Ups and Downs

Hello again. 

I've probably written a total of three blog posts and then decided not to post them. It's been a roller coaster of a few months. Let me catch you up. 

First, you may have noticed that my URL has changed to cameronasa.co instead of cameronontheroad.com. This is due to the fact that I am no longer "on the road!" I had been praying for a while about having a consistent income. I had done full-time freelance for over a year and it was feast or famine. God answered that prayer in providing a job as Video Producer for an organization in Chattanooga, TN called Precept Ministries International. This required me to stop traveling and stay planted in one spot. This was a huge change and one that definitely had me a bit nervous. God is good though. 

I had planned one last crazy road trip with my cousin Zsanae to get me to Chattanooga. That road trip ended up being the trip from Hell. Thorondor died, I got screwed out of $800 by a company called Car-X that said they could fix it and then just damaged my engine in the process. Then I got screwed out of another $700 by U-Haul trying to tow my van to Chattanooga and them renting me the wrong equipment... and then not wanting to refund me anything. That's a much longer story, but I'll leave it at that. 

I then mad the move to Chattanooga without a place to live (as I had planned to live in Thorondor) and without a vehicle (as I had planned to drive Thorondor). Thankfully, the Lucarellis were my saving grace. God blessed me with the GREATEST family to welcome me into their home for over a month! Then Zsanae drove my car up to me all the way from Texas!!! What a huge blessing.

Bella, Sophia and Joey Lucarelli. The sweetest kiddos ever. 

After all of this happened, I was on a work trip and all of the ministry's video equipment as well as my personal equipment got stolen out of our rental car. This was a personal setback of around $9K. At this point, I was pretty depressed. I was SO confused as to why I could not catch a break. It was just misfortune after misfortune, a glimpse of hope, and then more misfortune. After over a month of waiting around for insurance companies and investigation of the theft, the organization I work for replaced all of their equipment, AND COVERED MY GEAR REPLACEMENT!!!! Y'all!!!!! This was HUGE!!!!!!! This would have been SUCH an enormous setback for me had I needed to replace it all myself. I am SO thankful for this. I just about passed out when they told me my gear would be covered. 

This is the ministry's new equipment, which is a HUGE upgrade from what was stolen. 

The story of the theft is actually completely insane and like something out of a movie, but that may need to be saved for another time. 

So after all of this misfortune, it seems that the Lord has slowly redeemed almost every bit of it. I've also had an absolutely incredible spiritual community through this whole ordeal in the church I've been attending, Sojourn Community Church. 

Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for me. It's been one of the craziest seasons of my life, but things are looking up. I now have a vehicle, a house and a roommate who I have an awesome brotherhood with. This is a season of thanksgiving for deliverance.

Time Keeps Moving

I've tried to spend some time reflecting on the past year. As this journey in Thorondor has progressed, I find it harder and harder to stop, breath and just be still. Time keeps moving and so do I. I know there is SO much God has taught me on this trip but I also feel that there  is a lot He still wants to teach me if I'd just sit still for a second. 

Since my last post, a LOT has happened. A whole lot. Multiple trips, lots of BMX, romance, bikes breaking, difficult choices being made, time spent with family and friends, and even interviewing for a full-time job!

While I do wish to go into a bit better detail about some of that, I'll begin by catching up with some photos from some amazing times with my friends on our trip to New York City!

Caleb and I passed through DC at 2am and decided to tour the whole city via BMX bike and skateboard. We had the entire city to ourselves. It was an unforgettable experience. 

We got into NYC the next day to meet up with Jeremy and his awesome friends. We parked the van in East Harlem and headed straight to Time Square. Such a great time with some great friends!

This is Caleb. While I was in Nashville, I invited him take the trip to NYC with me and he was 100% down. He is one of my favorite dudes and SUCH a treat to travel with. 

The Crew. Jeremy Klefeker. Me. Caleb Dirks... And Thorondor... obviously. 

Caught in the act of falling in love with North Carolina. 

Jeremy and Caleb enjoying the beautiful waterfalls of Pisgah National Forest. 

