"S" Is For Sunday

Adventures on Slow Death hill.

"S" is for Sunday...and snow-shoeing...and sunset sledding. Based on that sentence alone, I'm sure you can surmise that today was a great day. If that doesn't have you convinced, then I'm sure the photos I've included of today's adventures will. 

After living here for more than a year, I still can't get over how beautiful this place is! The view from the top of  Slow Death compels me to praise God for this incredible landscape each morning as I make the descent into the forest. While I love the small church fellowship I meet with on Sunday mornings, I can't help but think as I look out across this field of snow washed in sunset...what greater cathedral for our God than this? 

Home

A great song just got better. Soooo cute. Just try not to linger too long under the description of the video posted by the creator (nothing says "kill-joy" like a father exploiting the cuteness of his daughter to pay for student loans).

The Dark Side of Chocolate

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, and with it comes the buying and selling of lots and lots of chocolate! Unfortunately, the majority of the world's chocolate is produced through trafficking and child labor. Companies like Hershey's, Nestle, Dove, Lindt, and Toblerone have a very lax policy regarding these issues, and children as young as 7 years old are being forced to work the cocoa farms of West Africa every day.

What can you do about it? You can watch this trailer for the documentary film, The Dark Side of Chocolate, where award winning Danish journalist Miki Mistrati investigates the conditions of chocolate farms in Mali and the Ivory Coast. Even better, you can purchase the full DVD for a donation of $5 here. Then you can support smaller fair trade chocolate companies, like Divine Chocolate and Theo Chocolate, by ordering your Valentine's treats from them this year!

Ruthless Trust

One of my favorite books is Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning. It's such a beautiful depiction of the unfailing love of God. This exert is a prayer I pray often...thought you'd enjoy it too.

I surrender my will and my life to You today, without reservation and with humble confidence, for You are my loving Father. Set me free from self-consciousness, from anxiety about tomorrow, and from the tyranny of the the approval and disapproval of others, that I may find joy and delight simply and solely in pleasing You. May my inner freedom be a compelling sign of Your presence, Your peace, and Your love. Let your plan for my life and the lives of all Your children gracefully unfold one day at a time. I love you with all my heart, and I place all my confidence in You, for You are my Abba. 

NestRest

Alright, so this is a follow-up to my post about wanting a portaledge treehouse. This alternative will appeal to those of you who are perhaps less climb-savvy: the NestRest. These magnificent hanging baskets are made by a German outdoor furniture company called Dedon, and I'm in love. I want to spend days and days laying around in one of these just reading and napping. I love the idea of having one hanging over water, but realistically there's no practical way that guy got in there from the shore. Regardless, in my dreams my NestRest would be over some beautiful bit of water. Again, it's stuff like this that gets me through these dreary winter days! Hopefully, it'll brighten yours as well.

Wake Up, Sleeper!

Last Tuesday I drove to Dallas and got on my plane to Frankfurt. It was harder coming back this time! Everyone says the second time is the hardest because the initial excitement has worn off and you just miss everybody that much more. I definitely agree. Of course, now that I'm back at the office and doing what we do, I'm so glad I'm here. The one thing that's been killing me is the jet lag! Usually I dont have too much of a problem with it. I just throw myself into routine and my sleep adjusts accordingly. But this time around it's been horrible.

The first night I slept for 17 hours without waking up. Yikes. Next night was pretty normal. Then I couldnt sleep at all so I stayed up through the night. Then I slept 14 hours. Now I'm up writing this at 4:30 in the morning because, you guessed it, I can't sleep! BAH!

One thing I've learned is that in all things, God is speaking. Even if it's just a little murmur. Here's what God's been murmuring to me these past few days:

I think we all go through seasons in our relationship with God. We have days when we have a furious longing to know Him and be known by Him, and we have days where God is just an afterthought. I think my life will be spent trying to make that first bit true for me every day. Right now, the reality is that I sometimes go into these deep spiritual sleeps. That kind of sleep where you sleep so long that you wake up feeling more tired than you did before...the kind where you feel compelled to fall into complete lethargy and the day just sort of floats by. Well, that's where I was at when I came back to Germany, this sort of spiritual lethargy. But still God murmurs. I kept feeling this call to "wake up" that went beyond my jet lagged state. Then, at our staff prayer yesterday, God gave me a verse, Ephesians 5:14. When I looked it up it said:

"Awake, sleeper,

And arise from the dead,

And Christ will shine on you!"

I feel like just reading those words broke my trance. It woke up my soul in a way. If anything, it was God's way of reminding me that even when I fall asleep, He doesn't. He's still there, patiently pursuing me every day.

Happy New Year!

