new location

so, due to creative differences, i am now parting ways with blogger. it served well for a time, but it's now time for a different chapter in the life of everywhere is somewhere we must go.

the next chapter begins here: www.timothycdyk.wordpress.com

thanks for following.

i'm a .com

So, in an attempt to summarize the last few years' work into a sort of digital portfolio/library, I would like to introduce you to timothycdyk.com. I figured before proceeding on to whatever ventures are next, it would be worthwhile to summarize some of the people, places, and issues I have been brought into contact with thus far.

And I must mention that this website wouldn't be functioning had it not been for the in-depth coding know-how of B.Alderman & Co. Technologies.

Thanks for reading/viewing.

Alas, I Still Love Washington (State).

On Friday, the 27th of March, I flew home from Copenhagen to Seattle. It is abrupt sort of adjustment to go from one continent to another in such a (relatively) short amount of time. To go from one place that is so highly unfamiliar, and the next day to be sitting in one of the most familiar places imaginable, such as my family’s kitchen table on 9th avenue, is something bizarre.

It looks like I will now be relatively stationary, at least for the time being. I am hoping to look for opportunities in which I can share the Sex + Money project around Ellensburg, as well as the general Northwestern region of the United States. Therefore, if you are interested in working with me to set something up in your area, please do feel free to let me know (you can find my email in my profile.)

Specifically regarding the book: If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Sex + Money: A Global Search For Human Worth, there is a “buy it now” link to the right hand side of this blog where you can make an order through your computer. If you would like to buy it in person, you can try to locate me in Ellensburg, WA. It shouldn’t be very difficult as our community is fairly small in size. Or you can find me at future events. Any of these are viable options, should you choose to pursue them.

A lot of plans are still up in the air, but one hope I have in the near future is to begin studying in University. I desire to take the time to make a prayerful decision on where I can best pursue the seeds and ideas God has dropped in my heart. As specifics become clear I hope to keep you updated.

Thank you for the interest you have shown in this project – even from the beginnings of the photogenX track in South Africa in September of 2007. I began this trip trusting that if God was the maker of the heavens and the earth and the trees and my heart, He could somehow provide for my needs, even if I couldn’t see how. Through your generosity, I was able to work with this project, and learn more of what it means to speak up for “the least of these.”

Probably the main reason why I began the photogenX track in the first place was that I felt a strong tug on my heart to begin using my art (in whatever medium) to portray what God is doing in the world and/or what He is desiring to bring about in order to heal our broken and needy world. If this trip has shown me one thing, it’s that there is much more to be said for the needs of humans around the globe, especially the broken and destitute. Therefore, in whatever way I continue to walk, I desire to use the arts as a means of speaking truth regarding the issues we face in our world today. The body of Christ has a hope to offer the world, if we will only be willing.

The last two years' work with photogenX are not the finality of the hope we have to offer. I have much more to learn, but I'll proceed onwards from here...

a copenhagen finale.

On Thursday, the 19th of March, Koala and I, along with former (but still at heart) photogenXer, Anna Nielsen, arrived into Copenhagen Central Station, and proceeded soon thereafter to the hip and culturally diverse district of Copenhagen, known as Nørrebro (though spoken you will find the pronunciation of this name to be worlds apart from what you would think on paper.) This is where Koala and I would be based for a bit more than a week that we spent in Denmark’s capital city, thanks to København Kulturcenter (Copenhagen’s Culture Center,) who gave us a place to lay our heads.

You just saw three uses of parenthesis in the previous paragraph.

The first event we were a part of was a “Documentary Night” put on by the Culture Center. Here, an international group of young adults get together once a month to discuss and learn about different issues – this particular week the focus was human trafficking, so Koala and I shared a bit towards the beginning of the meeting, and our speaking was followed by a documentary about human trafficking in Copenhagen titled, “When the Moon is Dark.” The film was highly informative, and followed a couple stories of Nigerian women who had been trafficked to Denmark for prostitution.

(one of koala's photo's displayed in cafe retro)

On Sunday the 22nd, Anna had arranged for us to put on a photography exhibition in Café Retro, a local coffee shop that is entirely non-profit. The entirety of their profits are given to support various humanitarian projects in developing nations – currently they’re working to help an organization in Sewa Ashram, India. To our delight, we were able to display nearly all of our 20 display photos in what proved to be fairly constrained quarters. However, it’s surprising what you can do with string, thumbtacks, and a small fence. Café Retro was a good environment for us to share our materials with people, as well as for us to hear from them of their thoughts on the current state of human trafficking, particularly in Europe. Public opinion seems to be shifting. Though there is much ground to be made, people seem to be growing increasingly aware of the ways in which human trafficking is taking place in our societies, and the ways (large and small) that we can be a part of choosing something different.




