Most of our ministry in Rwanda was working at an elementary school, which was equally incredible and exhausting. The kids ranged from ages four to twelve, and like all kids that age, they seemed to have a never-ending supply of energy. The couple that hosted us owns the school, and their vision behind starting it is one of the most incredible testimonies that I have heard this year. You can listen to it below in the video that my teammate Jake made for them:
This video is a part of my favorite project that I have had a chance to work on since being on the Race. Way back in January when we were just getting started in Colombia, our ministry host asked to use my photos for their website and on their social media sites. Photography became my main ministry for the rest of the month, and it made me start thinking seriously about where something I once considered no more than a hobby could take me after the Race. I wrote about that experience, and posted a lot of photos, here. That idea was further confirmed by Olivia, our host in Rwanda and the founder of the school we worked at. I wrote about her prophetic words that she spoke over me in a previous post, that you can read here.
Even before she spoke those prophetic words over me, she asked Jake and I to create some promotional material that her and her husband could use online to spread the word about their school and encourage sponsorships of the children they have in their program. I was excited for the opportunity, but even more excited after hearing her prophesy. While Jake worked on the above video, I was in charge of a School Picture Day project. I photographed around sixty children – those that were in the most need of the school’s hundreds of students. Those pictures were for use on their profiles online, and though the site hasn’t gone live yet, I’m still so excited to see the final product.
The day that I did portraits was probably the most fun that I had doing ministry in months. The kids loved getting their photos taken, and I loved seeing the joy on all of their faces as they posed and smiled and laughed for the camera. This was the first time that photography became the focus of what was happening instead of just something that I did in the background, and I loved every minute of it. Where previous projects that I’ve been able to work on have relied on those pictures taken in the background, and have shown me that this is something that I could seriously pursue after the Race, this project revealed another facet of it that I had never even tried before. This was my first serious attempt at doing portraits, and the perfectionist in me sees that there’s still a lot of room for improvement, but I’m still pretty happy with how my first try turned out.
You can see some of my favorites below!
