I can't keep up! We're seeing so many terrific things and I'm taking sooooooo many pictures (I know you're shocked). Here are some from Tuesday's visit to a wonderful place called Bethel on the outskirts of Beijing:


Bethel is a training center for blind orphans, children who would otherwise have no chance for adoption or training for a career. The increasingly self-sustaining facility is spread over 70+ acres with plenty of room for growing organic produce and raising animals. Here's Maggie visiting the bunnies:

Bethel is currently home to just under 40 children. A staff of 70 care for their needs -- nannies, teachers, cooks, housekeepers, farm workers and administrators. Here a class is being taught to read braille by a teacher who is blind herself:

Love pours from all of the caretakers at Bethel. They are overjoyed by each milestone and miracle their children achieve, whether it's learning to eat, learning to walk, or learning to button:

Beautiful little faces:

Right now all of the children live in dorm rooms within the main Bethel building, but new "family homes" are nearly ready for additional children:

This beaming smile tells the truth about Bethel: joy lives here!

The heart of Bethel is the Gauvain family. Guillaume and Delphine set out to find God's will for their lives, and they ended up serving His children in China. Guillaume recently published a book chronicling the first 30 years of their adventurous lives. He says, "China is a huge country. Caring for its poor and needy with such a large population is a challenge. We simply do what God has called us to do -- care for blind orphans -- and are thankful to China for allowing us to do it." (Love Is Blind) I was privileged to do a family mini-session for their family, beginning with some quick shots of Benjamin, David and Emilie:

L. O. V. E.

I would encourage you to visit Bethel's website, http://www.bethelchina.org/, and consider offering them your prayer and material support. I've been there. It is indeed a wonderful place.

The Lord says,

"Clear the road! Get it ready for My people."

Our holy God lives forever in the highest heavens,

and this is what He says:

Though I live high above in the holy place,

I am here to help those who are humble

and depend only on Me.

I know what you are like!

But I will heal you, lead you, and give you comfort,

until those who are mourning start singing My praises.

No matter where you are,

I, the Lord, will heal you and give you peace.

Isaiah 57:14-15, 18-19 CEV

The Lesh Girls live on the 18th floor of the apartment building at the back of this complex. We've made several trips up and down in the elevator, so we took some time to just hang around the house on Monday.


Emily's favorite form of entertainment is torturing, I mean playing with the fabulous Fabio. Their other cat Daisy is a master of passive resistance and wet noodle imitation, so she manages to get left out of most of the fun.


Isn't Fabio gorgeous? Maggie and I have discovered that a daily dose of Claritin allows us to live mostly allergy-free amongst our furry friends.


Monday evening we went on an outing to a pretty lake area.. The big event involved renting a battery-powered boat and gently puttering around the lake. The girls took turns driving with mixed results -- Maggie and Emily loved it, but Abby quickly begged to be relieved of her captain duties:


The Queen and I thoroughly enjoyed the breeze and the chance to do some backseat driving:


Lots of interesting folks were there, like this fellow doing beautiful calligraphy with water and a huge brush on the pavement...


... the carefree men swimming and sunning themselves on the tiny island in the center of the lake...


... a bride and groom having their portraits taken (Chinese brides and grooms typically wear traditional clothing for the actual ceremony and then rent gowns and tuxes for their portraits)...


... an artist who was in great demand for charcoal portraits...


... and these friendly girls also enjoying the lake:


Of course there were plenty of shopping opportunities, and Maggie used her bargaining skillz. This poor guy lost a sale because he wouldn't lower his price enough to suit this tough customer:


It wouldn't be a good day in China without a new group shot:


We're seeing proof that...

What God has planned for people who love Him
is more than eyes have seen or ears have heard.
It has never even entered our minds!
1 Corinthians 2:9

Laurie here! We did indeed find a way around the Great Firewall of China!

Sunday morning we squeezed in a shopping trip before church (yay jet lag!) at the Dirt Market, named for its once-dirt floors that have now been paved. We looked so nice when we left the apartment, seeing as how we were headed to church and all. Within 15 minutes we were soaked with sweat and I had my hair in a ponytail. Oh well. I'm sure God understood.

Here are some glimpses of the wares to be bargained upon at Dirt Market:

Baskets and baskets of old Chinese coins caught Maggie's eye, so she picked out one that she plans to use as a necklace:

The Chinese way of doing business requires firmness and savvy, qualities I am sorely lacking. Fortunately we are being trained by two masters, Diane and Sri.

Maggie is showing more of an aptitude for this type of shopping than I am. Here's a set of calligraphy brushes that she was happy to find:

And here I am with the two flutes I bought after essentially no bargaining. I never realized what a polite, considerate, gentle, compassionate wimp I truly am. The first flute is made out of beautiful blue marble, I think, and was plucked out of a pile of opium pipes. The second one called me from afar when its merchant started playing it. It's made of bamboo and is going to take a bit more work to learn how to play.

Church was a thrilling experience when we finally arrived, and not just because of God's gift to mankind known as air conditioning. As we walked in, the band was playing a song our church learned a couple of months ago. People from every continent were there worshiping together and singing in multiple layers of harmony. A peek into heaven! I'll try to get you caught up on Monday and Tuesday's events tomorrow. If I don't completely melt before then, that is...

Hosanna! Hosanna!

You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises

Hosanna! Hosanna!

Come have Your way among us, we welcome You here, Lord Jesus

- Hosanna by Paul Baloche

Substitute Blog, Installment 1

Hello, internet readers! Today's blog post is brought to you by Tyler, son of the fabulous photographer. Mom is in China on her GRAND ADVENTURE, and China is a little stricter about which sites you can and can't visit, so I'll be filling in indefinitely (best case, until she finds a way around the restrictions; worst case, until she returns and recovers from jet lag).

Beginning transmission:

We made it to China! Maggie slept through a good part of the flight... as usual I did well just to catch a few naps. The Lesh Girls have a full itinerary planned for us, so we jumped right in today and headed to the Great Wall. Did you know that it runs along a mountain range? I didn't! We had to walk pretty well straight uphill just to get to the Wall, which then led to more climbing and vertical walking. By the time we got to steps heading down, our knees had turned to jelly and we had to hang on to the stone walls for dear life to keep from rolling down.

Three of Diane's co-workers joined us for the day. Here's a collection of group shots (minus me). In the top photo you'll see Shawna, Donica, Sri, Maggie, Emily, Diane and Abby:

I did jump into this shot with Maggie...

...and this one inside a tower along the Wall:

Just a few more of our gang:

And even a few shots of innocent passersby:

We rode tobaggans to come back down from the Wall:

We were greeted by Gengis Khan, who was eager to have his photo taken but then stuck out his hand and demanded payment. Good thing he didn't see the rabbit ears or he might have charged extra.

The marketplace between the Wall and parking lot was bustling with merchants and potential customers. "Lady, lady! Looky, looky! One dollar! You come and buy!" We stopped to purchase dried fruit and handcarved marble name stamps:

Emily got talked into trying on funny hats. We thought she looked adorable but she refused to buy one:

Just like Abby, we were all exhausted by the time we got back to our van:

I'd better get to bed now. We're supposed to leave at 7:00 am for a visit to the Dirt Market (??? I'll have to explain that one to you after I see it for myself) followed by church, a pedicure and dinner at Beijing's best Mexican restaurant.

This ...



... is why I'm going to China in two days. (By the way, wouldn't that have made a fantastic passport photo? I don't know why it didn't make the cut.)

Diane is my gutsy, nutty, one-of-a-kind friend who packed up her two girls and headed to Beijing last summer to teach kindergarten at an international Christian school. She's the very same friend who got me started on this Wonderfully Made journey nearly 5 years ago after I borrowed a friend's digital camera and took these photos of her family:


"You're an artist!" she raved. "You have a gift that must be shared with others and used for God!" she insisted. "People will pay for your portraits!" she assured me. That's how Diane talks, and she made me dare to dream that this time she might actually know what she was talking about. So I took a deep breath and tiptoed in, and ever since then Diane and her girls have been some of my favorite portrait subjects.

We did these for Christmas cards a couple of years ago:

This Summer 2007 session captured the true personalities of Diane, Emily and Abigail:

And these were taken during their final weeks in Texas last year during a family good-bye session and an afternoon at school:

Diane gives me courage to try new things. Like start a photography business and travel to China with my own not-so-little girl. I don't look forward to the long flight or jet lag or aching tourist feet, but I cannot wait to see my friend. She's got a full schedule planned for us that includes the required sights (Great Wall, Forbidden City, multiple Beijing markets) as well as some opportunities to use my photography to encourage God's servants. So far my itinerary includes photos at an orphanage for blind children and Diane's school, family portraits for missionary families, and a photo session during a traditional orchestra rehearsal. I'll do my best to update the blog as often as possible so you can follow our adventures.

In all my prayers, I ask God to make it possible for me to visit you.

I want to see you and share with you the same blessings that God's Spirit has given me.

Then you will grow stronger in your faith.

What I am saying is that we can encourage each other by the faith that is ours.

Romans 1:10-12 CEV

I just finished teaching a photography class to a fun bunch of teens as part of Brazosport College's summer enrichment program. Wave at Dylan, Emma, Erin, Henry, Kaitlyn, Siarrah and Zach:

We did our best to explore a wide variety of settings around the college without overly tormenting everyone with our, ahem, exuberance. You know what fuddy-duddies adults can be, simply because they've forgotten what it's like to be excited about learning something new and making new friends.

Anyway, all seven of my young photographer friends came to me with a good deal of camera experience. We worked on some foundational skills such as locating interesting subjects, experimenting with changes in perspective, eliminating clutter to simplify our images, and manipulating exposure settings to blur and stop motion. Here are some of my own efforts at putting those principles into practice:

Our class met in the afternoon, so of course we were shooting during the absolute hottest part of the day. During a heat wave and drought. Ack. I shot these next pics on the day I nearly succumbed to heat stroke. Awesome blue sky though, huh?

Whenever possible I headed for the shade and looked for lovely green things struggling to survive the blazing sun.

I saw this next little scene and thought it would make a soothing composition. During our Photoshop classroom time, I made the innocent mistake of showing the kids some quick ways to do super-groovy things with their images. From that point on, nearly every one of their photos got some sort of super-groovy treatment instead of standard refinement.

The last day we each took turns corraling the whole gang and posing everyone for a group shot. I think the main lesson was learned: it's tough being a group photographer! People don't listen, don't move where you want them, don't look at the camera, and don't stop talking all at the same time. The photos below were actually taken on earlier class days so I could get them printed for their portfolios assembled during the final class.

I don't have to wonder whether you had a good time in class, you party people. I DO wonder what photos you'll send to me from your upcoming summer adventures. Just remember all of the things we worked on together and I know you'll continue to create great images!

You've been a good apprentice to me,

a part of my teaching, my manner of life,

direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, troubles, sufferings...

Stick with what you learned and believed,

sure of the integrity of your teachers.

2 Timothy 3:10, 14 MESSAGE