Angels of asia
Angela S. Kao BrowN
& Angel C. Huang
“And a little child shall lead them.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Featured Artist Angela Kao submits original artwork collection to Getty Images Instagram Grant 2015 Competition for consideration.
Title: "SUPERHEROES"
Photographer: Angela S. Kao
Silicon Valley, California, USA
A few years ago, we left our corporate jobs in California to follow an irresistible call to the Nations. Before we left home soil, several people somehow independently gave us the same prophetic word within the same calendar year. “You’re going out to search for God because you want to see Him and see through His eyes,” they said. “And you will find what you are looking for, but not where you might think. You’ll see Him in the eyes of the children.”
In every place to which we have traveled since that first step onto foreign land, we have seen much darkness and suffering. Whether it was in the drug-soaked regions of the Golden Triangle where nearly 100% of the adult population is trapped by the infamous drug trade, the poverty-stricken areas of African nations torn apart by poorly executed colonization and civil war, the memorial sites to which volunteers have flocked from all over the world to try to bring some semblance of justice to a country destroyed by genocide, the brighter spots of Japan to which victims of nuclear disasters have escaped for a respite from the radiation, or the dark corners of the earth where the value of human life is so heartbreakingly low that parents not uncommonly sell their own children to sex offenders, we saw glimpses of darkness that threatened to overwhelm its surroundings. Yet where darkness is greater, the light shines all the more bright, and nowhere did the light shine brighter than exactly where the prophets foretold: in the eyes of the children.
These are our superheroes. These are the ones who we saw bring hope, joy and laughter that echoed through the countryside in the midst of brokenness, suffering and pain. These are the ones we saw build bridges between different racial, ethnic and national groups in effortless ways that no adult could copy because they see no color, only another playmate for sweet company. These are the ones who we saw tangibly bring justice, righteousness and most of all, love: by breaking up fights, rescuing social outcasts, praying for the salvation of others from suffering, teaching and tending to younger children when they themselves were too young to be so grown. Even when they were the ones bearing the dire consequences of the social ills plaguing their communities. Even when the very ones who were supposed to protect them abused and even trafficked them instead. Even when they were the only ones smiling.
We truly found God in the eyes of the children, and we hope you will, too. May this “Superheroes” preview album of 20 photographs inspire bold ventures further in faith beyond the familiar, and soar above fears of the unknown. These precious faces are just the beginning; we are in progress co-authoring our book highlighting many more amazing heroes of the faith we befriended throughout twelve countries in Asia. We will be releasing our first edition print through Indaba Publishing in 2018 as our manifest conviction to bridge greater awareness of society and culture abroad across oceans and generations; and most of all, a call to action as global citizens to stand together for the greatest justice issues of our time.
We thank you for your support in these timeless adventures, and look forward to journeying onward and upward with you all.
In Friendship and Love,
Angel Huang + Angela Kao Brown
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Amphoe Mae Sai, Chiang Rai, THAILAND // Abuseh in my arms: a 5-year-old girl in the Akha indigenous hill tribe who stole my heart. Our friends Paul & Milky Ma lead Phami Village Ministries here, where these children are provided with food & education. The Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia overlaps the mountains of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. Its name infamously comes from the “golden” profits generated by illegal drug trafficking, which, worldwide, competes with human trafficking (for which Thailand is also a hub) and arms trafficking as the largest crime industry in the world.
Tachileik, Shan State, BURMA // Crossing the national border on foot, we felt the atmosphere shifting with a restless fire in the nation's spirit... right below the surface about to burst forth, a haunting depth of stories untold in the people’s eyes... in which somehow both hope and hopelessness resided, hammered into the strength and wisdom of survivors, a restive energy so ready to be gripped by Love. That poignant day was one week before Daw Aung San Suu Kyi won a monumental victory for a seat in Parliament on April 1, 2012, officially making Suu Kyi the Leader of the Opposition in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw; four years later, she would become the First State Counsellor of Myanmar in 2016.
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”
Phami village, Mae Sai, Chiang Rai, THAILAND // 2012
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA // #SFBay
51 Likes, 3 Comments - HUANGEL (@heyhuangel) on Instagram: "One more journey to the secret place One more dimension of Your beautiful face 5 years later + 5..."