Darren LeBlanc

Gate B27 is clearly marked a few feet above my head. JFK isn’t all that crowded right now, but there is a jack hammer probably 100 ft behind me. For some reason though, its not bothering me :) The walls in this terminal are basically all glass, but its not so great today because the fog is as thick as I’ve seen since the San Francisco Bay. I’m here plenty early…perhaps too early. But when there is only one flight a week where you want to go, its better to be safe than in NJ all week.

I have had a significant amount of inquiries this week on what my mysterious trip to Africa is all about. So I guess it’s time to chat. A dear friend of mine Ryan Keith (you may remember him from a random video in a Cambridge MA restaurant, which randomly enough is managed by another dear friend of mine…but that’s another story)

Ryan is president of Forgotten Voices International. A undying passion for the kids is central to the organizations purpose. Specifically, kids in Zimbabwe and Zambia who have lost their parents to AIDS. Ryan and I were dreaming together a couple months back and before long we decided I’d be joining him in his next quarterly visit.

My role here is pretty well defined. I am wearing two hats this week.

Firstly, I’m shooting all the video footage for a short documentary/promo film on Forgotten Voices and what they do. We want to capture the story of a young girl whose life is radically different because of this organization. Her story and the story of those who are impacted by her, says all we need to say.

Secondly, I’m putting my Anthem of Hope hat to support these guys. Ryan deals with myriad kids that are orphaned from disease. What does this say to them about God? How do they grow up in a modern age with a commonly “paternal” image of God, when their parents fell to a devastating sickness. You can see how this is close to my heart. I know that in many ways I have to answer these questions for my own daughter. I’m really lucky to have years to wrestle with these on my own before Olivia is old enough to take our conversations there. But this isn’t about Olivia. It’s about the countless young faces that don’t know their parents past the point of toddler-hood. The children who sleep 12 to a room with a grandparent and have to fight for whatever education they do get. I have no preconceived notions of lightning striking and obliterating the hurt and pain these kids face. But, I do believe this trip will be a starting point for some change there…in the kids Forgotten Voices touches already. I’m humbled to walk with Ryan this week and dream about how to better serve the kids.

Ok, Ryan and Steve (video editor) just got here. I’m glad they are on time. Ryan is striking up a conversation with a nice older lady from Zimbabwe who will apparently be on our flight. I’m going to go get in on this. Not sure about connectivity when I leave this airport. If anything, I’ll probably use twitter when I get a bit of internet connectivity on my phone. Scroll down the right hand column to see my twitter updates. Ok, I’m out. have a great week.

By the way, I’m not sure how good our internet connection will be, so if you want to follow what is going on, its best to keep tabs on my twitter. You can scroll down on the right hand column of this page, or just visit HERE – If I have network connectivity, I’ll send pictures to the utterli box as well. We might even get a blog or two :)

PS. Colleen gets the purple heart for waking up way before the crack (of dawn) to drive me up here.