Thank you for your amazing, generous financial contribution to Surfing The Nations! We are so stoked and overwhelmed by your goodness to us! We are grateful beyond words for our partnership.  Your commitment is the greatest encouraging and inspires us to the impossible.

Your Jedidiah donation of $17,246.43 has been disbursed as follows:

Bangladesh – Surf Clubhouse

Surfing The Nations will be sending $500 to the building of the Surf Club House.  STN had raised all but $500 of the projected budget to build the Bangladesh Surf Club.  With the Jedidiah funds the dream of the clubhouse will reach its exciting completion. The government of Bangladesh donated a plot of land in front of the surf break for the clubhouse and now the building can begin.

Sri Lanka – Surf Center

The vision of a Surf Center in Arugam Bay, Sir Lanka was birthed when STN sent a team to help with the tsunami of 2004.  A STN Surf Center would be an outreach center housing a permanent team with the ability to receive short term teams.  At the center, local people will be taught how to repair surfboards, will be taught English as a second language, will be able to train locals in food services by building a small restaurant on the property; will create a place to “hang out” to watch surf movies; etc, etc. We are sending $500 of the Jedidiah donation to our team in Sri Lanka for the Surf Center work/building. The property is secure and we have finally successful dug our well (the well was a major project taking three attempts) so we now have water on property. Buildings still need to be erected so the base can become a place where people can live and gather together. Sri Lanka is a big surfing destination for Israeli as well as other international surfers so we’re looking forward to how this will impact them as well as the local community. This summer there will be a 6 star surf contest event with Sri Lanka Airlines right in “our” little village, Arugam Bay.

Wahiawa Transformation

STN is focusing on seeing Wahiawa transformed for good – starting with the porn shop next door! It is the second largest porn shop in Hawaii and needs to be gone.  STN needs parking to meet state requirements to proceed with our development of the STN Community Center (former bar).  The porn shop has the best parking on the block.  We want to purchase the porn building and parking as well as the strip club two doors down and see this community radically changed. We want Wahiawa to become a place people want to come to instead of run away from. We are putting $724.43 towards our efforts to transform the ghetto of Wahiawa and hope to report miraculous stories soon.

Surfing The Nations Wahiawa Headquarters

Without the STN Wahiawa headquarters there would not be Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Feeding The Hungry or any of the other ministries of Surfing The Nations. The Wahiawa headquarters is where it all begins: training volunteers, interns and staff, it is a place to live, gathering and sorting of food, clothing, and household donations, sending out mission trips, tutor the youth of the neighborhood, meeting room for lectures to concerts and run the STN office.  The cost of the apartment block and former bar was $1.5 million and we were miraculously provided $1.3 million at the outset! We were left with $200,000 to raise and pay by 22 December 2010. Before the Jedidiah donation we had a balance due of $79,000. We have applied $15,519 of your giving to our mortgage leaving a balance due of $63,481. Your contribution has been an incredible boost to us! We are trusting in God that the balance will be provided. Having our headquarters paid off will establish us with roots deep in Wahiawa, as the building itself becomes part of our branding and identity in the community and internationally.

Disbursement of the Jedidiah Donation:

Bangladesh Surf Clubhouse: $500.00
Sri Lanka Surf Center: $500.00
Wahiawa Transformation: $724.43
STN Wahiawa Headquarters: $15,519.00

Total Donation $17,243.43

For more about Surfing The Nations, head to www.surfingthenations.com. Also make sure to watch the video below of their recent Freedom Surf Contest!

With our Summer line using graphics inspired by Amor, we wanted to spotlight this video that show a little bit about their organization before the Summer line releases!

Remember, 5% of our total sales from April through June of this year go directly back to further their mission.

For more information on Amor, visit www.amor.org. Enjoy.

Enjoy!

Amor: Jedidiah’s New Hope Collection Partner from Jedidiah Clothing on Vimeo.

We are so stoked on the work that Invisible Children does and this past week was HUGE for their mission to stop Joseph Kony and the LRA. Read below and don’t miss the “highlights” video at the bottom.

From Invisible Children:

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, by voice vote without a single objection.

Over the course of 30 minutes, seven Congress members spoke on behalf of the bill, calling on President Obama, in response to the atrocities being committed in central east Africa, to form a plan to remove Joseph Kony from the battlefield. Eight additional Members of Congress submitted written statements expressing their support for the bill.

Can you believe it? The leaders of our nation, for 30 MINUTES, stated and restated the atrocities committed by Joseph Kony and the urgent need for a strong response from the United States.

As if that weren’t enough, America’s young activists got their recognition too.

This 2-minute highlight reel cuts together some of the most spine-tingling portions of the speeches. Be proud. They are talking about you.

For more information: http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/?p=8278&preview=true

Hey all!

