Following The Potter in Moldova

This is actually a story from a year ago when Sue and I went to Moldova in the summer of 2010, but I realized I had never posted anything about it:

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One of my most precious memories of growing up is the time I spent summers at the local art gallery taking pottery classes. In the summer of 2010, I was able to share some of that joy with a group of children in rural Moldova.

Our church went on a missions trip to a small village in Moldova, near the Romanian border.  Our primary goal was to work along side a local pastor and the OM Moldova team in a children's program for the week. We were considering what else we could do in this program to bless the children and share the love of Jesus with them.  I remembered sharing my love of pottery and clay through a couple of classes with the children in our local church, and how much they loved it.  We were unsure of where to get quality pottery clay in Moldova, so we decided to carry the clay along with us. Getting a pair of 50lb boxes of clay on two flights and through customs was, to put it gently, an interesting challenge, but we did eventually get it in.

There were around 100 children participating in the program, so rather than try to deal with all of them at once, we split into smaller age-specific groups of around 15 to 20. With help from our Moldovan translators, I was able to teach the children some basic exercises and shapes, and then let them use their imagination to create what they wanted. It was fun to watch the excitement of the children as they were at first frustrated, but then began to get the feel of working with the clay. The pastor was able to borrow a small kiln from a local school, so we were able to fire many of the pieces the children had made to make them more permanent.
 

The pastor also introduced me to Peter, a local potter, and we spent time sharing together. Since we hadn't used up all of the clay with the children, I was able to give a 25lb block to Peter to bless him and his work. The OM Moldova team was then able to take another block of clay with them a couple of weeks later to a similar children's program at a church in another small village. The pastor's wife there is an artist herself, and was very appreciative of the clay, since she was finding it difficult to obtain quality clay there to work with.


I would like to return at some point with the team to the village in Moldova. One of my dreams is to take a smaller group of some of the older children and spend some some more concentrated time with them, to see them get beyond simply making a shape to the point where they can express a little of themselves in their creation. After all, the oldest Potter in the world is God Himself. He formed Adam “out of the dust of the earth”, and made Adam “in His own image.” He has passed that same spirit of creativity and expression on to us, if we take the time to discover it.

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I have not yet been able to return to Moldova, but I am thankful I have been able to pursue that dream in Hungary.  The LORD only knows where I will be able to take my clay next...

Blogger and Google+ Merge

So, Blogger and Google+ are being merged into one integrated service.  Makes sense, since they are both owned by Google, and many people, like myself, already have both accounts.  Just makes you stop and think a bit, as the Great Google Blob gets one size larger.

Of course, if this gives Google+ a little more momentum as it tries to catch up with Facebook, then that's probably a good thing, since it comes a little closer to being a viable alternative to the social networking site that Everyone Loves to Hate...

The Veil is Lifted

On the first morning after we had arrived in Baja, Hungary, Bill Drake lead the OM Arts team in a short Bible study.  To lay a foundation for our time there in Baja, he spoke from II Corinthians 5 where that apostle Paul speaks of us having a "ministry of reconciliation."  We are not to preach ourselves, nor the greatness of our beliefs, but rather we are pointing people to be reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Jesus.

Any time I look at a passage in Scripture, I always like to go back a little way and get a "running start".  No verse in the Bible stands on its own -- it is always preceded, and followed by other verses, and is most fully understood in its context.  I went back and started looking at that passage, and over several days, worked all the way back to II Corinthians 3:7.  There, Paul is comparing the "ministry" of the Old Testament Law with the ministry of the Spirit of Christ.  He recounts the story of how Moses, when he came down from Mt. Sinai with the tablets of the Law, had to cover his face with a veil to shield the people from the glory shining from his face because of the time he had spent with God up on the mountain.

Then Paul brings up an interesting point.  The glory of Moses' face -- ie., the glory of the Law which Moses represents -- was not permenant.  In fact, the reason that Moses veiled his face was not so much because of the glory itself, but to hide the fact that it was fading away!  Paul uses this to draw a contrast between the fading glory of the Law, which can only condemn us, and the eternal glory of Christ, who actually brings us righteousness and eternal life!

Paul goes on to state:

(14) For to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read.  It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away.  Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.

Those verses struck me in the context of our coming to Hungary. Here we were to bring the ministry of reconciliation to these people, but there was a veil over their hearts! No amount of preaching, explaining, pointing, painting, acting, singing or standing on our heads was going to remove that veil. Only Christ could do that.

As I pondered the idea of the veil, I began to pray, asking Christ to show me what the veils were here in Baja.  I started writing down the names of different veils as they came to me in quick succession.  I don't claim that these are all the veils over the faces of the people of Baja, or of any other town, but I felt the Lord was specifically pointing out these six as things we were to contend with.

This is the list:

The veil of Simple Ignorance:  Sometimes we know people who are ignorant because they close their minds and do not want to know.  However, more often than not, people simply do not know the news of Christ.  They've never had someone live the life of Christ in front of them.  They may have heard myths and fables read to them to put them to sleep at night, but the Truth has never reached them.

The veil of Pride:  In particular, I had the feeling that this was the pride of self reliance and tradition; "We can do this on our own, just as we have done for generations!"

The veil of Witchcraft:  This was not "witchcraft" in the sense of spooky old women in black dresses and pointed hats, but the spirit of witchcraft -- often manifested in power and control over people through spiritual means.

The veil of Numbness:  This was a bit of a surprise, and I had to pray about this one longer than the others, but then it made perfect sense.  This is the numbness of, "I have been in pain for so long, I don't even feel it any more."

The veil of Fear:  Fear is always a veil, but especially in this case I had the sense that it was a fear of change and the unknown.  Not wanting to step off of the path that we have been on for generations.  This veil felt like the flip side of Pride, again pointing to the sense of history and generations of people.

The veil of Secrecy and Shame:  This was perhaps the scariest of all the veils that I felt.  I had a strong sense that this was related in particular to the evil of human trafficking, which is a huge issue in Eastern Europe.  I don't know to what extent it is an issue in Hungary, but I had a strong sense that it was there.  Much like botulinum toxin, it only takes a tiny bit of this evil to poison an entire population.

I continued to pray about the veils.  Some of them overlapped, but each had it's own personality.  However, knowing about evil is all well and good, but it's not the point of why we were in Hungary for.  Anyone can point out evil -- it's all around us.  Specifically identifying evil is good, but again, it's pointless unless there is a solution.

But there is a solution.

The solution that I kept coming back to is right there in II Corinthians 3:14-18, which I started to quote above:

(14) ... only in Christ is it taken away.  Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.  But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and there the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we, who with unveiled faces [contemplate] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

The veil is the same today as it was in Paul's day, as is the solution.  Through the redemptive work of Christ, the veil is lifted, and we behold the true Glory of God.  We are transformed from the inside out.  Christ overcomes each of these six veils through His power in the lives of people, as His Glory is reflected from our faces, and into the lives of the people around us.  Imagine a prisoner on death row, being led out with a black hood over his head, and when the hood is pulled away, instead of the execution chamber, he is standing in the middle of an open, brightly lit field, free to go, knowing that his wrongs have not only been forgiven, but paid for by someone else who has died in his place!

Now, as an artist, I HAD to respond to this!  Over the nearly three weeks we were there in Hungary, I had an opportunity to do a lot of different expressions of art, from simple teaching of children to individual sculptures to the graffiti wall we did on Friday night.  However this one piece, titled "The Veil is Lifted", does the most to embody the heart of what we were there to see happen.

The Veil is Lifted

Since we had no kiln, I was never able to fire this piece, or any of the others we did while we were there.  However, I was able to leave it there at the Prince Arthur English School, where we were working with pastor Arnold.

When I spoke with the team later, we wondered if there might be a seventh veil.  Not that the number seven has any magical significance, but it is often used in Scripture as symbol of completeness.  More on that later...

(Quotations from the NIV.)

Hope

It's funny how sometimes God will use a really small thing to give you a little glimpse into His heart. At the edge of Baja, on the banks of the Danube, there is a small stone tower. There is a steep set of steps along the outside of the tower which climb to a small, circular platform at the top, around which runs an iron railing. There is a circular bench in the center of the platform where one can sit and gaze out over the river and the forests which line the far bank. It's a wonderful place to sit and rest in quiet.

What is worthy of note though is the railing which runs along the steps and around the platform. There is a tradition, started in Hungary and now spreading to many other cities, that a couple will take a lock and engrave their names on it. According to the tradition, if they attach the lock to the railing and then throw the keys into the river, then their love will endure forever!

A few of us from the OM Arts team wanted to go out to see the locks. I ended up being a little behind the others, so I spent the half hour walk along the edge of the canal approaching the park by myself. As I was walking, I couldn't help but notice the rolling black clouds of a thunderstorm fast approaching from the other side of the river.

The storm held off long enough for me to get to the park, even though I could see the lightning flickering in the distance. To one side of me there was bright blue sky, full of sun and hope. To the other, ominous black clouds approaching fast.

I sat for a little while on the bench, looking at the locks, and it suddenly hit me that I was seeing a picture of life. Every one of those locks represented a couple, a story, a dream, a hope for the future. Like the bright sunshine, they had seen a time of joy and expectation. Some of those dreams were only born yesterday. Some had been there for many years. Yet, in the background, the storms were approaching. I wondered how many of those dreams had been broken or crushed over the years. How many dreams had turned into nightmares? How many have lived on, struggling against the storm? How many were still flourishing, bringing life and light to others around them?

What I saw was more than a silly tradition and a bunch of old locks on an iron railing. I saw lives of real people. These are the same people Jesus sees. These are the people Jesus has sent us to, to enter into their stories and reflect His love to them, and tell them there is a Savior who is stronger than tradition, a Savior who commands the winds and the waves. I felt a sense of the urgency of that call.

So, I guess God can even talk through a bunch of rusty old locks...

Marsha, painting along the Danube