Around the World: Last full week in Porto Rafti: Spotlight, April Joy

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Last full week in Porto Rafti: Spotlight, April Joy

[The view at sunrise a short walk from the Bethany House; Photo: John Paul]

Our time in Porto Rafti has been incredible. Not only have we been getting some tremendously profound and valuable lessons from the Bible, we have been surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation as well. It is starting to get a bit colder now, but most of the days remain beautifully clear. We have also had some amazing sunsets and sunrises although we haven’t been getting out as much to capture them with our cameras.

One of the things that I wanted to do with this blog is go through and introduce everyone on the team. Thus giving you, the readers, a little bit of background information on a different person each week with a picture and a few of the pictures they have taken as well. They will appear in no particular order, just what happens to fit in their schedule.

[April Joy; Photos courtesy of April Joy]

The first person that I want to spotlight is April Joy. April and I actually have an interesting connection. She is from the United States, Anchorage, Alaska to be specific. When I went to Westmont, there was a guy named Josh that was also from Anchorage. It turns out that April was pretty good friends with Josh’s younger brother.

Raised in a Christian home, April spent time in and out of Christian schools. Her first interaction with YWAM was from a neighbor, friends with her mother, whom had done the School of Photography in Kona. April has a passion for photography and was indecisive at the time when university came around, so she applied to the U of N in Kona to do a DTS. It was kind of a last minute decision, but one that changed her life. She arrived in Hawaii in July of 2006 carried out the lecture phase and then went to Japan for outreach.

From the first weeks that she was in Kona, she had received encouragement from both her school leader and Paul Childers to come and staff the PhotogenX DTS and continue on the Round the World Track as a student. Suzi Childers had being doing some photography workshops, during that time as well, so April was able to get to know our school leaders pretty well. She came back in April of 07 for staff training and eventually a leadership position with DTS. April recalls those times of being a student and staff in Kona as times of extreme development in her character as well as her relationship with God. He took her on outreach to Australia and India recently for the outreach portion of the DTS and ultimately to remain on the Round the World Track.

God has done a lot with April during the course of her time in YWAM and she looks forward to what he has for her in the coming year and a half on the track. On her past outreaches and missions, she has found value in discovering other people and cultures. It has led her to a better understanding of her world and who God is. Sometimes it is easy to find yourself in a metaphorical bubble made up of what is right in front of your face, especially the comforts of home. When confronting the world, she couldn’t help but see who God was and who she was on a much deeper level.

She expects that God will continue to build and develop her character through this track and reveal more and more of himself. She anticipates that he will do this by way of the intense Biblical studies as well as the interaction with various cultures around the globe. As she discovers more about Him and His creation, we can all be sure that she won’t be disappointed.

When asked if she had any advice for the fellow trackers and readers she replied, “If God isn’t the center of your life, everything will suffer.” I think that we can all learn something from the simple, yet profound wisdom.