Bedouins International

Hello Friends.

So for those of you who don't know about Bedouins International, please let me enlighten you. It is an amazing non-profit organization based here in Birmingham, AL that was formed by a group of artists who wanted to use their gifts and passions to serve others and ultimately share the love of God. Through photography, videography, print design, web design and music, four incredible artists have come together to provide media for other charitable organizations, churches and missionaries who would not normally be able to afford high-quality media. Bedouins gives the people they serve a means of sharing their story with the rest of the world, and they give it to them completely free of cost!

Bedouins makes me so happy because i feel like there are so many people in the world with an amazing story to tell, but too many of these voices go unheard because they don't have the right resources to receive the attention and support they need. So Bedouins steps in and gives them exactly what they need and then finally the world has a chance to hear about what is really going on across the globe. On top of that, it gives us all a chance to see what it looks like to use the gifts God has given us to change that same world that can seem so cruel and heartless.

We just launched a new website (yay!) so you should go check it out HERE to see what all is going on, where we're going, what our needs are, etc. We also just received our letter saying we are officially registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (double yay!) which means that all donations, whether in-kind or cash are completely tax deductible.

Look out for more news on our trip to Haiti coming up in June. It's going to be an amazing project. We'll be helping a school in northern Haiti by doing a documentary for them to raise support for what they are doing - some really amazing things!

If anyone out there has a need that Bedouins can fill please let me know...or if you have a means of filling a need for Bedouins, then by all means you are welcome too!

God bless you as you read this!

--Jessi

reason #2 that i want a pug...

they can do the moonwalk...

Moonwalking pug

so i work at a coffee shop. sometimes i like it, usually i don't. but last week i had a good day and i thought i should share.

i must preface this by saying that i LOVE my regulars - the customers that come in who i know not only by name but also by high-quality espresso beverage. somehow they make my job seem worth it, like it means something. and i truly enjoy getting to know the people who come in and then choose to come back.

one of my regulars came in last thursday to get his free mocha (his punch card was finally full). i was sad to find out however that this would be his last visit in the shop - he was leaving that afternoon to go back home to san diego after spending a few months in the ham for a work project. he was such a great customer. he was a great person really...i mean he was incredibly patient when i had to work by myself and had like 4 people on the drive thru and two people up front ahead of him...he was always smiling and understanding.

so anyway we said our short goodbyes and he left. a couple of minutes later i glanced at my tip jar (which usually consists of some loose change...maybe actual paper money if i'm lucky). i had to do a double take. there were 2 twenty dollar bills in there. and they were real. i was blown away. he left me a forty dollar tip. i could not believe it. it totally made my day...it made my week. some people can be so overwhelmingly kind. i mean i get excited when i get a dollar tip...especially when it comes from somene on the drive thru...but $40? amazing.

(and no i did not flirt with him :) )

indecisiveness

so obviously i cannot decide on a template for my blog. i feel like nothing really matches me. isn't it silly (/interesting) how completely inanimate objects like fonts and colors can match personalities? i feel like a brown and teal kind of gal, but only a certain combination of those colors. this still feels a little too masculine to me...i am reading far too into this i know. alas. hopefully soon i will be able to write something a little more interesting rather than getting distracted with my color choices.

131 1/2

My absolute favorite place that I lived while I was going to Auburn was at 131 1/2 Cedarcrest Circle. Oh yes. 131 1/2. People always asked if I was serious when I told them my address...the 1/2 tended to throw people off. But it was this great, old little duplex off of Magnolia. I lived with my best friend Calla Maria, and right above us lived some other great friends - Hannah, Megan, and Kelly. They were great house-mates...and very understanding - even when we had all-night Karoeke parties and creamed corn fights at 3 in the morning...

This is a pic that Hannah just sent me of our mailbox in our front yard...thanks Hannah! I will always cherish our memories on Cedarcrest!

I want a baby pug. And I want to name him Yoda. :)

motivation

So I haven't written in a while. I hate that. I like to write. I want to write, but somehow, somewhere, I lost my motivation. What motivates you? What motivates me? What used to make me get up at 8:00 in the morning so that I would have time before class to go to Taylor's and read and write? Whatever it was, it's gone now. And I want it back.

Maybe frustration is stopping me. Frustration from my inability to clearly articualte my thoughts, my real thoughts. I can't get out in words the jumbled mess that has taken up residence in my mind. I can't get it out and that is frustrating. I want to be able to express what I think and feel. I want to be understood, but it seems like everytime I have something to say, I have no way to say it. Or maybe I'm frustrated because I don't finish what I start. Like remember that book I was writing? Yeah definitely haven't gotten too far on that. Practically nowhere. Again, I thought I had something worth saying, worth sharing with other people. I think everyone has a story worth sharing, and I really wanted to share mine. But it's just not happening.

And I want to play guitar more. I used to play everyday. Man I remember before I went to New Zealand I said I was going to write everyday and read and play guitar - like New Zealand was going to inspire me with its immense beauty, like I wouldn't be able to resist the urge to express myself creatively because of the creation around me. But instead I was nervous in my new surroundings, desperately trying to make new freinds and find my way around a new city/country/hemisphere. There was not much writing (but there was actually a lot of reading - I read all six of the Harry Potters, plus some Jane Austen, Nicholas Sparks, John Steinbeck, and Lord of the Rings).

So back to my point. Where did my motivation go? Is it hiding behind my "busy" schedule (which somehow still leaves time for hours of Gilmore Girls)? I think it's buried under my excuses. Like "I'm tired" or "I'll do it later" or "I have to finish this first." If I want to do it I'll do it. Motivation stems from passion and if I am really passionate about writing and studying the word of God then I will do it. There will be my motivation. It is a choice. It is a conscious effort. So there.

the world's attic

So I've decided that John Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors. I hesitate to say my most favorite, but I do love to read what he writes. This is a quote from The Winter of Our Discontent that has stuck with me, so I thought I would share:

I guess we're all, or most of us, the wards of that nineteenth-century science which denied existence to anything it could not measure or explain. The things we couldn't explain went right on but surely not with our blessing. We did not see what we couldn't explain, and meanwhile a great part of the world was abandoned to children, insane people, fools, and mystics, who were more interested in what is then in why it is. So many old and lovely things are stored in the world's attic, because we don't want them around and we don't dare throw them out.

Thoughts anyone?