I once met Jeremy at a house party before I left on my trip. We talked about surfing and adventure and were immediate friends. On one of my trips back to Texas, he asked if I wanted to grab some coffee. On that coffee-bro-date, I asked if he'd ever want to join me in Thorondor for a leg of the trip. After talking details, we decided that he could fly into NYC, visit his friends, and I could pick him up there and drive him back to Texas. And that's exactly what we did!

Jeremy and Caleb were the absolute greatest travel companions!

On our way back to Nashville, we stopped here. The Minister's Treehouse. The builder says that God told him to build a treehouse and if he did, he'd never run out of wood. The minister has been building this thing for years, and has yet to run out of wood. Such an incredible place. 

There are SO many stories to share from this trip and SO many more photos, but I'd be sitting at this computer all day if I decided to try and share them all. My next post will be a little summary of the New Mexico trip I did with my fiends Charles and Madeline Cundall. 

Haiti: Bits and Pieces

I was seated in the dining area of Pastor Maula's school/orphanage/church/home. Though I was rarely the first awake, I was often the first one at the breakfast table, awaiting the others as they completed their morning routines. 

I was first joined by Jonny, a Scottish gentleman who has been traveling around Haiti for a month seeking people and ministries to send support to from Scotland. He has a huge heart for Haiti but doesn't feel comfortable trusting his money with larger organizations that may not use it to actually help the people. His goal is to begin a much more "underground" way of supporting and helping, where 100% of the funds given go straight to the people of Haiti. 

Jonny. Scottish. Bird-Watcher and Wilderness-Guide. Lover of Haiti.

After a few minutes of discussing topics much too deep for me at 7AM, and tossing Creole phrases back and forth as a way of practicing, my friend Stefanie arrived at the table, followed shortly by Pastor Maula. He and Stefanie met three years prior when she spent 3 months in Haiti during her YWAM program. 

"We have your favorite drink again!" Pastor Maula says to me, referring to the fresh passion fruit juice I had fallen in love with the night before. The table is quiet for a moment and then he casually adds, "Cam, would you preach for church tonight?" I chuckled a bit before answering, "Sure!". Though I am not comfortable with things like that, my answer on mission trips is always YES. I figure if God has me there, and is providing an opportunity, it's probably in His will that I join in. 

I spent the rest of the day as we did many of our days in Haiti, with the addition of preparing a sermon. Around two hundred children attend Pastor Maula's school and feeding program, filling every inch of the property and 3 story building. He is running out of both space and funding to house and feed them, but he continues to do so and God continues to miraculously provide. 

Just after lunch, the number of children dwindles down to the 35 that live there full time as orphans. It feels strange to use the term orphans, because they are so loved there and brought up with the truth and grace of scripture. But the reality is that if they were not in Maula's care, they would be on the streets, sold into slavery, living lives of crime or something else terrible.  It was such a treat to get to just spend time with the kids every day. Stefanie and I would sit with them, practice our Creole as they practiced their English, sing and play songs together, have our hair braided, play games and just love one another. Those were some of the sweetest moments of my life. 

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That evening, Stefanie and I were asked to lead the children in Feliz Navidad, which is a song they already knew and loved. After a time of singing together we moved into the main room where Pastor Maula's church met, and I delivered the message. It was one on waiting for direction from God and what to do in the meantime. It was a great message for me to prepare and preach, as I'm currently in that season. 

I want to extend a huge thanks to those who prayed for me on this trip. Please continue to pray for Stefanie as she is battling a gnarly virus she contracted while on the trip. 

Texas, My Texas

Since my last update, I've driven from Florida up to Chattanooga, where I visited some wonderful friends and saw some beautiful scenery. I drove from there to Nashville where I visited more wonderful friends, drank excellent coffee, rode some skateparks and trails and met some great new people. I flew from Nashville to Amarillo for a quick video shoot, flew back to Nashville and then to Asheville, North Carolina where I had the privilege of doing some work for Ride Magazine for the Red Bull Dreamline event. Being in North Carolina to watch the leaves turn was absolutely incredible. 

