I found a piece of wood laying by a trash can... picked it up and turned it into this! It had a couple nails and screws in it, I look those out and cleaned it up. I used a bar of soap to help fill the holes. I had seen that on Pinterest... it worked pretty well, but I had a hard time covering the soap with the acrylic paint I used. I watered down some brown paint and started with a layer of that to darken the wood. I also added a tiny bit of water to the teal and lightly painted that on... purposefully leaving spots where you could see the brown through it. I free-handed the letters on with pencil and filled with paint. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! Now I just need to get some picture hangers and get it put up!
The quote is the name of a movie, "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You"... I fell in love with it. I'm not convinced it's a fact yet, but I'm hopeful.
I like the way both of these turned out, though they aren't very smooth. I didn't put mod podge on the canvas first, I put the pages down first so I could arrange them the way I wanted. then I simply painted the mod podge on top. that causes the wrinkles though, so in the future, I think I'll put mod podge on the canvas first, then just be careful about how I lay the pages out.
for the first one, I took Bible pages all with verses about love. I highlighted those verses with a watered down yellow paint. I also watered down the teal paint a bit as the background, the. just free handed "love deeply" on. I want to work on my lettering!
used the same method of mod podging book pages onto canvas. I had some wooden words I had picked up at a craft store, laid them on the canvas and sprayed painted over. peeled off the words, and voila. I also painted the sides of the canvas to give it a little more color and splattered on a bit of yellow.
In the past, the main purpose of this blog was to share my adventures in mission work while I lived in Haiti. It wasn't always about Haiti. Sometimes I posted random thoughts and musings. However, now I'm no longer living in Haiti, just back to regular ol' life in Southern Indiana. But I have a new hobby. I've started crafting. While I've always loved to draw, I've never thought of myself as artsy. And I'm still not really. But I love trying. Sometimes I spend hours on something and it's a flop. And sometimes, I'm proud of the end results. I'm going to start sharing my attempts at being crafting here on the blog!
To start with, here are two random, simple beginning works.
I started with a piece of cloth from an old shirt. Painted on the squares and sewed around them. My sewing machine was snagging a bit, so it didn't turn out perfectly. Printed out the quote on regular computer paper and sewed it on as well!
I special greeting card that I wanted to hang on to, so I decided to make something with it. I cut off the back of the card, and glued the front to a couple different pieces of collaged scrapebook paper. Then I loosely glued it to the brown piece just to hold it in place and stitched it on. I really like the effect that gave it! Hot glued on the buttons to give it a little extra texture. Framed it without glass.
I'm at a place in my life where I am questioning a lot of things. I'm questioning what I believe and where I stand on certain issues and who I am. Don't freak out. I am not questioning whether God exists. I am not questioning my belief in Jesus. But I look at the church and church people... and I can't help but think maybe we've missed it. It's hard to really see something for what it is when you are so close and caught up in it. So I take a step back. I examine and question the things I was taught, the things I thought I knew. I think that's the biggest problem. We think we are the ones to have it all figured out. Whatever your denomination is. Even within a denomination there can be differences, so take it a step further, your church, your pastor. You are the ones that have the real Truth. That have it all figured out. Everyone else is just wrong. And the worst of it is, you're not allowed to have questions. You're not allowed to have a different opinion. They (church leaders) might not kick you out of the church for having a different opinion, but it would never be viewed as a legitimate point of view. They would try to change your mind. And if they couldn't, they would just settle on the fact that you just aren't as spiritual mature or you're living in sin and don't want to grasp the truth of the matter.
If you doubt or question a certain issue, church people will simply tell you to "look at it through the lens of the Bible". We like nice, pat, simple answers. But the thing is, not all of us are satisfied with pat answers. And the problem with that pat answer is that we're all looking at the Bible through a different lens. This might make a lot of people uncomfortable. Am I saying there isn't an absolute truth? No. I'm saying we are mere human beings and we'd be much better off if we stopped pretending we have all the answers. There are thousands and thousands of different protestant denominations. That's thousands and thousands of different view points. All who look at things through the lens of the Bible. All who believe the answers and conclusions they've come to are the real ones. The real Truth.
