I was taking pictures all month for various projects but I wanted to do more. Out of that desire the idea of family portraits was born. When the kids jumped over each other to have their pictures taken and I saw the faces of people who I gave printed pictures to, I realized that they don’t have pictures. Once a kid grows up, the only pictures that exist will be in others’ memories.
The vision for this project was to have families from the surrounding squatter community come and have their picture taken. We would then print and give out one picture per family. We set up two different times for the families to come, one on Saturday afternoon and another on Sunday during a block party we were having for the community. I had fliers printed and several of us went around the community telling people about the family portraits and block party.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting many people to show up for the first session on Saturday because I was worried they would get confused about there being different time slots. Even if they weren’t confused I thought they might all come on Sunday since they would be at the house for the block party anyway. I felt the Lord encouraging me to pray that He would send people to this ministry.
On Friday I found out that a group of people were going to hike a nearby volcano the next day. I really wanted to go but there was a good chance we wouldn’t be back for the time slot I had advertised for family portraits later that afternoon. Since I wasn’t expecting people to come I almost gave in and went to the volcano but I didn’t see a way out of my commitment so I prayed again that God would send people to us.
Finally Saturday came and I showed up several minutes early at the Children’s Home where we had decided to take the pictures. I didn’t bring anyone to help me, figuring that I’d never get more than one or two families at a time. I came in, set my stuff down, prayed, waited several minutes, looked around, and decided I should make a sign for the front gate so people would know they could come in. I walked back to the guest house to get paper and a marker. In the 10 minutes I was gone a crowd of children had gathered around the door. About 50 of them had come and were excited to get their pictures taken.
In no time, the entire yard of the Children’s Home was flooded with children and parents running around, playing on the jungle gym and swing sets, chasing each other through the yard and who knows what else. I was trying to write down names and take pictures and it was all just mass chaos. Somebody called the guest house for me to ask for reinforcements. Within minutes, World Racers came to my rescue and took over organizing families, escorting people in and out and keeping record of the families’ names.
Over the course of 2 hours I photographed 30 families. The next day at the block party we took pictures of almost 40 more, totaling almost 70 families in 2 days. It was amazing to see how the Lord brought people in to be a part of this ministry. Time and time again, I doubted but I prayed and the Lord proved himself faithful by blessing our ministry.
It was awesome to watch God take one of my passions, photography, and turn it into a ministry. There was a saying Jeff Long used, “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” Although giving out pictures can’t be compared to handing out food or clean water, it’s something that is special to them and this ministry was unique way to show them we care.