Here is one of the videos I made to give a refreshing look into the first day of practice. 

I flew straight from Dreamline to Texas, where I had planned to go to Texas Toast and then on to a Hoffman Bikes trip. Texas Toast was a blast, but the Hoffman trip ended up falling through due to one of the riders getting injured during Toast weekend down in Austin. 

Although the trip was cancelled, I did have the unbelievable privilege of going up to Oklahoma with Morgan to meet one of my heroes and one of the father's of BMX, Mat Hoffman. We also went sky diving!!! It was an unforgettable experience. 

So other than that, I've just been hanging out in the DFW area, seeing friends and doing a bit of freelance here and there. I am filming a wedding on November 9th and then flying back to Nashville on the 10th. My plans after that are kind of up in the air! I'll post more about a possible mission trip coming up soon and some other info in the next couple of days. Stay tuned if you care!

Continue to pray for direction and for me to chase after Christ. 

Filming Georgia... in Florida

If you've been keeping up with my Twitter or Instagram, you may be thinking to yourself, "Self, what is all this talk about #GeorgiaTheShort, and all of these beautiful people and ghetto camera contraptions?" Well I'd like to clear up any confusion. 

A few months ago while I was in Texas for work, I was hanging out with my friend Jordan Busekrus, and I mentioned wanting to shoot a short film at some point in my life, but that I just couldn't find anyone who'd actually work on one with me. He immediately expressed the same feeling! He said that he'd worked on scripts, even done a semester at an acting school, had a passion for it, and wanted to work on a short film as well! 

We then decided that at some point on my travels, I'd need to visit him so that we could shoot a short together. Plans came together and the dates and place were set. Orlando, Florida at the end of September. He and his band, Anchourage, just made the move to Florida to get a house together and pursue music. It has been SUCH a treat getting to know his band mates and their new friends here in the Winter Garden area. It has been one of the sweetest blessing of my entire journey, being around such solid believers full of such love and joy. 

With all of that said, we've spent the last week shooting a short film titled "Georgia" and it's been an incredible experience. This is my first short I've ever filmed and I'm so excited. We've had SO much help from friends here, locals, local businesses and Jordan and Seth have been SLAVING away as they are both working full-time in addition to shooting this short film this week. Insane schedules and zero budget. I'm really anxious to see how it turns out and excited on what we've shot so far. Today is the last day of shooting and then it's on to the crazy post-work. 

Shooting at Axum Coffee. 

Jordan, Chandler and myself reviewing what appears to be a good take. 

Chandler Clark plays Georgia. 

Seth Kaye looks like a model, but he is also scoring and writing original music for Georgia, among many other things. 

The leading "blonde beauts."

SLC to Cheyenne to Colorado

On the move. I'm always on the move. However, this time it's different. I'm on my way back to the Lone Star State. Texas has been my home for my entire life, with the exception of this past 10 months. The only place I have left on my list of places to visit is Tennessee, and that is kind of scary since I have no idea what I'm doing after that!

I flew back from India to Salt Lake City, where I spent some much needed time with some great friends, including Daniel Miller. We had some MUCH needed fellowship and great conversation. I'm so thankful for him and for finally getting to spend some real time together. 

I left SLC after a few days and headed to Cheyenne, Wyoming to meet up with an old family friend, Zachary Edwards. He and his family moved to Cheyenne a few years ago to plant a church. I had the pleasure of staying at their lovely home, attempting to recover from jet lag, and shoot a video to help communicate the mission of their church on their website. It was such a blessing to meet all the folks in Cheyenne and see what God has been up to there. 

Cheyenne, Wyoming

The Edwards Family. Long time friends of the Muilenburgs. 

While in Cheyenne, God even provided some freelance work for me!!! This was HUGE!!! I have had an insane dry spell of freelance video work. I had consistent work coming in for almost my entire trip, and then the past few months, nothing. So to see God provide something out of nowhere once I arrived in Cheyenne was SO incredible. 

