What on earth is going on?
- Jun 24, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 29, 2019
Why have you made a blog? Didn't you already try that? What's this one about? Why is it called "Out of the Blue"??? Well:
I'm going on mission to Norway, to learn about God and photography and help a bunch of strangers. - Let me explain.
Before we begin
I've gotta be honest. I am in need of money for this trip, so for those of you here looking for a way to give, here's my GoFundMe page!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/mission-to-norway&rcid=r01-156172749986-bdcfaddf2ee84777&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w
The backstory.
A little while ago, in a house not so far away, Naomi Ludford got an email. Which of course, is quite a normal thing to happen to anyone, we all get emails all the time. Emails from companies about free doughnuts, emails from apps when we forget important passwords, emails from family with the yearly gossip update. Overall, emails aren't anything to make a blog and dance about. But this email was exciting. This email said Norway had seen my missions application, and chosen to accept it. I'm going to be Tom Cruisin' to Norway!!!
But Naomi, sweetheart, why on earth are you going to Norway? And what's this "mission" thing you're making puns about? Ahah! Wonderful questions indeed.
By the Oxford dictionary, a mission is "The vocation or calling of a religious organisation, especially a Christian one, to go out into the world and spread its faith.", which is great, but I'd like to tell you what it means to me.
North Korea.
Growing up surrounded by Christians means that the concept of "going on mission" is far from foreign to me, but it wasn't until I learnt about the situation in North Korea that I desired to go myself.
As you may know, North Korea today is lead by Kim Jong-Un, who is not the most benevolent leader. The country is self-described as a "self-reliant" socialist state, and described by others as totalitarian dictatorship (think "The Capitol" in The Hunger Games.) There are prison camps for "rebels" against the government, and defectors often tell stories of a country rife with abuse, starvation, and torture. According to the charity "Open Doors" it is the country in which Christians are persecuted the most.
Now, were I to waltz into North Korea myself and try to help the people living there, I would find myself in a rather unsavoury situation incredibly quickly. Instead I had the idea to help people after they've escaped to South Korea. However!!! Who I am today is not the kind of person you need yeeting themselves into a group of North Korean defectors. No matter how good my intentions, I wouldn't be very much help. So I realised I need to train, and thats where YWAM comes in.
YWAM DTS - Ålesund Norway
YWAM - Youth With A Mission
- "A global movement of Christians from many cultures, age groups, and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world."
DTS - Discipleship Training School
- A 4 month missions training period, and a 2 month outreach period.
If you watch the video above you'll get a nice little overview of what YWAM is, and if you check out https://ywamaalesund.com/about-ywam you'll get a better idea of what I'll be doing up in Norway. For now though, I'll simply outline the main facts of what this missions trip will entail.
01 - Lectures
- Lecture weeks Monday-Thursday, topics such as The Gospel, Missions, and Spiritual Warfare.
02 - Creative days
- Teaching from those in the industry and collaborating with other creative tracks (dance, art, etc.)
03 - Outreach
- 2 month phase abroad putting to use all the skills learnt in the first 4 months.
- location TBD
How does this all help?
The YWAM DTS is just the first step towards being able to go out and help people from/in North Korea. It will teach me about going on mission, it will give me experience being away from home, teach me to adapt to new environments, and to move away from my comfort zone.
Simultaneously, it will be stretching me and helping me grow in my skills as a photographer, which I must say, is pretty rad. I have been interested in photography for a good few years. I started my journey by stretching the art of mobile photography as far as it would go. Then, after buying myself a DSLR, started learning the ins and out of this new, much more complicated medium. This interest in photography is what birthed the very website this blog is hosted upon. Which, were you to explore, you'd find holds the modest beginnings of what will be an extensive portfolio, and a link to my instagram for good measure (and please do explore! I'm rather proud of her). As much as this missions opportunity will be furthering me towards my missions based goal, it will also do so in my creative endeavours, and it really couldn't be more perfect.
So why the blog?
Well my friends, I am in no way an organised lass, but this is going to require a great deal of organisation, and so I crafted this space to help me keep everything in order and all in one neat little website. Essentially, I'll be using this space as an organised bulletin board (à la Animal Crossing) to plan fundraising events, post updates about the missions trip as I receive more information, and eventually to record the shenanigans I get up to once I'm out there!
And why is it called Out of the Blue?? Well, everything about this situation came from out of the blue: my gripping love of photography that popped up a few years ago, my desire to go out on mission and help those in North Korea, the opportunity to get myself to Norway in just a few months time. Since the trip is so soon and so sudden, it's likely that a lot of the things I do to raise money will also come out of the blue. I also know that God is unlikely to give me a lot of notice for the things he plans to do through this, so it seems an awful lot of things will be popping out of the blue from here on out, and I think it's a half decent blog name too!
How can I get involved?
To fundraise for the trip (I have to make about £5,500) I will be doing a multitude of things, I'll be offering paid photoshoots, baking cakes, organising music events, the works!! For right now, and those of you a little further afield, I have made a GoFundMe too! If you want to give a couple of quid to get me to Norway, use the link below! You can even do it anonymously if you want to add a lovely layer of mystery and intrigue,,,
https://www.gofundme.com/f/mission-to-norway&rcid=r01-156167215124-a23083c56fdd4020&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w
If you're interested in my future fundraising endeavours, want to hear more about my reasons for going on mission, or want to hear about what I learn when I'm there and the awesome photographs I'll take, please sign up to my mailing list! I'll be sending out a nice lil email every time I post an update about my mission plans, and maybe a couple extras here and there to keep you in the loop. Please feel free to contact me if you want to talk about anything I've posted here, and keep an eye out for the fundraising events I'll be setting up real real soon!
Finally, here's an awesome video I found from a fellow YWAM trainee about their time in Europe when they did their own DTS. It talks about what God did for them and showed them while they were out there, and is a beautiful short film.
Thanks for reading!
Naomi
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