Oh, man. What can I say? 2010 has been the most incredible year of my life so far. I did a million things I never thought I'd do. I had the opportunity to travel to Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Switzerland, and back to America! I moved permanently overseas. I have my dream job. I work alongside 100+ of the most amazing people I've ever met. My office is literally a castle.  I even got to come home for Christmas for the first time in three years! And it was the best Christmas I've ever had. So full of people I love, old and new friends, much-missed family, and a ton of other blessings. 

It makes me want to cry just thinking back over everything God's brought me through! I always say that this year was the start of me living to make God's dreams come true instead of my own. But as silly as it sounds, it's just now hitting me how much better His dreams really are for my life than the ones I had for myself! I'm so excited to see what 2011 holds. Stay tuned to find out...

Icelandic Folk Galore

If you're not familiar with Sigur Rós, they're an incredible group of musicians from Iceland that have a completely unique style and sound. I've been loving their music since 2004 when they released the album "Takk."  I'm also super in love with the solo project produced by lead singer Jónsi.  One thing's for sure, these guys know how to make beautiful music videos. This one, for their song "Hoppipolla," is my favorite video of 2010. Enjoy! 

Merry Christmas!

2-year-old Laken, back in the day!

This Christmas, I'm so blessed to be able to be with my friends and family at home in Texas. I hope that wherever you are, you're surrounded by people who love you and that you're filled with the love that's so freely given by our Father in the person of Jesus Christ! 

Make A Difference With One Click

Want to make a big difference with a tiny amount of effort? Just watch this video one of our graphic design students, Renee Hong, made about Human Trafficking. YouTube has featured her video on a channel called "Project Awesome." If her video gets the highest view-count, they'll give her outreach team----who are going to Peru to teach art therapy at a safe house for rescued victims of Trafficking----a whole lot of $$$. Share this with everyone you know!

Walk With Me

This is what my walk through town and forrest to the castle looks like every morning (in winter anyway). It takes about half an hour right now because of the massive amount of snow on the path. Watch the fast-speed, 4-minute version of my walk below. 

Walk With Me To Water Castle from Laken Chapman on Vimeo.

Needle & Thread

Hmmm....on this Sunday evening I find myself inspired by the song "Needle & Thread" by Sleeping At Last. It's such a beautiful expression of the fall of man and the way God reconciles everything back to himself.

When the world welcomes us in, 
We’re closer to Heaven than we’ll ever know. 
They say this place has changed, 
But strip away all of the technology  
And you will see
That we all are hunters, 
Hunting for something that will make us okay. 


 Here we lay alone in hospital beds, 
Tracing life in our heads; 
But all that is left 
Is that this was our entrance and now it’s our exit, 
As we find our way home. 


 All the blood and all the sweat 
That we invested to be loved 
Follows us into our end, 
Where we begin to understand 
 That we are made of love, 
And all the beauty stemming from it. 
We are made of love, 
And every fracture caused by the lack of it.


 “You were a million years of work,” 
Said God and His angels, with needle and thread. 
They kissed your head and said, 
 “You’re a good kid and you make us proud. 
So just give your best and the rest will come, 
And we’ll see you soon.” 


 All the blood and all the sweat 
That we invested to be loved 
Follows us into our end, 
Where we begin to understand 
 That maybe Hollywood was right: 
When the credits have rolled and the tears have dried, 
The answers that we have been dying to find 
Are all pieced together and, somehow,  
Made perfectly mine. 


 We are made of love, 
And all the beauty stemming from it. 
We are made of love, 
And every fracture caused by the lack of love.

Awaken To Reality, Arise To Action.

Photo by Chad Strobach

So about a month ago now, YWAM Herrnhut partnered with Not For Sale Campaign in hosting a conference in Hamburg, Germany about the global issue of Human Trafficking. It was incredible! My roommate, Amy, and I  were in charge of "speaker hospitality" for the conference, which meant hanging out behind the scenes with some pretty inspiring people.

We were so blessed by our interactions with people like David Batstone and Mark Wexler, co-founders of Not For Sale Campaign, and Steve Goode, David and Christine Hamilton, Dan Baumann (all from various branches of YWAM), and so many others. I found who they were off stage even more inspiring than the words they were speaking to the audience...which is saying something, because basically everything they said made me want to rush down to the Reeperbahn redlight district and hug a prostitute. Each of them was so gracious and humble toward us and each other. What's more, they were all so full of JOY, in spite of the  heart-wrenching topics they were speaking about. Their attitudes truly said, "Take heart, Jesus has already overcome the world."

Click here to read the article my extremely talented roommate, Amy, wrote about the conference (which was featured on the ywam.org main page this week!).

Camping In The Sky

This one's for all you climbers out there. 

