When I was a little girl...
I dreamed of being a photo journalist for National Geographic.
Photojournalism - is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. Photojournalism is a form of photography complying with a rigid ethical framework which demands that the work is both honest and impartial whilst telling the story in strictly journalistic terms.
Timeliness — the images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events.
Objectivity — the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone.
Narrative — the images combine with other news elements to make facts relate able to the viewer or reader on a cultural level.
I wanted to travel the whole world, see everything, take pictures of it all and tell the stories of the people I met along the way. I was so sure I took a journalism class one summer in junior high school to get ready.
In recent conversations I purposely asked some friends if they remembered what they wanted to do when they were little.
I wondered what they dreamed about.
I found it odd and even sad when they said they didn't know or had no memory of what they dreamed about. It was in these conversations that it dawned on me, when it came right down to it, in many respects I am living the dream I dreamed as a child.
As Christians especially, I think we talk a lot of about "passion and destiny". We quote the words of Jeremiah,
"I knew you, I formed you in your mother's womb and I set you apart". We even hold seminars about dreams, passion and destiny.
Yet, I often wonder if in our thinking we would consider dreaming as an extravagant gift that a huge part of the world would never take the time for.
I know for a fact that many of the women I work with would never even consider such a thing. Why would you "dream" about what you want to be vs what you must be for the good of your family.
While in Cambodia a major part of what we did as a team was to build a play ground called "Dreamers Park". Creating a place children are able to play and be children for a time.
I believe we also take for granted the gift of growing up as a child not walking the streets collecting plastic for recycling, nor do we daily carry five gallon buckets of water on our head for the family, tending to the younger children or sell goods on the street.
Many would consider it abusive I am sure.
Yet, this is "normal" for many children.
So here I was, I had the photographs, I had traveled to the other side of the world but I sure didn't have the words to tell this story. Where was my rigid ethical framework which demands that work is both honest and impartial whilst telling a story, where was timelessness and objectivity.
Honestly, I was speechless.
Maybe, just maybe, I hoped the pictures would be "the story".
My heart was sinking while I stood at the dump.
It was a dump and families live there. It was full of children, children working in complete filth. I looked at their hands, their feet, even inside their bag filled with such tiny bits of scrap for recycling it didn't seem worth the time to collect.
The problem was their story.
I didn't understand.
These little girls, did they have dreams?
I don't know.
They didn't seem unhappy.
It was what it was, work.
They needed to work for their families needs.
The world of Haggai seemed to ring so clear in my thoughts...
"You have planted much, but have harvested little.
You eat, but never have enough.
You drink, but never have your fill.
You put on clothes, but are not warm.
You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."
- Haggai 1:6
And yet, there are the words of Paul,
"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.
Paul also said, hope will never disappoint.
Dreams, they are hard to put into words if you don't have them.
Sometimes hope is even harder.
But when you do have dreams and hope they can change your life as well as others.
Dare to Dream...