Freezeframe from the freelance gig I shot in Cheyenne. 

After a few days in Cheyenne, I headed down through Colorado, where I stopped briefly in Fort Collins and Denver to see some sights and visit some friends, and then landing in Colorado Springs to spend a week or so with my friends Tim and Charity Jones. What a treat that has been!!! I only have a couple of days left here and it pains me to leave here. Such great community, scenery, coffee, friends and adventure here. Here are some photos of a camping trip Tim concocted. 

Tim had the idea to make stand up paddle boards and try them out on the reservoir near Gunnison, CO. 

Loading up Tim's Bronco for the 4 hour drive through beautiful Colorado. 

Luke Paris. Dutch Bros enthusiast and adventurer. 

After 15 minutes on the water, one of the paddle boards broke in half. It was hilarious. 

After paddle boarding and tubing the reservoir, we met up with another friend and hiked down for some camping. 

Susan, Tim and Luke. 

Luke ending the evening with some fishin'!

It has been SUCH a huge treat hanging with some amazing people here in Colorado Springs and I cannot wait to come back. My plan now is to head to Texas here in a few days and spend the month of August all over the Lone Star State! 

One Month in India

I'm finally back in the U.S. and looking back on my travel journal and photos from the last month. This was the longest I've ever been out of the country and I only new one person on the trip before heading out. 

The original plan was to be in Northern India for 10 days. When I arrived, the leader of the organization I was with asked if I'd like to stay for the rest of the month long trip. I was thrilled with the offer, had my flight back changed and it was set. 

We visited orphanages, bridging schools, shelters for the aged, leper colonies and more. We met some incredible people, shared the gospel with hundreds of kids and I even got to preach for the first time in front of a congregation, in India, with a translator. 

I've decided that there are too many stories to tell from a month in India, so I will post a lot of photos here with brief summaries, and then begin posting a few individual photos with in depth stories in the coming days. 

Click images to enlarge.

Nepal

The provision of this motorcycle in this young pastor's life is going to completely change the reach of his ministry in a huge way. So honored to have been there when he received it. 

Trevor and Ed encouraging a young pastor who has faced SO much opposition and has remained steadfast in his faith.

Playing the "No-Look Drawing Game." Look at the person you're drawing, but you can't look at the paper. 

Mirik, India.

Mirik. A lake town in the lower Himalayas. 

Taj Mahal with all the girls. 

13th Century Islamic architecture. And birds from this century. 

A young doctor helping patients on the medical boat we took to remote villages. 

The Far Corners Medical Boat which departs from the hospital and heads to remote villages weekly. 

Corrie helping the Krupa women with some arts and crafts. 

Krupa women helping prepare the meal for Veda School and the kiddos from the slums. 

A wonderful pastor of an incredible leper colony. 

The last of the team on our last day in India. 

I will be posting more in-depth stories from some of these photos and people in the near future. 

Overall, God did some serious work, broke down some huge barriers, used me in ways I still cannot believe and I can't freaking wait to see what He has next for me. 

India Update

As you may already know, I'm currently on a trip in India serving with some amazing people. I came on only knowing one person and planned on a 10 day trip. It's been so awesome getting to know everyone and make so many new friends.

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In addition to putting on a conference in northern India and doing a children's event, I've been asked to stay for an extra 16 days! I've agreed and so now the plan is to be back in the states on July 16th! 

I will share many more details of the trip and the amazing work the Father is up to once I get back, but be assured that great things are happening here. 

We had an incredible time at the conference, and we have MUCH more work to do. Today we drove through the mountains on our way up north through some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Tomorrow is a day of rest and rafting and then on to the children's event! 

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PAID IN FULL!!!

Jehovah Jireh. Our Provider. 

It is just one day before my mission trip overseas, and just before making the last payment for my trip, I was informed by the organization I'm going with that my trip is fully paid for!!! Thank you SO much to my friends and family who have helped me make it on this trip. God is so good and I can't wait to see what He has in store this next few weeks. 

I will update this blog when possible, but things may be left pretty vague as I'm not sure what information I'm able to give out as of right now. 

