unseen’s fight for freedom taNYa MaRtiNEau

Giving thAt’s One Of the best PArts Of WhAt We dO; We get tO highlight the greAtest WOrk in the WOrld thrOugh sOMe truly WOnderful tAlent.

I’ve learned it’s not my job to save the world, but to steward the gift God has given me.”

You could say it’s taken a lifetime for Tanya Martineau to learn this vital lesson. But that isn’t a bad thing. For Martineau, cofounder and associate director of Fargo-based Unseen Ministries, it is the people, places and experiences at all stages of her life that have brought her to this moment advocating for individuals that are being light in dark places.

Every story has a beginning.

For Martineau, that beginning was marked by the “molding and encouragement” of her family. “My parents raised me to believe that nothing is impossible with the Lord and we have the opportunity to make lasting change in this world,” Martineau said. The fourth of five children, Martineau spent the first 13 years of her life in Elbow Lake, Minnesota before her family moved to Fergus Falls. After graduating from high school, Martineau followed her growing passion for serving people to Peru where she lived for almost four months, traveling “from city to city with a team of 10, working with the locals to bring training, education, and encouragement to the local communities.” Though she had been on several mission trips in the past, Martineau credits her time in Peru with giving her a clear picture of what her future would hold. She was committed to serving those in need.

After leaving Peru, she enrolled at Minnesota State University Moorhead to pursue an art education degree. It was during her junior year at MSUM that her commitment to serving others became real in a way that she never expected. Her mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. The initial outlook was so grim, doctors gave her three days to live and told her she wouldn’t leave the hospital.

Martineau shared, “After praying and putting our faith in God, we knew He had another plan for our mom. The next morning we were told our mom would not die in the hospital, could return home and was able to receive treatment. I knew my mom’s road ahead would be a battle that was bigger than she could bear alone. So, I took off college, moved home and fought the next ten months of cancer with her. At this point, I had dreams of traveling and ‘changing the world,’ but I knew the Lord was asking me to fight this battle with her.”

Martineau’s time in Peru had led her to a pursuit of serving those in need; her time at the bedside of her mother opened her eyes to what “bringing justice” really looked like. “Little did I know God was imparting values and lessons during those ten months that would be preparing me for what I would be doing in the future. Previously, I was eager to care for those in need thousands of miles away. But was I ready to sacrifice to serve those closest to me?” After a courageous ten- month fight, Martineau’s mother passed away. “During that time, we had numerous people touched by my mom’s faith, strength and perseverance. They’d question how our family could be so immovable and strong during such a devastating time. We know our source of strength and joy only came from our faith.”

The Other Side of the World

Following her mother’s death, Martineau completed her degree in art education with an emphasis in photography and embarked on a journey that proved to be the catalyst for the work she is doing today. “I always had a desire to visit the country where my mom was from, but after she passed in 2009, my desire to experience her culture deepened. I moved to Korea in January of 2010. I lived in Asia for a year teaching and doing photography. While there I volunteered at a shelter that rescued women trafficked as prostitutes to Korea from other countries. I initially began counseling and befriending many of the girls. Hearing the stories of the pain, abuse and innocence striped from these girls broke my heart.”

While in Asia, Martineau experienced success as a photographer, at one point having the opportunity to work with one of Asia’s top wedding/fashion photographers. “There was a point in my life,” she said, “where this was probably one of my greatest dreams.”

At the same time, however, Martineau was also working with the director at the shelter to “bring awareness to the hidden issue of trafficking that Korea was experiencing. At the time, the shelter was only ten months old, so many people were unaware of the issue and the opportunity to help.”

“I went into the brothels and clubs and documented much of the hardships the girls faced,” Martineau recalled. “That month, the government wrote a book describing the signs and process of trafficking from the Philippines to Korea. Some of the images I took that night were published within that book which was distributed to all the embassies, police stations and non-governmental organizations in Korea. I saw the impact that an image can have. It has the power not only to bring awareness, but can change an organization, change policies and change thousands of lives.”

Her dreams of being a high-profile photographer seemed insignificant compared to the importance of telling the stories of those that go unnoticed. Having focused much of her photography up to that point on weddings, portraits and commercial work, Martineau now felt she couldn’t photograph things in the same way. “I became frustrated,” she said. “Through my travels I saw amazing people doing incredible work, but generating little to no awareness. How is it that the corporate world has such quality media yet some of the greatest missions are left with nothing?”

Realizing a Dream

It was two years ago, while she was home from Korea for a few months for her sister’s wedding, that Martineau met Than Baardson after church one Sunday evening. “He asked what I was doing in Seoul and I told him about some of my photo projects with the trafficking shelter and orphanages. He said we had to talk since he had the same dream. Than, traveling as a broadcast journalist for the Air National Guard, had seen many of the same things I had encountered in Asia. With a background in journalism and film, Than knew the power of a well-told story.” And, as if that wasn’t enough to get the gears turning, Baardson shared that, “he’d also been praying and seeking the Lord for the past five years” with a dream to do something about what he had seen.

Baardson, a journalism/film major, said, “I grew up with a solid view of ‘others’ and the great work that is being done as people follow Jesus’ example and life. This was instilled in my growing up years as I traveled the country with my mission-focused parents and went on short-term trips with service groups and churches. This early exposure to mission work gave me a different way of viewing a career.

People, relationships and service have always taken priority.”

