone that would then get a burden for that area. Then I/we would help equip them to go and begin a movement in that area. supporting them and the areas the whole way through.
2. Join up and partner with people that are already on the mission field that have given up everything and have just gone to begin movements but need support from back home. I/we would go to these areas and capture their heart for the people they are working with and then bring that back to share with others. In hopes people will join them in their mission by giving financially, praying for them, and or maybe even joining them overseas as either a Internship or maybe even full time.
3. To share with people all the things that are happening around the world that the average american christian is not aware of. We as Americans are in these bubbles and are blind to what is happening around the world, good and bad. Not sure how we would be able to capture all this but the dream would be to go to the places around the world that are suffering persecution for Christ, stuck in the sex trade, dying of starvation and no water, living in constant threat of war, in slavery, and the numerous other needs that plague this world. Then share this with those that are blinded to these things in hopes to inspire them to go make a change. We would not just capture these things through video and pictures but work also to build personal relationships with individuals and communities that we reach. Either by doing it ourselves or equipping and disciplining others to start movements in those places. We wouldn’t only capture the hurt, pain, persecution, and needs of people but also the amazing miracles and God movements happening all over the world and the power we have in God. To be able to share people being physically healed by God, the massive revivals happening, the village that is finally getting fresh water for the first time, kids begin rescued from the sex trafficking business, and inner city churches working along side the homeless to redefine the city as a whole.
This is the HUGE vision God has given me. I have no idea how I will get there, how I will make it happen, or when or if it will happen but never the less I will live in such a way that God can use my passions where I am to inspire others to live lives passionately for God as I live as His Relentless Warrior and Risk Taking Artist.
God wants to use you passions and desires to change the world so start living fully in who God has made you. He didn’t make a mistake! He made you specifically the way you are for a reason so start living into that heavenly design!
-Risk Taking Artist