Trying to go to Chi-town!

I'm shooting a wedding Chicago this weekend. My flight is delayed due to weather at Ohare so I'm bored and ready to see my friends up there again! At least there is wi-fi at the Tampa airport! You Tube is always a fun place to go when bored. I'm on the airport kick right now so check out this video.............

Costa Rica Mission Trip Slideshow

We had an amazing trip to Costa Rica! Check out the slideshow below.......

Emerge Tampa Event

I recently joined a really great group called Emerge Tampa. It's part of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce but for young professionals 21-35. There is something everyone can get involved in, professional growth, networking, philanthropy events, etc. Thursday was their monthly networking social called it Buzz and I did some shots there to help promote it at a yearly event called Emergence in May. It was a fun time!

Costa Rica dia de seis!

Today is our last day here so this will be my last update. We will be heading back to San Jose tomorrow morning at 7 am. Our flight leaves about 12 pm and we will be back in Tampa around 11 pm. Today we spent the morning painting and doing maintenance at the place we are staying and church that we have been working with and now we´ve got some free time in Turrialba doing some shopping and walking around. It has been an amazing week, thanks for keeping us in your prayers and the support you have given everyone truly has a different perspective on life and has grown a lot in this short time. I know every time I go on a mission trip I end up learning a lot more than I did helping out. Our team really bonded well too so I have some great new friends! We will be having a special celebration next Saturday after the pm service for showing pictures and hearing from the team so you will hear more about that soon. Hasta luego for now!!

Costa Rica dia de quatro y cinco

Buenos noches! I will add pics tomorrow this dumb card reader isn´t working! I´m able to update this at random times so today you´ll get an update from last night and today. Wed night we did a service for young people at the church we are working at called Messengers of Hope. It was a rainy Costa Rica evening but lots of people still showed up. They did some great songs in Espanol and they we did some in English and Spanish. Josh taught specifically to the young people on not following the crowd. The youth that came with us did an AMAZING skit to music called Everything, language was not a barrier as the message definately got across.


Today, Thursday was our free day. The entire group went Caverning up in the mountains here. It was hiking and repelling down waterfalls. There were 3 repels down, one of them being 70 feet high, it was so much fun. Definately nothing like that in FL! Brad and the fam, Bruce, Josh, and Beth headed back to San Jose early because their flight tomorrow is on American air and they are cancelling a ton of flights. If you think about it pray for them to get back safely tomorrow!

Costa Rica Dia de tres and quatro

We made it to Turrialba yesterday! The Costa Rican countryside is beautiful. We are pretty far up in the mountains as you can see from the picture below. There is lots of coffee, ferns, bananas and flowers that people farm. Turrialba also has nice internet cafes so I´ll be able to keep updating you. I put descriptions of what the pictures are below, check it out...................

A few hours after we arrived, our team plugged right into a a really neat kids ministry. This woman named Ruth feeds a group of about 100 kids that are mostly homeless. We went to the church where they meet and did skits.

Romina is one of our group members, she is originally from Argentina so has been awesome in helping translate. She was helping translate for Brad who is sharing the Gospel with all the kids and their parents, about 30 raised their hands that they prayed to accept Christ! The families are so excited to have us and were so much fun.

Here´s a group of the kiddos waving and playing ball .

Josh, Sophie, David, and even Bruce did a skit, it was hilarious! The kids loved it, they were laughing so hard!

We also helped feed them and passed out goodie bags that had toothpaste, crayons, bouncie balls and fun stuff in them. Here´s Landon helping pass them out.

These 2 are so cute, I was hanging out with them. They loved their treat bags and and also seeing their pictures on the camera.

Below starts today, we went to a local park to invite youth and kids to a youth service we will be doing tonight. This park is about 6 blocks from where we are staying. Everyone here is so friendly and happy to talk to us. Brad and Bruce are teaching at a pastor´s conference here this afternoon where there are about 30 local pastors and wives. These pastors have practically no training so it is huge for them to be able to be a part of it. More to come...................................

