Picture Story: The One-Day (5-points of view) - Columbia's Swahili Church

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Pastor Nene Peter Rwenyaguza, a former farmer and school teacher from the Congo, made his way to Columbia in 2008. Rwenyaguza now leads the a Swahili church service at First Baptist Church with Rubin Byishimo, who plays the piano and sings during songs.

First Baptist Church's weekly Swahili service has a congregation of about 80 members, consisting of people who've come from Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and the Congo. Many of the members knew each other before coming to Columbia. The entire service is given in Swahili, with periods of song and dance interspersed between scripture readings.

Swahili, also know as KiSwahili, is a language spoken by about 80 million people and is the official language in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Comoros and Zanzibar.

Critique: I tried to cue in on the different aspects of church, the different ways a photograph could tell a story about the service. I struggled trying to understand the "Five points of view" concept, so mu brain wandered through different ways to do that throughout the shoot, whether it was showing one aspect five different ways or having five pictures from different angles are with different lenses.

Another struggle was that it snowed before the service, which I think dropped attendance and created a lighter presence than I expected.

Overall, I think I'm happy. I wish there were a better caption that I could come up with, but this is what I have to fit the story that these images tell.