Waking Up Grey Group at Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood, TN
I have been given much grace and am privileged to come into contact with some incredibly exceptional people as a result of the work of Waking Up Grey. I want you to meet just a couple of them right now. Marya Elrod is a woman gifted with stunning grace, perseverance and a love for beautiful things. She is a visual artist and is currently building her website, which I will post when it is ready. She has endured an incredible amount of hardship and suffering as part of her beautiful story and she comes to us as one who is more wise and compassionate as a result of hard places in her story. She is truly courageous and I am continually learning lessons of kindness and steadfastness from her.
My dear friend, Stacy Elliott, went through Waking Up Grey for the first time a few summers ago and has been a girl on fire ever since. She has married her back round in social work with her recent new love of screenwriting to create awareness around the issue of human sex trafficking!! I am so proud for her and the work that is coming out of her!
So, these two kindred spirits approached me last Spring with an idea they had concocted. They wanted to bring Waking Up Grey to their church community along with some new material that I had been writing. Their vision was to incorporate the Waking Up Grey process with some hands-on technical studio direction and space for solitude and silence all while creating an environment for artistic and spiritual community. This would be within the structure of the church, offering it as one of the women's ministry bible studies that would begin in September and conclude in April. I was hesitant at first, concerned that the intimate atmosphere provided by facilitating Waking Up Grey in private homes would be lost to the clinical institutional feel that can sometimes accompany meeting in a church building. As Dan Allender says, "I don't know if I am right, nor am I sure the path chosen is the best, but after reflection, feedback, debate, and prayer, I am choosing this path. In the process, I will seek life like water and drink death like wine."
And so it was. We went forward and I have been blown away by the people I have met and the brave paths taken and courageous stories being told.
This past week, we set up griddles and heat guns and after blowing one circuit, we finally figured out how to get everything to work and I got to share my love of the encaustic medium. This is a heated wax medium made of beeswax and damar resin and is delightful to use for mixed media exploration. To see my encaustic work, visit jennieschut.com
To sign up for my upcoming workshop in Nashville, please go here: http://www.flyforward.org/art-instruction/ and save 50% off the class fee!
I would love to see this happening in your church community! Message me to discuss if you are at all intrigued!
Encaustic Morning (Pictured Top, left-right: Tiffany, Brianna, Christi, Jennie, Gayle, Lori, Jan, Kristin, Jeanie. Bottom, left-right: Colleen, Kirsten, Lani
Me and Marya
Stacy Elliott and Lani
Encaustic Morning (Pictured: Deb Wilson)
Pictured: Leann