I'm not saying there aren't things we can know for certain. I'm just saying maybe we need to shorten that list.
I leave you with "This Side of Heaven" by Chris August
Everyone's got their own opinions There's nothing they don't know about But in the end nobody's winning 'Cause nobody's got it figured out [Chorus:] Oh the things we think we know But honestly we really don't This side of heaven Save the worry, stop the hate It doesn't matter anyway This side of heaven You can make your own decision You can write it on a sign But when it feels like something's missing Listen up and I'll tell you why [Chorus] Oh the things we think we know But honestly we really don't This side of heaven Save the worry, stop the hate It doesn't matter anyway This side of heaven I remember how He showed me Love is first above all And that judgment should come slowly 'Cause we all have our faults
I didn't help start Leve Project because it seemed like a cool idea. Leve Project was founded after prayer, first-hand experience, research and a lot of hard work. Leve Project was founded because it's something we, the founders, believed in and felt called to do. Since I first started full-time ministry, moving to Haiti to be the house manager at an orphanage, I have always felt that people look down to me. Like I'm too young. I don't have a college degree. I'm single. I'm female. Apparently, those are all negative qualities. I rarely feel like someone has confidence in me, in what I'm doing. When we first started Leve, people might not have said it in direct words, but they expected us to fail. In Acts, a man named Gamaliel says, "For is this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them."
I'm not going to lie, the thought of quitting has crossed my mind. We don't have the financial support we need. At least, we don't have the security of financial commitments that would make me more comfortable. But, God has always provided. Sometimes, I look over finances and think to myself, "We can't keep going like this". And yet, we've always been able to keep going. Besides financial support, I sometimes feel we don't have support in the form of encouragement and partners. Just the other day, I was thinking to myself, "If no one else supports this, why am I still doing it? Why shouldn't I quit?". But I know why I can't quit. Because it wasn't man that called me to this, it was God. And even if I feel alone, even if I feel like no one else supports what I'm doing, I know that God called me to it and He is in it with me. And so I will press on. Straining towards the goal.
I will admit though, that I don't know what that will look like. Pressing on. I'm at the point where I have to consider returning to the states. I have no personal income and my savings is just enough for a plane ticket. Leve Project struggles every month. Our house rent was due last month and we still don't have the money to pay it. At first, I thought this was all just another reason for me to quit. But then I looked at it again. And I cannot quit.
I really feel we're making an impact here. Last month, we had a our first community meeting. We got the people of the village together to talk about what they want and what they feel they need. We've had several more meetings and a leadership committee was formed. We met with the committee last week to discuss and make plans for micro-loans. I feel like the people are encouraged and excited about the meetings we have had and it's given them a hope. These people have hopes and dreams for their lives... no human being wants to live in the conditions they do. They have learned to be content in their poverty...but they have hopes for a better life. And in our meetings, they are seeing a little shred of light... a possibility that maybe their future can change. I can't walk away from that. The thought of quitting makes me literally sick. These are people I know. While they might just be a photograph to you, they are real, living, breathing people. Beautifully and wonderfully made by the Creator. And until I have absolutely nothing left in me, nothing left to give, I will continue to fight for them. I will fight for their dreams and hopes of a better life.
I am asking for partners that will step out in faith with me. Faith that this is an undertaking of God. Faith that God is faithful and just. Faith that God will provide and that we can make a difference here, not because of ourselves, but because of Him.
I feel like God has brought me, and this ministry, to a place of desperation. But not because He wants me to be desperate for more money and more partners and more support; He brought me here because He wants me to be desperate for Him. So I lay it at His feet. And whether in Haiti or in the states, I will continue to do the work that Leve Project has started here. I will press on.
