Art and The Gospel

MJ and one of the girls from the project. These kids are soooo cute: )

In case you didn’t know it, we’ve got a couple college aged girls here with us here in Brazil for 3 months. Both of them have been on short term mission trips to Brazil before. But this time they’re here with us so that they can experience what it’s like living on the foreign mission field as a full-time missionary. Both of them have just finished high school and are searching for what God’s will is for them as they launch into adulthood. 

We’ve known one of the girls (Amber) since she was about 7 years old. Her and Maryssa are close friends and grew up in church together. MJ and I actually served on staff at a church in Atlanta with her parents for a few years. It’s amazing to see what a solid woman of God she’s grown-up to be. She’s been a HUGE encouragement to Maryssa (being here in Brazil) too. We’re actually thinking about “not” letting her go home. Sorry Dean and Monica (that’s her parents). lol!

Amber a two of the girls on week 4 of the project.

Amber giving her testimony to all the kids as Ruan translates.

The other girl that’s here with us (Anna) is from our sending church (Crossroads Church of Walton County) and is a very talented artist. She also has a vision for using her gift to help orphans and children here in Brazil. So we’re trying to help her, as much as we can, to get her ministry started. We have friends in different parts of our state (Parana) that have ministries that are actively helping orphans and at risk children. We’ve been working with a couple of them by going and teaching art to them. One of the ministries has a day program for street kids that we’ve just finished doing a project with. What we did was assign each child one of the 6 days in the creation narrative. And, whatever day they were assigned, that’s what they painted. They were all given a canvas to paint on and that canvas was placed together with all the other canvases to create one huge painting. It actually turned out great and is going to be displayed on a wall in the main sanctuary of the ministry. Here’s how the project happened:

Anna and a couple of the girls from the project on week 1.

Anna explaining to some of the boys how to paint and rinse their brushes.

The first week that we met with the kids we read Genesis 1 and talked to them about  creation. Then we gave each child a blank piece of paper and asked them to draw the thing that stuck out to them the most in the story. Then we collected all the papers and took them back to the Camp so Anna could see what the kids drew. This was so she could assign a day in the creation story to them the following week. There were 55 kids and we met with them all in groups of 10-15 at a time each week. So it needed to be planned out perfectly so that the finished product was square (or rectangular). 

Anna and Ruan explaining the project to the first group of kids on week 1.

Week one began with each student sketching their interpretation of creation.

Before each child was given their canvas on week 2, Anna laid out all the canvases together and wrote “Jesus” across all the ones in the middle of the group so that when the canvases are placed together you can see “Jesus” written across all of them (which ties them all together as one piece of art). Then we passed out all the canvases so that everyone could draw and paint their interpretation of their particular day. The kids had no idea that some of their canvases contained part of the word “Jesus” on it either. We just told them not to paint on the areas that were marked on their canvases and they would see why later. We wanted them to all be surprised when we finished.

One of the boys as he began sketching on week 2.

Week 3 the kids started painting!

Jim and one of the boys building the frame for the art project.

Week four and all the paintings are almost complete!

Amber talking to the kids as they completed their paintings on week 4.

Starting to attach all the paintings to the frame.

Here's all the paintings after we attached them to the frame.

Amber and MJ touching up the paint on the "Jesus" part of the painting.

 Jim and 2 of the girls after the project was completed.

The project took 4 weeks to complete and was a great way for us to allow the kids to show-off their art skills. But, more importantly, it gave us an opportunity to share the Gospel and hang out with kids who definitely need to experience the love of Christ. The girls, Ruan (our translator-and Anna’s Boyfriend) and I all had an opportunity to hang out one-on-one with most of them. And, one week, Amber was able to speak to all of them about what Jesus has done in her live as well. It was an honor being able to hang out with such an amazing group of kids the last four weeks and the project turned out great!

The finished project. Fifty Five kids painted 55 paintings that once
 the paintings were all put together... created one beautiful work of art.

I know that I say this all the time, but “thank you to all of our supporters who allow us to do the things we do here in Brazil.” You guys are impacting children and teenagers lives in ways that none of us will ever fully understand until we see Jesus. But I know that we’re making a huge difference for the Kingdom, so thanks!

Next week we start another art project for the house mothers at an orphanage in Columbo. Then the following week we do one with the 40 kids that they take care of. We’ll keep you posted on our progress: )

Love Ya,

Jim