Thusly and So Forth

And this should bring us up to date.

Should I keep posting these here? Or should I post them on Facebook?

NINETEEN


More night shots. Christmas lights are always pretty.

TWENTY


Sarah, one of our fabulous volunteers, with the "Hamlet" pose.

TWENTY-ONE


TWENTY-TWO


I really like this photo for some reason.

TWENTY-THREE


Birthday flowers!

TWENTY-FOUR


How many different ways are there to photograph flowers? I'll probably find them all before the year is out.

TWENTY-FIVE


We find really random things in the office. Good for me. Bad for people trying to explain what they are.

TWENTY-SIX


You should visit Headquarters just for the wall decor!

TWENTY-SEVEN


Who doesn't like random elephants?

TWENTY-EIGHT


TWENTY-NINE

So January Is Going Okay

I've had some really good photos this month. I hope it continues.

NINE


I buy flowers sometimes for the office, especially during winter, just to make things a little brighter. They always make for great pics, too.

TEN


My coworker's adorable child. He's seriously freaking cute.

ELEVEN


I got this mouse from Avon for my laptop. It's incredibly awesome.

TWELVE


Foster and I spent a ridiculous amount of time one day seeing what we could do with reflections. A lot of the photos looked really cool.

THIRTEEN


I take pictures of really random things, now.

FOURTEEN


FIFTEEN


Foster and I put Lori in some really ridiculous poses. (Sorry, Lori!) But this is my favorite photo from the 47 that I took.

SIXTEEN


Yeah, it was my birthday. My parents came to see me. No biggie.

SEVENTEEN


We got a cool double reflection going with this one. Foster has more creative ideas than I do, so I steal them shamelessly.

EIGHTEEN


Sometimes I get lucky with night shots. But I need more lens options.


I need to post these more often. I'll do another one tomorrow to catch up and then post a week at a time in the future. I'd like to know what you all think so far, though!

What Books Do For Me

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

Turkey

Okay, here's the deal.

Constantinople is my city. It was one of my primary research fields when I was in college, first when I took a class on Venice (because of the Fourth Crusade) and continuing when I took a class on Eastern Orthodox Christianity and then even more when I wrote a screenplay about Richard III and Saladin (which I still have and which is available anytime you'd like to read it and promote it to your agent friends).

I love Constantinople.

And yes, I'm fully aware that Constantinople is now Istanbul, and I know that Istanbul is in Turkey, and I know that until a few months ago, I had slightly less than zero chance of getting there.

But now I have a chance.

Global Ministries, my other peeps, is sponsoring a trip to Turkey. The purpose of the trip is two-fold: first, to see the seven churches and travel with Paul in spirit; second, to explore the possibilities for ministry.

I want to go.

Words cannot express how much I want to go.

But there's a problem.

The trip cost is $3500 from JFK to Istanbul and back - including in-country costs minus a few lunches. And since this isn't explicitly related to my own ministry, I wouldn't use my support account to pay for it. Thus, it behooves me to appeal to you, my beloved and faithful readers.

I don't know how I'm going to do this, yet. I looked into Kickstarter, but they don't really support fundraising like this. But somehow, I will be raising funds to go on this trip.

You know how much this trip would mean to me?


That's right.

The world.

If I ever get back into history research, this trip would provide prime resource materials. As I explore the possibilities of Muslim ministry, this trip would be a valuable touch point. And there's nothing like reading the Bible and knowing that you've actually been to the places they mention.

So I'm asking. I'm asking for ideas, I'm asking for help - I'm appealing to the part of each and every one of you that remembers that one dream that you were able to achieve, that one moment that changed your life forever.

This is my moment.



EDIT: Okay, I've added a donation widget over on the right. I made it an even $4000 so I can pay for travel to JFK. Join the revolution!

Also, if you would like your donation to be tax deductible, send a check to:

Global Ministries
302 Lake St.
Huntington, IN 46750

Make sure you put "Jessica Hollopeter - Turkey" in the memo line.

Resounding Hope in Haiti

It occurs to me (actually, I've thought about it a lot) that I don't really talk about work on here. I mean, I talk about what I do and how busy or slow things are, but I don't talk about what OMS does. So today, I'm going to tell you about our latest project called Resounding Hope.

Chances are, if you're in any way familiar with One Mission Society or knew it as OMS International, you know that we work in Haiti. It's mentioned in a lot of our literature, we send a lot of work teams there, we have a school, we support a seminary, and we have a ton of missionaries there. I don't even know how many because I thought I knew them all and then I got a request for a new prayer card from someone who's been in Haiti I think longer than I've been alive. So I can't be confident in my knowledge.

One of the most important ministries in Haiti, however, is Radio 4VEH. Called "The Evangelistic Voice of Haiti," Radio 4VEH started broadcasting in 1950, and OMS assumed responsibility in 1958. In a country where up to 80 percent of the population is functionally illiterate, radio often provides the only news and information people get.

Resounding Hope has a goal of providing 160,000 solar radios with a potential of reaching one million Haitians. Why solar? Because electricity in Haiti is sketchy at best, and a solar radio makes sense in a Caribbean country. The radio is fix-tuned to Radio 4VEH, meaning 24/7 programming - everything from farming tips and weather reports to news programs and Bible lessons. The radio also comes with a built-in MP3 of the New Testament in Creole.

