Missions Trip

Hello, Wonderful People!

I am leaving on a missions trip and will be completely out of touch for a couple weeks as there will be absolutely no communication.  My wonderful hubby is going to stay home and be both mom and dad while I'm gone.  Fare thee well.  Pray for my family.  Pray for my team as we work.  We're going to an unusual location; the last time I got back, it was really difficult for me to re-adjust to Americana.  So... I'm expecting to be back online in about one month.  See you then!

Albrecht Durer

           One morning when the grass was still wet, Albrecht Durer dug up a piece of turf and took it back to his studio, so he could study even the smallest details.  This was so he could learn, his former teacher used to say, 'from God, the Great Art Master.'  Durer said, "For verily, art is embedded in nature; he who can extract it has it."

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,

being understood by the things that are made,

even his eternal power and Godhead;

so that they are without excuse.

Romans 1:20

Trip Preparations

This has been a very eventful and faith-building week.  Let’s back up a couple weeks.  I’m preparing for my missions trip.  Because I’m preparing here alone, and the other members of my team are scattered all over the U.S., it feels a little more difficult because they are not here preparing alongside me.  There will be 25 of us going into a closed country, and we will be welcomed as an orchestra.  Have flute, will travel.

I’m a people person, and wading through visas, documents and raising funds are not my greatest gifts.  Logistics – ugh!  If the truth be known, I really, really HATE it.  Because of this, a couple weeks ago I was having a pretty hard time.  I didn’t have enough funds, I wasn’t feeling encouraged, I needed a drum set among other things, and didn’t know where THAT would come from!

I have learned a few things in all of my 50 years of life - when you're down, go help somebody else.  So, that's just what we did.  Gathered a few friends, and helped deliver our church's dry goods donations to the Montgomery County Food Bank.  It was a great time.  Fun to be with friends and fun to do physical labor. We packed four cars to the gills, had a lot of fun, and ended up carrying 1,450 pounds of food up there.  What are my problems, anyway, when many, many people have the basic problem of not enough to eat?

Even though it was a dark time, deep in my inner being I knew for a certainty that the Lord would provide somehow.  I have enough experience to KNOW that He always comes through, usually at the last minute to test my faith!  But I was seriously getting concerned with the time pressure of obtaining the drums.

Last Wednesday, about ten days ago, our music minister let me speak to the choir.  I told them frankly that I needed drums.  A friend spoke up and said, “I have drums – you can have them!”  Check!

I told them I needed to take in drum sticks.  Members are giving money to go buy sticks.  Check.

After checking the kit, I found that I still needed cymbals.  Without enough money to even pay for my project, I didn’t know where they were coming from.  That difficult night I got an email from another team member who said he was sending me $400.00 toward cymbals and a stand.  Check!  Thank you, Lord!

Okay, then I had this veritable mountain of drum equipment in my house.  Our orchestra is meeting in Miami, and then we’ll fly out together from there.  I had visions of me plowing through the airports with my own sheet music-laden bags, my flute, two clarinets, a music stand, a second flute, five drums, a drum throne, cymbals, all the hardware and hopefully a toothbrush.  I was envisioning a little parade of me with five porters.  Ever so slightly over that weight limit!  That quickly turned into a pipe dream, thank goodness!

As it turned out, the cheapest way to get them to Miami was to mail them UPS.  So, off they went today.  $229.00 for the whole lot of them.  With the shipping cost that high, I decided not to insure them.  My feelings are that if God wants them there, nothing on earth can stop them from arriving safely!  Now we need to pray that they do indeed get there safely, intact, and on time as our trip is only 2 ½ weeks away.  Check!  Thank you, Lord!  With THAT work behind me, I am beginning to get excited!

I have some Spanish Bibles here sitting on the table, but they’re really big.  I’m going to be very overweight traveling, and I don’t think I’ll be able to carry them.  Hopefully I can get my hands on some small Spanish testaments.  God works in mysterious ways.  I am far from naïve, but I’m pretty sure a number of them will drop out of the sky in the near future for me.

There was also that needling problem of not enough money to pay for my trip.  Our music director mentioned some of my needs Wednesday night at choir and orchestra practice.  Today we got a big check in the mail.  Did I say check?  Check!  Lord, you always come through with just exactly what we need!  My lesson here is to remember to ASK!  When I try to do things in my own strength, I fall flat.  All you want us to do is ask, and depend on you, Father.  Now that people know what's going on, they're praying.  I feel those prayers.  Thank you, thank you!  I am ENCOURAGED!  May I bless others as you continue to bless me!  Amen.

Missions Trip Preparations

Hello, Wonderful People!
My postings have gone way down this past couple weeks because I'm preparing for a missions trip.  People from all over the country are coming together to form an orchestra.  I'm a flute.  We'll all meet state-side in two weeks, and then fly out together.
At our destination, they are desperate for a drum kit.  Last week it was my privilege to put together a kit.  One of my friends donated all the drums and hardware, a hi-hat stand, another cymbal stand and the throne (always thought it was interesting that drummers call it a 'throne.')  A friend going on the trip with me donated a goodly amount so I could purchase cymbals and another stand, and voila!  Complete kit!
It would have been rather a comedy to see me carrying all this stuff into the UPS store.  Seven trips and a lot of weight!  Can't say I've actually mailed a drum kit before!  Seven packages.  Five drums, one cymbal pack, and one box filled with hardware and a throne. 
Now comes the rest of the job - to pray that everything makes it all right, and that our orchestra can get it through customs.  As far as I'm concerned, if God wants it in, nothing on this earth can keep it out.  It's my job to pray and believe.

Impressionist/Post Impressionist Exhibit at the MFAH

The MFAH exhibition of the Impressionists and Post Impressionists was really, really great.  I had several favorites (pick a picture, any picture,) but one of the most outstanding was Monet's wife, "Woman with a Parasol.'  It was breathtaking.  The wispy veil around her face is indescribable, only to be fully appreciated in person.  GO SEE THIS EXHIBIT IF YOU CAN!

Degas, Monet, Van Gogh Quotes

A tip of my hat tonight to the artists we'll be seeing tomorrow at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston exhibit, Impressionists/Post Impressionists, on loan from the National Gallery of Art.  And, a few quotes.

'A picture is something which requires as much knavery, trickery and deceit as the perpetration of a crime.' - Edgar Degas

'Ah, gentlemen, I don’t receive when I’m working, no, I don’t receive.  When I’m working, if I’m interrupted, it just finishes me, I’m lost.  You’ll understand, I’m sure, that I’m chasing the merest sliver of colour.  It’s my own fault, I want to grasp the intangible.  It’s terrible how the light runs out, taking colour with it.  Colour, any colour, lasts a second, sometimes three or four minutes at most.  What to do, what to paint in three or four minutes?  They’re gone, you have to stop.  Ah, how I suffer, how painting makes me suffer!  It tortures me.  The pain it causes me!' - Claude Monet

'If you hear a voice within you saying, “You are not a painter,” then by all means paint, boy, and that voice will be silenced.' - Vincent Van Gogh

'Drawing sketches is like planting seeds in order to get pictures later.' - Van Gogh

It's going to be a great exhibit.  The Impressionist painters show in person like they can't possibly show in reproductions.  I'll give you my report.