Through some of the connections we made at the Copenhagen Culture Center, we were able to connect with a discipleship program that is currently in the developing stages. “Identity and Discipleship (I.D.)” is similar to something like a YWAM DTS, but it is more focused on integrating its students into the local church setting. The main leader/teacher/organizer of this program is a fellow American, Stephen, who has been living in Copenhagen for quite some time now. We were glad to share with their groups during a couple of their class times, but Koala and I both felt very blessed to be able to hear and take part in some of their teaching and discussions. Stephen and the students challenged us in how they are learning to relate to God not just in an individual way, but also through their surroundings – including their environments and the people around them. This sort of holistic Christ following, though a challenge, is something that becomes beautiful in learning to enact.


On Thursday, the 26th, I escorted Koala to the airport, to bid him farewell, for now. It was an odd feeling, saying goodbye to a friend I have known, and lived closely with, for the last 18 months. Truthfully, it didn’t really feel like I was saying goodbye; I do feel I’ll see him at some point in the future. I hope this is the case.

Koala has since returned to the University of the Nations campus, in Kona, Hawaii, to begin the Introduction to Biblical Counseling (IBC) course for the spring quarter. In July, he plans to return briefly to South Korea, before continuing onwards to visit his parents, who are currently working in Vietnam. In September, he plans to resume his studies of Economics and Accounting at his previous university in South Korea, though now he feels as though he has a bit more direction with these studies. His desire is to one day use his skills with economics in order to help develop more sustainable living in developing nations, amongst other things.


So, for now we have completed what we originally set out to do with the three-month tour or Scandinavia, taking our publication and the message it bears to a large variety of places – from anarchist café’s in Iceland, to Lutheran State Churches in Sweden. Still, the work of exterminating human trafficking has a long way to travel, but I do believe that a significant amount of seeds have been sown.

“For as the rain comes down,
and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 55:10-11 (New King James Version)

I believe what we have sown with this tour will flourish, because ultimately, what we have sown in the book, in the photography, and in the stories, is from Him - the Lord. We often felt worn thin and weary, but as a whole, we can say the tour was a positive experience. We are reminded that the Lord is moving.

pardon me.

In a previous post, "pinetrees, smokestacks, and holy water," from the time in Finland, i made a joke.

I said:

"there are no cars in finland. the most common form of transportation is sled-dog mushing."

This was what some like to call a "JK," meaning, "just kidding." After arriving home, and hearing from some friends and family members, I figured I should restore a proper understanding of the nation of Finland. They have cars and drive them when necessary. I actually only saw one sled-dog-musher in my entire time in the country.

Sorry for the potential confusion and/or heartache I may have induced through this statement.

odense, denmark

sjellebro, denmark

needing clouds.

So this is the last day of "the track." Sitting in an s.bucks in the Copenhagen airport. I never knew that this is what it would be. But it's become true.

Now it's here, the last day of an 18-month long school, and now I'm waiting to say goodbye to a friend in the airport.

Life can be so complicated. And life can turn around and be so simple - cold, but straight-forward.

Lord, would you bring some clouds to cushion this landing?

pinetrees, smokestacks, and holy water.

Finland is a country of approximately five million people. According to wikipedia, there are over two million saunas in Finland. This equates to about one sauna per household. The amount of sauna-ing that transpired during our stay in Finland left our skin feeling rejuvinated, to say the least.

During our time in Tampere, Finland, Koala and I were able to share our project with 6 different church groups, plus one night which combined a couple of young-adult small groups. Sometimes the times we shared were brief and summarized, but there were also many times where we were able to share on a much more in depth basis. Especially encouraging/mind-exercising were some of the conversations we had on the night with the small groups. Koala and I shared some of our experiences as we normally do, but the night turned into more of a multi-faceted conversation in which we discussed the potential of Christian involvement with matters relating to human trafficking, which naturally flowed into a time of prayer for the sea of needs that are present for these topics.

