What is this all about?
Christ. Period. A native of a small town in northwest Iowa, I am about to embark on an incredible journey for Christ. As of August of 2005, I will be moving to West Africa to serve as a photojournalist for a missions agency called Serving In Mission (SIM). I will be spending my time in Ghana, Liberia, and Niger, documenting the work that the missionaries are doing there. During this time I will also be photographing and writing for the quarterly publication the SIM puts out, called SIM Together.
I am absolutely thrilled to see what God is going to do in these next couple years, as it will be a huge leap of faith for myself. But God has been faithful to me throughout my life, and I have no doubt that He will continue to be in the future.
So where does photography come in?
Well, growing up as a little girl I remember always wanting to be a missionary. I forgot about that dream as I entered high school, thinking more about sports than anything else. Then God gave me my wake up call. I tore my ACL as a freshman in high school, which turned my world upside down. My priorities in life were all wrong- sports were number one in my life and God was following somewhere behind. Since reconstructive surgery caused me to sit out of sports for a year, I had a lot of time to think, and God clearly showed me that I needed to rearrange my priorities. He showed me that He and He alone needed to be number one in my life, and my ability to play sports was just that- a gift from Him, not something to be worshipped in place of Him.
After majoring in graphic design the first 2 years of college, we arrived at the chapter of photography. Now this was something I could see myself doing the rest of my life! So I transfered to photography school soon after and graduated with a degree in Professional Photography with an emphasis in Portraiture and Photojournalism.
While studying photography it was clear to me that this is what God made me for- to use my gift of taking pictures, for His glory. So that is what I am going to try to do in West Africa. My main goal is to document what the missionaries for SIM are currently doing there, what projects are being worked on and how I can use my photography skills to help them in any way I can, whether that be Powerpoint Presentations, prayer cards, and also writing and photographing for their publication.
My main goal is to be able to share Christ, and what He is doing around the world through my pictures, perhaps stirring someone to a relationship with Christ, or even overseas missions itself. I am very excited about what God is going to do in these next 2 years!
Who is SIM?
SIM stands for Serving in Mission. It is an International, Interdenominational missions organization that currently has around 1600 missionaries serving throughout the world. Its goal is to strengthen, partner with, and plant churches throughout the world. If you would like to learn more, visit www.sim.org.
If you are interested in supporting my ministry, you may send a donation (tax deductible) labeled:
Joni Byker Ministry Support
SIM USA
PO Box 7900
Charlotte, NC
Please pray for me as I begin this new journey, that God will continue to give me the strength I need in every situation, and wisdom while I deal with the ethical issues dealing with photography that I will face.
Contact Info
You can email me at:
