Day Five

"Praying for an extraordinary impact, using ordinary people."

I'm dedicating today's portrait to Starfish Orphan Ministry. I have worked with them since their first mission trip and have gone to El Salvador with them four times. I absolutely LOVE it there! So much that I consider it my second home. Starfish's goal is to eternally impact the lives of orphaned children for the Kingdom of God through raising awareness of their plight and our Biblical responsibility to care for them. Their desire is to glorify God by joining forces with Christians from different denominations to do anything and everything that He enables us to do in order to provide for the needs of HIS orphans.

To learn more about Starfish Orphan Ministry, visit our website at www.starfishorphanministry.com or our blog at http://starfishorphanministry.blogspot.com. Please pray about joining or helping out with our ministry! There are four ways that YOU, yes you, can help.

• Pray for guidance to see if you are being called to adopt or to be a foster parent. Be receptive and ready if God directs you to share your family with an orphaned child.
• Volunteer to go on a mission trip to an orphanage! It could be a children's home that is 40 miles from your home or it could be half way around the world. There are always children that need something you can give- LOVE. Many children just crave the human touch and being loved on.
• Offer financial assistance. God can take the money that you donate and use it to help children all over the world.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY - PRAY!! Every christian should be praying for orphans. There are many different levels and aspects of orphan care that need your prayers. We aren't talking about simply mentioning orphans in your weekly prayer, we are talking about true, sincere, specific prayers. This is a world crisis that is growing every day! These children are desperate; they need and deserve your prayers.



DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 145 MILLION ORPHANS IN THIS WORLD??? IF ONLY 1.3% OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO PROFESS TO BE CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD TODAY WOULD SHARE THEIR LIFE WITH A CHILD IN NEED, THERE WOULD BE NO ORPHANS!!!



IQ: TODAY...

•       38,493 more children will become ORPHANS...
•       30,000 children under the age of 5 will DIE of STARVATION...
•       200 million children are living on the STREETS...
•       Every 2 seconds another child will age out of an orphanage with NO FAMILY...
•       Americans will spend another 5.4 million dollars on CHEWING GUM. 

Day Four

"To dance is to give oneself up to the rhythms of all life" -Dr. Maya Patel

Today's portrait isn't really all that special to most people, but it is to me. Tap dancing is one of the few ways that I can release any bottled up anger, stress, or sadness without risking other people's feelings. We all know that when you experience intense emotions, you sometimes find yourself being angry at those around you for no reason. Also, I'm a very rhythmic person. You will often find me making my own rhythms with my hands and feet when I'm waiting in line for something or just sitting still. Tap is by far my favorite form of dance, and personally, I think I'm best at it. I LOVE IT! :) 

TOTALLY different subject. Church today was pretty awesome! Towards the end of the sermon, our pastor (Todd Brady) gave us an awesome verse to memorize and encouraged us to make scripture memorization one of our New Year's resolutions. I think I'm going to use it for my IQ today. (I encourage you to look it up and study it in your own Bible, but I'm going to put it on here in case you can't).

"Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”          -John 14:21-

Day Three

Happy New Year! First portrait of 2011! Today's portrait is a quick glimpse of my thought process. I simplified it into three main sections: My outlook on 2011's New Year's Resolutions, loving my “unlovables’’, and asking myself the dreadful question of why I do the things that I do. The New Year's Resolution (the one that says "quit?"), is an example of people giving up on their resolutions. I know that I will be tempted to give up on lots of things this year because, to me, they will seem impossible. My goal is to not do that. Bold statement, I know, but I'm going to give it a shot. I would really like to prove myself and the "status quo" wrong. The second thought bubble...Oh, how I dread doing this sometimes. Love your enemies. There are people that have wronged me in the year 2010 (and even before that) that I need to love on regardless of how they hurt me. It's what we're called to do as Christians. Another resolution of mine is to do the best that I can to live out God's purpose for my life. After all, that's the ONLY reason I'm here on this planet. It's the least I could do. The third bubble is me asking myself why I do the things that I do, why I'm so immature, and why I give up on everything that I do. I'm trying desperately to not give up on things because I fail once or twice. I need to learn determination. So, every time I want to give up, I'm going to make a point of asking myself, “Michaela, why on earth are you wanting to give up this time??". Okay, the portrait interpretation is over now. :)

IQ: Someone sent this to me and I rather enjoyed it, so I'm going to share it with you.

Mend a quarrel,

Seek out a forgotten friend,

Write a love letter,

Share some treasure,

Encourage youth,

Keep a promise,

Find the time,

Forgive an enemy,

Stop and just listen,

Apologize if you were wrong,

Think first of someone else,

Be kind and gentle,

Laugh a little,

Laugh a little more,

Express your gratitude,

Gladden the heart of a child,

Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth,

Speak your love,

Speak it again,

and speak it still once again.

-anonymous-

THIS NEW YEAR

Day Two

 I like Chinese food. Mum and I ate at Chong's for lunch today. Yum. Today has been, for the most part, a good day. A friend of my family's let me borrow a lens, tripod, and flash attachment for my camera yesterday, which is SAH-WEET! I can't wait to experiment in Mum's flower garden with them. I would have today, but it's rather cloudy and dark outside. Lighting would definitely be an issue in a shot today...

Today's portrait is rather interesting (well, at least I think so). I'm currently unaware of what the inspiration was for today's shot, however, I have a few ideas. It may very well be that the beautiful necklace I received for Christmas from my lovely boyfriend, Alex, inspired me. It's even possible that I thought my collar bone looked cool this morning when I woke up. Who knows. If the inspiration dawns on me later, I'll be sure to let you know if it's completely necessary to you.

I'm going to try to start giving you guys an "IQ" every day (an inspirational quote). Some of them will be quotes of my own, but they certainly won't all be.

IQ: "Different isn't bad, it's just...different."

                                                  -Michaela Henderson

Day One

Wowzers! A lot has happened in the past couple of days. Quite stressful...but, ya know? It's gonna be alright. God has a reason for everything...Now I've just gotta cope with the fact that I don't know what that reason is.  :/

This is the first day of my new challenge. My portrait today kind of explains how I feel emotionally right now-- distraught, hidden, and things of that nature. My inspiration for this portrait was that I often put a smile on the outside when I'm completely shattered on the inside. I know, it's kind of depressing...I don't intend it to be. My intention was for this photo to tell a story showing that I am not satisfied with where I'm at in my life right now and that I'm striving to figure out who I am and where I'm going. I want to TRULY be happy and put a real smile on my face. I'm tired of it just being a cover up.