Titus and Toloha

Maybe, just maybe…this sweet face will make up for the months I’ve been absent on my blog and Facebook. We welcomed our third baby, Titus, at the end of August and let’s just say there’s not much downtime around here. We’ve adjusted now and I’m about to kick it into high gear with a busy portrait season. Let’s start with Titus’s.

 

 

These are his first portraits by me from the 6^th day after his birthday. We also snuck a family session in one afternoon – I used the timer and a tripod! Can you believe it?! I think I may start using this method with little kids when I want them to actually look at the camera. It is like a game! You know that my favorite portraits are the ones that catch emotion, personality and realness, but sometimes… I do want my kids looking at the camera, just like any mom. So I was pretty pleased by this little spontaneous session (okay, I confess that I did pick out our clothes to coordinate – I can’t help it!)

Another thing that has taken up a lot of my time is the Toloha Partnership. This is something that is very near and dear to my heart.

In 2008, I met a man named Daniel Makoko, who had shared with many in our church (Grace Fellowship) the needs of the people in his village of Toloha, Tanzania. The people are in desperate need of the Gospel and their number one physical need is water. Our church contacted several organizations to try to get them involved, but nothing ever worked. Meanwhile the water situation got much worse.

In late 2011, a group of us started to meet with Daniel to try to see what we could do as a church. We started with prayer and since then, God has done some AMAZING things. We sent an engineering team to Toloha in June of this year and we have plans to start laying pipe in JANUARY!!! We also recently formed a non-profit corporation called Toloha Partnership. It is all very exciting, but also overwhelming. It is a very large and expensive project because it will supply enough water for 10,000 people – right now there are 4,000-6,000 people who will benefit from the water project (some coming from neighboring villages where there is also no water).

We have organized a banquet to raise money for the water project, and I would to see some of my readers there! It is going to be a very fun and exciting night.  Here are the details:

 

Toloha Partnership Banquet for Water

When: Saturday evening, November 9, 2013

Where: The Arts Council 400 N Queen St, Kinston, NC

Tickets are available for $40 per person or $320 for a table of 8.

*Tickets will be sold in advance only.

If you would like tickets, please put your email in the comments below or email me at info@tolohapartnership.org

 

The banquet will be hosted by Meteorologist David Sawyer from Channel 9 News and include a silent auction, sit-down dinner, music and a presentation about the Toloha Partnership Water Project by Daniel Makoko and Burt Rudolph (our Team Engineer from Kinston who traveled to Toloha in June). We are hoping to raise enough money to lay about 2km of pipe OR MORE! This will help the people immensely.

It has been so exciting to see how God can use a little group of people in Kinston to show over 5,000 people in Tanzania how much He loves them. If you want to read more about what we’ve been doing, our blog is www.tolohapartnership.org.

Today, I have my first client portrait session since my maternity leave, so check back soon to see new portraits!