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Sunday, November 6 Team members Purpose Pre-trip planning Since that time I have been able to share the pictable in a few street ministry events, but my ultimate desire and calling was to go on the missions field, especially in a foreign country. This way the pictable could be fully used to reach across cultural, language and even literary barriers. A picture is worth a thousand words, no matter what language you speak. I just needed that door to open. November 2004, it did open, just a half a block up the street. Shannon and I are both artists at heart and have a visual mind. He wanted me to help with developing the missions side of Calvary's website. Through our discussions, Romania came up with the possibility for me to go there with him. That was the first domino to fall in a long journey that I don't think is over, by a long shot. Over the next year I waited very impatiently for the time to come. But God had plans for the waiting period. He was going to work on me. In March, I spoke with a missionary to Italy who was in the States for a year. When I shared with him my enthusiasm and anxiety for the trip, he said that God had a reason for it. I would soon find out. Many things happened over the summer of '05. The men's ministry at my church was gaining momentum and God was moving at church on a constant basis. The Cornerstone Fest was a growing experience for me. This led into our mission trip to Colorado with my church. Follow that with a moving experience at youth camp that a friend was hosting. Then the Promise Keepers event that broke me and left me feeling forgiven. And that was just July. God overhauled me in preparation for Romania and the future. Each time He spoke or moved, I learned something. Pruning by the hand of God is the most painfully, enjoyable experience. I highly recommend it. The purpose of the trip was as a Missouri church to partner with a church in Romania and to help them plant a church over there. Little did we know what we were getting into. The church that we were going to see and observe was Holy Trinity Baptist Church in Bucharest, Romania. Pastor Cornel Boingeanu is our contact there. As November quickly came, my attention became increasing focused on the trip. We began meeting as a team, kind of. We were never all together until the day of our flight. Our communication with our sources in Romania was intermitant at best. The devil was in the emails. This just allowed us the opportunity grow our faith in God. Many of the team members had to get their passports renewed or like myself, had to get new ones. Hurricane Katrina threw a wrench into these plans. In the end, we all got our passports. Praise God! |
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Then there was money. We all had to come up with a somewhat difficult amount to raise. I would end up needing around $2500 to pay for everything and to retool the pictable to be portable. I was lucky enough to be able to sell my artwork and have a show at my church. The turnout was good and I sold enough to go. That was a blessing. Everyone had enough to get their tickets and God provided again. As the date loomed ever so close, the third provision came by way of email. Our communication was not optimal. We had no schedule, no idea what we were going to do. We were going on faith again. Shannon's constant reply was, "I don't know. Trust in God." It was the Friday before we left that the emails came in, it was like they were held up in an electronic dam. These communications gave us some mind reliving info, nothing too concrete though. It was just enough to get us there. For me, the hardest part was to reconfigure the whole workflow of the pictable ministry to get it small and portable. It usually takes the entire back end of our minivan to haul around my easel and canvases. I wouldn't have that luxury over there. I had to get portable. Think small. It really began when my church had a garage sale to raise money for our trip to Colorado. At the end of the day, there was a black golf bag left that I spotted. This is the type of bags that you put your golf clubs into when you travel. So I snapped it up. I would use this bag as the container for my easel, however that would happen. I worked with a fast and studious woodworker named Wes to fabricate a new easel/frame. The frame would be designed to have legs attached and then become the easel too. The canvas would be stretched over the frame every time I would paint. More on location set up time but it becomes more portable. I then had a sturdy travel bag to carry all of my paints. It fit over 30 bottles of paint snugly. It was a God thing.
The other preparations for me were difficult too. I had no idea how many times I would be able to paint. Would I even paint once? I didn't know. My control issues were getting in the way. So I planned on painting once a day for 9 days. That was very bold considering our lack of a schedule. I was putting pressure on our fearless leader to find out details that he couldn't get. I had to suppress my need to know and leave it in God's hands. The music for my paintings was another issue but I won't go into that. Here is a part of an email that I sent to Shannon: This is my first on many fronts. I am anxious and nervous in the same heartbeat. I'm not the grand world traveler that you are. I’ve seen the ocean. I’ve never flown over it. I know that God is going to do something BIG. With time slowly ticking away, my excitement, anxiety and nerves increased. I just couldn't wait. November 6 just would come soon enough… and then it did. |
