Still Standing, Only by God’s Grace: 11 Years of Loss and Restoration

The photographs we usually share are full of smiles. This time, we want to show you the photographs behind some of our hardest days.

Over the past eleven years at SelfieBox, we have experienced car accidents, write-offs, cracked screens, broken photo booths, smash-and-grabs, a robbery at our office, flat tyres and a car that was torched. We have watched equipment we worked hard for become unusable. We have lost vehicles that carried our business from one event to the next. And we have faced months when there was simply no work.

These photographs are part of our history. They show how much has been lost along the way. But they do not show the end of our story.

We have stood up every single time. And we are still here ONLY by the grace of God.

The car was lost. Our attendants walked away unscathed.

One of the hardest photographs to look at is the one at the top of this post. During the taxi strikes in Cape Town, our car was torched. In that fire, we lost the car, a 360 Spin, a HaloBox and a printer.

That is an enormous amount to lose in a single incident. A vehicle and the equipment inside it represent work, investment and the means to serve the next client. Looking at the burnt-out shell, there was no mistaking the scale of the destruction.

But the most important part of that day cannot be measured in rands: our attendants escaped unscathed. We thank God for their safety. We can replace a vehicle. We can rebuild our equipment. The people who travel with that equipment are worth infinitely more.

We remember both truths together. The loss was devastating, and our gratitude to God for their lives is deeper than the loss.

Accidents, overturned vehicles and write-offs

There is a great deal of travelling behind a photo booth at an event. Before the first guest steps in front of the camera, a vehicle has carried the equipment there. After the last photograph, everything must make the journey again.

Over eleven years, our story on the road has included serious accidents and write-offs. The photographs here show crushed bodywork, shattered windscreens and vehicles lying on their sides or roofs. They are difficult reminders of days when the ordinary business of getting from one place to another became something far more serious.

The loss of a vehicle reaches beyond the vehicle itself. It removes a working part of the business. There are repairs or replacements to consider and practical arrangements to make before moving forward. Even when the immediate scene has been cleared, the consequences remain.

We have had to face those consequences repeatedly. Each time, by God’s grace, we have found our feet again.

Some of these photographs show different angles of the same accident. Together, they give a fuller picture of what those moments looked like, from the damage itself to the recovery afterwards.

Smash-and-grabs and a robbery at the office

We have also experienced the loss that comes when someone takes what you have worked for. Smash-and-grabs have left broken windows and glass scattered through our vehicles. We have been robbed at our office too.

There is something deeply discouraging about that kind of loss. The items have a cost, but so does the disruption. Time that should be spent preparing, creating and serving clients has to go into dealing with what happened and putting things back in order.

An office should be a place where you can prepare for the work ahead. A vehicle should be ready to carry that work safely. Having those spaces violated is hard. We will not pretend it was easy, or that replacing what was taken made the experience insignificant.

Yet theft has never been the final word over SelfieBox. We believe God has restored what the enemy tried to take from us, and we give Him the glory for every step forward.

Cracked screens, broken booths and the losses that add up

Not every setback leaves a burnt-out car or an overturned vehicle. Some arrive as a cracked screen, a damaged display or a broken piece of a photo booth. They may look smaller in a photograph, but this is the equipment our business depends on.

A booth can still have its familiar shape while an essential part no longer works. A screen can light up and still be unusable. Damage to a casing, a display or a device creates another problem that has to be dealt with before that equipment is ready again.

Over time, these losses accumulate. It is not only one replacement or one repair; it is the repeated need to restore something that was already working. The photographs below belong in this story just as much as the bigger incidents do.

And sometimes, it is another flat tyre

Then there are the roadside setbacks: punctures, damaged tyres and another stop to change a wheel. A nail in a tyre is a small thing, but it can bring a journey to a halt.

These moments are part of the same eleven years. Alongside the major losses have been ordinary, frustrating problems that needed attention, effort and another decision to keep going. We are grateful for God’s grace in those moments too.

March to November 2020: nine months. Zero events.

Some of our biggest losses do not have a photograph.

During COVID-19, from March through November 2020, SelfieBox did a total of zero events. Nine months without the work our business existed to do. Nine months without setting up for a celebration, welcoming guests to a booth or earning income from an event.

For a business built around people gathering together, that was a devastating season. The booths were there, but the events were not. The experience and willingness to work were there, but there was nowhere to put them to use.

On top of that, multiple clients did not pay us for events we had already completed. This was work already done and money already earned, yet the payments did not come. Facing no new events while also carrying unpaid accounts for past work made an already difficult period even harder.

There is no single image that captures nine months like that. No broken windscreen to point to. No burnt-out shell to show the damage. But that season belongs here, because it was another serious loss we had to come through.

And we came through it by the grace of God.

What the enemy tried to steal, kill and destroy

When we look at these years, we think of the words of Jesus in John 10:10:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”

John 10:10, NKJV — excerpt

In the rest of that verse, Jesus speaks of the abundant life He came to give. That is where our hope rests. Destruction is real, but it does not have the authority to decide the end of our story.

We have seen things stolen. We have seen things destroyed. We have faced losses that could have made us stop. But we have also seen God restore what the enemy tried to take away. The fact that we are still standing is our testimony to His faithfulness.

“I will restore to you the years”

Joel 2:25 holds a special place in this story:

“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten”

Joel 2:25, NKJV — excerpt

The words about restoring the years speak deeply to us. Loss takes more than an object. It takes time: time spent building, time spent recovering and time spent trying to get back to where you were. Nine months without events is a loss of time as well as work. Replacing the same things again can make it feel as though you are covering ground you have already walked.

We hold on to this Scripture with gratitude and faith. In our own journey, we have seen God bring restoration after seasons of loss. We do not tell this story because we had all the answers. We tell it because He has carried us through.

Every time we have been able to stand again, rebuild and continue, we have had another reason to thank Him.

Eleven years later, all the glory belongs to God

We wanted to share these photographs because the joyful moments are only part of the SelfieBox story. Behind them are difficult days, damaged equipment, lost vehicles, stolen belongings and a season when the events stopped altogether.

We are grateful to the people who have been part of the journey: our team, our clients and everyone who has supported us. And above everything, we thank God. He has sustained us through the losses and restored what the enemy tried to steal, kill or destroy.

If you are looking at your own setback today, we hope our story gives you courage to take the next step. We cannot tell you exactly how your restoration will unfold. We can tell you Who has carried us through ours.

Eleven years. Serious losses. And still standing.
Only by the grace of God.
All glory to Him.

Scripture excerpts from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Photographs from the SelfieBox archive.