Following graduation from high school, Baardson joined the North Dakota Air National Guard, and has served with them for nine years. Though he originally joined as a firefighter, he is currently a photojournalist. He is part of the Air National Guard’s Public Affairs department, a role that Baardson said “gives me great freedom to explore my talents as a producer, director, editor, journalist, designer, narrator and more. The team at the 119th Air Guard in Fargo has been beyond supportive and continues to be a blessing to my wife and me.”

Having traveled to seven countries with the Air Guard, Baardson had seen that “the work we followers of Jesus have been called to do is being done; orphans are being cared for, the hungry are being fed and slaves of all sorts are being set free.”

Baardson went on to say, “This was a learning journey for me as my traditional view of what it meant to be a ‘missionary’ or work for a justice organization was being challenged. I saw that normal people were doing extraordinary things as a reaction to the radical calling placed on all of us.”

The beat of Martineau’s heart was to impact the world with the gifts she had been given. Meeting Baardson validated these desires. It was clear they needed to swap stories and see what God might be doing.

“So like many poor post-graduate students, we started off meeting at 7am at McDonald’s for their one-dollar coffee and free Wi-Fi because we couldn’t afford the price of the other coffee shops,” Martineau said. “The first couple months we prayed and asked the Lord, ‘What is our mission? How is this going to look?’”

Those early McDonald’s meetings added fuel to the fire that was already burning in each of their hearts the eagerness to use their gifts to tell the stories that so desperately needed to be told. But how? Their answer was to create “a media and marketing nonprofit whose main mission is to equip groups fighting human trafficking, ending hunger and supporting orphans with the tools and education they need to effectively communicate their message and continue their work.”

The mission statement on the Unseen Ministries website reads, “In today’s mediasaturated world, groups seeking to reach the lost and hurting need to be able to tell their story with the videos, writing, graphic design, photography and web content people respond to. Unfortunately, many cannot. Unseen Ministries is a global team of artists and visionaries who – by providing these tools – seek to bridge the gap between these ‘unseen’ missions groups and those who would support them.”

As the ministry has grown and developed, Baardson, who serves at executive director, has gone from a strictly artistic/journalistic role to a communication and managerial position. While he still gets to be involved in the video and writing process, he is quick to give kudos to the exceptional artists that give their time and talents to further the work of the ministry. “That’s one of the best parts of what we do; we get to highlight the greatest work in the world through some truly wonderful talent.”

In addition to doing photography, Martineau said she spends time “working with our missionaries, screening new applicants, project management, working with current artists, volunteers and interns, speaking engagements, meeting supporters, and managing and coordinating trips overseas.”

Though the vision for Unseen Ministries started with them, Martineau and Baardson are just two of many people that are the hands and feet of the ministry. In the two years since their first meeting, the Unseen Ministries team has grown to include ten onsite interns and volunteers along with “artists from Philadephia, Texas, LA, Asia and right here in Fargo coming together to use our gifts to fight for justice,” Martineau said.

Vern Baardson, pastor at Triumph Lutheran Brethren and Than’s father, shared “God has given Than eyes to see some of the darkness and brokenness in our world and the response has not been just to feel bad about that but rather to step into the fray and see how God would use Unseen to make a difference that lasts. In Micah 6:8 we read ‘And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’ God’s call to us in not to just think about justice but ‘to do justice’ ... and that is what we see happening at Unseen Ministries.”

Looking Back and Dreaming Forward

Reflecting on the past year, Martineau shared one story about partnering with Help Save the Kids (HSTK), a ministry on the border of Thailand and Burma that exists to bring education, training, and inner development for those living in their area. “Without the team of HSTK, many of these children would otherwise be child soldiers or prostitutes. They are taking them from a life of despair and giving them freedom and hope,” Martineau said. When the team from Unseen first met the missionaries at HSTK it was clear they needed someone to help them raise awareness about the ministry they were doing among the children in that area.

“They were stuck financially,” Martineau remarked. “They had 34 more children coming in the fall and had no place to put them. We came and documented what God was doing and put together a promo video and slideshow of images for them. They had the opportunity to come to the states and share what God was doing through their ministry with the media we produced for them. They printed off some of the images I took and one lady saw the images and on the spot sponsored 85 children. They went from a budget of $800 a month to $8,000! It’s exciting for us to see the work we are doing is having a direct influence on bringing God’s love and justice to these groups and these nations.”

With numerous groups around the world contacting them for help, Martineau and Baardson will have many opportunities to travel and meet with the individuals that are battling injustice on the front lines. Baardson said it this way, “God is doing surprising, humbling and great things through Unseen. As we move into the future, we’re seeing artists from around the world connect to this mission. We’re being approached by groups doing the world’s best work and have the chance to serve them in what we do best. We get to tell their story and set them up for success.” In this line of work, success isn’t determined by the amount of money in the bank, but in the joy and the sense of peace that can be seen on the faces of the men, women, and children that have been brought out of darkness through the work of the team at Unseen.

A verse of Scripture that has provided an anchor point for Martineau as she has sought to be faithful with the gifts she has been given is Isaiah 61:1-3.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”

“As I’ve traveled,” Martineau said, “I’ve seen that there is a lot of darkness. Yet as Than and the Unseen team has encountered, there is a lot of light. It’s exciting for us to see that God is doing such amazing work in individuals around the world. And it’s an honor for us to be a part of that.” [AWM]

Please visit Unseen Ministries website at www.unseenmin.org.

Farewell Adieu

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