Book Review

My friend published a novel this year. It was a joy to have time to read his work this past week as it provided an entertaining yet thought provoking escape from the chaos of a busy time in my life. The story had me laughing, wondering what would happen next, and gee, I confess.....I even shed a tear!

The official book jacket description entices you to read this tale with this pitch:

In a small southern town Tom Weston ran outside with tears streaming down his face in the middle of the night. He collapsed in a heap on the red earth. She couldn’t be gone. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye. He closed his eyes and saw again the stiff corpse laying in the bed upstairs. This was not a dream. A tale of grief, faith, and hope, follows the life of teenager Tom Weston as he strives to make sense of his shattered world. Given an opportunity to escape Podunk Greenwood and his past, he finds himself at the gates of the highly prestigious Locklear University. With the comical Dr. Emory as his friend and mentor, Tom struggles to survive in this strange new world ruled by the despicable Dean of students. Tom and wealthy roommate, Charles Montgomery, are fatefully paired to tackle the pressures of school, family, and their impending futures as they join a mysterious secret society together. When blonde bombshell Julia Stine walks into the picture things only get more confusing.

Because this is the Carrot Top Studio blog I must note that I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the main character's entering into worshipful moments and worship spaces. The college campus setting took me back to my days as a coed. I think this short novel would be an interesting small group book study that could span many generations. Reading Finding Tom would allow a group to discuss where we encounter God, how we've been mentored, the role and need of mentoring during the formative years of young adulthood, how we're called to stand for what we believe in and much more!

The author, Simeon Harrar, is a young seminarian and I can not wait to see what God has in store for him as he combines his passion for writing, his history of growing up in the mission field, his gift for connecting with youth and his call to serve the Church. While we await all this, if you are interested in this title it can be purchased for your Kindle here and in paperback here.

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer in the United States. As you may know the motto is:

Investing in Hope... 

Transforming our Nation Through Prayer!

Sometimes I get cynical and think why in this country of so much wealth and opportunity do we need to take this focus on this one particular day? But then as the thoughts roll through my mind I think that we may need it more than anyone else. We get so easily caught up in the "opportunities" and can get sidetracked from the purpose of how God might really want to be using us. Serving in Haiti and seeing how my brothers and sisters that love the Lord in that country yet live lives of simplicity and hard work, while oozing joy (literally singing themselves through their days), causes me to refocus my sarcasm. Then I know that in this nation there is as much need as there is in other parts of the world. It is just a different need. 

As I join in the hope of transforming this nation through prayer I think of two people that were placed in my life. First, was a friend who was like me; a wife, mother and artist. But she was older and wiser. This dear woman had a mighty life wrapped in prayer and she kept a list of the president and his cabinet in her prayer journal so she could remember to pray for these leaders by name--daily. I'm sure prior to this I had whispered some "God please bless this country" type prayers but this was the first time I'd heard of someone making it so personal and part of a daily prayer life. Secondly, about a decade ago,  I was able to have dinner with a former United States Chaplain. While learning about his ministry this very humble, servant told of starting each day with a walk to his offices at the Capitol. He carried a list of the current congressmen and prayed for ten of them each day. He shared enlightening stories of how this helped draw him closer to the congressmen, to their needs, and to the needs of our government. He truly believed in transforming the nation through prayer. His example and tales encouraged me to not neglect the needs of these leaders even when I didn't believe in their particular politics. 

Such an imperfect child of God am I but, I remain thankful for the people that God places in my life that can teach us lessons...such as to pray for my nation....to invest in hope.

Symbols Make Connections

Confession: Sometimes I watch/listen to a movie while I'm working! Oh, I know....that is so bad (ha,ha). Gee Jenny, you're really going off the deep end! But really, the fact of the matter is that despite being an introvert and REALLY loving the art studio business that I am able to have, well--sometimes it's just too quiet. In those moments I pop in a movie that I've reserved from the library or like yesterday I turn to the documentary category on Hulu.com Yesterday's choice was The Paperclips Project. The former teacher in me was drawn to the fact that this was started by a teacher in a school district when it became overwhelmingly apparent as to how homogeneous the student's world was. The paperclip project struck a chord and lasted for years as the entire community (and beyond) became involved. 

Without giving away the entire plot of the documentary I can share that a simple paperclip became the symbol that united the people to reinforce the message that then energized the participants to think about how they were treating each other and what they were doing for each other. Wow! That little symbol was powerful. The paperclip as a symbol has a history dating back to World War II. The story is told that patriots wore paper clips as a symbol of resistance to the German occupiers when other signs of resistance were forbidden. The clips were meant to denote solidarity and unity (i.e. we are bound together).

This is not different from reading the Bible and discovering that God used tangible signs and symbols throughout scripture as a way of communicating to His people. Often people were instructed to make use of such signs and symbols to help understand or to remember what God is teaching. So many Christian symbols come to mind! Of course there is the rainbow, unleavened bread, blood, oil, the dove, a lamb, and of course bread and wine. And the list goes on and on. Because we, at Carrot Top Studio, are in the business of using symbols we take this seriously. But after watching this movie yesterday I was struck to think about worship spaces and worship experiences I had recently been in. I wonder if we are using symbols visually and in our story telling to their fullest extent? Are we remember God's example of the powerful teaching tool that they can be? It's something to ponder....and now with this train of thought I can justify having that movie playing in the background while woring on a new Ordination stole design yesterday (grin!)