Once again, thank you SO much for your prayers and financial help with this trip. I am so excited and humbled for so many reasons. 

Preparations

I'm currently at my friends Josh and Rachel Jost's house doing the final prep for my trip. Doing laundry, charging batteries and waiting for a last minute package to arrive with some gear for the trip. I'm so grateful for my friends here in Salt Lake City who have made my time here so wonderful and made me feel so welcome. 

Thorondor Update

In addition to all of this goodness, I have good news about Thorondor. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to film a video for a church plant here in Salt Lake City. I did it as a ministry opportunity and just to bless them and help communicate what God is doing in their community. As a thanks, they are having my van's fuel issue diagnosed for me! I'm going to leave it with someone they know while I'm overseas and he's going to see what's up with it. (In case you didn't know, Thorondor died on the highway in the middle of Idaho and after 30 minutes of being dead, miraculously came back to life again... it did the same thing once in LA). 

 

Hiking with Westie

While I've been here in Portland, I've gone out on a few hikes with my buddy Westie. Here are some photos of those outings. One was to the coast to check out some tide pools and the other to a waterfall in the gorge. 

We hiked down to the beach just north of Newport and had a little beach barbie. 

Hiking below Devil's Punch Bowl. 

This didn't even seem real. Such a pretty little fall onto the beach. 

This vulture was stoked on this dead seal. 

A few days later, we hiked through Oneonta Gorge to the falls.

This was definitely one of, if not the raddest hike I've ever been on. 

One of my goals for my trip to portland was to hike to a waterfall and go swimming at the bottom. This was INSANELY cold. Like almost unbearably cold, but it was SUCH a blast and Westie got in as well. Such a good time!

I posted a few iPhone photos yesterday of some climbing adventures, but I took the real camera down with me afterwards and snapped a couple of photos when I wasn't climbing. 

Matt and Mike doing their thing. Matt up on the wall. 

Dan Bookless loves to climb. 


Portland is Beautiful

After driving up the beautiful west coast, I made my way inland to Portland, Oregon, where I have some amazing friends. You may remember, if you've been following my blog since the beginning, a couple of my friends name Westie and Amanda Magnuson from Reno. Well, they recently moved to Portland while I was traveling around California! 

I am so unbelievably excited to be hanging with them. In addition to those Magnusons, their grandparents, Westie's brother and his wife, and some of my dear friends Dan and Leah Bookless all live here as well!!! This has made for SUCH a rich visit and I'm only halfway into my stay here. 

Ever since my stays in Houston, Texas, where I made the video posted below for InSPIRE Rock Gym, I've had a growing desire to learn to climb. Well unbeknownst to me, my friend Dan has been getting pretty seriously into climbing the past few months and was excited to take me out and teach me! This has been one of the highlights of my trip! I went from never climbing outside in my life, to lead climbing, cleaning a route and even repelled back down barefooted haha. I cannot thank Dan enough for his patience, passion and fun-loving spirit for making my first outdoor climbing experiences the best they possibly could be. 

I didn't take my real camera, because the more I attempt new activities, the more I learn the joy of just experiencing them, even without hauling around a giant bag of gear to document the adventures. With that said, iPhone photography will have to suffice for some of my trip :)

This was interesting. All of us ended up on that same ledge at one point, and then individually repelled down. 

This is me climbing in Washington! The names of these routes were actually Lord of the Rings themed... soooooooo, I was basically climbing in Mordor. I. WAS. STOKED. 

Dan Bookless at Rocky Butte. 

Me climbing Rocky Butte. 

Above is the video that I shot while in Houston for InSPIRE Rock Climbing Gym. 

Up the Coast

Mind-blowingly beautiful. This is the only way I can describe my journey from Imperial Beach, California, up through Yosemite National Park, and into Portland, Oregon. 

I had initially had a few people planning on making the drive with me, but all of them ended up falling through. I was determined, however, to make the most of the 5 days I gave myself to make it up to Portland before flying out to Texas. 

Here are some photos from my journey. 

