A New Home

Hey, friends!  I have found a new home over here: beautiful journey... come check it out!

A + A Get Hitched!

When I was home over the summer I got to be a part of Alan and Amanda's wedding.  (I did their engagement shoot, featured in this blog post.)  I was just going to be a guest, but a couple weeks before, they asked me if I would shoot their wedding.  I had never shot a wedding before, so it's really cool that they had that much confidence in me!  I immediately went out and bought a new lens for my camera.  I have a first-generation NEX-5, so I got the 55-200mm lens.  It's not amazing, but I'm so glad I had it!

The wedding was so beautiful.  The weather was great - the rain only coming when we were inside.  The flowers were amazing.  Chick-fil-a catered.  And the happy couple were perfect. :)  

Here are some of my favorite shots from the day...

Rehearsing

The dress.  And that's Amanda's niece, Piper.

Aren't the flowers amazing?

All the flower girls.  Amanda has 8 nieces - 4 the same age!

Beautiful venue!

Apparently the fact that I got this shot

- all the Wulff family looking and smiling at the same time -

is nothing short of a small miracle.

 

Rowing away...

I'm pretty sure I am not cut out for shooting weddings - it was one of the most stressful days of my life - but it was also pretty fun.

-brandy

Things to Blog About (Homegoing)

And I'm back!

Sorry... it's been a while, huh?  My life has finally calmed down (I think) for a little while, so I figured I'd be productive in the blogging world again.

And I get in ruts where I can't come with anything to write about or don't think that something going on is that interesting, so I just get stuck.

For the next little while, I've decided to do a series of blogs, where I highlight specific things from my trip home this summer - from people to places to events.  It'll be called "Homegoing". :) 

Last year around this time, I had a serious case of homesickness for family and friends.  In *trying* not to let that happen again this year, I'm doing two things...
(1) remembering that my home is not on earth anyway, and I can turn my homesickness toward longing for the day I'll be face to face with my Savior in Heaven.
(2) constantly reminding myself that all the people I miss back home love me, support me, and pray for me all the time... and we have email and skype!  So it's not all that bad.

So here's some of my family.  I hate it that all of them are at our favorite beach for Labor Day without me, but I love that I can get on facebook and immediately see what my amazing nephew did today. :)

Stay tuned for more "Homegoing" posts... and others, too.

Welcome Party

This week we received our fourth brand new Kodiak airplane!  And I got to be a part of the welcoming committee.  It's been really great seeing God's provision in this.  We weren't expecting this new Kodiak for another year or so, but he provided the funding for it much sooner!

I remember being at JAARS almost 2 years ago when we dedicated the third Kodiak on its way to PNG.  That was such a neat opportunity.  And this coming Thursday, I get to be a part of the official dedication of this fourth one.  Pray with us that it will be used to the glory of God.  And praise the Lord that we now have a full fleet of aircraft here at our center in PNG to serve the work of Bible translation (including the 4 Kodiaks and 2 helicopters)!

Here are some photos of the welcome party...

The pilot did a fly-over for Aviation and then Ukarumpa before landing

Waiting for it to land...

 

The Aviation staff pouring out of the hangers to welcome it

So pretty!

Of course Drina and I had to get a picture with it

Praising the Lord together for his provision

A Bridal Tea

My friend, Amanda, is getting married in July, and she loves tea parties.  So a few of us gave her a surprise Bridal Tea!  I quickly volunteered to organize it, because I've been dying to put my Pinterest ideas to work.  I had no clue how the picture in my head would translate into reality since we are in a land of limited resources.  However... I've now learned that women here have collected really nice things over the years, and if you just ask... well, your dreams will come true.

We also have an amazing costume room for productions.  And in that costume room are tons of fancy hats.  And what's more tea-partyish than fancy hats?

So here it is, the tea party of my imagination, becoming a reality for Amanda.

 All the guests

Amanda and me

Thoughts on Limited Expectations

I've been thinking about something for a couple weeks... the idea of hearing God speak.  I'm not talking about a booming voice or a clear sign or vision or anything.  I'm just talking about the ordinary, or even big, life decisions we make.  And I want to propose this thought:

God does speak to us on a regular basis, and when it doesn't turn out like we thought it should, that does not mean that we didn't hear correctly.

Let me give one example: You know that God is telling you to move to a different city.  So if he's clear about that, you expect that he'll provide you with a job, a wonderful church where you can get involved and reach the city, a close-knit set of godly friends- everything you'll need to thrive in that city.  But you get there, spend 6 months there, and nothing is working out.  You end up having to move back home.  So then automatically you think that you heard God incorrectly in the first place- he didn't really call you to move to that city.  "I must have heard him wrong," you say.

And that's exactly where I believe we go wrong- limited expectations.  In so many instances in life we put God in a box without really realizing it.  And that box is what comes from our expectations.  Let's take a look at Abraham in Genesis 22.  (This is one of my favorite happenings in the Bible.)  God clearly called him to sacrifice his son.  We know that.  We don't argue with that.  It's written plain as day.  So how is it that in the end, Abraham was able to walk back home with his son Isaac walking by his side?  Did he hear God wrong?  Nope.

I assume that Abraham thought that God meant to literally kill Isaac.  But we see, even in the beginning, that he wasn't going to put God in a box.  He tells Isaac that "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering."  But the story keeps going and there's no lamb.  Abraham prepares Isaac for the ultimate sacrifice, and just as he's about to slay his son, an Angel of the Lord stops him.  There's the lamb.

All through the Bible we read that God's ways/thoughts are higher than our ways/thoughts.  He will direct our paths.  It's all about him.  He uses our weaknesses to show his strength.  He loves us.  Oh, how he loves us.

So when God tells you to do something, do it.  And don't expect it to turn out like you'd think.  Don't limit your expectations.  Expect him to use your obedience for his glory and your good.  Expect him to grow you in ways you never imagined.  Expect him to teach you hard and painful lessons, like how to love him more than anyone else in the world.  Expect him to use what you take from that experience to grow his kingdom.

Your thoughts?

A+A

I got to do my very first photo shoot!  Amanda (my housemate) and Alan got engaged on February 24 here in Ukarumpa, PNG, and they're getting married on July 5 in North Carolina.  And since there is a major lack of professional photographers here, they kindly let me try my hand at it.  These are a few of my favorite shots from the day.

You can read Amanda's store here.
And Alan's story here.
 

 

The ring.  Which was mailed from Alabama to California and hand-carried across the Pacific.

This pretty much sums them up.

 

*sorry they're a little low in quality- I have to pay by the megabyte over here!

:)brandy