Posts
January 31, 2009
Amazing news everyone! We’re going to Africa!
On Friday January 23, John and I were asked to go on a mission trip to Africa to help out at five orphanages! A lady that was scheduled to go had to bow out at the last minute because of a family emergency. The Hearth to Hearth Ministries organization desperately needed another person to go in her place and John and I have decided to go! We're going to visit five orphanages (toddlers through teenagers) and their three schools in Uganda and Kenya. I have two children that I’ve been supporting in Kenya for the last four years that I will get to see and hug for the first time! We will be in charge of interviewing and photographing up to six hundred children. We'll stay four weeks in Africa. We are so excited!
We spread the word to friends and students that we were taking school and art supplies with us for the schools we’ll be visiting. There was an amazing response with such a short notice! John and I are so happy to be taking needed things to the kids.
It was real funny how this all came about. Just last week, one evening John mentioned how neat it would be to do something like Habitat for Humanity and wondered what I thought about that – I thought it would be great! Then the next day we were at the library and I was browsing through the travel section and found a book called, The Way of the Traveler. The next day as I was reading it, I kept taking it over to John for him to read little excerpts that I found fascinating. It talked about how to address/overcome your fears, how the universe opens up and provides your needs as you travel and how travel is the symbol for the “inner” journey. A wonderful little book! Well, that night my Mom called and said, “How would you like to go to Africa?” Wow, talk about the universe throwing the doors WIDE open! I shook with nervous energy for about 2 hours – John was as calm as can be. Ha!
We only have 10 days to prepare for this month long trip! What a crazy week. We expedited our passports on Monday, got our tickets on Tuesday, picked up our passports on Wednesday and got our immunizations, and Thursday we got our medical check-up. We’ve made multiple trips to Bellingham and Seattle all week and put our art classes on hold for the next six weeks. And we've been working every spare minute to get everything ready for our departure. We leave on Tuesday – just two more days!
We will stop for one week in London on our return trip to visit Scotland and/or Paris. We haven’t even had time to plan that part of the trip yet. Guess where we will be planning that part of the trip? On the plane!
John and I will try to post some blogs whenever we can from Africa and London over the next six weeks. So keep checking back or sign up on our blog site to get the new up-dates to automatically pop into your email box (see the Subscribe link at the top of the blog, on the left).
Ok, that’s it for now! Off to go pack 8 bags worth of stuff!
Sunny Smiles,
Jenna & John
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About Me
- John Delzell
- Camano Island, Washington, United States
- A professional artist for over 30 years, John Scott Delzell strives to capture light and form in all its subtleties and strengths while enjoying a unique relationship with his canvases. Balancing brilliance with contrast, defining edges and contours with the ever-elusive background, Delzell creates a diverse body of work with styles ranging from photo-realism to heavy impasto impressionism, surreal abstract forms, and combinations in between. His images of brazen snags, twisted driftwood and temperamental skies are juxtaposed with soft portraits, serene seascapes and abstractly woven speckled forested trails. His portrait project, Life Encounters on Canvas, explores the diversity and intimate thoughts of students who have immigrated from countries around the world. The 28 portraits and their accompanying life stories have been displayed at community centers, libraries, public schools, colleges and universities. He also enjoys the creative interaction of composing an original painting that meets the needs of the collector. John Delzell’s studio is open by appointment throughout the year.