Do I Still Take Pictures???

Some of you may be wondering.... the answer is YES!  Absolutely.  I've just not decompressed from Haiti yet.  I still haven't found the words for Haiti yet.
But we've shot maternity, weddings, babies, engagements and even a couple of commercials since I got back a couple of weeks ago.  I've just been very narrowly focused, trying to determine how I'm going to get my heart back from a little Haitian girl that I met on top of the mountain there.


Here's a few shots from Haley and Jonathon's engagements last week.

I can't tell you about Haley without telling you that Jesus wept.
Wha?!
Yes.
Jesus Wept.
That's my earliest memory of her.   When our church was very small, just meeting in an elementary school gym, Haley was in confirmation classes.  She was just a high school kid, on assignment to stand up in church and tell us her favorite verse in the bible.

John 11:35
Jesus wept.

That was it.
The shortest verse, yes, maybe the easiest to remember, but to hear her explain it that day, why it mattered to her, why it was powerful to this little girl, was something I'll never in my life forget.

He wept for us.  The Maker of the Heavens and the Earth.  This King of Kings, son of God, and He cried?  He came to the tomb of his friend, hearing the mourning all around, and he joined with the people in their sorrow.  He cares.  He understands our emotions and our feelings.  
That's powerful to know.  It was powerful enough to bring tears to my own eyes the day Haley stood up to proclaim that verse to her church.  It will always be powerful, to anyone hurting, to anyone in sorrow or mourning, to know that Jesus still weeps with us.

2 More Kids Sponsored in Haiti!

Just got 2 more kids sponsored thanks to your donations! Anybody else?  I could do this all day long.

The Kids YOU helped to Sponsor in Haiti!

ou came to listen to some music, to see what might happen.  Here's the fruit.  These 10 kids are now sponsored through Mission-Haiti. Yes, even the only little boy who thought my camera was going to cause his demise, Nikenson.
Want to sponsor more?  It's only $50/year for the little kids, $100/year for the high schoolers.  That's a couple of nights on the town to you.  It's school and a guaranteed meal every day for a year to one of these kids.  If you were there at the show and you put money in the bucket, this is the result.  Print this page out and put these kids on your refrigerator door.  Think about them this year, they need your prayers and the hope within you. 

Rough Draft

It's a rough draft because our band isn't finished with the song, and I'm not finished with the quality of the video yet...but that's why they call it a rough draft right?

You can see the images from Haiti while listening to the song by clicking here:

Haiti
It's only in rough draft form.  The guys already want to redo guitar and vocal tracks, and the slideshow quality isn't even that great, but that's why they call it a rough draft right?  

The message?  That's right on.

I left for Haiti, thinking the guys would be rehearsing our music for the Firehouse, but instead when I came back they wanted to me to hear a song that our drummer David had written for a young girl going through a rough spot.

Right away I thought it wouldn't be ready to put into our playlist for the show and was ready to put it aside, but the moment I heard it, I knew immediately that the Lord had a message for someone in the words and the music.

When we played the song at the show, a youth leader came up to David and told him that during the song he'd been thinking about a specific girl that had come to his youth group.

It was the same girl.

The song was written for her, it's purpose for existing is because of her, and yet while I was going through the images of Haiti, I realized that this song speaks on many levels. It is a call to the desperate.  Haiti is a desperate place.

Psalm 42 really gives us the same message.  When we're down, when we're broken, we need only to remember the size of our God.  To remember the things He's done for us in our life.  He's always with us.  He's there for us, and He cares.  He always keeps His promises.

Hear Stories from Pam Plasier, cofounder of Mission-Haiti.org

http://www.livingspringschurch.com/#/event-gallery-haiti/
You can hear about Mission-Haiti from the woman who helped found it.  Give it time to load, there's lots of pictures and words that will reach down deep, if you just have a smidgen of patience. :)

Main Link for Haiti

I feel so strongly that we can help make a difference in Haiti.   I've made the images from my time there a permanent link on our photography site at www.danelliottphotography.com
I still haven't been able to completely put my experience there into words. 

Benefit Update

Thanks for coming out tonight everyone! We had an awesome time with you all! All totaled, we raised $503 for Mission-Haiti thanks to your donations. Praise God for your compassion. 10 kids will be sponsored for 1 full year. That's clothes, school, education, food, a backpack and shoes, for 10 children, all year long.  Thank you for your compassion for this ministry.  God smiles on your gift.

Benefit Tonight for Mission-Haiti

Tonight at 8pm, at the Firehouse Underground in Sioux Falls my band will be putting on a benefit for Mission-Haiti. 
Please come prepared to support this amazing ministry.  I was in Haiti last week with these people, and I can attest to the fact that your support and aid gets directly to the people of Haiti that need it.  There is no red tape, no politics, and no hands dipping into the pot.  We physically carried the suitcases full of food, clothes, backpacks and shoes directly to the people in the villages.  Hundreds of children, boys and girls, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, were blessed.   I personally witnessed these people receiving these gifts. I saw the joy that it brought.  It made a real difference.  After tonight, after the media cameras have all but packed up and gone home, moved on to the next big story, you can still be part of the solution to this great need.
www.mission-haiti.org