simply LOVE.

Living by faith is a process, but imagine what the world would be like if every Christian on earth were to submit to God. We are called to be disciples of Christ and not ‘Sunday-Christians,’ when we are living exactly the way God called us to, it is then that his greatest works can be done.

I heard this quote from my really good friend a few months back and it put a really big smile on my face.

“What would the world look like if we literally loved the hell out of eachother??”  -Lani Ledingham

Here is a quote from Andrew Kooman’s play ‘She Has a Name’

“There is a river hidden deep underneath the earth, filled with every single tear that’s ever been shed. One day that river is going to explode and start to flood…”


Some people would think that if there was a world full of love & caring people-we would all be miserable, think about it… There would be Dora the Explorer/Barney the Purple Dinosaur on every channel and no swearing would be allowed. You would constantly be smothered with hugs from fat ladies three doors down making you cookies, whenever something hard happened in life you would be faced with an ‘awwe… well I really don’t know what to say to you-things will get better!’ and anti-depression pills would sky-rocket. But that is NOT the true love, blameless and faultless that God had when he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. It really got me thinking, have I been living life to my fullest lately? Have I been showing every person I know the love of Christ-pure and blameless. Many days I may be tired and worn down and my faith may need a serious pick me up, but it always seems that when we ask God “Lord-give me more faith” he says ok. That is really when he gives us the opportunity to test ourselves



What WOULD our lives look like if we took 4 minutes to say ‘you know what? I’m gonna buy a bouquet of flowers for my neighbor who always seems down; leave them on her front step, ring her doorbell and leave. I’m going to give a little bit more in church so that my church can reach & bless other people. I’m going to re-connect with someone I haven’t talked to in awhile and speak into their lives. I am going to take the time to show somebody the love of Christ today NO MATTER HOW BIG OR SMALL-don’t let money be an issue and stop you from blessing other people. When it comes down to it, do you want to be face to face with God in the end and have him ask you “why didn’t you help that person” and reply a stupid answer like ‘because I was saving for a vacation fund.’

God showed me two verses the other day that really spoke to me. Psalm 91 & Isaiah 28:23-29;

The verses in Psalm 91 show us that if we cling to God with our lives, and if he is our fortress-than we TRULY have nothing to fear. [memory verse here]. Psalm 121:3 [New Century Version] also says this: “He will not let you be defeated. He who guards you never sleeps”

Isaiah 28:23-29 is a section of verses that aren’t so clear, when God spoke to me but I was perplexed. I became so confused because I knew that God was trying to tell me something-but every time I read this verse, I became more and more confused. I began to research the verse on Google to see if I could find any clarity, and here is what I found from an online sermon.

1-    At the time this was being spoken, there was a lot of sin in the world and God was very angry with the people. The book of Isaiah is full of telling how ‘someone is coming despite how horrible the world is who has come to heal all of the brokenness.’ When you read Matthew/the New Testament you will see A LOT of references to Isaiah and how the ‘one person’ Isaiah was prophecying about was Christ.

[Here is some of the situation of what was happening in the world when God spoke this: Isaiah 29:1, 14-15, Isaiah 33:1]

2-    There was NO modern technology and farming was a very long and strenuous process which took a very long time. The soil had to be absolutely perfect with no lumps before the seeds could be planted.

3-    In order to harvest the plants, some had to be threshed and some had to be done VERY delicately to remove the fruit otherwise it would be ruined. Threshing was a very harsh process, but one that was necessary so that grains could be harvested. God was planning on threshing the majority of the sinful people BUT he had not forgotten about the few who were still faithful; they were to be handpicked later.

4-    Verse 29: “All this comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.’ It ends with words of comfort saying, even though there is a lot of evil happening in the world to those that are faithful there won’t be any reason to fear.  

End points. Although there was a lot of evil surrounding in the world, God will not forget about his people that are faithful to him. If we are faithful and diligent to God and serve him, then we truly have nothing to worry about. God uses these evil circumstances in the world to bring good/his glory and to change lives.
Sometimes we need to go through the threshing/harvesting in order to receive the spiritual fruit/blessings in our lives. 

New Beginnings.

Recently I made a very big decision with my photography business, I decided to give it up possibly for good. Being a lifestyle and one day wedding photographer would have been living the dream; A good friend of mine told me “but once you come back from your missions you can probably do both!”

For me that wasn’t the point, I want to live totally submitted to God with absolutely no boundaries. If God calls me to leave what I’m doing for 3 years to do ministry/staff somewhere; that’s something I cant do if I have my own successful business to take care of back home. The question it ultimately came down to for me was “Am I gonna live half ass what God tells me to-Or am I gonna be selfish and pursue my own desires?” Doing photography for families and people was an absolute dream for me, I loved getting to know families & watching their babies grow up etc. and developing relationships with them but God also opened up my eyes. God opened my eyes to hurting people in the world and he spoke to me and said “If you aren’t willing to capture these people and share their stories, then nobody else will follow”

I would rather have the joys of God’s promise for my life, than live an ordinary plain life. There might be a day when God sees how hard I’ve worked and says “ok Chelsea, I’ve seen how hard you’ve worked dedicating your life for me… you can have start up doing portrait photography again” but I would be absolutely fine if he didn’t. The truth is after all the months of prayer I’ve thought about doing this, I could have been bitter to God all I wanted-I really could. I could have thought “God is taking away the desires of my heart and he DOESN’T care about what I really want.” But that’s not true, God NEVER asked me to make this decision it was one I made on my own.

God has put a cause on my heart that is so much more fulfilling than portrait photography will ever be for me, God has given me the opportunity to make the world aware of what is happening in the world. Working in a community and being a portrait photographer/building relationships is important; but so is photojournalism. It takes a very strong person to become a photojournalist, it is a profession that not everybody can do and a lot of people tend to crack in. You tend to ask yourself the question “is it right for me to just sit here and take a picture of this person without a tear on my face, and then go publish it?” Yes. Because you will change that person’s life for the better and you have far more influence than you can possibly imagine! God has put this cause on my heart, and for me it’s simply not optional NOT to do this school to learn more about him & human trafficking.

As in any profession, the benefits far outweigh the risks. The same goes for being a Christian/missionary. The decision to follow Christ and say “where you go I WILL go, I will serve you and follow you with all my heart, and all my life no matter who leaves me because of it or what happens.” It will be the most difficult decision you make, but the greatest & most fulfilling one of your life and you’ll never look back.

There will absolutely be days I want to give up and cry and say to God “God-I want an easy life. Why did you choose this for me?” and he’ll just tell me ‘Chelsea I love you and I created you for THIS purpose. I wouldn’t have chosen this life for you if I knew you couldn’t do this. I love you now SUCK IT UP’ Everything happens for a reason, and I know now and truly understand the verse   

“Rev. 12:11    I overcome by the blood of Christ and the Word of my testimony.”

I will still continue to do portrait/lifestyle photography until July 20, 2011. After then I will be taking the time to re-connect with all of my friends/family before I leave for my DTS {August 5, 2011} Then I will be closing down my business for good. For me this is the end of 4 very long years of hard work and figuring out who I am not only as a person & but also as an artist. I’ve seen my photos go from ‘ok’ to good and something that people I don’t even know are willing and wanting to have done by me [which still blows my mind & astounds me!]

For me, doing this DTS is just the start of another journey of God showing me an incredible way he has planned for my photography and I can’t wait! I can’t wait to mentor others & sew into their lives the way that so many other photographers have sewn into mine [there are way to many of you to mention! But I am so grateful for each of you and the way God put you into my life!]

Lots of love & blessings

-Chelsea