Now when she sees me at the laptop she shouts, "I paint. I paint, Daddy."
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Friday, August 3, 2012
I paint, Daddy
This past weekend I had been working on the laptop for awhile when Eliana woke from her nap. She ate her snack while I got in a few more minutes before coming over and insisting, "My turn. Share, Daddy." So I opened up MS Paint and told her that she could not hit any buttons, but she could move her fingers on the touch pad. We played with many different colors and techniques, and I am proud to unveil her first masterpiece.
Now when she sees me at the laptop she shouts, "I paint. I paint, Daddy."
Now when she sees me at the laptop she shouts, "I paint. I paint, Daddy."
Thursday, July 28, 2011
El Salvador- Pastel Story
Do you remember back in March when I wrote a post called "A Gift" and shared how I was pursuing ways to share my love of art for the glory of God? While in El Salvador I was able to use my pastels to create three pastels. Have you ever tried to create an art piece in 15 minutes? Yikes! It is a challenge!!! On two different mornings we went to central market squares. I created the art work to draw a crowd that our team would then share the gospel with. After I was done, someone from the team would write a number on a gospel tract and put the number face down on the easel. Then that person would ask the crowd to guess what number was written on the tract. The person who correctly guessed the number got the art work.
Here I am with the winner of the art piece inspired by a photo I took in Wisconsin several summers ago.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Can you sin in heaven?
I've been teaching the Bible and Art Club for three weeks now! We studied Daniel 1 the first week. You can check out my post about our first meeting here. During the second meeting we talked about who God is, what sin is, who Jesus is, and our response to knowing these things. During the lesson a student asked if you can sin in heaven. I hesitated and said I didn't think so, but that I'd get back to him.
Over the week I thought about my student's question. I know that Satan had pride issues and wanted to be like God, lead a rebellion, and was kicked out of heaven. SO, I know Satan did, but does that mean believers will be able to when they get to heaven? My brain started searching through my heaven archives. I decided to call in for reinforcements by calling up two pastors I know. They pointed me to several passages. The ones I chose were Colossians 1:19-23, Revelations 21: 1-8, and Revelations 22:1-5.
From the Colossians passage, we talked about three words that were new to the students.
Me: What do you think alienated means?
Student: You turn into an alien.
Me: How many of you have younger brothers or sisters? (Nearly all of them raise their hands.) Have you ever had a friend over and you keep your sibling outside of your room and close the door so they can't come in? You are alienating them. You are separating them from you.
Students: Ohhhhhhhh!
Me: That is what sin does. It alienates or separates of from God.
Me: Does anyone know what reconciled means?
Students: No.
Me: Remember how you kicked your brother or sister outside of your room? When your mom comes in and tells you that you have to let your sibling in and play with them or else you'll be grounded for life, that is being reconciled. You are brought back together.
Students: Chuckles of understanding.
Me: What does blameless mean? I know you know how to pull words apart, because I taught many of you how to do it in 4th grade. Look at the word. What do you know for sure. Talk to your neighbor about the word blameless.
My partner: Um.... Less means without. Blame is like when you blame something on someone.
Me to everyone: In this case, blameless is without sin. You are wiped clean.
We then got into a whole discussion on how Jesus forgives us and wipes us clean. We talked about how if I died on a cross I wouldn't be able to wipe their sin away. The same student who asked if you could sin in heaven said, "But if you do enough good things, can't you get into heaven? Like if you do more good things than bad things?" I then told them about the thief on the cross next to Jesus who believed in Jesus just before he died. The thief had done a whole life's worth of bad things, but he believed that Jesus is Lord right before he died and Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in paradise."
I think the Revelation passages point a little clearer to there being no sin in heaven, but I wanted to share our discussion in Colossians with you all.
Over the week I thought about my student's question. I know that Satan had pride issues and wanted to be like God, lead a rebellion, and was kicked out of heaven. SO, I know Satan did, but does that mean believers will be able to when they get to heaven? My brain started searching through my heaven archives. I decided to call in for reinforcements by calling up two pastors I know. They pointed me to several passages. The ones I chose were Colossians 1:19-23, Revelations 21: 1-8, and Revelations 22:1-5.
From the Colossians passage, we talked about three words that were new to the students.
Me: What do you think alienated means?
Student: You turn into an alien.
Me: How many of you have younger brothers or sisters? (Nearly all of them raise their hands.) Have you ever had a friend over and you keep your sibling outside of your room and close the door so they can't come in? You are alienating them. You are separating them from you.
Students: Ohhhhhhhh!
Me: That is what sin does. It alienates or separates of from God.
Me: Does anyone know what reconciled means?
Students: No.
Me: Remember how you kicked your brother or sister outside of your room? When your mom comes in and tells you that you have to let your sibling in and play with them or else you'll be grounded for life, that is being reconciled. You are brought back together.
Students: Chuckles of understanding.
Me: What does blameless mean? I know you know how to pull words apart, because I taught many of you how to do it in 4th grade. Look at the word. What do you know for sure. Talk to your neighbor about the word blameless.
My partner: Um.... Less means without. Blame is like when you blame something on someone.
Me to everyone: In this case, blameless is without sin. You are wiped clean.
We then got into a whole discussion on how Jesus forgives us and wipes us clean. We talked about how if I died on a cross I wouldn't be able to wipe their sin away. The same student who asked if you could sin in heaven said, "But if you do enough good things, can't you get into heaven? Like if you do more good things than bad things?" I then told them about the thief on the cross next to Jesus who believed in Jesus just before he died. The thief had done a whole life's worth of bad things, but he believed that Jesus is Lord right before he died and Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in paradise."
I think the Revelation passages point a little clearer to there being no sin in heaven, but I wanted to share our discussion in Colossians with you all.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Names Like Azariah
Yesterday I got to T-E-A-C-H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kyle is a great husband. He is willing to work extra the four days of the week so that he can get off early on Wednesdays to come watch Eliana. Yesterday around 1:45 I got an email from Kyle. A few minutes later I realized that if I was receiving emails that meant he wasn't in the car yet. AH! I called him and nicely asked if he was driving yet. A slightly panicked response said he'd turn off the computer and be out the door in a minute. I wasn't panicked though. I'd purposely given both him and me extra time to travel. He made it home in record time and helped load the car with my cart that was full of art supplies, my Bible, and my journal. I gave him the run down of were Eliana was in her day and off I went!
I couldn't help it, I smiled almost the whole way there out of pure excitement. In fact, I'm still smiling as I write this! I arrived with plenty of time to cut some paper, talk with the office ladies, get another student's permission slip, talk with the After School Program, and chat with a teacher and an aid before the kids started lining up.
I started the lesson by telling them I'd get to share something with them that I didn't get to share as their regular teacher. I shared how I became a Christian when I was a little younger than them. Thanks to the Sharing the Gospel seminary through Bible Study Fellowship, I knew how to share the gospel in a few minutes. I explained that I realized I wasn't perfect. Sometimes I want to do good things, and I do bad things. There are even times I want to do bad things and do them. These bad things are called sin and they separate me from God. I had two girls right up front paying a little more attention to each other than me. So, to make my point, I stood right in the middle of them and said, "Wouldn't it be hard to talk to your friend with something standing right in the way?" As she leaned to see her friend, I blocked her view with dramatic waving arms. I explained that me standing in the way is like sin. With giggles from the kids, I think they got my point. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to mend the broken relationship caused by sin. He lived on earth and was perfect. Even when people were mean and spit on him, said mean things, and beat him, Jesus never did anything wrong. A student interrupted and said, "And then He died."
"Where?" I asked.
She stretched out her arms and said, "He died on the cross!"
"That's right, but he didn't stay dead. He rose again three days later. Because he triumphed over sin, we can have a relationship with him."