I think portaledges are pretty much the coolest thing to happen to camping. I've seen a lot of beautiful photos lately of them dangling precariously half-way up a big wall climb, some grand valley or riverscape in the background...but yesterday my friend, Baylor, introduced me to the concept of the "treehouse" portaledge, and I'm in love. One day, I will have a backyard...and a tree....and someone to sit in my portaledge treehouse and talk about the day with. 

For now, I'll be in Jesus Haus Rm 101 trying not to freeze. Enjoy these happy summer thoughts on this epicly cold winter's day! 

Erased, Deleted, Lost.

Click image to see full-size.

This is a photo series I've been working on that I put out for critique at our open art exhibition on Wednesday night. Here's the story:

Ciudad Jaurez, Mexico is a city very close to my heart, and physically close to my home in Texas. I grew up spending my summers there building homes and churches with Casas por Cristo. The presence of the drug cartels was evident in a very real way. One summer there was even a group of gang members, guns out, in a low-flying helicopter threatening us from the sky to move on---we were trying to build a home on cartel land (which is essentially all the land).

According to the UN, over 1,200 children and teens have been killed by the drug cartels of Juarez since 2008. There’s an especially high rate of female homicide within the city. Several mass graves have been discovered in recent years, the bodies showing evidence of brutal rape and mutilation. Thousands more are still missing.

These photos of children in Mexico from the early 1990s were taken from the US Library of Congress archives (they are not copyrighted). I chose the words erased, deleted, and lost because, like David Badstone said at the Not For Sale Conference, “We are all writing our own story, and when trafficking happens, it’s like the pen has been taken from your hand.” In the same way, when a life is lost to this kind of violence, not only does the pen get taken from them, it's like their story gets erased. There’s no opportunity to take the pen back, to regain the childhood they lost. The story that could have been---should have been---is lost indefinitely. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was great! I had the privilege of sharing a very untraditional Thanksgiving meal with seven of my  friends here in Herrnhut. Being so far from home during the holidays is hard for a lot of us, but it's so beautiful to be able to look around and see family everywhere. I have dozens of brothers and sisters here.  Not just in the cheesy "brothers and sisters in Christ" kind of way, but in a real deep loving kind of way. I'm continually amazed by the way this community looks out for one another and lifts each other up. Sometimes that looks like sending each other out into the nations, and sometimes it means dressing up like pilgrims and indians and eating an insane amount of food together. I think it's clear what I'm thankful for today. Hope your day was full of people to be thankful for!

The Trees Are Naked

The changing seasons of Herrnhut along my walk to work.

The trees are naked now.
The first snow has fallen.

All The Poor & Powerless

This might be my favorite song right now. Download "All The Poor & Powerless" by Sons&Daughters here for FREE. In the meantime, watch it below!

All the Poor and Powerless from Journey Franklin on Vimeo.

Brought To Light

So there's plenty of bad news: there are a lot of people living in slavery all over the world today (at least 27 million people). They're laboring on coffee farms in Hawaii, filling the brothels of New York City, and some aren't even "lucky" enough to make it to their trafficking destination. It's a harsh, overwhelming reality.

There's also a lot of good news---no, great news. Firstly, we serve a God of Mercy and Justice. A God who cares deeply for the broken-hearted and the oppressed.  A God who can heal and restore not only the lives of the victim, but also the abuser. How beautiful is that? You guys, so many people are already fighting these crimes against humanity. We're not alone! I read two articles today about justice being brought to trafficking situations this week in America (article 1, article 2). Incredible!

2 Corinthians 2:11 encourages us to not be ignorant of Satan's schemes, so let's be ignorant no longer! Not For Sale Campaign has come up with an awesome website, slaverymap.org, which allows people all over the world to document cases of Human Trafficking---bringing to light what was once hidden in darkness (John 3:20). Go there, find out about the injustices happening in your area, and speak out. The Bible calls us to be more than sympathetic, it calls us to advocate on behalf of "the least of these." The first step is to open our eyes.

Here's a video inspired by slaverymap.org that was made by a fellow Pick-A-Pocketer! 

Human Trafficking Stop Motion from Kelsey Sloop on Vimeo.

Ethiopia Bound

LtoR: Melody, Corey, Ulla

Next week we'll have to say goodbye to two more of our Pick-A-Pocketers as they head down to Ethiopia to work LONG TERM with our projects there! So amazing. Corey already left a few weeks ago to work with our boys of garbage city in the capitol, Addis Ababa. Now Melody and Ulla will move to the southern city of Jinka to bring more girls out of prostitution to work in our Rahab Cafe. I'm so excited to see the fruit that will come from their work! Please pray for them as they head out...that they'll receive the finances they need, for safe travels, and that God would prepare the hearts of the people they'll be reaching out to.