December 8, 2019
Theme-Peace
Live demonstration
2 services
Lutheran Church of Hope
Waukee, IA
I received a text on a Wednesday while driving home from Colorado that the artist lined up for the both Sunday services in Waukee had canceled. I prayed for an hour to see if any concept would come to mind. Sure enough it did and I decided to paint at both services. It was their Songs and Stories service with some amazing singers and music. The whole service was inspirational and full of peace! Music and dancing flowed so well. I especially like the 3 minutes of complete silence! That was amazing! Standing on stage and pausing to join everyone in silence was very moving. A couple minutes into the silence some honking geese flew over the church. Amazing to hear them so clear in a room full of silent people.
I loved being able to spontaneously join these services and be apart of this celebration before Christmas. I had several people come up afterwards to look at the art and talk to me. One little boy who came up to appreciate the painting left an impression on me that will last a lifetime. He was looking so intently at the piece. I asked him if he was an artist and he excitingly said “Yes I am, I use oil pastels.” We talked for a few minutes about techniques and mediums. I will always remember the excitement he displayed. He had clearly been inspired and felt the Holy Spirit through the art.
This is exactly why I decided to paint live even though it sounded like the scariest thing ever to do in front of a lot of people. It was a huge fear I had and didn’t think I would ever be able to do that. But after painting live for the first time Christmas Eve 2018 the fear was overcome by complete joy. It absolutely strengthened my faith and trust in God. Fear not for anything is possible with God.
Waukee, IA