Then we jumped into Daniel 1. I LOVE Daniel 1. I was reading Daniel back in August and decided this would be the first lesson for the Bible and Art Club. Initially, the kids didn't want to help read, so I read the first two verses. I then explained what it would be like if their school and town was besieged. The very building we were in would be missing a roof, the windows would be broken, and some of the walls might be gone too. Half of the class would be killed in the process, and the other half would have to walk as slaves wherever they were told to go. They'd walk because cars hadn't even been invented yet. They would have to walk a long way, like from here to Nevada. Just imagine having to walk from here all the way into the city by us. That made a few kids eyes open wide as they were slowly starting to grasp that being besieged wasn't a good thing. The walk would be so hard that even if your best friend was still alive, he or she might die on the walk. Then I gave them a few minutes to talk about what that would feel like. They jumped into intense conversation. We went on to talk about what it would be like to be forced to have a new name. I reminded them of the fourth grade story My Name is Maria Isabel. The fourth graders were ecstatic because they knew the story. The sixth graders were scratching their heads trying to remember. After a brief summary the fifth and sixth graders were back on board. They had a lot to tell each other when I gave them the discussion questions, "What would it be like if you were forced to be given a new name? What if you couldn't even say your new name? What if you forgot what your new name was? What if you got in trouble because you couldn't remember your new name?" I give a lot of credit to the boy who had to read names like Belteshazzar, Hananiah, Shadrach, Mishael, Meshach, Azariah,and Abednego. I reminded them of Marvin of the Great North Woods. Again, the enthusiasm of the fourth graders was catching since they had just read that story! I reminded others of the story and then had the fourth graders tell me about Marvin's decisions about food.
"He ate milk and pancakes one day."
"He ate bacon the other."
"What? No he didn't."
"He has to eat kosher."
"What does it mean to eat kosher?"
"I don't know."
"He is a Jew."
"Back in the book of Leviticus, God told the Jews to eat certain foods and to not eat others. Marvin followed those food laws even when he was away from his family."
Daniel had the same situation. He was told to eat a bunch of food that He knew God didn't want him to eat. He asked for the chief guard to test him and his friends for 10 days by just eating veggies and water. God blessed them. I had them think about what was at stake for Daniel to ask to only eat veggies. I explained that King Nebuchadnezzar killed people when they didn't do what he wanted. So, Daniel's very life and the guard's life were at stake if they didn't please the king. We went on to discuss how God blessed Daniel and his friends because they obeyed.
I loved watching the kids faces as we talked about the Bible. They had already been in class all day, but I had their attention. They were excited with hands raised, standing up, and enthusiastic expressions.
The art lesson went really well too! We are doing an art lesson that Kyle and I did back in high school. You can see two of the examples of my work here. The kids learned how to use a ruler to divide their page in half rather than folding it in half. They wrote their names and used tracing paper to mirror it on the other side of the divided page. I look forward to seeing them work on it some more next week!
Another blessing was that as I went to deliever some rulers to a teacher, I stopped in at the vise principal's office. She wanted to know all about the club meeting. I saw this as open door to share some good news!
To catch the background behind Bible and Art Club, read this.
Kyle is a great husband. He is willing to work extra the four days of the week so that he can get off early on Wednesdays to come watch Eliana. Yesterday around 1:45 I got an email from Kyle. A few minutes later I realized that if I was receiving emails that meant he wasn't in the car yet. AH! I called him and nicely asked if he was driving yet. A slightly panicked response said he'd turn off the computer and be out the door in a minute. I wasn't panicked though. I'd purposely given both him and me extra time to travel. He made it home in record time and helped load the car with my cart that was full of art supplies, my Bible, and my journal. I gave him the run down of were Eliana was in her day and off I went!
I couldn't help it, I smiled almost the whole way there out of pure excitement. In fact, I'm still smiling as I write this! I arrived with plenty of time to cut some paper, talk with the office ladies, get another student's permission slip, talk with the After School Program, and chat with a teacher and an aid before the kids started lining up.
I started the lesson by telling them I'd get to share something with them that I didn't get to share as their regular teacher. I shared how I became a Christian when I was a little younger than them. Thanks to the Sharing the Gospel seminary through Bible Study Fellowship, I knew how to share the gospel in a few minutes. I explained that I realized I wasn't perfect. Sometimes I want to do good things, and I do bad things. There are even times I want to do bad things and do them. These bad things are called sin and they separate me from God. I had two girls right up front paying a little more attention to each other than me. So, to make my point, I stood right in the middle of them and said, "Wouldn't it be hard to talk to your friend with something standing right in the way?" As she leaned to see her friend, I blocked her view with dramatic waving arms. I explained that me standing in the way is like sin. With giggles from the kids, I think they got my point. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to mend the broken relationship caused by sin. He lived on earth and was perfect. Even when people were mean and spit on him, said mean things, and beat him, Jesus never did anything wrong. A student interrupted and said, "And then He died."
"Where?" I asked.
She stretched out her arms and said, "He died on the cross!"
