Bedouins Benefit Show

Friday August 15th The Urban Standard in downtown Birmingham is hosting a benefit show for Bedouins International!! I've been working at Urban for a while now part-time as a barista. It is really one of the most friendly work environments I have ever had, and plus my job is super cool and the staff is super amazing.

I asked them if they would mind hosting a benefit for us, and they, being so very kind, said "Of course!" So be sure to make it out Friday night the 15th of August to hear Roger Eason and Neil Couvillion play, while enjoying the best coffee and cupcakes in town!

The Dark Knight

Just wanted to let everyone know that the new Batman movie is fantastically amazing. I went to the midnight premier last night, and I very rarely go to the theater unless it costs a dollar, but this movie was well worth it. Amazing acting (R.I.P. Heath), amazing directing and amazing story. And definitely worth seeing while in theaters. So go check it out!

Old friends...

I love having old friends. And I have so many great ones. I got to hang out with Hannah and John this past week, who I hardly ever get to see even though they live less than half an hour away. I don't think I had even seen John since he and Hannah got married 3 1/2 years ago. So sad. I want to make a better attempt at keeping up with friends like Hannah and John, because old friends are so good to have. Like I mentioned in the previous post, I am going to visit Calla Maria and David in Portland in a couple of weeks, which I am super excited about. And then in August I am hoping to see Charity, Tammy, Mary and Faith, my four "sisters." I love them so much. My friend Ben is in town now so I hope to spend some time with him this weekend too. It is so great to have chance to break away from my schedule and make time for the things that matter, and the people that matter, the most in my life. So many good memories are forgotten when old friends are lost; I hope I am never so unfortunate to forget that. So, here's to old friends...

Mary and Charity, my sisters and friends since the 2nd grade.

Faith, the "baby sis" of the Denton girls who has grown up to be an absolutely beautiful person inside an out.

Max (my neighbor who I actually used to babysit back in the day), me, Tammy (another Denton girl who is not only an amazing sister, but a wonderful friend), and Stephen (my wonderful boyfriend and very good friend)

Here's a really old shot of Calla Maria, Laura, John, and Lauren from our glory days in Auburn (I'm the one laying in CM's lap)

A great memory of a beach trip with Jonathan (an old friend from Auburn) and Melissa (one of my oldest and best friends from high school)

This is a lovely pic of my first roomates in the Birmingham Loft, Kelly and Amy. We made some beautiful memories together :)

This is Rachael and I at Auburn graduation. She is another one of my best friends from high school.


What can I say about Kenty-Mac? I think this picture speaks for itself...

Steven Nave, one of my oldest friends in the world.

Here's Ben and I at one of the infamous Naval Balls. He and Tyler traded me and Calla Maria of every year for those things..and I loved it! I always had a blast with those guys!


I'm sure there are many more memories to remember and even more to be had...thanks so much to all of my old friends for making my life so wonderful! Love you guys!

Portland

So my best friend in the whole world Calla Maria Davis-Boozer just moved to Portland (again) with her husband David and gorgeous year-old daughter Vera. I might be going to visit them with Stephen in the next couple of months and I am so excited. I love Portland (as well as the Davis-Boozers) so I hope it works out. In the meantime I have pictures like these to make me miss them even more...

dead faith

What good is it my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.'

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.

I have heard a lot of people talk about dead faith, or faith that doesn't do anything, faith that bears no fruit, that offers no witness to goodness, to love, or to God. I want my faith to show my God, and I pray that it does. I want faith that leads me to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and love the wretched.

Stephen was telling me about a friend's mom that asked me about his faith. Her exact question, "What is your faith?" kind of put him for a spin I think, as it would me.

What is your faith? I used to think of faith as a simple synonym for belief. I believe in God. I believe that Jesus is His son, and as such is God, who was sent to Earth to reconcile Mankind back to Himself through an unthinkable sacrifice. And when He went back to heaven I believe that He sent the Holy Spirit to stay with us to that we would have help when we inevitably messed up again.

But my faith must be more than the One I believe in. My faith must be multi-dimensional. It must not only be about who or what I believe, but also how I believe.

Does my faith lead me to do something? If I see a child starving on the streets, is my belief in God or in what he could do going to change anything? Probably not. But my belief in how he would want me to use my faith would change something. Putting my faith, my belief in His love for that starving child, into action will change something. It changes everything. Because believing in God is only the start. Believing in God only helps yourself, and only to a short extent at that. Loving others through that same faith is what makes the difference. That's what faith is really for. Not for selfish reassurance in a better afterlife, but for selfless reassurance for another's present life.

Make it better for someone else. That is what faith should do. That is how faith should act. Because like Paul said, even the demons believe in God. It is what they do that makes them who they are and demonstrates what they truly believe.

Helping through Facebook

ok so normally i would not be one to promote facebook applications (for those of you who don't know what facebook is, it's basically an online networking site that helps you keep in touch with all of your friends; applications can be added to make things more "fun" and/or complicated)

HOWEVER there is one that I must promote. It is the Causes application. By putting it on your Facebook you can promote the cause of whatever organization you wish to promote.

You should start with the cause for Bedouins International. We are going to Haiti in September and we really need to raise some support. We are going down to document a school on Coco Beach as well as an initiative called The Vanilla Bean Project which will be put in place to provide children and their families with a sustainable income. This cause is worth promoting.

Go to Facebook

Go to Facebook Causes


This is your chance to help! Please?

need a photographer?

ok so i know there are a number of you out there looking for a photographer. i know this because i am going to about eight weddings this summer. so i thought i would pass along the website of a photographer here in birmingham who might just be the most talented photographer i know. he shoots weddings, bands, documentary stuff, everything really. and he's the main photographer for Bedouins International. you really should check out his stuff...it is pretty fantastic. Here is a picture of me he took that i really love.



Check out all of his galleries here:
STEPHEN DEVRIES PHOTOGRAPHY

yay for apendices

so i had a little scare this past weekend...thought i had appendicitis...and i have no health insurance. it was great fun. to go to the doctor for a check up would have cost about $100 and getting a CT scan to check out my appendix would have probably been somewhere around $1,000. not having health insurance is really scary. i mean if i really had appendicitis and my appendix had ruptured i could have died, but i really didn't want to have to pay $1,000 (even on a payment plan) if it was just a stomach bug you know? i mean what can you do in those situations? you're just stuck.

but i feel much better now thanks to a lot of prayer and tlc...and patience...i am a whiny baby when i don't feel good. so many thanks go to my infinitely patient boyfriend stephen for putting up with me. and to my mom and good friend kelly for praying for me. i love you guys!

so have no fear, i still have my trusty appendix in good working condition...or does it work? what exactly does your appendix do again? something about good bacteria or immunity or something? i'll have to get back to you on that.