Couple Photo Story from the Heart of South Africa
This September, I journeyed to South Africa to record for The Marriage Project podcast I launched in January. Vanessa and Rehgert’s marriage story is featured on episode 10 and you can read more on the blog post over at the site!
It was always a dream to do a photo shoot in Africa, and the Lord led me to this couple who reside in the Eastern Cape, Jeffrey’s Bay and just blew me out of the water with His faithfulness, fulfillment of dreams and promises. I had to “dare to hope” for this trip as I’d planned to go to Africa for a photography workshop back in 2015 but got the notice that the workshop had been cancelled and had a lot of hopes dashed. I trusted that the Lord shut that trip down for a reason and after that, in the next couple of years, I turned down a couple other trips and opportunities to go to Africa as they didn’t feel like “my” trips to go on after praying and asking Him if they were. I’ve always wanted to go to Uganda as I have a tie to that country and sponsor an 11 year old girl, Patience, through Compassion International. It would seem her name lends a lot to what the Lord wanted to and wants to teach me in answer to the desires of my heart…patience.
He wanted me to wait. Because He had such a bigger, grander plan for the African “safaris” He wanted to take me on. And that is proper use of that word…‘safari’ simply means ‘journey’ I learned. The bigger, grander plan was a podcast and project where I’d be interviewing couples about their marriage story, testimonies and things they’ve learned about God’s heart through marriage. It marries quite nicely with my profession, wedding photographer, and it’s been my privilege getting to the heart of marriage and investing couple by couple, story by story in these marriages God’s hand selected for me to document. This is the photography piece of Rehgert and Vanessa VanZyl’s story. And you’ll just have to listen to the podcast to see how BIG, how AMAZING and how INTENTIONAL our God is and how He led me to South Africa of all places, to this coupleof all couples. You can listen over at www.themarriageproject.co or on iTunes!
He truly brings things entirely full circle and His plan for my first African journey was FAR better than the plan I tried to make happen for myself. To give myself some credit, back in 2015 I did believe I was just following the prompts on my heart. Don’t be too hard on yourselves if you believe you’re following God’s plan then get the big fat “no”. It just means something better is in store. His timing is perfect! And maybe it’s just that He wants to work a liiittle more patience into your heart in the mean time…
As for Uganda? He has connected me to a family who have also said “YES!” to being a part of the project! Seriously? He blows my mind, time and time again. That African safari/journey is in the works…for 2020.
Stay tuned!
(Side note — The starting photos in this post are of the Indian Ocean (so cool!) with a beautiful display of flamingoes the Sunday I was there.)
