Photo Journals
The World Through Image & Text
Through numerous opportunities for international service and exploration, members of the Gordon community are constantly dispersed throughout the global landscape. The following photo journals offer individual reflections on a cross section of these programs and opportunities from students, faculty and staff.
Photo Journal #16
Guatemala: International Coffee Seminar | Claire Kinnen
As we discussed coffee with the café owner, Fernando, I was given the task of translating the first portion of the evening discussion. It was my first official translating job, and more than a little above my level. "How do you say fair trade in Spanish?" "What's the word for organic again?"
Although a bit chaotic, the discussion was thought-provoking. I noticed one of the farmers, Juan, tense up when we asked about fair trade. "What is fair?" he responded immediately. He prompted us to continuously question what is truly just throughout the remainder of our trip. Someone in our group asked what we should pay attention to when we went to visit the coffee farms. He looked at me to have me translate, and told us to note the conditions of the workers. His face was so sad and honest in that moment that I remember feeling relieved that I was translating because I couldn't formulate a response. I wanted to assure him that we would and that it would make a difference but I couldn't.
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Photo Journal #15
Uganda: Fall 2007 | Kimberly Kurczy
I have always had a preoccupation with the African continent. Since college, my passion for theatre and social change collaborated, leading me into the world of politically imbued theatre. I want to participate in theatre used towards reconciliation. I love when the potential of theatre's power is tapped, such as how it was used in South Africa to fight apartheid and in Rwanda post-genocide.
I spent four months, the fall of my senior year at Gordon, studying at Uganda Christian University in Mukono, Uganda. At points I wanted to rub my skin off. It was a difficult semester. I also wanted to stay though--I want to be a person who stays.
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Photo Journal #14
Gordon: A Student's Life | Abigail Geer
Being in nature, or watching it out the window for a moment as I work, has consistently been something that draws me back into a larger reality than I am usually aware of. Watching a duck swim on the pond, move slowly and focus on gathering food reminds me that God is sustaining not just my sometimes frenzied, often demanding life, but the simple lives of everything I see around me. The woods and the water on campus are signals to me to remember my Creator, and that papers are not what sustain or end the world.
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Photo Journal #13
Greece: Summer 2007 | Mike Tishel
Home to hundreds of Eastern Orthodox monks, the rugged terrain of Mt. Athos, a small peninsula in Northern Greece, has acted as a spiritual training ground and workshop for the spiritual athletes of the Christian faith since as early as the tenth century. My father, a friend and I decided to make the journey. I did not know what I was seeking. Answers of some sort were certainly desirable, but my young, naïve mind was attracted to the romantic serenity and mysticism that, I soon discovered, did not capture the essence of the Mountain.
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Photo Journal #012
South Africa: Summer 2007 | Meredith Whitnah
I think I started to learn then what South Africa gave me most profoundly. Life is fragile. We are insignificant specks of dust. It is a tenuous, difficult, painful thing to live. And yet, it is beautiful, we do matter, and, perhaps most importantly, it is within that paradox of meaninglessness yet meaning that we discover grace.
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Photo Journal #011
China: Fall 2005 | Sam Tsoi
As I walked through these diverse places and meet different people, I was challenged to ask questions about the consequences of development, the tension of racing toward the future and sustaining continuity with the ancient, and the challenges and responsibilities of a global citizen.
Photo Journal #010
Mexico: Spring 2007 | Kristin Schwabauer
In "Beyond Short-Term Missions: Making the Transition" (STILLPOINT, Fall 2006), Kristin Schwabauer '04 wrote of the difficulties that students often experience upon reentry from overseas missions and service projects. Here Kristin tells the story of her third trip to La Casa de la Esperanza in Tijuana, Mexico, this time as a team leader.
Photo Journal #009
India: Summer 2006 | Kandyce Kingsley
As an international affairs major at Gordon, I was required to leave the country for a minimum of 6 weeks. As a fine arts minor, I wanted to go somewhere that would inspire me to create and see beauty. I certainly found the right place.
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Photo Journal #008
CMCC Lynn Mural Project | Painting I
"In being able to give my art to others, art has taken on a whole new depth of beauty and meaning. As the mural came together into a beautiful whole, all of the prayers over the entire semester seemed to have culminated into a visual prayer--a prayer of peace, justice and equality over Lynn."
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Photo Journal #007
A Campus Photographer's Photojournal | Daniel Nystedt
I am a fourth-generation Gordon graduate. I can recall thumbing through my parents' and grandparents' old Gordon yearbooks before I could even read, trying to decipher the stories that the photos had to tell. Now I have been given the opportunity to photograph the people and places of Gordon College. It is my hope that my photos speak to whoever views them, just as the photos in my parents' and grandparents' yearbooks once spoke to me.
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Photo Journal #006
La Vida: August 2006 | Caitlin Snyder
I spent the majority of the La Vida trip kayaking on two separate lakes, working my arms and burning my skin, but I fell in love with every second of it…give or take a couple minutes.
Photo Journal #005
Painting I Self-Portrait Assignment: Fall 2006
The Introduction to Painting Class was assigned to paint self portraits which took into account the expressive potential of pose and gesture, as well as the symbolism inherent in props and setting. The 30" x 40" portraits were displayed in the mezzanine of the Jenks Library.
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Photo Journal #004
China 2006 | Katie Amico
When I set foot on Gordon College's campus my freshman year, I had no idea what lay ahead of me. Very soon in the semester, the opportunity to co-lead a trip to China for five weeks during the summer was presented to me. Our team went to China in order to teach English to sophomores at a university in Xi'an and to work in an orphanage. The trip had its unique set of difficulties, but I walked away having experienced a greater part of God's creation and am now beginning to understand what it really means to love my neighbor.
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Photo Journal #003
Ethiopia 2006 | Sarah Childs
So many words come to mind…words such as color, beauty, radiance, love, peace…contrasted by pain, suffering, persecution, and need - but most importantly, God's faithfulness.
Photo Journal #002
Jerusalem University College, Israel: Summer 2006 | Peter Anderson
I traveled with a group of about twenty five students from Gordon to take a three week class at Jerusalem University College (JUC) on the history and geography of the land of Israel.
Photo Journal #001
South Africa Seminar Pilot: Summer 2006 | Timothy Lewis
Much of my interest in the South Africa Seminar was the rumor of its story: a mosaic of cultures, languages and religions coexisting in the shadow of a history that divided and destroyed human lives. Having returned from six weeks in South Africa, I can now say there is no rumor, rather a reality.
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