This was just as I pulled into Yosemite at sunrise. 

This is an Immersion Heater I got from REI that I can plug into my inverter and boil water! This was quite a fabulous moment. Made some coffee and sat and enjoyed the view over Yosemite Valley just after sunrise. 

Yosemite Valley

Thorondor in Yosemite. 

This is WAY bigger than it looks. Breathtaking. 

California Coastline.

This was the first black sand beach I've ever seen. This was just after rolling into Oregon.

Oregon Coastline. 

This spot is just outside a little town my friend Micah recommended I stop and check out. This was a beautiful little secret spot. I will definitely go back there someday. 

Northern California has some dang big trees. 

Drive-Thru Tree. Thorondor didn't quite fit. 

Paul Bunyan and Babe and me. 

The last time I pulled over along the coast before heading inland to meet Westie and the Magnusons in Portland. 

The day after arriving in Portland I flew back to Texas, where I'll be for about a week. I'll fly back to Portland after that where I plan on LOTS of adventures with the Magnusons and Booklesses. Psyched. 

Leaving San Diego

It's been an incredible few weeks here in the San Diego area hanging with my buddy Micah, surfing and just havin' a good ol' time! 

This is my first attempt at filming surfing and it was a freakin' blast. This was filmed from a few of the sessions we went out. All the footage is of Micah.

My plan now is to leave tomorrow, stop in LA for the night, head up to Yosemite and then on up the coast to Portland Oregon. I'm going to post soon on the updates to the van so y'all can see my solar panel setup and cooking setups. 

.... Oh, and this is a video I shot while I was back in Texas but just now got around to finishing up. 

This is the premiere video in a new series I've been wanting to do for a while. The concept is simple, take a rider to the spots they rode when they first got into BMX. Most will be "nothing" spots and a bit of the stories behind them. Mat currently lives in Austin, but he grew up in Fort Worth, which is what this video highlights.

Imperial Beach Life

After arriving back in Los Angeles from my last trip to Texas, I made my way down to the San Diego area to visit my friend Micah and learn how to surf. We have had an absolute blast. I've been parking my van at his apartment complex which is about a quarter mile from the beach. 

I arrived in Imperial Beach, just south of San Diego the week of Micah's Spring Break. We did nothing but surf, hike, drink coffee and relax. It was so great. I don't have any footage of myself surfing yet, but I've been learning a ton and filming Micah every other time we go out. I caught a couple of waves my first day and the last time we went out I caught my longest, best wave yet. That was really encouraging since the two sessions before that I felt like I was just in everyone's way. All in all though, surfing has been an incredibly fun experience. HUGE thanks to Micah for being such an amazing teacher, host and friend. 

Here are some stills of a video I'm putting together of a couple of our sessions. 

Yesterday I drove up to the Huntington Beach area to hang out with my buddy Walter and some Odyssey dudes doing some shredding. My ankle is still jacked so I didn't do any riding, but it was good to pedal around and see the dudes. My van ended up giving me a bit of trouble and I ended up finding a hose leaking coolant. I patched it up as a temporary fix but now I need to replace that section of hose so I can make the drive up to Portland next week!

Missouri!

If you've been keeping up with my Instagram or Twitter, you'll know that I recently flew back to Texas for 10 days, and in that 10 days, bounced around ALL OVER the place, including El Paso, Houston and even up to Missouri. 

I've had the rad opportunity to do some BMX demos with a ministry called Team Faith, which is who I went to Missouri with. We went there to do some skate, BMX and motocross demos at James River Church there in Ozark, Missouri. It was such a blast and we met some of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life. They made us feel like family and treated us TOO well. Such servants, it was unreal. 

Another huge blessing about doing things with Team Faith is being able to do ministry with Joey Nicotra and D'Andre Martin, who both came up in the SkateChurch ministry I was a part of in Dallas. It's such a treat to have seen them accept Christ, pursue Him, see Him change their lives, and now get to do ministry together. 

Here are some photos from the trip! Thanks to Rachel from James River for the pictures!