Though our project in Colorado suddenly came two months early with less than a week’s notice, we had great success. Originally, we were supposed to work for the Boulder-based nonprofit, iEmpathize, in October, where the glowing yellow Aspen trees and crisp mountain air would welcome us. But due to extenuating circumstances, which involved Nicaragua’s Ministry of Health putting us in an unexpected mandatory quarantine for fear of an Ebola outbreak after our travels to Liberia, we found ourselves in Boulder in August — skipping out on the 30-day monitored quarantine altogether.

This is where we fell in love. Not us, Jordan and Cassie, we’ve been in love for more than seven years now, but this is where we fell in love with Boulder, Colorado. We arrived late one night, well into the poker night that was happening at our first host’s house, so the darkness shrouded our outside surroundings. But when we woke up that first morning, we saw about 15 layers of mountains in the distance and we knew right away that there were many adventures to be had during our month-long project in Colorado.

This project was one that we had been looking forward to all year — with an incredibly creative nonprofit that fights against child exploitation in the U.S. through prevention, education, and industry-specific campaigns. iEmpathize does great work and is one of those invisible players in the background of the human rights world that is really making a difference. It was an honor to serve them this year, to challenge ourselves in creating several videos that pushed us in new ways. For instance, take a look at the first video we produced, a very time-consuming stop-motion video that illustrates the heart of iEmpathize.

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Liberia is a country that has been through a lot. The destruction from 14 years of civil war is still apparent in the lack of infrastructure, and the storm clouds of the Ebola outbreak are just now receding, but it’s still fresh in everyone’s minds. Billboards tell you how to identify symptoms, or how to seek proper treatment, and ETUs (Ebola Treatment Units) can be seen throughout the country – constant reminders of the terrible virus that claimed more than 4,800 lives in Liberia alone. From the moment we stepped off the plane, we were instructed to wash our hands in chlorinated water and airport employees in latex gloves checked all travelers’ temperatures with infrared thermometer guns. These precautions are mandatory procedures to enter nearly every big establishment in Monrovia, and then as you drive through counties in rural Liberia, roadblocks are set up to go through the same motions.

The hardships are apparent on the surface, but we also saw a different side of Liberia, a hopeful side where villages and communities are being rescued from a different killer – water. While Ebola has generated a hysterical response, fueled by the media’s fear-induced reporting, 2,300 people die everyday from water borne illnesses (that’s more than 840,000 people each year!) because they lack access to clean water. That’s exactly what The Last Well is striving to end, and fast. The Last Well’s mission is to provide access to clean drinking water to every person in Liberia, border to border, by 2020. Not only that, but they are bringing the good news of the gospel to every village they serve. We had the amazing opportunity to witness this work on the ground, and to capture the story of The Last Well in the video below.

 
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After spending a few weeks off with our families in North Carolina, we transitioned back into “project mode” in Washington, DC while staying with friends the week of Fourth of July. After two years of living in Northern Virginia, we finally got to spend the Fourth in our nation’s capital, with the most incredible fireworks show over the reflection pool in front of the Lincoln Monument. It was a wonderful send off and then it was time to head back to Africa. We also were excited to see an awesome exhibit at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum to prepare us for our journey, which was a photography exhibit called Into Africa.

Then on the fifth of July (which is not typically as exciting as the Fourth), we were off to Ghana! By God’s grace, we did not experience jet lag at all once we arrived — nor have we our entire missional year! We were ready to begin our next project, our fourth and final project with Free the Slaves, which would focus on child labor in gold mining.

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Arriving in the DC area to begin our next project was an interesting feeling — in a really good way. It was probably the most normal and at home we have felt since embarking on this year-long mission, since we were returning to the area where we lived as newlyweds for the previous two years. We were greeted by our good friends, Joe and Abbie, who were graciously opening their home to us for the next week. We visited our home church, The Transit, helping to set up and break down all the equipment in our young church plant that meets at a school on Sunday. Midweek, we attended our old community group/Bible study for a very nostalgic meal we craved during our travels (Gwen’s alfredo sauce and Jonni’s homemade pasta) along with much-needed fellowship. And on the weekend, we re-visited some of our favorite restaurants in the area (like Good Stuff Eatery for burgers and milkshakes) with the company of great friends. It was just like old times and felt like no time at all had passed.

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After a short getaway to the Thousand Islands to celebrate our 2-year wedding anniversary (check out our AgapeVisuals Instagram account for photos), we headed to Norfolk, VA to begin work on the next project for our missional year with the Military Missions Network (MMN). MMN is a group of evangelical churches, chaplains, and ministries collaborating for a greater synergy in outreach and ministry to military worldwide. They ignite a vision for touching the world through collaboration in missional military ministry, link military with ministries, equip and mobilize military believers.

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After our first project in NYC, we began our second and final project in the Big Apple with a completely different experience. Our first project was photography only, our hardest assignment in the history of our photojournalistic careers, capturing the work of a homeless mission. Then one day it all changed when we transitioned into our AirBNB shared apartment stay in the hip Park Slope area of Brooklyn to begin our work with the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN). The transition was like night and day, from poverty to abundance, within a matter of a few miles. It seemed like we were in India again, where the caste system divides the line of rich and poor seemingly randomly but truly ingrained in society to the point where it becomes acceptable, invisible.

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Many would think that departing Africa headed to New York City would be exciting to the traveler, but we were not quite ready to leave surprisingly beautiful Rwanda for the crowded, dirty, smelly streets of New York. When we landed on American soil, one of the first conversations we had was asking for directions to the Amtrak station in Philadelphia. During this conversation, our intelligence was questioned three times — “Do you know what a ramp looks like?”, the woman asked repeatedly in response to our question of whether we turned left or right outside the airport doors to get to this ramp. Ahhh, home sweet home. It turns out we do know what a ramp looks like. We found it and we boarded the train headed to NYC.

We exited Penn Station and were greeted by Kayla from The Bowery Mission. All we knew about The Bowery Mission was that it was a Christian homeless shelter, but we soon found out — and saw for ourselves — that their work reaches much deeper.

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When we boarded our flight from Delhi to Rwanda (connecting in Ethiopia), we were pleasantly surprised with a huge Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft that looked brand new. For some reason, we weren’t expecting a long flight, but then we were informed it was going to be 7 hours. Neither of us had ever been to Africa before, and we had become so comfortable in our five-star accommodations in Delhi that it was hard to look forward to the next project ahead of us. That all changed though.
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To produce three videos for Free the Slaves in Varanasi, India, we spent four days filming in two different villages. Both villages were a two-hour drive from our hotel, so we would wake up at 4 a.m. to reach the communities by sunrise. Twelve to fourteen hours later, we’d be back at the hotel, feeling exhausted both physically and mentally (and dirty!). Our work was challenging, but rewarding as always. We enjoyed every minute of it. Jordan also had many opportunities to snap photos of Cassie sleeping in the car to add to his growing collection, too. We’ll keep those to ourselves this time, though.

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