On planes, trains, vehicles and foot, we traversed the globe from March to November, 2009. Along the way we met incredible people, saw magnificent sights and found ourselves in unfamiliar territory every step of the way.

Here you will find our interactions and reactions to a world of new experiences. Together, we journeyed through western Canada, down into Haiti and Mexico, across to the Ukraine and Africa in search of stories of life change. From the depths of our frustration to the heights of our joy, this blog documents the journey.

You can read the stories posted throughout the journey in reverse chronological order by browsing through the archive of every blog post below.

Alternatively, you can view posts by country or by post type by clicking on these links:
Countries: Canada, Ecuador, Haiti, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Ukraine, USA
Post type: Culture, Lessons, People, Photos, Prayer, Projects, Teams, Travel, Video

It’s been six months since we last stepped off an airplane on to Canadian soil. I am relieved and excited to let you all know that, finally, big things are happening. We’re at a point where we can start to see progress from all our hard work and I’m happy to be able to share it with you.

Next week we will be re-launching the Pockets of Change website. We will be bringing the book to the forefront and giving you a glimpse of what it may actually look like.

In the past the blog has been the driving force behind the site. We feel it has now served its purpose and it will be put aside, but not forgotten. You will still be able to look back through our entries from our travels to Hungry For Life project sites around the world.

Another exciting change that we’d like to announce is that alongside the new website, we will be launching a photo store where you can purchase prints of the photos from our travels.

Thanks for being so patient with us. As we pour ourselves into the book and the project, we sometimes neglect the blog and forget to keep everyone updated on what’s going on. As the blog becomes a secondary focus on the website, this adds more challenges. In the future we will be utilizing Facebook and Twitter more to post updates. We will also be notifying people about the book launch through email, so make sure to sign up if you haven’t already. Thanks for your interest, your prayers and your encouragement as we continue forward with this project.

Oh my goodness, it’s been awhile since we’ve posted anything! My apologies to those of you still checking on a regular basis, hopefully we haven’t lost your support as our blog posts have slowed to a trickle.

To answer the question on everyone’s minds – yes, we’re still working on the book. While a Spring completion would have been lovely, it seems this was not possible. We’re still working steadily and, at least five days a week, Pockets of Change is still our life.

Justin is persevering with the design of the book on top of the multitude of other details grabbing for his attention related to launching some new features on the POC website, dealing with the publishing end of things, and earning some income on the side to cover our rent.

On that note, we are still feeling blessed by God in the area of finances. We seem to have just enough to scrape by, though our savings have taken a serious nosedive through this project. Luckily, we know that God provides for us and if we run even lower on money it only means we must rely on God even more.

I am currently finishing up a couple challenging stories for Peru and Ecuador, then I only have a handful of countries to write up before tackling the Canada interviews. Please pray for me as I need to persevere on the writing. I find it mentally exhausting each day to try and come up with the best words, the ideal sentences, the best phrasing, to convey what I’m trying to get across.

And a deep underlying fear permeates all I do: am I getting across through these stories the goal we set out? Am I showing a world transformed and, in doing so, providing hope to people who think that change is a hopeless goal? Am I showing the movement of compassion and justice sweeping North American’s hearts as they work to transform people and communities around the world? It’s a fear I swallow in the back of my throat with each final period placed, with each proofread completed. It’s a fear I constantly give back to God. It’s the same fear each of us face as we go about our lives, trying to live this Christian life the best we can isn’t it? I urge you too, as you face your fears this day and this week and this month, to take comfort in Matthew 11:28: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

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I think I know how Terry felt.

He woke up every day and ran a marathon. I bet he was tired. I bet some days he woke up and just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. I bet sometimes he’d rather go to McDonalds, have a big breakfast, catch a movie and maybe read a good book. I bet he was sore and worn out and tired of the rain and the beating sun.

But Terry Fox just kept running.

I realize it’s no real comparison. But I literally feel like I’m running a marathon every day. Each story feels about 42.2 kilometres long and I’m in no shape to run that far every day.

The process is painful. It starts with going through all the notes, remembering details, recalling everything of significance. Then I dump everything that seems relevant onto my blank text document, like setting up a track. I put all the elements in there, but disjointed.

Then I loop around and around and around and around the track, trying to find a sense of the story somewhere in the journey. What is the most important element of this person’s tale? What makes their story unique? What will best represent who they are to the world? What will pull at people’s hearts? I run around, lugging these thoughts like heavy weights on my ankles.

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We have a feature story on Sri Lanka published in the January 26th edition of the Chilliwack Progress.
Click on the image below to download a pdf of the article (1.7MB).

Where to begin? It’s been too long since we’ve had internet to catch our readers up on everything! Our internet in Uganda did not work so well, though we had it for one evening at the start of our time and one evening while staying with a friend in Jinja. Other than that our bad luck with internet connections continued. Then last night we had an internet stick that was supposed to work. It took until this evening to figure out the chip was just in backwards! So, Praise the Lord, we now have internet.

You might be wondering where we are. Right now I am sitting in our hotel room in Siaya, Kenya! This is such a beautiful country and Justin and I are so excited to be here. We’re just in our hotel for an hour before heading out again so for now I’ll just say that Uganda was interesting and we are very happy to be in Kenya now. I will update again later when I have a little more time.