Canvases, Cameras and Counseling

As I prepare to move to Thailand
and begin working with Burmese refugees, I am convinced that creative arts (drawing, painting, photography, and perhaps ‘recycled’ art) will be key in
counseling people. Over the last 10 years a large part of my missionary life has
been to counsel and disciple people. I’ve had the privilege and difficult task
of helping people find healing from incredibly painful events of their past. I
want to use the creative arts to help people process their past and bring hope
to their future. To be effective I hope build long-term relationships with the
people that I teach to use the creative arts as art expressions.

My hope is to get people to
donate funds to purchase art supplies in Thailand (I can’t wait to see what
these youth could do if they had real canvases to paint on!), have several
digital cameras donated (several point and shoots of the same model and then
even a couple of DSLR cameras), and then a laptop or two donated to upload
their work to. The idea is to give each of the youth a word, for example ‘light’ or ‘dark’. Then after they have finished creating their piece of art or
taken the photo we would one-on-one discuss how their piece relates to the world
and what it means to them. I honestly can’t wait to be able to do this with the
youth, to see how creative they can be, to watch them smile with pride at their
artistic abilities, and to help them process their past while giving them hope
for their future. 

 

Click here to view a video that friends
made after our time visiting some youth inside of a Burmese Refugee Camp. All
of the pieces of art that they did, and all of their answers to our questions
about their art were given without any prodding or due to cues from us. . .
imagine what these youth could do with a little direction, and imagine the
healing they could get by counseling them about their artwork.

 

As you finish making Christmas preparations
and look forward to the New Year, consider clicking on the support link on the
left and support me so that I can make this dream of “art expression” in
Thailand with Burmese refugees a reality.