Picturing the International Church
March 6, 2007
Divinity senior Bryan Baker has witnessed the kind of poverty, hope and redemption that most Americans barely read about. Now he is bringing this vision, gathered from mission trips to Africa, the Caribbean and the United States with him in full color.
The West Virginia native currently works with the Office of Communications at the Divinity School as a student photographer. Photography is a relatively recent avocation for him. His mother tried to get him interested in it when he was younger, but had little success at the time. Now Baker is developing an enthusiasm for the camera, “I love trying to capture moments… that’s a vital part of my ministry.”
View a sampling of Bryan Baker’s photography:
Right click on the image to manually move through the slideshow.
Baker’s ministry, as it has developed over several years, largely concerns casting light on parts of the church that are hidden from traditional American Christians. He has walked into Zimbabwean Pentecostal worship services and shelters for Ugandan children whose parents are afraid they may disappear in the night, stolen for service in guerilla armies.
Baker has always had a taste for adventure. He wanted to be Indiana Jones when he was a kid. That wandering spirit led to his first mission experience in Belize as an undergraduate at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where his call to the mission field was confirmed.
He spent the last semester of his senior year at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, studying that country’s culture and history. After finishing in South Africa, Baker had a job waiting for him in Kenya. However, on the journey north he became stranded in Zimbabwe on the way.
During elections involving Robert Mugabe, banks shut down, and Baker could not access his money. He could not hitch a ride out of the country because of a fuel shortage. He ran out of food, and finally had to kneel on the side of a mountain and literally pray for his daily bread.
Comforted by the prayer, he walked up the mountain to discover a Pentecostal congregation conducting services. The people of that church took him in immediately, and, for the next five months, Baker backpacked through Zimbabwe, into Kenya, and back to South Africa. Once he finished sojourning, he realized he had to be ordained, “so I can go to the places God will send me with the authority that will be recognized by the church,” he said.
After returning to the U.S. and finishing his degree in Christian Education, Baker was certified as a missionary by the United Methodist Church and was ready for an overseas position. He returned to West Virginia, however, to take a homeland mission appointment as the first director of Hope Ministries.
During that time, Baker prepared to come to seminary. Duke Divinity was far down on his list at first. From what he had heard, the school did not seem to fit his missionary orientation. But when he learned of the relationship with the South African church at Duke and the presence of Peter Storey on the faculty, he let God lead him here.
Since coming to the Divinity School, Baker has established himself as “Mr. Missions.” He has demonstrated the importance of a solid theological education for the mission field to many of his peers. Some did not completely understand the vitality of what Baker calls the “international church” and the lessons that non-Western Christians can teach to the church in the United States.
In the summer of 2005, Baker went on a Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope to Uganda and Rwanda, led by Emmanuel Katongole now in the Center for Reconciliation at the Divinity School. Learning about the genocide and the church’s failures in that part of the world confirmed his call to missions, and he determined to return to central Africa. In the summer of 2006, Baker did return in a field education assignment to Uganda.
Just before going to Uganda for field education, Baker saw “Invisible Children,” a documentary about the child soldiers who are kidnapped from their families and forced to fight in the rebellion against the Ugandan government. He felt compelled to learn more about them and to take the opportunity to visit them while he was there.
On his own initiative, Baker raised funds and secured transport and protection to extend his time in Uganda. He visited a sanctuary for “night commuters;” children who take refuge in a Catholic compound at night to avoid being kidnapped and impressed into the rebellion.
Baker has become involved with some programs to help children in the camps he visited with Katongole, he helps a Catholic church in Cary with “Share the Blessing,” and he has started a “heifer project” type program that provides oxen for Pabo refugee camp. To his surprise, his father has taken the lead in fundraising efforts by speaking to churches and individuals.
According to Baker, the priests in Uganda, though happy with the material support, are more interested in letting people in the United States know what is going on in central Africa. He said they “ordered” him to tell the story of the child soldiers, the night commuters and Pabo refugee camp.
He has found that photography helps with that commission. “Some of the stories that I tell are so foreign to people [in the U.S.] that they don’t believe them without a photo,” Baker said, “but they’ll read the stories to understand what the picture is about… it’s a way to get people to actually pay attention.”
Baker wants people to pay attention.