Updates and Art camp
after-school art class this spring
Hello friends!
Thank you for your support! Just wanted to give you an update and invite your prayers.
Locally:
We hosted an after-school art class this spring which produced stronger friendships and greater community for us with kids and parents alike! Plus beautiful art ;) 6 moms stayed voluntarily to hang out and sometimes create. It was fun and we’d do it again!
We host monthly worship services in our home where we invite neighbors, friends and family. There’s been more interest in this as a result of the art class!
Beyond:
Last week all the clergy and ministry teams from around the Anglican Diocese in New England (ADNE) met in Boston for our annual Missional Planning Summit. Bp. Williams and the head of the Standing Committee, Josh Vanada, lead us in planning out our year through prayerful listening to the Holy Spirit and sound wisdom. Sean was invited to lead worship for the 2 days. He has gathered a band of musicians from around the diocese. They played together there; they will meet for a song-writing weekend at our home this summer; and they will play again at the Reawakening Conference. Sean has waited for God to make a way for him to use his gift. The Lord is doing it! The worship lifted all our hearts up; everyone was blessed. And Sean let it rip, which I loved.
I had an idea for a corporate art project involving prayer and mission and the creativity of the Holy Spirit. I shared it with Bp. Williams and his wife, Elena, over the spring. He invited me to do it at the conference. I had to shrink, tweak, and move it from outside to inside given the weather. And the Lord used it!
This was the verse that inspired me: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32
I sketched out a cross on multi-media paper.
I invited the people to write or draw inside the cross their prayers for their churches, New England, and beyond using oil pastels.
The next day I made a blue watercolor wash over the cross to symbolize the Spirit answering, cleansing, flooding our prayers and honoring Jesus’ work of forgiveness on the cross. Two wonderful helpers from All Saints jumped in to help me move the huge paper around so the paint would drip the right way. I couldn’t have done it without them! They encouraged me and I believe they were blessed too.
It was a welcomed “right brain” activity in the midst of our needed “left brain” work. Plus, Sean and I made our plans for this year! Check them out on our website.
Lastly, we would love your prayers…
We will host our first Christian Creative Arts Camp next week! Over 12 kids will join us Wednesday through Friday in the afternoons on our property. The Rev. Canon Craig Vickerman, head of ADNE Youth and Families, and his family will stay with us and help us run the camp. The kids are all coming from our different local touch-points – our local worship services, our art parties, after-school art class, and friendships. Each child is an answer to prayer. We will use Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15 as a backbone for the art projects and storytelling. We will paint with our feet, tennis balls, and ordinary brushes ;) We will end with an art show and retelling the Prodigal Son story together for the parents. I believe all will stay for a pizza and pool party afterwards.
We would love your prayers!