Hello All.

It has been a while. I’ve been recovering from surgery, which has gone well. Praise the Lord. As I’ve been recovering I’ve realized a few things and I thought I would share them with you now.

First of all, you may be wondering, how did the West Main Arts Festival go?

In the end, it was okay and I made back what I spent and then some but I did not go as planned by any means.

On May 8th, my husband and I arrived at the festival to set up, with 2 hrs or so to get everything ready. Great, plenty of time. We got to our assigned area, had a little issue with the tent but once that was fixed, we were ready for tables and art works.

Great. Everything was going fine. I had bought a craft display rack to use just for the festival so we started to set that up. Once it was set up, I realized that it was so windy that the display rack was going to roll around. So we put some things around the wheels to solve that issue. However, once I started putting my wood pieces and some canvas art on it, the wind would pick it up and slam it against the rack until they fell off. So we elected not to use it and just used the tables instead.

I put the table clothes one table and laid out my bottle lamps before moving to the next table to fix up the table clothes. I took a quick look around and checked the time.

Great. Everything is going well.

Then a huge gust of wind came threw as I was putting my canvases on the table. I had to nearly lay on top of the table to keep my paintings from blowing away. And as I stood there, 10ft from the opposite table. I watched as the wind picked up the table cloth with all 4 of my lamps and send then tumbling to the concrete.

Crash!

Great!!

It took everything I had to keep from crying as other artists, who were getting ready themselves, watched for my reaction. It was all I could do to pick up the pieces, throw them away and put canvases in their place.

The wind kept up and my canvases kept blowing away. It was suggested to put rocks on them to keep the stable. Several people ran quickly to get some for me as did my husband. It worked for a while until a huge gust of wind came through. I managed to hold most of them down but one rock got picked up slightly, which allowed for the wind to pick up my painting of Midnight Moon. As the wind picked it up, the rock tore through the painting.

Finally, everything was set. I’m time for the start of the festival. Everything that had just happened had happened with in 2 hours and nothing had started yet. I was already feeling defeated and I wanted to pack up and go home. I felt very much attacked and I wondered if God was telling me to stop what I was doing.

As I sat there at my booth, ready to give up and stop using my art to minister to people, a man came up started looking through my stuff. He looked at what I brought with me and went through my portfolio. He spoke about his own faith and how much of my art work spoke to him and resonated with him about how Christ had worked in his life. He then started ministering to me. Saying that I had a really great ministry going and a wonderful message. His words were so encouraging to me and while I don’t remember them exactly, I remember the assurance and peace that I felt as he spoke.

He didn’t know what I had just gone through. He didn’t know how defeated I was feeling as I had put my game face on. Yet he said exactly what my heart needed to hear.

That was a God moment. A moment where God was choosing to speak to me through someone else. Which happened several more times with different people through out the day. Any time I started feeling frustrated or defeated again, someone else would come and speak to me about what my art says to them and really encourage me to keep the faith.

The lessons that I learned from this crazy day were: 1) God has called me to use my art for Him and spread His word. Regardless of the challenges that I meet. 2) I can’t be so dependent and so worried about making money that I forget lesson #1.

God provided me with exactly what I needed. Actually, He provided me with more, financially, than what I needed. Through this, He reminded me that I have to rely on Him and keep my focus on Him. Otherwise, all of this is for nothing.

While I am still disappointed I how May 8th went, it helped me to see the lessons God was teaching me and made me realize I needed rest. I had been going non stop with teaching and running my art business and I hadn’t stopped to take care of myself. Surgery forced me to stop.

Now that I have rested for these last 2 months, I feel rejuvenated and am excited to see what God has for me moving forward. I have so many ideas to share with you in the future and I hope you will enjoy them.

Until then,

God bless.