Your stories of God’s intervention
In 2018 I was probably at the peak of my working life as a photographer and loving it. It felt like my status and identity. But then one day I felt God say he wanted me to lay down photography. It was really intimidating, as I didn’t know what else I would do. Being a photographer was the only career I was qualified for. I was nervous, but I couldn’t shake the thought off, so I decided to obey.
When I made the decision, I had more job booking requests than I had ever had before. It was scary to be turning them down when I didn’t know what else I would be doing, but I felt God say: “If you trust me, I will give you work that you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise. I am your provider. I want you to know you not just a photographer. That is not your identity, you are a daughter and I have created you as multifaceted. There is so much more to you than you know.”
I was used to being praised for my success as a photographer so it was very hard living in London, when people asked what I did and seeing them be unimpressed by my answer. In that time I took any opportunity to work – whether it be nannying or volunteering at a school, teaching English as a foreign language. It was then I started painting as a sort of therapy.
I began painting on my kitchen wall, to try and get more freedom and creativity, encouraged by my friend and landlord. What I painted became a mural, and I discovered art again. I had loved it in my teenage years, but had since lost my joy and passion for it. So it was healing to discover art again.
Someone came to dinner and liked the mural, so asked me to do one for them, and then another person asked. I was then invited to paint a mural at a 24/7 prayer room in Bethlehem. Even though I wasn’t a professional muralist I had a confidence that I could do it, because God was in full control. I had given myself to be available to God so I trusted he would help me. When I was in Bethlehem, I had a dream. In the dream I felt God say: “You are a treasure hunter; you are someone who connects the lowliest of the low with kings.” I did have a passion to bring people together from different walks of life, to mix up groups.
The very next day I got an email from a guy I had met two years earlier at a wedding. He works for a luxury travel company and had remembered me as someone who took an interest in travel. He asked if I was free in October. I was, as I had turned down work. This was now a year since I had laid down photography. He asked: “Would you consider coming on an around the world treasure hunt with a Saudi sultan?” Because it was so specific to the dream I had, I could with confidence say yes!
It was a job beyond my expertise, qualifications and experience but ended up being a provision that covered me over the pandemic when lots of work was cancelled. I then got other random amazing jobs – in the Hamptons and Italy. Work started to come through which made no sense, as I hadn’t been promoting myself, and I had been absent from the photography world for a year. I am not good on social media; I have never wanted to bow to the ‘likes’ and the ‘followers’ and striving to be seen. I have just trusted that God would bring people across my path, and he really did, in a way that amazed me. He is faithful!
Deborah, by email
