Hello family and friends,
As you may know, we have taken a couple of months away from home to come and work with YWAM (Youth With a Mission) at the base in Kona, Hawaii. We are here leading and teaching in a second level photography school. Yes, it is in Hawaii, which we know is a magical and wonderful place to serve.
In spite of it being paradise, we spend most of our days inside, teaching photography to our class of 9 students. Our students hail from Switzerland, Germany, the Dominican Republic, America and China. We are individually discipling them, making snacks for the team, arranging outings, marking their photography projects and attending many, many, MANY meetings.
It's been a full and fulfilling month and we only have a one month to go.
We are nothing but grateful.
During our time here, we have been asked to lead our students on a two-week outreach/photography trip to Papau NewGuinea (aka. PNG. Click here to see where this island nation is if you don't already know).
We know a few people and organizations who already work there, but at this point, it's just not enough to help the 7 million inhabitants of the remote nation of PNG. Its population is strikingly diverse, speaking over 800 distinct languages.
The government of PNG has urged YWAM to step in and help them with their medical and educational needs. PNG is rich in resources (oil, gas, mining etc), but it's people are suffering due to their traditional lifestyles. One statistic we have heard is there are only about 30-40 dentist's for the whole country of 7 million. In rural communities, it is quite common for mothers to die in childbirth.
YWAM ships (www.ywamships.net) has been sending medical teams to the remote areas of the country to serve, heal and give life to these rural communities. But they can only serve so many people at a time/year.
Our job as photographers/videographers would be to go into the hardest, most remote areas, collect these stories and share them with the YWAM community and the world (that's you). We want to inspire, shed light on these issues and to push our community and the world to help.
Though we generally work to pay for our own trips, this has come up last minute and we're excited to see it come to fruition.
For one of us to go, we need to raise, about $2400 USD. For both of us, $4800. We currently have $1500 for Jono to go, which is Amazinggggg. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Since we've been here, we've done some babysitting and ice-cream sales to raise the money on our end. We also have a car wash, more babysitting and hopefully a couple of photo shoots to help raise the funds.
We would love for you to partner with us in prayer and monetarily.
We have an option for tax deductible donations through www.ywamcanada.org/donations.html
Follow their steps to give and add to the "Jonathan Grime" fund.
You can also use our giving code, "GJ17" if you are mailing in a cheque and wriitng a note
We also offering a mini-photography session for any single donation of $200 or more.
Please don't hesitate to ask us more questions about the purpose of this journey and how you can help.
Thank you in advance friends,
Much, much love,
Jonathan + Layne