Kuyasa Film School - Where Art Gives Life

I didn’t see it coming.

But God is calling me back to South Africa for the next few years.

When the Kuyasa Film School started in 2008, I had no idea it would become such a passion in my heart.

Experiencing first-hand the effect the school has on students has totally amazed me. And seeing my students journey from their initial interviews to their walks down the red carpet at the first Kayamandi Film Festival was arguably the happiest time of my life.

When school began, not one student had ever held a video camera.

But by the end of our sixth month together, students were excitedly editing their films on sophisticated Mac laptops. And while I experienced the highs and lows of working with students in abject poverty, it wasn’t till much later that I grasped how it shaped my soul.

The revelation came in the form of an email from one of my students.

At the time—some six months later—she was taking classes at a digital photography school. Her initial training and support provided her with the wherewithal to seek a greater learning experience, and now she was pouring out her appreciation.

She told me she stopped dreaming at 11 years of age—realizing that living in poverty was going to be her lot in life.

She thought she was doomed.

The poverty she grew up in as a child was the poverty she would live in as an adult—the poverty she would raise her children in.

Yet there she was—camera in her hand and smile on her face.

She was becoming a person others were beginning to look up to, and she was overwhelmed with the new direction her life was taking.

I couldn’t help but cry—tears streaming down my cheeks—as I thought about this young woman and her newfound hope.

I wept, realizing for the first time I was a tool in the Master’s hand.

And I wept at the thought that a young person’s life had changed because you made it possible for me to be in Kayamandi, South Africa, sharing Christ’s love, and equipping young people to make a difference.

In July I’ll be moving to South Africa.

And for the next couple of years I will share Christ’s love and help create opportunities—through the medium of film—for ways out of poverty and despair.

The mission is to create a model which will prepare promising students for employment in a fully operational film production company—enabling them to make an honest living and move toward advanced studio work and greater career opportunities.

But to do that, I desperately need your help.

First of all, I need your prayers. This isn’t going to be easy. But I’m going because of God’s calling. Please, will you lift me up when you think of me?

I trust you’ll prayerfully consider making me a part of your monthly tithes and offerings. Like other missionaries, I’ll have living expenses, but in addition I’ll need to secure a substantial amount of film equipment before leaving for South Africa.

To give online you can do so at the following link – www.threadsafrica.org and click on the donate button - just be sure to designate Kuyasa Film School as the project.

Major expenses for video equipment, computers, the flight, medical insurance, and such, must be secured before I can leave for South Africa. Your initial gift will help secure the essential equipment for operation of the Kuyasa Film School.

Then the real sustaining work begins.

Staying in South Africa will require the ongoing financial support of family and friends; I am fully trusting God to secure ongoing monthly support I need.

So your gift today—for cameras, laptop computers, lights, microphones, and incidentals—will get the ball rolling.

And your longer-term financial commitment will help make it possible for me to fulfill God’s touch on my heart to provide “life-giving solutions” to the life-threatening conditions of so many young South African kids.

Thank you for your gift today and your ongoing financial support.

I’m so grateful to have you in my life.


Katie Taylor