We are SUPER stoked on the SEZIO show this Friday at The Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla (super rad flyer above). Be on the lookout this week for a few sets of tickets we are giving away, but in the meantime check out the sweet Joel P West video below.

As I Lay Dying announced “The Cool Tour” last week, also featuring Underoath, (flyer below). Find out more at www.asilaydying.com.

And while we are talking about tours, our boys in Ivoryline and The Classic Crime are going on tour this summer. For more information, please visit their mySpace pages at www.myspace.com/ivoryline and www.myspace.com/theclassiccrime.

Jedidiah surfer Rylan McCart is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever get to meet.  We had the chance to ask him a few questions, and here is what he had to say. (Don’t forget to check out the video below.)

Patrick Dodd: For people that don’t know you, what are 3 things that you would tell them about yourself.

Rylan McCart: 1) I try to live like Jesus (humble, selfless, loving) but fail.  Thankfully, He forgives and sustains me.  2) I live with 3 of my best friends in harmony like brothers.  I love being with my friends and family.  3) I surf often with my Dad.

PD: What do you have going on as far as surfing in the next few months?  Non-surf related?

RM: As far as surfing, I’ll consistently be catching a couple up the road and would like to get down to Nicaragua with the boys, the outer banks is right up the coast, may visit the Digs family…who knows, surfing is so spontaneous, we all know that.  Life minus surfing, definitely working on college right now, I’ve shifted into that mode of life.  I work at a killer restaurant called Grills here in Brevard County Florida owned by my friend Joe Penevich. Us friends have a get together on Fridays at our house around 7.  We eat food, slow down, pray and look over the scriptures together inside the lively tan walls of our small apartment.

PD: How long have you been associated with Jedidiah?

RM: I’ve known about Jedidiah and what it stands for (love and hope) ever since they ran that old advertisement of a wife and husband kissing or something in the Surf Mag.  That caught my eye.  I have mostly seen a few people associated with Jedidiah and how they live.  They are an example of love in action from my perception, from being around the poor or less fortionate to being a leader in a community.  The ambassadors of Jedidiah that I know are people I respect for reasons deeper than the ocean.  My connection with Jedidiah was founded in the surf community.

PD: What are you listening to right now?  Is there a song stuck in your head?

RM: I like listening to some lectures my Mark Driscoll, he has some great podcasts.  Tune-wise,  I like the song by Explosions in the Sky called “Your Hand in Mine.”

PD: What is the next thing you are going to eat?

RM: Well tomorrow morning, I’ll probably eat 2 eggs, oatmeal, coffee, and an orange, than I’ll feel good and be able to work hard.

PD: What is inspiring you right now?

RM: I met a well spoken young man in a suit and tie from the Domican Republic named Alejandro.  He is a politician in the making in my eyes and I spent some time with hin in a group setting over a period of 3 days last month.  I was inspired by him because I watched some of the simple teachings of Jesus “love your neighbor as yourself” and “do to others as you would have them do to you” and “feed the poor”.  I learned that I can learn from anybody.

Thanks Rylan.  Keep shredding.

“The earthquake outside of Port-au-Prince was the worst natural disaster to hit the western hemisphere in 100 years. While Invisible Children’s mission has always been focused on ending Joseph Kony’s terror and seeing long-term recovery in central Africa, this tragedy shook us to the core and we felt compelled to act. Winning the Chase grant gave us the opportunity to do that. It liberated us financially to the degree that we could respond to this tragedy in a meaningful way. We promised to send $100,000 to support efforts in Haiti.”

To learn more about the project YOU helped fund, click here.

Invisible Children + charity: water + Haiti from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

One Season, One Cause

In an effort to focus and simplify the brand, Jedidiah is refining the way we give back to the community at large. Each season we are focusing on one humanitarian organization, and we’ll be channeling all of our efforts toward raising money and awareness for that specific organization. Jedidiah commits to give 5% of all sales to support a specific project within each humanitarian organization, so that every purchase turns into a conscious effort to make a tangible difference in the world.

Throughout every retail season, Jedidiah will donate 5% of our sales, 5% of our clothing, and 5% of our time toward serving those in need. This culmination of the 3 fives has shaped the ideology behind the word “Thrive” and will enable us to create dialogue around each organization’s unique story.

5% OF SALES + 5% OF CLOTHING + 5% OF OUR TIME = THRIVE

Invisible Children is now partnering with La Blogotheque to film a Take-Away Show in Uganda with Polyphonic Spree and they need YOUR help to make it happen. Click on the link below and see how you can make a difference. Only 15 days left!

We’re excited to have experienced this Surf Expo with the artists and all the people that came by to check it out! Thanks to the buyers and we can’t wait to hand over the money raised to our humanitarian partner, Amor.

Here’s a video of the final piece: