ISA Festival 2009

So every year for the past four years, the Indian Student Association (ISA) at CCHS puts on an ISA Festival around Thanksgiving. This festival usually includes some dancing, fashion shows, samosas, henna tattoos, etc. This year was pretty cool. I was looking back at last years and not only was the festival better this time around, I noticed that in the past year, I've grown so much BUT I still have much to learn. Check out the post from last year and compare the pictures to the ones from this year hehe. Here are some pictures from the festival. Enjoy!

Like always, the festival was held at the school amphitheater.

This was one of the most popular/impressive performances.

Just to show some of the beauty in Indian Saris (Indian dress)

Another performance

The purpose of the fashion show was to show off the different clothing styles from all parts of India

At the end, a couple people were able to get up on stage and learn parts of the typical Indian dance.

Not exactly the typical Indian dance but....

Henna tattoos.

Some of the models/performers.

So there you go. Overall, it was a great way to spend the last day of school before Thanksgiving Break. Now with a week off, I'm hoping to get some impressive photographs (we'll have to see how well that'll work out). In the meantime, feel free to look around my blog, check out previous posts, etc. Have a great Thanksgiving!

AvalonFest

     On November 14, 2009, Avalon Presbyterian Church had their fourth annual Avalon Fest. Avalon Presbyterian Church is currently meeting at Whispering Oaks Elementary School but the fest was held on the 10 acre lot that is currently in the Avalon Presbyterian Church's possession. The time was such a blessing and God really gave his provision. The weather was perfect, no one got hurt, and it was a time of fun and fellowship; we couldn't have asked for anything more.
     Our Harvest Youth Ministry was able to help out at the fest and even had our own booth which will hopefully draw more people in the community out to our church and that Harvest could soon become their home church. Our motto at Harvest is to "glorify God by equipping Christ-centered leaders to transform the world."
     Through this small action of helping out at the Avalon Fest, we were able to serve the people of the Avalon community. Once again, it was a perfect day, a perfect fest, and a time of never-ending fun, joy, and fellowship. Here are some pictures!

This is a portion of the land in which the festival was held on. The fest was on about 10 acres of land which belongs to the Avalon Presbyterian Church.

This is only a portion of the view that you can see from the lot. You can see Downtown Orlando and many different regions of Central Florida from this one location. It is an amazing site.

Here is the Harvest booth. Our booth consisted of an information table and a face-painting station.

Here are some of the game stations.

Here are some of our helpers.

This was the booth for the professional face-painter.

There was a fire-truck there for the kids to see and climb around on which was a good safety pre-caution and "booth".

They had a pretty cool hay ride that took us on a small tour of the area.

Some of our guys just goofing around.

And this was my "assistant" photography, Hilaree.

I didn't get too many good pictures but I felt like these were worth sharing. Again, the fest was an awesome time of fellowship and relaxation. Be sure to stay tuned for the fifth annual Avalon Fest next year. I can't wait!

All Saints Day!!!

So the big tradition for a majority of the human population is to go Trick or Treating on Halloween. At our church, our children's ministry, Kingdom Keepers, have this tradition of having what we call, All Saint's Day. We basically gather at church and just have a bunch of games, food and fun and give out a bunch of candy. I didn't get a chance to get TOO many pictures, a lot of them didn't even turn out well if not all of them; I had some technical difficulties.... But enjoy the pictures I was able to salvage.

We usually open up with a time of prayer and a SHORT sermon/skit to explain why we have All Saint's Day.

Here was our guest speaker Miss Ellie Yu. She had an AWESOME skit for the kids.

Here is her helper Mr. Danny. Mr. Danny played an "evil spirit" in the skit.

Apparently it made some kids laugh.

So this year, since we have a new facility and this was our first All Saint's Day at the new location, we had different classrooms be different station. Each group of kids would spend 20 min in each room then rotate. This was the face-painting room.

After all the centers, we had a.... PIÑATA!!!!!!! Just look at Samuel's (above) fierce strike!

In case you don't catch it, one of the cones actually tore off with his strike

Jonathan here somehow managed to snag his cape with the stick and ended up with his cape over his head rather than the stick in the piñata.

And of course, once the piñata breaks, the kids go rushing in!

And of course, one candid shot of a kid. This here is the famous Kyper at KPCO!

Overall, the night was a blessed time for kids and adults. The kids had a lot of fun as did the adults and in the end, the kids were EXTREMELY thankful.

***If you would like to help out with AvalonFest, please read the information from the previous post and contact me by email, phone, facebook, etc. Contact information is available in the "Contact Jak" tab at the top of this website.***

Audrey Visits!

So this past Sunday, October 25, 2009, my baby cousin Audrey and my uncle came down. Audrey is known to be one of my models, haha. She's been in many of my posts. Visit my post labeled "New York 6/15/09-6/13/09" Unfortunately, she didn't want to take pictures outside so we had to take some last minute pictures at night, in my room, while she was in her pajamas. The pictures aren't very great due to the horrible lighting in my room. Here are the somewhat decent pictures that I was able to.

I've been experimenting with depth of field and trying to find new ways to make my pictures seem more appealing. This picture was taken with my 50mm f/1.8.

I don't think she fully understands what a SLR is so she was laughing because she could see me through the viewfinder. This is my Asahi Pentax Spotmatic F.

SHE LOVES HER STUFFED ANIMALS!!!!!

So that's it for those. They're down for the week but are vacationing down in West Palm. They drove up on Sunday, spent Monday with us, and they are now visiting Disney and then driving back down to West Palm. They are to return to New York on Saturday.

****** AVALON FEST!!!!!********

     On November 14, 2009, the Avalon Presbyterian Church in Winter Garden will be having what they call "AvalonFest." This is their fourth annual fest and it has been quite a success. The first year, they had 40 people come out. The second year they had 150 and the third year, last year, they had 400 people! This year, there is no way to really estimate the amount that will come out. I invite all to come out and have fun. There will be games, food, music, hay rides, a fire truck and many other activities. It's the perfect time to blow off some stress and have fun with friends and family. Come out and bring whoever you want. Siblings, younger and older, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, anybody you know and have a time of fun and joy. The fest will start at 2 P.M and end at 6 P.M. Feel free to stick around after the fest and have some fellowship with he youth and adults of Avalon Presbyterian Church around a campfire under the stars. If you would like more information, feel free to contact me via email, phone, facebook, etc.

     NOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP OUT!!!!! Please contact me ASAP! Here are some of the things we need...

-8 people to supervise the inflatable toys (there are four of them, ranging from a giant slide to a big tunnel for little kids to a jump house for older kids)

-7 people to supervise the carnival games (these are games that you have played at Chuck E. Cheese or IOA such as duck pond, bean bag throw, lollipop tree, bowling ball in the valley, golf, spin a prize, football toss, electric wave, teen string thing and more!)

-several people to sit at our church’s booth and give out information

-3 people to paint faces for little children

-4 people to move ten tables from church to the festival Saturday morning

There will be 1-2 hour shifts so there will be plenty of time for fun and games.

***This event is more for people to come out and have fun rather than for people to come out and volunteer***.

If you would like to attend or volunteer, please contact me for information via contact information in the "Contact Jak" tab at the top of the blog.