Here's the Paper Clips Project movie trailer if you are not familiar with it...

Earth Day

The celebration of Earth Day approaches on April 22nd. As you probably know, this is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. As a Christian I can't separate this out to one single day.

The psalms tell us we are just tenants of this place we currently live in.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the word and all who live in it. (Psalm 24:1) 

How do we build upon and care for what we have been given? How do we take a step further and apply creation care to our worship spaces? We can look to Exodus 35:20-29 for one example. The materials used to build the tabernacle all came from recycled donations from the Israelites. Precious metals were not mined but melted down from donated jewelry  Acacia forests were not clear cut, rather "everyone who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it". I especially love their example of doing this cheerfully! If our church were in the midst of building or renovating today how would we apply this? Furthermore how do we apply the Biblical example of reuse to our personal lives?

Along these lines of thinking we at Carrot Top Studio are often inspired by God's great earth. We try to use upcycled or eco-friendly fibers as often as possible. This is always noted below the stole description. Additionally here are a few of our current stoles that play on the theme of natural beauty.

You may see these ministry stoles in the Ordinary Time collection here, the Peace and Healing collection here, and the Children's Ministry collection here.

Draw the Children In

Carrot Top Studio uses visuals to make a connection to the Word in worship. Our typical artist endeavors include ministry stoles and the occasional worship banner. Certainly we also appreciate all the other visuals that can be aids in worship. This past week I worshiped behind a family with two young children.The children were obviously used to the rhythm and routine of the liturgy. Helping this happen were the patient parents who answered their whispered questions, the surrounding worshipers who didn't grimace each time the little ones squirmed, and the unique worship bulletin. I think it's important not to dumb down to children but instead meet them where they are at. I think this worship bulletin does that. It follows the order that the "regular" bulletin does but is in large print, has spaces for responses to help keep their attention, and includes visual cues for pre- and early readers. I know it takes extra effort for the church staff to produce this each week. I applaud the determination of those involved to do whatever we can as "the church" to help the younger set feel included. This is an energy well spent to help create the next generation of active worshipers! Ok...I'm getting off my soapbox now (grin). What does this children's edition look like? Here are a few pages from last week...

*click on images to enlarge*

               

 

We believe sharing is caring so we'd like to say thanks to the hard working staff at Westminster Presbyterian for letting us share the images in this post.

Speaking of Children's Ministry...insiders secret....we're adding a new Easter stole to the Children's Ministry collection by week's end! 

Home From Haiti

We're home from our fourth trip to the New Testament Mission in LaCroix, Haiti.It's probably no surprise that on these trips I always learn things about myself, about others and about God. I remain grateful to my clients who are patient while I delay shipping for a week so I can have this time to serve, learn and grow.

painting silk scarves with LaFemme de la Croix

In the last two years the silk scarf painting program has grown from selling the scarves in the United States and sending the profits into a general education fund for the artists to much, much more! The girls are now getting paid per scarf and a Haitian teacher and assistant are paid for their leadership. There is also still profit from the sale of the scarves that goes into the education fund. The scarf inventory has grown large enough that in addition to being sold through my home church that they are being sold at the gift shop at the US Embassy in Port au Prince. Coming soon they will be offered in an online retail store! Additionally Carrot Top Studio is thrilled to purchase scarves and take them to another level by using them as appliques in stoles. The sale of these stoles send proceeds back to the LaFemme de la Croix. 

Charles

When in Haiti I travel with a blank sketch book. As an introvert that is s-l-o-w-l-y learning Haitian Kreyol I find that sharing a sketch book and taking turns drawing can be an opening to making new friends....because art is universal. After this young man finished drawing he wrote in the sketch book, "Jesus please bless me and Jenny. Behold. We love you very much." This simple message brought tears to my eyes. I blinked back the tears in my eyes and assured him I would gladly be praying for him until we meet again.

peace and sandwiches!

Voodoo infiltrates the country of Haiti. But where Christians are they tend to pronounce their faith boldly.For example they paint portraits of Jesus on the headlights of their tap taps (public transportation). Another example is the Haitian workers that enter the mission at 5:30 a.m. singing hymns. And many businesses incorporate their testimony into their name. I experience these things and I am humbled. I leave the country wondering if am I proclaiming my love for the Lord boldly as possible? I marvel at the fact that God is wo patient with me.

Creating Ministry Stoles Lends Itself to Fun

A few things that made us smile in the studio--

A client wrote: "Gave pastor the green custom stole today and he was speechless. (A good thing)."

Another client shared: "You are the fastest shipper I have ever met. I tell all my colleagues about your quick ship and say "Carrot Top Studio will never let you preach naked"!

This is fun...it looks like Ordinary Time will really be "in" this year (ha, ha)....

And speaking of color....we took advantage of snow on the ground outside our studio this week to produce this fabric that we're just itching to stitch into Pentecost and Ordination stoles! 

What does the snow have to do with this? It allows for a fun, spontaneous fabric dying method where you cover the fabric with snow, sprinkle powered dye on top of the snow and then you let the melting snow marble the placement of the color on the fabric. Trying to focus on blessings I can now count this method as a blessing to having snow on the ground!