there goes another one...

i can't count anymore... they're going one by one. another one of my good friends jamie bartley is no longer a bartley, but a Whittmore. it was a beautiful sight, to witness their wedding, a dream in the flesh. to see jamie and dan together... in love... in commitment... *sighh* im stoked that i got to go to medford for the wedding... or you could say reunion. well those of you in ywam could agree the beauty of a ywam wedding is that, not only do you go to the wedding, but it disguises the event to a big ywam reunion... faces you thoughts you'd never see again and then you open the door, and bam, theyre there and next thing you know, you find yourself laughing together like there were no years or months in between that you've been separated. so this 'ywam- its a small world' ordeal thing- its true... you say 'see you later' cause your bound to see each other again... just look at us, half Brazil outreach team was back together! ... ohh, and jon hans.:) ... good times guys....

thanks day happy giving

in other words... happy thanksgiving everyone! wherever you are in this world... whether you do the traditional sit down turkey-yam-pumpkin-pie dinner thing with family or not... whether your an american or not... whether you celebrate thanksgiving or not... i say lets just get on the same page here and just stop where you are and say a little horizontal 'thank you' to the ONE who has provided for everything and anything we ever needed... so with that... thank you Jesus. you rock my world...

now go stuff your faces.... cheers.

i bid adieu...

its been almost a month since the school has ended but since i'm such a closure person... i have to acknowledge the school of design that i staffed in burtigny, switzerland. 13 creative, unique minds and personalities that looked at everything through a cheese grid... (really) ... and they have ended well and i have been honored to have worked with them... my friends... who have taught me more than they would know. (okay, sounds like im writing my thank you's in my debut cd) ... but anyhow, it only took a matter of a few days for us to spread out all over the world to return 'home.' ... i bid adieu to beautiful switzerland and once again have left a piece of my heart in another part of this world and hope to return there one day... sante to all i've come across these past 6 months... good times in the great land of cheese...

love at first bike

love at first bike... i know, cheesy. but it was true.... i went to visit some friends in amsterdam last week and right when i got there, i was pulled in by the city. amsterdam is famous for its free-spirited liberalism, diversity and tolerance and is the most bicyle friendly city of the world... yes, bicycle... a friend had an extra bike so we cruised around the city like it was our own. (thank you jesus that i didn't get run over)... and the whole city is like its being hugged by these canals. of course, seeing good friends always warms my heart, but to have amsterdam as the backdrop just made it all the better. in all the uniqueness and creativity of this city, i left utterly inspired...

(literally) writing with light

one clear night in the village of burtigny, there was once three friends named peter joanna and cliff... just when they thought summer was over, there came a warm bright night that inspired some photography experiments. it was mostly led by cliff (while peter and joanna were merely the subjects... also known as really really ridiculously good looking models) so for this particular random journal entry, joanna must commend cliff from jersey for being the photographer that he is... and for (literally) writing with light... and for taking joanna back into the school of photography for a second...

if i sit still enough...

with only my plastic bag in hand, i got off the easyjet flight about a week ago in beautiful edinburgh scotland! even though i found myself in the midst of all the UK airport security chaos from all the terrorist attacks, i made it. and it was all well worth it... i missed my chance a year and half ago to go to scotland when i was in the UK but another opportunity came up. a few weeks ago, my good friend joel came for a visit and convinced me to make it to scotland one weekend while he would be there (with the maui school of worship outreach)... it didn't take a lot to convince me and honestly, i couldn't have asked for a better time to go... with the Fringe going off (the worlds largest arts and cultural festival) there was heaps to see and reuniting with my friends from maui was such a sweet time.... it was so flippin amazing! i've decided i will go back to scotland one day... and discover more of the beautiful rich history of the scots... but for now... if i sit still enough in the silence, i can still hear the bagpipes carry a melody...

school of outter voice

i guess you can say that i wear my 'staff hat' for the school of design with a little bit more confidence than when i first started about 4 weeks ago. it has been a stange eerie process transitioning from being a student for 2 years to being a staff but its been such a learning experience. this season is definitely a time for me to sit on a spring board into traning and leadership skills for future plans. i must say that the students in this school are amazing natural talented divergent extroverted people who... i must add... like to practice their '"outter voice." :) they are great and love 'em to pieces... im learning right with them and tapping into God's creative as we create, design and be inspired...

kiss the world awake...

once in awhile, you hear a quote or phrase that just makes you stop... and think.... and then stop again because its just so darn good... i heard one from the amazing sue rinaldi herself, who quoted a writer that said we must be people who "kiss the world awake." whooa... "kiss the world awake"... there came a revelation, that we as christians, have been given a responsibility to gently go, with all that we are, knowing in confidence that God is living in us... to create a response... and wake up those who are lost and dying in this world... lets kiss them awake... not kiss them to death...

as the ywam rhythm goes....