I think the best thing about these radios, though, is that each one is personally presented to a Haitian family as part of a door-to-door evangelistic campaign. I've heard more than a dozen stories from individuals who have been on these distribution campaigns, and they say the joy on the people's faces is indescribable.

I would encourage you to check out more information about Resounding Hope on their website or check out the Radio 4VEH Facebook page. This is a great fundraising project for your church or kid's group, too.

As always, if you need materials or want to talk more in-depth about anything related to OMS, please feel free to call me or email. I would love to tell you more!

This is not a creative title (See what I did there?)

Well, if we're going to judge this entire year based on just the first week, I am going to have serious problems.

Before we get into the depressing stuff, though, I have photos!

Some of you might quibble over the fact that I definitely didn't take pictures on a few days (for very good reasons), but I've decided that as long as I get 366 awesome photos taken in 2012, it doesn't matter the day. But I am still carrying around my camera every day, so we'll call it fair.

THREE

I like the sky. I like it during the day, I like it at night - I just like looking at it and imagining more. Sometimes it's a lot like I imagine Heaven to be. Sometimes it's more like Hell. But it's always changing, always new. Plus, I imagine guys like Jim Lovell looked up at a sky like this when they were kids and said, "I'm going to be up there one day."

FOUR

This one needs a little explanation. Lori has a plant in her office that keeps trying to escape, so we named it Audrey (from Little Shop of Horrors), and it's a lot of fun to play with.

(I feel the need to clarify that what I deem awesome and what others deem awesome may, in fact, be two different things.)

FIVE

Case in point. This is a tribal mask from Sierra Leone that somehow ended up in our office. It's kind of our unofficial mascot now. Sure, it's a little creepy. But that's half the fun!

SIX

Sarah was so gracious to model these fantastic earrings from Asia. (They're not earrings. Not even close.)

SEVEN

Like I said, I love the sky. I caught this one night leaving work.

EIGHT

Okay, this is blatant cheating. I know that. You know that. We're all agreed. So let's move on. I just couldn't decide which one I liked better!

We'll stop there for now. So back to my woeful beginning.

The office was crazy last week. It's carried over today somewhat, but slowed down enough for me to write this post. You know all those things you can't be bothered to start before Christmas? You tell yourself there will be plenty of time after the New Year. Except suddenly, everyone remembers that they needed those things last year and you're left scrambling.

Yeah. That was last week.

So you can imagine how grateful I was to get to Friday night and attend the Craft Night we've started having at OMS. It's a fun time of food and fellowship and crafting, and it's pretty relaxing. I even made dinner this time. (It's okay to be shocked by that. I'm well aware of my shortcomings in the kitchen.)

We had a great time.




There were lots of people, and everyone liked my food, and people were learning new crafts or finishing up projects. It was great!

So imagine my surprise when I awoke suddenly early Saturday morning and proceeded to lose (violently) everything I had eaten so far this year. (Sorry.)

Yeah, I got sick, and not my usual brand, either. It was pretty bad. I'm pretty pathetic when I'm sick, too, so it was a whole weekend of me feeling sorry for myself but hurting too much to do more than sob miserably and occasionally text people to let them know I was still alive.

It also meant missing two extremely important things on Saturday - things that involved actually getting out of my apartment and seeing people, something I did far too little of in 2011 and something I promised to change in 2012.

Right.

Plus, I did way too much yesterday because I was feeling marginally better and needed to clean my apartment, so this morning, I feel pretty far from awesome still.

All of which was topped off by tripping and falling this morning for the third time this year. I don't know how my wrist is still unbroken. (Not sure it is, actually, but I don't hold with Doctors, you know.)

"Wait a minute, Jessica," you say. "How are you writing this with a bum wrist?"

Very. Very. Carefully.

So yeah. That's 2012 for me thus far. Nine days in, and I'm already ready for the next one. I don't even want to think about my birthday. (One week from today!)

At this rate, who knows if I'll still be breathing by then....

(You know where all this is coming from, right? Good. Me, too. Makes me really curious why he's so concerned about throwing me off my game this early in the year. Had I a lesser Being in my corner, I might be concerned. Pfftt...)

And So It Begins...

I have a weird computer. This is what popped up at me the first time I tried to open blogger:


Weird, right?

Anyway, the NEW YEAR IS HERE!!! Very strange. I wonder how long it will take me to start writing 2012 instead of 2011...

Christmas was lovely. It was a peculiar feeling to actually have Christmas on a Sunday this year. Kinda threw me off, though I'm not sure why. I'll have to post some pics from Christmas later. But first -

BAM!


You thought I forgot about my photo project, didn't you? Wrong! I took this on January 1 at my sister's house in Michigan. It took me 12 tries to get the setting right. I think it captures some of the New Year festivities.


This is the photo for January 2. Can you guess what it is?

I haven't made any resolutions this year other than to not drive anywhere until Spring. I drove back to Greenwood today in less than stellar conditions, and that was after I slipped and fell this morning. My knee and ankle have been steadily swelling. Ugh... But I won't let it get me down! This year may not have had the greatest start, but I refuse to let that set the tone for the next 364 days. (It's a Leap Year.)

You'll be seeing some changes around here. If you have any suggestions for new features or topics of discussion, please let me know.

Happy New Year!