New Friends and Lots of Blessings!

Feb. 19 – “He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread.” Prov. 12:11   “When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back and get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”  Deut. 24:19

March 6 – wow, how can I put into words what all has gone on the past couple weeks?  I’ve probably had around 50 people come in and so many stories, so many new people.  I am so blessed to get to talk with, become friends with, and do art with so many different people of different ages and cultures.   I’m constantly blown away by how God is using me to touch so many lives.  Who would have thought?  Open an art gallery/studio, give away art lessons and all of a sudden, we’re the local ‘church’ or rather, what we like to say “fellowship”…. The place everyone now goes to for a taste of heaven.  That is how one lady put it today.  I’ve become mentor to many young people, sounding post and confidant to many, one who they know will give them the truth and to be challenged.   Like the new one who came in today, due to have her first baby anytime, spent 4 hours painting and talking with me and to others who came in during that time.  Or the one who came in who lost her job, or the old lady who is just learning about forgiveness and redemption.   The Kingdom of God in action!  Wow, so fun.

I was just re-reading the verses I put in on Feb. 19^th … I was going to expand on that, but got busy somewhere else and never got back to it, but now I see it all in a different light from what I intended … I am reaping a harvest in this art gallery!  I find that I’m preaching on a daily basis; not how one views traditional preaching, but as I interact with each person, I find that I am being used by the Holy Spirit to say just the right thing to bless these people!  Wow, it all blows me away.  William is finding a similar thing at his work … as he goes through the day, he is sharing his praise and worship music with everyone, preaching (again untraditional) and interacting with the people that come and go, and finding that he is touching people in ways he never expected.

There are so many, but this one really blew me away last week.  A group of ladies (and a young man) had come in, none knowing each other prior, but just happen to come in around the same time.  So we all decided to sit down and paint a certain landscape.  We all get to chatting and they decide they all want to come in again the next day for drawing lessons.  The next day, most of them show up and we start learning to draw eyes and faces.  They find out that the next day is my birthday, they ask a few questions and decide to all meet here again the following day.  So, last Thursday, my birthday, they all show up again bearing gifts, Chinese food, and cake.  So we ended up with an impromptu birthday party, when more people show up and join in.  Then we all drew faces again and painted.  Who has this much fun?!

Then on Saturday, not only did William get me roses and a real cool vase, but he took me out to lunch at this German restaurant in town – very good place!  Then we went to his brother’s and they threw a birthday party for me (they brought me a balloon earlier in the week and it’s still floating around in my studio) … I got this cool tea cup and saucer that I took to the studio and when people come in (if they come in one at a time) I’ll offer them tea (which I do anyway) in my special ‘blessed’ tea cup and they feel extra special … it’s been real cool to see their reactions.

This week, the same ladies show up again and again we draw and sit around chatting.  Wow, who says retirements boring!  Anyway, it just reminds me of how God works … I’ve been praying for each and every person that goes by my shop or comes in.  As I learn about each person, each story, I pray more and more for each person.  So I’m being blown away by how I get to see answers  to those prayers, when the people come back in and tell me ‘the rest of the story.’   It is so cool to be a blessing to others.

Anyway, while I’m talking to these Hispanic ladies, they tell me they would love it if I would teach an ESL class … they said that if I announced I was teaching English, not only would they come (they go to some class in Colorado Springs), but they were sure I would have a dozen easy right off the bat.  Wow, who’d of thought … my master’s degree is in reading and literacy, I didn’t take the ESL classes or get the certification, but what if I use the old timey McGuffy Readers and teach them … wow, what a concept; they would learn the REAL history of America AND read the bible within AND learn to read and write English … I just might be doing this soon!

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, the owner of the Pony Espresso Coffee Shop asked me to paint a mural on her outside wall, to attract customers.  It was to be a 10’ x 6’ mural of her logo.  So I asked Ryan to help me, since he is an expert on horses and people, and we basically got the mural done in a week.   I don’t have a final copy of the picture, but here we are in action (my camera went caput, anyone have a spare I can have?); we were even written up in the paper this week.  While we were painting, several people stopped by to chat, including a biker dude (vet of Vietnam) who wants me to paint his bike this summer!  I told him I’ve never worked with enamel before, but he insisted that I could do it …. Always a new adventure.

 

Yes, someone on Facebook spotted that I forgot the 2nd 'S' at the end, so the next day I had to go in and correct my spelling!!

New Friends

Tiffany and her daughter came in and did artwork today.  They had come in a few days ago, along with her son and both kids are so excited to be coming in to do art; however, today the boy was off doing something else.  We had an awesome conversation – I guess Tiffany’s husband is in the military and she has a real heart for helping people.  She was saying how she likes to take people in and feed them and help them in a variety of ways.   Kayla was there today, sitting there doing artwork as well, and they got into a conversation – this is so awesome, because the two really hit it off and Tiffany wants to help teach Kayla how to cook!  We then got to talking about how our ministry operates and she started telling us about the Restoration Church – she had to leave to pick up her son, who was there doing some type of activity and she asked if we wanted to go with her to pick him up and perhaps, meet the pastor.  So I put my “be back in a minute” sign and took off(what’s funny, sometimes when I put up that sign, I’m gone an hour or two!)  – the pastor wasn’t there, Tiffany showed us the greenhouse – I guess the church grows things there and helps feed the people – real cool.  We also saw some really cool artwork done by the youth pastor’s wife – I guess they do something along the lines that we do – give art lessons/therapy and do artwork that glorifies God.  I told William tonight, that we need to go to that church next Sunday (he already had plans to go to the Baptist Church this week.) because I think there’s a great connection there.

Prayer meeting tonight was great – John, his wife, and son came out.  Justin, Josh, William and I made up the rest of the group (some of David’s kids are sick again) and it was a great time.  I had met a couple, their kids and grandkids a couple weeks ago who came to prayer meeting one night when William couldn’t come in – I was hoping to see them again. 

Sunset over our apartments in Fountain

Nov 11 – Today I took Kayla to find a job – we went to the Subway and the manager told her to come back Thursday at 3:30!  Wow, that was cool – we’ve been praying for her to get a job because she owes $100 for her rent and she needs to get dog food like right now.  We ran a couple errands, then I took her to Neil’s to learn how to do oil painting.  She loves learning about new art techniques; however, I guess it wasn’t a good idea to take her there.  It was a full class, another new girl was there, and I was at the other end of the room and didn’t hear everything, but I guess Kayla got upset, didn’t like Neil touching her painting (but that is how one learns in this class) and she was upset because the other girl got more attention/instruction and she was left clueless on what to do, etc and etc.  Anyway, I had hoped it would be a good thing for her, but I’m not sure this is the format to take her into.  After class, I brought her home for dinner and she enjoyed that.