"That's right, but he didn't stay dead. He rose again three days later. Because he triumphed over sin, we can have a relationship with him."
Then we jumped into Daniel 1. I LOVE Daniel 1. I was reading Daniel back in August and decided this would be the first lesson for the Bible and Art Club. Initially, the kids didn't want to help read, so I read the first two verses. I then explained what it would be like if their school and town was besieged. The very building we were in would be missing a roof, the windows would be broken, and some of the walls might be gone too. Half of the class would be killed in the process, and the other half would have to walk as slaves wherever they were told to go. They'd walk because cars hadn't even been invented yet. They would have to walk a long way, like from here to Nevada. Just imagine having to walk from here all the way into the city by us. That made a few kids eyes open wide as they were slowly starting to grasp that being besieged wasn't a good thing. The walk would be so hard that even if your best friend was still alive, he or she might die on the walk. Then I gave them a few minutes to talk about what that would feel like. They jumped into intense conversation. We went on to talk about what it would be like to be forced to have a new name. I reminded them of the fourth grade story My Name is Maria Isabel. The fourth graders were ecstatic because they knew the story. The sixth graders were scratching their heads trying to remember. After a brief summary the fifth and sixth graders were back on board. They had a lot to tell each other when I gave them the discussion questions, "What would it be like if you were forced to be given a new name? What if you couldn't even say your new name? What if you forgot what your new name was? What if you got in trouble because you couldn't remember your new name?" I give a lot of credit to the boy who had to read names like Belteshazzar, Hananiah, Shadrach, Mishael, Meshach, Azariah,and Abednego. I reminded them of Marvin of the Great North Woods. Again, the enthusiasm of the fourth graders was catching since they had just read that story! I reminded others of the story and then had the fourth graders tell me about Marvin's decisions about food.
"He ate milk and pancakes one day."
"He ate bacon the other."
"What? No he didn't."
"He has to eat kosher."
"What does it mean to eat kosher?"
"I don't know."
"He is a Jew."
"Back in the book of Leviticus, God told the Jews to eat certain foods and to not eat others. Marvin followed those food laws even when he was away from his family."
Daniel had the same situation. He was told to eat a bunch of food that He knew God didn't want him to eat. He asked for the chief guard to test him and his friends for 10 days by just eating veggies and water. God blessed them. I had them think about what was at stake for Daniel to ask to only eat veggies. I explained that King Nebuchadnezzar killed people when they didn't do what he wanted. So, Daniel's very life and the guard's life were at stake if they didn't please the king. We went on to discuss how God blessed Daniel and his friends because they obeyed.
I loved watching the kids faces as we talked about the Bible. They had already been in class all day, but I had their attention. They were excited with hands raised, standing up, and enthusiastic expressions.
The art lesson went really well too! We are doing an art lesson that Kyle and I did back in high school. You can see two of the examples of my work here. The kids learned how to use a ruler to divide their page in half rather than folding it in half. They wrote their names and used tracing paper to mirror it on the other side of the divided page. I look forward to seeing them work on it some more next week!
Another blessing was that as I went to deliever some rulers to a teacher, I stopped in at the vise principal's office. She wanted to know all about the club meeting. I saw this as open door to share some good news!
To catch the background behind Bible and Art Club, read this.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
A Gift
Did you know that I was in choir as a child? I even had solos and parts in plays! I find that rather humorous since I can be such a shy person at times. During one summer we put on a play after just one week of intense preparation. My team wore purple shirts and we sang about being purple people eaters... something that at the time didn't make any sense to me at all. At the end of the performance, the pastor stood up to pray with all of us kids still on stage. He had us cup our hands and think about a gift we could give God. I didn't have a job or much money. In fact, I don't remember money even coming to mind. It is possible the pastor lead us to think outside of financially how we could bless God. I thought for awhile and wondered what I was good at that would be a blessing to God. That day, as a young child, I handed over art. I loved art and thought I was good at making art.