Costa Rica Dia de tres!

We will be heading to Turialba this morning around 10:30am. It is about 2 hours drive, you can see where it is on the map below from San Jose. We will be working with Pastor Charles and International Impact Ministries. He was David´s pastor growing up and married us, so we are excited to serve with him! We´ll be working with a local church there with their kids ministry, doing some maintenance, and a pastors conference. Hopefully we´ll have internet access there so I can keep updating but who knows! The basketball game was pretty exciting, I actually watched it although I was hoping for Memphis to win:-)


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Costa Rica Dia de dos!

Our whole team is now together!  After long delays in Tampa and Miami, the Whites, Bruce, Josh, and Beth made it here to San Jose very early this morning. We put "Amor Ahora" which means Love Now in Spanish into action in San Jose.  Lifepoint is not only spreading the love in Tampa but around the world!  We so appreciate all of you who helped us get here and are praying for our team.  This morning we went back to the church and went around the neighborhood talking to people and sharing God's love with them. The first picture is of Fabio, Melanie, and Mark heading out. We were able to talk to 35 people and 5 of them prayed to accept Christ!  We then dined at a traditional Costa Rican restaurant, KFC (which I haven't even been to in the US in like 10 yrs!). Our next stop was El Hospital Nacional de Los Ninos. We visited kids who were either getting ready for surgery or had just gotten out of surgery.  We were amazed at how open the kids and their parents were to chat with and pray with us.  I wish I could have taken some pics in the hospital, but I couldn't so the 2nd picture is of our whole team outside the hospital and the 3rd picture is of Josh with a card one of the kids gave him because he told her his name was Zach Ephron, he did tell her he was joking but she wrote that his name was George on the card:-) After we got back, Bruce, David, Mark, and I went on a run practically straight up a mountain!  Ali is making us a Costa Rican specialty, chicken, rice and beans and then we will be hanging out tonight and having a sharing time.  Cristian's dad Eddie Vidachea who was the National Director of Word of Life in Costa Rica and has planted many churches.  The boys are going to try and watch the NCAA championship game.  Unfortunately there is a TV here:-)

Costa Rica Dia de uno!

Here's what we've been up to our first day here!  I'll try to post an update every night if I can so check back! We are working with a missionary here named Cristian, his wife Alli, and cute 9 month old Jessica.  We are staying a little outside of San Jose in a place called the Central American Bible Institute.  Cristian and his dad Eddie planted a church here in San Jose called "The Sheepfold". We went to church there this morning, where there are about 30 people who come from the local neighborhood.  They also do a really great youth ministry with sports and hanging out with the kids around the church.  It's a pretty rough area so the ministry is a great influence in the kids lives. Below is a picture of Melanie and Romina from our team with Pato who also works with Cristian and two of the girls that came.  The church is in a house and you can see it in the 2nd picture. David taught this morning and did this for the first time with Cristian translating.  We played games, soccer, and hung out with the kids in the afternoon and the last picture is of Fabio teaching the kids at the end of the day.  Then we came back for a homemade spaghetti dinner, which was great!  Monday we'll be inviting neighborhood kids to their youth events and also going to a children's hospital to visit them.  So more to come!!

Playbook for Life at USF

Tonight I shot an event for CJP communications at University of South Florida. Nancy Leiberman, who is an ex-pro and college women's basketball player and Bill Plout pro golfer were the speakers. The talked to the junior and senior athletes about finances after college, definately good info!

Dana and David

I had a great time this past Saturday second shooting with Jeff Morgan from Ortiz-Sellers Photography. Thanks Jeff, it was a blast! Thanks also to Tina for asking me to shoot for them! Dana and David are a super cute couple who both of their families are from Belize. It was a beautiful ceremony at St. Joseph's. After the ceremony Jeff and I took the new Mr and Mrs to University of Tampa and got some great outdoor shots there too. The reception was at the Sheraton Riverwalk, it was such a beautiful day! Below are some of the shots I took both at the church and at UT.