We started the day with our usual breakfast, but we were told to make sandwiches for ourselves to take with us for lunch... because we were off on an adventure! The health inspector arrived to do her annual check, so our leaving the farm was delayed – but we ended up spending 40 minutes worshipping together in the worship room whilst she did her rounds. After worship, Melissa read to us an extract. It spoke about C.S Lewis who told the story of a mother and her child who lived in a dungeon. The child had never seen the outside world, so his mother drew pictures in charcoal on pieces of paper, trying to describe to him what the world outside the dungeon looked like. But she realised as much as she tried to describe that world, her son always thought that that world was merely sketchy lines on paper. He did not value the outside world at all because the world inside the dungeon (the world he knew) was so much more real. He could have allowed those pictures to speak to him about the greater reality of the world outside the dungeon. We need to learn to SEE. To open up our eyes and really take things in.
So our surprise outing was to... The Museum of Art, Raleigh. By the time we got there, it was lunch time, so we sat in the beautiful shade of some trees outside, and ate together. And then we set off into the museum. Justina (a staff member who has studied art) encouraged us to take our time through the museum, really looking at each work, finding ones that spoke to us. Asking God to open our eyes to see. Then we met back again, and were given an assignment to do in our “history books”. We needed to go and choose one work of art that had really stood out, and spend an hour looking at it, and writing about it. We could write anything that came to mind – or choose to place ourselves in the painting and make up a story about it, or choose to tell the story (or imagine we were living the life) of a character in that painting/work. When we met back together again, some people shared what they had written, and they were SO great! One girl (Reba) had chosen to be the sunlight in one picture; another guy (Josh) wrote about being the actual painting itself, and spoke of his creation. It was such a bea
utiful thing, hearing about everyone’s experiences! I had spent the time looking at a sculpture by Alexander Archipenko, called Blue Dancer. I wrote about what it must feel like for her to dance the way she does – feeling at once weighted down, on the solid earth; and also weightless, soaring through the air. It was almost like she was speaking to me of the joy she felt in dancing! Ha ha!After the museum, we headed off to a church called “Catch the Fire”, who were having an all-night worship evening. Jonathan, Melissa and the band were leading a few hours’ slot of that time, so we were there to support our family up on stage :o) And worship like crazy things! There was a really great time of praying for the sick too, and God was doing some amazing miracles! Yay! The bus ride home afterwards felt long cause we were all so tired after our adventuring day, but it was fun too... lots of singing and joking etc, as tends to happen on such trips :o)
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| A sample from the museum of art - made entirely out of old cans and bottle tops etc! |
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