It has taken me many years to figure out how to give this gift to God. An idea started back in August when I was desperate to go back to work, and yet completely unwilling to leave Eliana in someone else's care. In the middle of the night, during one of Eliana's many feedings, I prayed about how to serve God while staying home. I craved teaching, yet I had no idea how I could possibly teach full time as a new mom. I initially thought it would be really cool to create an art club. I had played with the idea during the five years I taught, but I really didn't know when I could find the time or energy to add one more lesson to my week. As I prayed, a thought hit me. Giving kids the opportunity to create art is fabulous, but in the grand scheme of eternity is it enough? I started Bible studies when I was in high school, college, and beyond, but never with kids. Was there a way to tie the Bible and art? God gave me the seeds for my first art and Bible lesson. And then came a long winter, literally. I had talked with my former superintendent about the idea back in September, but the ball really didn't get rolling. I had prayed, and prayed, and prayed that this club would take off if it was God's plan and in His timing. I sent emails once a week for a month to keep the ball rolling, and decided that God needed to move for the club to start. Over the months of not hearing back I tried to be okay with God's timing not being mine. Let's just say that I was unsuccessful at times in being okay with His timing not matching mine.
At the beginning of this month I got a call from my superintendent. Among other things, he wanted to discuss the Bible and Art Club. I was blown away. It had been six months with not even a single word about the club. Not only could the ball get rolling again, but the club could start this year.
Today Eliana and I paid a visit to my school. Eliana visited with teachers while I showed students some sample art work and talked to the 4th-8th graders during lunch about a Bible and Art Club that I'll be starting next Wednesday. I had been given 30 permission slips to pass out. After the 6th-8th grade lunch, I didn't have any left and had to go make copies for the 4th-5th graders. I passed out another 30 and went back to make 20 more copies. Nearly ever copy was gone by the end of lunch. Now, do I really expect nearly 80 kids to come? Um... no. I know that some were simply excited about seeing the art, others will be in tutoring, and sadly there will be students that find their parents don't want them in the club. I'm hoping and praying for 20 students.
It has taken me many years to figure out how to give this gift to God. An idea started back in August when I was desperate to go back to work, and yet completely unwilling to leave Eliana in someone else's care. In the middle of the night, during one of Eliana's many feedings, I prayed about how to serve God while staying home. I craved teaching, yet I had no idea how I could possibly teach full time as a new mom. I initially thought it would be really cool to create an art club. I had played with the idea during the five years I taught, but I really didn't know when I could find the time or energy to add one more lesson to my week. As I prayed, a thought hit me. Giving kids the opportunity to create art is fabulous, but in the grand scheme of eternity is it enough? I started Bible studies when I was in high school, college, and beyond, but never with kids. Was there a way to tie the Bible and art? God gave me the seeds for my first art and Bible lesson. And then came a long winter, literally. I had talked with my former superintendent about the idea back in September, but the ball really didn't get rolling. I had prayed, and prayed, and prayed that this club would take off if it was God's plan and in His timing. I sent emails once a week for a month to keep the ball rolling, and decided that God needed to move for the club to start. Over the months of not hearing back I tried to be okay with God's timing not being mine. Let's just say that I was unsuccessful at times in being okay with His timing not matching mine.
At the beginning of this month I got a call from my superintendent. Among other things, he wanted to discuss the Bible and Art Club. I was blown away. It had been six months with not even a single word about the club. Not only could the ball get rolling again, but the club could start this year.
Today Eliana and I paid a visit to my school. Eliana visited with teachers while I showed students some sample art work and talked to the 4th-8th graders during lunch about a Bible and Art Club that I'll be starting next Wednesday. I had been given 30 permission slips to pass out. After the 6th-8th grade lunch, I didn't have any left and had to go make copies for the 4th-5th graders. I passed out another 30 and went back to make 20 more copies. Nearly ever copy was gone by the end of lunch. Now, do I really expect nearly 80 kids to come? Um... no. I know that some were simply excited about seeing the art, others will be in tutoring, and sadly there will be students that find their parents don't want them in the club. I'm hoping and praying for 20 students.
What do you see?
A name?
An insect?
Both???
What do you see?
A name?
Faces?
Both???
This piece is still in progress. Kyle gave me the idea to show the students work in progress so that they don't just see a finished product and think they can't do that. Actually, I showed them the first piece today and won't show it to them again until after they get their own ideas going for their own piece.
Now do you see my wee one's name? Go back up and see if you can find the butterfly.
Now do you see Daniel's Babylonian name from Daniel 1? Daniel 1 is were our first lesson will be. Click here to read Daniel 1. Go back up and see if you see the totem pole looking faces.
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