2010-What did we see?

How we frame events in our lives dictates how we live and how we look at life. Events happen and much of the time, we cannot control them. What we can control is how we look at them. These are some photos from 2010 and as I was going through them, I got to thinking, how do we frame what we see? Often time it can be a combination of many things. What do you see?


Do we see Sergei, the kid who stole the tractor parts to help feed himself or the one whose smile is infectious and whose faith came alive at a juvenile colony in Ukraine?

Do we see kids whose parents abused them and threw them away surrounding the assistant director of the orphanage or do we see kids with smiles that faith, hope, and love can give that can never be taken away surrounding a woman who grew up in the same place and who now dedicates her life to those who are like she once was?

Do we see a Muslim student who left school to take care of his family and a Christian educator who started a school for kids like him in Cape Town or do we see a son who calls her mom because she loves him and her other students as Christ loved His children?

Do we see a young man who once lived in a car with his alcoholic mother and who ended up in detention or do we see the loving father, husband and attorney who helps kids understand that there is a Redeemer and redemption?

Do we see colleagues who huffed and puffed their way up a mountain or do we see friends from different backgrounds whom God has blessed to allow to work together at Straight Ahead?

Are they just people crammed into the stairwell or friends who traveled to Ukraine for 10 years together, who can still share stories, laugh with and at each other and wonder how it got to be 11:00pm so fast?

Is he an abandoned kid who asked me if I knew what time it was in Russian 12 years ago and laughed at me when I didn't know how to eat sunflower seeds or a new husband, magazine writer and Believer who shows love in ways that still amaze?

Are they young men and women who grew up in an orphanage or a family which the Lord has formed from battered and broken lives?

Is it just a meal in a small house in Ukraine or a gathering of men, eating and having fellowship and just enjoying being together?

Old guys in Vermont being chased by horseflies or old friends sharing memories from 10 years on hot, cramped buses going to juvenile prisons and camps in Ukraine and sharing hopes for the future?








A prom queen or a beautiful young lady about to leave my oldest friends empty-nesters and us feeling really old and saying things like, "how did that happen so fast?"