Sylvie Nyamuka's life of lights, glitz and glamour began at an early age. She had never intended to be a fashion model. However, as a young teenager living in Brussels, a photographer spotted her on the streets and entered her in a major modeling competition involving hundreds of contestants.
"We needed to present ourselves in front of a jury made of very important people in the designer industry even France and foreign countries," Nyamuka said.
Competing against more experienced models Sylvie Nyamuka was not sure she stood a chance.
"There are thousands of girls who are pretty and beautiful when you do casting and three hundred girls are in front of you. They are as pretty and as beautiful."
Sylvie Nyamuka won the competition and through it, was introduced to a modeling agency. Modeling agencies and designer houses soon took her on fashion tours around the world including Japan.
"I worked very well in Japan, with well known designers. So I did the Tokyo collection."
Soon Sylvie was on her way to becoming an established in-house model for some of the biggest names in the fashion world. Her clients included Versace, Chanel, Gucci and a host of other leading designers.
Despite her success, her introduction to the fashion world was not without its challenges – long hours, loneliness, temptation to use drugs, and constant overtures from men.
"Men would come and wait with their beautiful cars when you pass by they would say che bella ragazza (what a pretty girl)."
Being the face of an agency or a fashion designer, Sylvie was constantly being transformed to fit into the mold of whatever was in vogue at the time.
"Slowly my personality, my identity began to change," Nyamuka said.
The solitude of the job left Sylvie asking more questions than she had answers. "When we are alone and … far from home, far from everything … if we want to face reality, we realize that well … who am I? What am I doing? Where am I going? It's extraordinarily difficult today for a model to be able to stay stable."
Sylvie Nyamuka felt the pressures of the business caused her and a lot of other models to lose their identity.
"I saw girls that I knew at the beginning when they started out … I saw them two years later, well they were completely different. That's the reality of modeling."
To help deal with the rigors of the modeling profession, Sylvie Nyamuka says she began the practice of talking to God, asking Him to lead and guide her.
"I had taken a step toward God in my life" Nyamuka said. "When I was alone in Paris I was not alone (and) I spent a lot of time with God."
Sylvie says on a number of occasions when she prayed on the street… there was an image of Jesus walking with her. But her quiet moments of prayer and her relationship with God, ended shortly after she began an affair with a wealthy married man she met while working in Paris.
"I met a man through a model at whose house I was staying and she introduced me to this man for personal gain I think, because she needed finances. He had a double life. He had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Paris and then the rest with his family."
Sylvie Nyamuka lost all touch with her faith.
"When I met this man, Jesus left. I couldn't say what was wrong but I knew that something was wrong."
Almost a year later, Sylvie says one day she experienced a wake up call and a turning point in her life.
"When I went home, I looked at myself and said to myself, Sylvie there is something wrong with you. That was the beginning of something. It was a revelation. It was an open door for God to begin talking to me."
Later, she accepted a friend's invitation to visit a church in Brussels and something the pastor said caught her attention.
"God spoke to me through the mouth of the pastor" Nyamuka said. "He knew nothing of my life and he said to me, 'If you don't stop hanging out with the people you hang out with, I will back out of your life. I began to discuss with God and I began to tell him, now you can't leave me… its not possible. No I will not let you leave me. But God knows what he was doing because I think he would never have left me, because God does not leave. But at that moment in my life, I needed to change absolutely so that I could make a strong decision in my life."
The decision Sylvie made that day signified a turning in her life. She ended the adulterous relationship, become a Christian and dedicated her life to Jesus Christ.
"I have seen what life is like with Satan,' Nyamuka said. "And this life I don't want it even if at the beginning it seems to be so fantastic. I am much freer than before."
Sylvie is still a fashion model, yet her priorities and her focus have changed. She remains aware of the challenges that lie ahead.
"The reality of the Christian life is not: "life is beautiful," Nyamuka said. The Christian life is a life of war- the war with Satan. It is the war for the kingdom of God. The more we walk, the more the chains fall one after the other."
Sylvie Nyamuka remains clear and focused about what she wants to see happen in her own life.
"Me, I do not want to live a half –life," Nyamuka said. "A little in the world and then with God. No it's categorical. The black hole that I was in I don't want to go there and I will never be there again. Today, I am with God. I know where I am going and I have light on my feet. I see where I am going."
