Say Cheese

One of mine that might be used for ministry.

You know the cliche “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Well, I think it’s a cliche because it’s true. The organization I work for believes this too, I would say.

Crusade, or Agape here in Europe, developed an innovative ministry tool called Soularium a couple of years ago. Basically, it’s a collection of 50 photos that people can make selections from to answer questions about their lives and their thoughts about spiritual things. So, if I ask someone to describe God, they can choose some pictures from the collection instead of just using words.

I’ve been asking God to show me how He’s uniquley designed me and given me passions that can be used to connect with people and reflect His character. In other words, “God, how can I just be who You created me to be and do ministry as a natural part of my life?”

If you’ve been following this blog, you may have noticed that photography is one of the passions that God has given me. As God would plan it, He placed another staffer in this city who loves photography. So, we’ve been talking about how we can use photography in Rome. We like Soularium (the 50 photos), but we want to do something a little more personal to really draw students.

We want to ask students to go out and take pictures for us, instead of us giving them a set of pictures. This way, we are truly seeing things from the students’ perspective. We’re hoping to give assignments with spiritual themes followed by discussion of each student’s work. We’d love to have students show and tell their views of hope, freedom, love and countless other topics through the realm of photography. We would potentially also complete the assignments and participate in the discussions. Prayerfully, we’ll connect with a student who will run with this idea and begin to minister in Rome through photography.

I’ll do my best to keep you posted. Please leave a comment if you’ve tried something like this or have suggestions. Amy, the other staffer working on this project, and I would love your feedback and your PRAYERS.

Would you pray:

For God to guide us as we plan, try out ideas and seek students
For God to open students’ hearts to Jesus through this creative medium
That we’d wisely and broadly publicize this photography project and see God’s fruit