Athletes in Action @ Baylor!

The past four days I have been extremley blessed to photograph 70+ Baylor athletes as they participate in the 'Ultimate Training Camp.' Athletes in Action strives to see Christ followers on every team, every sport, every nation. As a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ, AIA exists to bring Jesus Christ and His message of victory into the hearts, homes, and communities of millions around the world. AIA puts on this camp called The Ultimate Training Camp which is a high intensity sports camp for college & pro athletes. They tackle the issue of how to blend faith and sport together on the field of competition. It has truley been an amazing experience to see college athletes, from Baylor! Sic 'em! live their lives out for Jesus Christ! Little did I know how much I would enjoy this experience. The staff of AIA was amazing to work with and get to know! I wouldn't change anything for the 29 hours I got to work with them. If I ever get a chance to work with them again at any of their camps, I'll try my best to make it. I'm excited to see the impact that the atletes who attended this camp make on Baylor's campus through sports. God moves in amazing ways!

Check out this video of a previous trianing camp, here! And check out Baylor's UTC's pictures that I took, here!

Until next time.

Kamp with a K

Kanakuk Kamps has probably had the most influence in my life. I started going to K1 (ages 7 - 13) for a month in the summer when I was only 7-years-old. Ever since then I have continued to go and I have continued to fall more in love with this ministry. Now if you don't know what Kanakuk is, watch this...

It has shaped and molded me into the man I am today. For the past 12 summers, I have been a camper at Kanakuk but this summer will be my first year working as staff. My job this summer is on the main video team for all of Kanakuk. I will be going around to all the kamps making videos like you see above. I am about half way done before I head down to Baylor and I've learned so much in the field of video and editing software. I know this is a short post but if you have any questions about Kanakuk, don't hesititate to ask I would be more than glad to answer any of them. 

Until next time. 

Passion 2013

This last week has been insane! I'll give you a little run through...
Got into Atlanta around 7:00 AM after taking the Red eye from San Diego. My friend Alex picked me up and took me to The Varsity which is a fast food ATL-must. Great experience but not so healthy food ;)

MARTA was a huge part of my time in ATL. MARTA is a train system that goes throughout Atlanta. The house that I stayed at was actually quite a ways from where the Georgia Dome was so we drove about 25 minutes to take MARTA right to the Dome.

The group that I stayed with was amazing and I wouldn't change it for the world! I got to stay with 28 other guys most of whom I didn't know which made it that much better. It was a great time getting to know them and to make new friends. 

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The main sessions were the best. I learned tons from the speakers who consisted of John Pipper, Francis Chan, Judah Smith, Beth Moore, and Louie Giglio and all of them did a great job! Then there was the worship. I have never felt anything like it. Something about singing with 60,000 other people at the same time just gets to you. Let's just say I definetely felt God's presence this last week. 

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Now we need to get down to business. We need to END IT. And when I say end it, I mean end slavery. There are more slaves TODAY then there have ever been. At Passion we raised $3 million to fund 19 different organizations that deal with this. Visting End It 's site, click here will give you more information about the movement and you need to pledge to end slavery. At Passion we made a little commitment to shed a light on slavery and here is a picture of about 60,000 people holding candles around a light that went 3 miles in the sky to "shed a light on slavery." You can check out this video from CNN.

On another note, Happy New Year and if you would like you should check out my brothers top 25 records of the year. I respect very much his style in music. You can find that blog here at www.pdodd.com.

X-Mas Break

After being away at Link Year for three months it was nice to sleep in my own bed. Right when I arrived in San Diego, my dad, sister, brother and mom were wating to pick me up and took be straight to my favorite taco shop Robertos. It had been to long since I had divulged into a delicious California Burrito but man, did I savor that taste. 

The next day, the 23rd, was my brother Jordans birthday and also the last day I'd have with my eldest brother Patrick before he and his wife took off for Dallas for Christmas. It was a good day hanging out with them and having our own little sibling Christmas before they left. Christmas Eve it is has been a tradtion of my extended family on my moms side to get together which is always a good time with good food. It is also a tradtion to take a walk on the beach on Christmas evening. Now believe be when I tell you that this sunset was one of the best sunsets I have ever seen and I've seen so beautiful ones. Here's some proof...

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As I am planning on attending Balor Unisversity next fall it was exciting to hear that they were going to be playing in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 27th against UCLA. Because I was going to be in San Diego, I wanted to go. Fortunetly, my family got tickets through my brother and we all got to go! Baylor beat down on UCLA 49-26. It was a fun game to be at, especially being a Baylor fan. On the 26th, the day before the game we had the privlage of eating at the Baylor UCLA Bridgepoint Education Luncheon. This was a neat experience but my one regret was not getting a picture with all of the Baylor cheerleaders. Don't judge. 

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And on the 29th I was able to support my good friend at his mother's funeral. Although it is a sad time and I didn't know his mom I was super encouraged by what was shared and from what I heard, Christ is living in this woman!

I am currently in the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport waiting for a friend to pick me up to go to snatch some lunch and then off to Passion 2013. I am so excited for this conference and meeting new people. I'm sure I'll have plenty to say after. Stay tuned. 

Until next time.

Christian Music Festival

I am currently 30,000 feet above the ground on a flight to Orlando, Florida. Two events are taking place this weekend on September 7th and 8th. There is Disney's Night of Joy and Universal's Rock the Universe. Both of these are Christian music festivals. I am very blessed to attend this event with some awesome friends. Some of the artists that will be there are: NEEDTOBREATE, MercyMe, Third Day, Switchfoot, Newsboys, Skillet, Lecrae, Third Day and the list goes on and on!
You could say that I am really excited for this trip and that would be an understatement. This is Lecrae's first concert after his new album dropped a few days ago. Gravity comes out on September 4th.

Updates to come.