as the YWAM rhythm goes... its that time again to reflect back at all the things that i've learned in the last 3 months, how much i grew spiritually, mentally ( but unfortunately, i cant say physically) and how i've advanced just a little bit more in life. its coming down to the last week of the school of communication foundations and this quarter i've been challenged left and right from speaking publicly to interpersonal relationships to cross cultural communication. it was good stuff and will benefit me in the long run for sure ... and with all that, i'll be saying goodbye, see you later or see you never to the people i've gotten to know and have grown close to over the last few months. although i'll still be in switzerland until the end of september but thats a whole other journal entry that awaits...

great land of cheese

i've made it to the great land of cheese... Switzerland i mean... and its as beautiful as i've imagined it to be. i'm now here in burtigny, switzerland doing my last course called the school of communication foundations. the students. the ywam base. the content of the school. the food.... its just been amazing. im actually surprised myself with adjusting to living in this small french speaking village but i definitely know its a God thing since i was pretty much over thr transition thing... but God is good... and so is the cheese...

for the newly weds

i'd like to dedicate this one to charmaine and ferdie.... my good friends that just got married back in california and sadly enough, i wasn't able to be there to witness their special day. this entry wouldn't even come close to making up for my absence, but i just wanted to honor them and wish them all the blessings in their marriage! these two are amazing and i love 'em to bits and pieces and have both meant so much to me over the years... blessings to you guys in your new marriage. now go make 'em ferdie jr.'s! (DODE. haha) CONGRATULATIONS...

a hui hou

can't say that it was the end of the world, but it was the end of my journey in kona, hawaii. for the last 2 years, i've been completing different schools at the university of the nations... it became a routine to fly in every few months or so but now that im coming to the end of this degree, i've stepped off the campus knowing i wouldnt be back in awhile...its as cliche as it gets, but you dont realize what you got until you've left it. so i say aloha to the beautiful big island of hawaiii...a hui hou... until we meet again...

snow... in hawaii?

i saw it with my own two rainbow shaped eyes... i saw snow in hawaii! so my friend peter took me up to mauna kea the other weekend, the tallest volcano in hawaii (it rises 32,000 ft from the ocean floor) and mauna kea literally means "white mountain" in hawaiian. when youre up that high, you get kinda loopy... weeeee... there was no sunrise we could rave about that morning but heck... there was heaps of snow. it was a blessing that we got to go up to the summit cause on our way down, they closed off the road because of the snowstorm! so im glad we went (thanks pedro) and that i got to see just another piece of this mysterious beautiful big island of hawaii...

back in the 4th grade

there's a lot of things that i wish i pursued as a kid... and one of those things was playing the violin. if only i wouldlve sucked it in and enjoyed being in my 4th grade violin class. but now that im older, ive been keeping my eyes open for anyone to teach me (and for cheap cause lessons can be expensive)... well, it so happens theres a classically trained violinist doing her DTS and her name is Sirja from Finland...we got to talking and now, im taking violin lessons for an hour each week! im no violinst and who knows if i'll ever be called one, but heck, i played my first piece last weekend... it was called Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. :) it was awesome but kinda ironic that i felt like i was back in 4th grade....

one day... one day...

i'm realizing more and more how much i love being here at this ywam base in kona and that im in the midst of being in a melting pot of cultures, languages and generations each and every single day. theres over 31 nations represented right now, sitting in my own backyard and its amazing. i'm reading this book called "Foreign to Familiar" by Sarah A. Lanier. it talks about understanding the differences between hot and cold climate cultures... very interesting... you can say im getting cultured each day. part of that is learning japanese...日本語を学びたいと思う... (okay, i cheated and just put that in the translator thingy.) but learning the language take times. ive always been fascinated by the japanese culture and im claiming it now, that one day... one day... i'll get to japan...

visual storytelling

im back on the rock in the middle of the pacific ocean called the Big Island... also known as, Hawaii. its great being back and back to my "normal" dark brown color... and this quarter, im a student in a 3 month course called the School of Illustration. What is that you ask? Well let me tell you what i learned the first day (since i myself didn't really know what it was all about)... we like to call it... "visual storytelling." illustration is used in marketing, chilldrens books, etc. to communicate a 'story' or subject. i'll tell you this much, its a lot different not working on my computer everyday, and instead, the pencil and eraser are my new best friends... heres some work that i did in the last 2 weeks. we already got our stuff made into greeting cards and me and my classmates sold some of our art already. to be honest, i didn't know i had THIS art in me. but here it is...ta-da...


"Breakfast with God"... our first project using pencil. our topic was to illustrate how we spend our mornings with God. here i am, with my empty bowl, ready to get "spiritually fed"...

'twas the night before...

'twas the night before... no, not christmas... but the night before i left for kona after being back in california for almost 2 months. it always comes down to prioritizing spending time with friends or packing my bags... i still haven't figured it out. so why not have everyone come over WHILE i pack? thats kinda what happened and i didnt mind. i'll never say no to comparing guts (ahemmm...hi hipol boys) and looking through old fotos with friends i grew up... i must say that i enjoyed my relaxing and refreshing time at home, especially for the holidays... but of course, the journey must go on...