Hadley discovered how God could use his skills and passion for photography and journalism to further the Kingdom.
Hadley Toweel was born in South Africa to a Lebanese father and a South African mother. He worked as a photojournalist during the dismantling of apartheid and The New York Times published his photographs, including one of former South African president, Nelson Mandela. He has been living in Australia for more than 20 years.
I became interested in photography and journalism during high school. My dad had saved up money for me to go to university, but instead I asked him to use the money to buy me the equipment I would need to become a professional photographer. Thankfully, he agreed. I soon started working as a photographer and was passionate about the art of photography — to the point of obsession.
Although I had always believed in the existence of God, I was not a Christian at this stage. In fact, I had become involved in the occult shortly after leaving school.
Several events a few years later, all happening in 1983, would radically change my life and my work as a photographer. The year started out quite uneventfully. In February, I was at a music festival in Johannesburg, along with thousands of other people, calling for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. Ironically, three months later, I was injured in a bomb explosion planted by supporters of Mandela that killed 19 people and injured more than 200 others. I had almost died on two earlier occasions, and somehow, I knew that this was the last time God would save my life.
Later that same year, I came to the intellectual realisation that Christianity was true and that Jesus was the only way to God. I had been reading a New Age book that said all religions were the same and that Jesus was one of the many ways to God (also my belief at the time). But a claim in the book puzzled me. The author claimed that the only people who struggled to do certain mystical practices were Christians, and that the only way to overcome this ‘blockage’ was to stop mentioning the name of Jesus in prayer and to stop attending a Christian Church. Further research into why this might be led to my intellectual acceptance of Christianity. Then, a few months later, on the day before Christmas, while at a barbecue, God convicted me of my sinful lifestyle, granted me repentance from my sins and saved me. Throughout my life, God had sent people across my path who shared Christ with me. The seeds sown over many years bore fruit that day.
A year later, I started attending Bible College, believing God was calling me into full-time ministry. At the time, I could not imagine how God could use my skills as a photographer and journalist for His purposes. Furthermore, because photography had been such a huge idol in my life, I believed I would have to be prepared to lay it aside to serve God. So, as much as I loved photography, I gave away most of my equipment and abandoned my dream of being a photojournalist.
Once I had completed my Bible college diploma, I started an outreach and discipleship ministry to those living in a city ghetto area, including many prostitutes and drug addicts. I worked there for a total of 10 years. During this time, I started doing some photography work again on a part-time basis as a ‘tent-making’ activity to support myself in ministry. Eventually, this work expanded and included everything from wedding, portrait and fashion photography, to corporate, PR, editorial, newspaper and press photography. Several newspapers and magazines published my work, and I won international awards.
A picture is worth a thousand words
My first exposure to the possibility of God using my photographic gifts, skills and passions for His purposes came in 1994. A family from our church shared about their heart for a small ethnic group in Northern Ethiopia that had no part of the Bible in their own language. I volunteered my services to take photos for them on their first trip. They used all my photos in their presentations at churches to raise funds and prayer support for their move to Ethiopia to work on a Bible translation. The family ended up living in Ethiopia for 10 years, translating some books of the Bible into the local language and training up indigenous people to continue working on the Bible translation. Today, those indigenous people are involved in 20 Bible translation projects in four regions of Ethiopia.
After the trip to Ethiopia, I wrote an article about the people and culture of Ethiopia. The Sowetan newspaper published my article as a double-page-spread along with three of my photographs. That same year I started studying journalism and photojournalism, hoping that God would somehow use these skills in His time to carry out His purposes. I eventually completed a Master of Journalism degree through an Australian university in 2004.
Fast forward 14 years after my trip to Ethiopia. A family from our church in Australia was moving to Syria to share Christ’s love with the people there. I volunteered my services to go with them to take photos for use in raising funds and prayer support for their trip. The family, who were part of OM, arranged for me to stay with another missionary family from OM in Lebanon, where I planned a visit after the trip to Syria. That connection in Lebanon would open a wonderful opportunity for me some 12 years later.
While working part-time as a photographer and volunteering as a prison chaplain at a maximum-security prison in Australia, the OM contact from Lebanon reached out to me and offered me the prospect of becoming part of the communications team in OM as a photography coach. The role involved not only taking photos but also overseeing and supporting a network of photographers and helping them develop their photography skills when capturing visual stories of the work done by OM workers across the world. I believe that the way this unfolded was God at work in my life.
It has been such a privilege to be able to serve God using my professional skills and passions. It brings me immense joy when various OM offices use the images of our photography team for their projects. A picture is worth a thousand words, and what more effective way to make supporters aware of the work God is doing through people than beautiful photographs depicting moments in their lives and work in lands and cultures across the world.
I believe that because I was willing to give up something that I loved so much, God opened the door for me to use my skills to serve others. I believe that all Christians can and should use their God-given gifts and talents for the Kingdom of God.