Kicking and Screaming {October 9, 2012}

This post has me extremely excited and a bit frightened. It's pertaining to something I KNOW God is asking of me. So on one hand I am very excited to see what He will do through all of this. On the other hand I am frightened because what I am about to do makes me feel crazy and really vulnerable.

God has given me a love for photography, and he has given me the grace to understand some many of the complexities involved in it. He has also given me a passion for missions and an incredible desire to be a missionary. So much so that I have pursued time in missions several times, all of those times God said, No. Each no left me feeling very disappointed and rather angry. It made no sense to me that God would give me a desire to be involved in missions but say 'no' every time I tried to live out that desire. Over those 'no' times, God opened several doors for me with my photography interests. I enjoy photography but it isn't as fulfilling as missions involvement. It really puzzled me that he would open doors for my 'shallow' interests, but not for the deeper more meaningful ones.

About a year ago God started whispering in my ear. What He was whispering was the very last thing I wanted to do. 1. because no one else was doing it,  2. because it would make me look ridiculous, and 3. because I didn't want to part with my money. So I tried to shrug Him off. That, as we all know, has a very poor success rate. Instead of whispering in my ear, He started talking louder, and louder. I got very uncomfortable cause not only was He talking to me, He also used other people to convict me more and more.

It has taken me a year to figure out that He is giving me an opportunity to combine my two 'passions'. It seems strange to me that when I am given that opportunity, I fight Him, kicking and screaming the whole way. But after a year of that, I have decided to do what God has been asking of me-- to be a non-profit photographer, to give the money that people pay me to take their portraits directly to a mission. I am really ashamed that I was/am so attached to money and my 'image'. It's really awful to claim the name of Christ yet still have so much selfishness and pride inside. By the way, with the decision to obey God came a peace that is beyond description and an excitement about finally being in His will, not to mention my voice was no longer hoarse and my legs are finally getting a rest. ;)

So-- from October-December, all the money from your portrait sessions will go to Amazima, a ministry serving the people of Uganda. I must say I am so excited for the opportunity to support this mission. It was founded in 2008 by a 19 year old girl named Katie Davis. (She is my age!!! :) Which is super cool but seeing her selfless service she has given to the people makes me even more ashamed of myself.) Amazima ministers to the Ugandan people through--education sponsership, the Masese Outreach, Community Outreach, Vocational Projects, & Discipleship. I highly advise you head on over to their website to learn more. They have a lot of wonderful things going on. I have chose to send the money directly to the Masese Outreach portion of their ministry. I had a whole bunch written out here about how that part of their ministry works but I thought you should probably hear it directly from them. So I copied the following information directly from their website.

"Amazima has fallen in love with the slum community of Masese. We serve the people in Masese through feeding, vocational programs, Bible studies, low cost/free healthcare, HIV management and testing, malnutrition rehabilitation, and community service. 

Amazima feeds over 1,200 orphaned and vulnerable children of the Masese community a lunch meal Monday through Friday. Many of these children are from the Karimojong tribe. Seeing that the children were dying of malnutrition and starvation and not in school because they were fetching water, looking for food or begging in the streets, Amazima began a feeding program on a school property. The children come to the school where they know they will be fed, and take a plate of food home each week to their caregivers. They are also allowed to attend class free of charge at the school, participate in Bible studies, and receive medical care and general health training. 

Another outreach in Masese is vocational. Amazima initiated a self-sustaining program for a group of women in the making of magazine bead necklaces. Read more about it.

Additionally, Amazima partners with Equip International in their project, "Nets not Caskets," to put mosquito nets over every bed in Masese and educate the people about preventing deadly malaria. 

Once a week, Amazima provides the community of Masese with a free (or very low cost) clinic complete with HIV testing and HIV counseling done by our social worker, Christine. Christine keeps a record of the people that are HIV positive in the community, takes them for regular check-ups and teaches them how to best care for themselves and their children. We have seen huge improvement in the lives of these people after receiving anti-retroviral treatment, offered free here in Jinja.

Amazima also offers outpatient malnutrition rehabilitation for severely malnourished children. In rare cases, the child and their mother live in our Executive Director's home temporarily while the child recovers. Our goal is to teach parents how to help their children recover and provide them with the resources they need to do so in their homes. We provide severely malnourished children with powdered milk, a porridge made of millet, mukene and nuts (all very high in protein), and PlumpyNut, a free nutrition supplement provided by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Our social worker and Executive Director teach the parents how to prepare these things for their children and monitor the children closely to see their improvement.

Most of all we long to show these people the love of Christ while enabling and empowering them to keep their families healthy and safe. Amazima teaches the Bible to small groups and individuals in the homes of our staff or in the home of our Executive Director, Katie Davis. We long to meet their immediate physical needs but always accompany our work with the message of Jesus as their Savior."

 How it works----
Let's say you choose the "Sweeter" session. Every penny of the money you pay for that session, goes directly to Amazima's Masese/Feeding Program. If you choose to purchase prints on top of that session, all the, well, what used to be profit, goes to that same program. Just a little FYI, 17 cents provides a meal for one of the 1,200 children they feed Monday-Friday so 1 Sweeter Session, provides almost enough money for all 1200 children to eat 1 day.

Because of my photography business becoming non-profit, I will no longer be offering a discount to family, church family, and close friends. I have done my best to come up with pricing that matches the services I provide as a photographer. My business & photography instructor actually thought I should raise the prices I have settled on if that makes anyone feel better. :)

I am hoping to 'switch out' missions every so often, so if there are any mission you are passionate/excited about please share them with me!!

Thank you so much for you time (patience, I should say, this post is rather long) and interest!!

much love,
Brittany

photo credit: Jacqueline Grace Kramlich