(koala, sharing at the Come Home group)

(for one exhibition, we had the help of a professional lighting engineer. his knowledge of kelvin variations and angles of illumination proved to be most useful. he also let us use some photos. keetos antti. photo: antti hiltunen)

(photo: antti hiltunen)

(photo: antti hiltunen)

(photo: antti hiltunen)

(photo: antti hiltunen)

Saturday the 7th, the first night we arrived in Finland, we were sharing with Vapis United, a youth group at the Free Church in Tampere. As I have done a few times before, I was sharing about one of our class’ experiences, telling the story of when we handed out flowers to some of the Prostitutes of Amsterdam’s red light district. As I spoke, I began to be re-impressed with the realization of how powerful such a small gesture of love was on that single rainy evening last spring. As I look at my daily life these days, I see how I often become forgetful of the power of the love of Christ that resides in my heart. I can so easily go about my days, forgetting how love of Christ that lives in my heart has the power to transform the world around me, including individual people and their relationships, in addition to larger, more complicated entities, i.e. communities and red light districts.


As we travel to different communities, churches, schools, and other groups, Koala and I continue to share our experiences that have been most relevant to these issues of human trafficking. There is always a bit of variation in how the stories are shared, but still, often it is hard to feel that we are sharing anything of significance, as we ourselves have heard and told our experiences far more than we can begin to recount. One evening at one of the youth meetings, with the Come Home group, also at the Free Church, one of the pastors we met (who was also our translator) proved to be a deep encouragement to us. His work consists largely of traveling to the public schools throughout the entire nation of Finland, teaching about Christianity as well as sharing about his own personal relationship with Jesus. We were encouraged by the ways that he continued to keep his walk with the Lord fresh even in the midst of consistent message giving. One of the verses he spoke struck me profoundly:

...The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Numbers 6: 24-26

And I’ve heard this over and over in church benedictions, and I always remember having liked it, but I guess I had forgotten about it. In it I saw though how even with heavy luggage, repetition, and weary feet, we can continue in what God has directed us to, even just because is face is dwelling on us, granting us the peace of his directed gaze.

(holuoksa sinappi? (btw, this spelling is probably wrong.))

(each thursday the church gives out free pea soup to citizens of tampere)

(i don't know if they had napkins)

(they told me how to say pigeon in finnish, but i've since forgotten)

(tampere, in its early days, was driven by industrialisation)

(pyyhajarvi means holy lake. we would later swim here.)

(there are no cars in finland.
the most common form of transportation is sled-dog mushing.)

(sauna: 125 degrees centigrade.
pyyhajarvi: .5 degrees centigrade.)

(seppo + hanna (harrakka) taipale)

(päivi + the k-bear)

It would be hard to mention our experience of Finland without mentioning our beloved hosts, Seppo and Paivi Taipale. They showed us much about what it means to follow Christ in the normal, day-to-day living. They were kind to introduce us to the Finnish way of life, which includes, but is not limited to:

sauna
winter fresh-water swimming
ice Skating
snowy sommersaults
floorball
makkara (Finnish Sausage)

(watch out, the yankee has a destructive slap-shot)

This is the paragraph where I was going to ask you to pray with us for a place to stay for our upcoming time in Copenhagen. A couple days ago, we hadn’t an idea where we would call home during upon our arrival in Denmark’s capital city. My eyeballs were tantalized this morning when I saw in an email that our contacts had found an apartment for us to stay in at a local church. So, tomorrow when we take the train into Copenhagen, we can rest easy knowing we have a place to lay our heads at night. Praise the Lord.

Secondly, we would value your prayers for open doors to share the project with groups in and near Copenhagen. We have a couple events planned for certain, namely a documentary night with a social awareness group on the 19th, and an exhibition in a café on Sunday the 22nd. Copenhagen is a big city, and we feel able and willing to share nearly anywhere, we just need God to direct us to the right places and people. Pray for encounters that are ordained and directed by the hands of the Lord.

Lastly, I also wanted to inform you that due to visa limitations and other circumstances, on the 27th of March, I will be leaving the soil of Europe to return to the blustery but beautiful state that is Washington. The entirety of plans are uncertain, but I do know that for now, God has placed it in my heart to share the project in Ellensburg, throughout Washington, and wherever else it would work out in the good ‘ol U.S. of A. I will do my utmost to keep you posted on the dates, locations and other details of such events.

(bye bye helsinki)