Traveling from Africa and New York

On our way back from Africa, we ran into a couple of delays and so Air Morocco gave us a free day in New York.  We decided to take advantage of it as best we could.  Here are some fun pics from our New York adventure.

I love the geometric photography in New York.

Rockefellar Square.

Times Square

My favorite picture from New York.

Africa Team picture in Central Park.

The Plaza Hotel

Another awesome building

Ouagadougou Day 3-7 - Kids Camp

Kid's Camp was unbelievable.  The kids were awesome and I was so blessed to be a part of the camp.  As part of the camp, 250 children were fed with meat and rice for 5 days which for many of the kids, was a total blessing.  The women from the church woke early every morning to boil water for the children to bathe.  They each received a cup full of water to bathe.  The kids were more joyful than most people I have met in life and they went after each and every game like it was the World Cup.

We played games, sang songs in English, Moore, and French, taught bible stories, and hung out with the kids.  We tried our best to show the kids the love of Jesus.  I think in the end, they were the ones that showed us the joy of the Lord.  To show pictures and write about it would take too long so here is a video that I think will help show you what it was all about.

Rasmussen Family Beach Weekend

Kel and I got a chance to get away for the weekend and hang out at the Ocean Lodge in Canon Beach.  These are some really cool pics from the coast...

Sunset from our room.

Self-portrait at Haystack Rock.  The place where I proposed to Kel 7 years ago.

Some tide pool pics.

A beautiful photographer

My favorite picture.

Starfish in the tide pool.

Another fun self-portrait.

Photographing the photographer.

What do computer nerds do on vacation?

The beautiful view from our room.

Hanging With the Darianos and Sumetzes

A while ago, we had a game night with our friends Joe and Michele Dariano and Natalie and Seth Sumetz.  I wanted to try out the timer on my camera so we took some fun pics.  And here they are...

Rasmussen Family Trip to the Zoo

Since I didn't get a chance to see lots of animals in Africa, Kelly was nice enough to go with me to the Portland Zoo.  Here are some fun photos and video from that day...

Ouagadougou Day 2 - Hanging Out

We had a day to hang out and get comfortable.  Our tasks on this day involved waking up in the morning and having a team devotional, wandering around the city getting supplies, and had dinner at Pastor Delma's house.  The devotional was awesome.  Getting to grow spiritually with the team was a really cool thing that I did not necessarily expect.  

This was our first day experiencing life in the city of Ouagadougou.  We were exposed to crossing the street there, which is kind of like the game "Frogger" and what Burkina Faso rain was like.  Here are a couple videos to help you see what it was like:

We were also able to go to the local sorghum storehouse and purchase 40 bags of sorghum for a local village called Zorga.  That amount of food will feed forty families of 4 for a month.  Pretty amazing what we take for granted here in the US.  Here are some pictures from that.

These guys could carry unbelievable weight on their head.

Here's a good team picture.

Later that night, the Pastor we were working with and his family had us all over for an amazing dinner.  Here are some pictures from that evening...

Ouagadougou Day 1 - Church

After about 4 hours of sleep, we hopped in our team bus that the church supplied for us and we headed to the church for Sunday morning service.  We were greeted with open arms and beautiful worship music from the congregation.  James gave a great teaching on the life of Joseph and then after the service, we were able to hang out with the kids and teach them some classic games like red light - green light and hot potato.  The kids were awesome and immediately opened up to us.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the morning...

I sat down on a bench and started taking pictures of them and they weren't so sure about me to begin with.

But the second I started playing with them, they showed me huge smiles and more joy than I have seen in a long time.  This was one of the most amazing things.  These kids are struggling with some crazy issues: disease, hunger, thirst, and yet their joy in the Lord is huge.  I could definitely learn from them.

This little girl was one of my favorite people to photograph.  She was always soooo cute.

The little girls took to the women in our group so quickly.  It was fun to see the kids get comfortable with us almost immediately.

This was one of the families that we met.  It was great to see that there is little difference between families here and families there.  While there may be a difference in material wealth, the need to follow Jesus is definitely the same.

Later that night, after getting some rest back at the house, we went to a worship service back at the church.

By the evening, the kids were our new best friends.

The boy in the middle is deaf and he has no way of communicating as no one has taught him sign language or how to write.  He hangs out with one of the pastors at the church and is one of the sweetest kids I have ever met.