A year in pictures.  A recent visit with good friends in NY, harvesting turnips from our garden, hosting a Curator’s Codex—seminar series—in our dining room, at the SC State Capital building for Art Advocacy Day, painting the large triptych works for my Artifacts Series, working on Art Party signage—the Art Festival that we organize each year—this is our 10th year doing that!, Delivering a sermon at our church (in the midst of a stage set being used by a local theater group)

At our most recent staff meeting while we were sharing things to praise God for and pray about, Brandi, one of our staff, shared that she and her husband Chris had been contacted by Bobby and Isabelle (not their real names) about visiting their church.

When Sarah and I heard this we were wonderfully surprised as Bobby and Isabelle were two friends in our community that we have been praying for years. Though Isabelle had inquired a few years ago about church, we hadn’t heard one blip from them of any interest in God whatsoever since then. Brandi said they were “heartily welcomed” by their fellow church members. Though this doesn’t appear to be a breakthrough decision moment, we will take their interest in visiting church as a large step in hopefully seeing them find our Lord, the humble Carpenter, and place their trust in him.

There are many more like them. At least eight come to mind, as I (Kirk) write this, who are in our community who we see at least on a weekly basis or more. None of them from our observation have shown any interest in church or Jesus even though they know we are followers of Him. The Art world, artists, and those in that community tend to be postured away from anything related to the Christian God—it’s not easy knowing that and ministering in the midst of it. But as with Bobby and Isabelle, we can trust God can work even beyond our human eyes.

We love what we do. We expect things only as big and God—no bigger.

As you think about your giving this year before the close of the year, we would ask that you consider a gift toward our ministry. We’ve lived with a shortfall this year and pray we can see some recovery before the end of this year. God has provided, for which we are grateful, but seeing some of that support restored would go a long way in assisting our ability to minister. If you would like to give toward our ministry, visit our giving page on Cru’s website:
www.cru.org/0402593

We would appreciate continued prayer for “Bobby and Isabelle” also!

Blessings-