I used to be a student of design. I spent a lot of time looking for inspiration, reading magazines, stuff like that. somewhere along the line I kind of list that, so i am recommitting to seeking inspiration. Here are a couple videos i found tonight:
The Attenborough Design Group from Tom Judd on Vimeo.
and
Freedom Rodriguez is a friend of ours from Siloam Springs. Freedom spent some time in Uganda at an orphanage & has fallen in love with the children there. To help raise awareness & share their stories he has painted over the covers of 100 discard children’s books with faces of the children he met over there. Freedom was here at Cafe Mosaic last week with all 100 books. It’s truly a beautiful project that he’s done…and it’s so much more than simply a “project.” It is his heart, and God’s heart & inspires others to love & care. I think that’s a good thing.
Here’s short word from Freedom about this project:
The desire to paint 100 faces is an expression of the life changing memories I have of my visits to Africa. With this collection, I hope to raise awareness of the needs in Africa and help fund our full-time arts ministry. These faces represent the increasing burning in my heart to serve those in need.
Each painting is done in acrylic on old discarded children’s books. The series represents the millions of orphans that have been discarded or abandoned. Many have been given over to orphanages for the chance of a better life. Nevertheless, these children need to feel and know that they have a story still worth reading about. No matter what they have gone through, God still desires them to live fully and with the purpose God created them for.
Here’s a link to Freedom’s website
Turning 25 sort of freaked me out.
When I turned 25 I remember saying things like, “I’m practically 30!” [To which Ben promptly rolled his eyes.]
And so, 5 years later…as the big 3-0 quickly approaches I keep feeling the need to make some lists. So when I saw this article today, I figured it was a good start. And I’m trying to appreciate my 30 years, not be all freaked out by turning 30. This helped.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/whole-life/features/22216-9-things-to-know-before-you-turn-30
The other day I ran sound for an ITT tech graduation. There are several technical schools that use GCEC for graduations, and I actually really like being there for them. The graduating class of a small technical school in Tulsa is a lot different then that of the average 4 year institution. Last night there were several graduates who told their story. One was a single father who took care of his 9 year old daughter, worked, and put himself trough school. Another had been in jail for simple possession and when he got out he wanted to change his life, so he went to school, in the mean time his dad had died and his mom had a stroke and was not even able to be at the graduation. There is something really cool about seeing a group of people who have struggled to reach a goal get there.
Everybody has their struggles with school (i know i took my time getting done), but there is something different about seeing people who have experienced some pain in life, realized that there was something that they needed to learn, and choose to go to school to learn it. They didn’t go to school just because it was what they were supposed to do after they graduated, they went because they had decided that they needed to.
It’s gone fast and we are nearing the end of our time as interns at Garnett Church of Christ and in the CML. So, lots of people (including us!) have been wondering what we will be doing next. We really don’t know exactly, but we have a little bit of a plan.
An experience like we are having with a set ending date is kind of nice, it has been a really good way to transition away from NLR into something that has given us new experiences and new things to think about, without having to commit to a new job or city. We want to have time to process the last nine months when we are done, so we are not going to make plans to move to Africa or something like that (although we would like to visit Uganda sometime).
So, for now the plan is basically to stay around Tulsa. We might be able to work part time for the church and the event center, which would be great. We like it here, and we can hopefully contribute to what is going on, and it would be some steady income.
Beth will (hopefully) be working with Chris doing admin work for GPS Tulsa. GPS Tulsa is a program that Chris is staring that is targeted to students in Tulsa Achieves. Tulsa Achieves is a program that allows Tulsa student to attend Tulsa Community College for free for two years. Because of this a lot of high school grads stay in Tulsa for college.
GPS Tulsa is designed to be a complement to Tulsa Achieves. Participants will serve at John 3:16 Mission (which will complete there required service hours of Tulsa Achieves). After a day of service they will process the experience so they can learn from it. There will also be a mentoring component to it so students can start figuring out who God created them to be, future vocation, stuff like that. The basic idea is to give students a place to belong, help them change their community, and help them learn how God has uniquely created them. If you know Tulsa people who you think might be interested in this send them our way!
I (Ben) will be trying my hand as a freelance designer. Kind of scary! I have not really been doing serious design for a while, so i feel kind of rusty and behind the curve, but more then that I am not very good at networking, selling myself, and finding jobs. Freelance can be a very up and down business. Ultimately I am not sure where this might lead. I would love to be able to do major project on a contract basis for organizations that i think are doing interesting things. For example, if there was an organization doing economic development that needed a catalog or video made i would do the project for them.
Another possibility is that I think it would be really interesting to be part of a group of people with a diverse set of skills who are consulting and doing projects for non-profits. So, I might go that direction. There is not a ton of plan yet (im sure that makes our parents happy to hear!). I have wanted to freelance for a long time, and I think I have something to offer organizations that I could work for, and now seems like a good time to see what that it’s like.
We will also probably work some for Challenge Quest, get random jobs if we need to, sell our possessions, that kind of thing.
We have also talked about trying to travel some (anyone want to fund a Ben and Beth world tour? We’ll be sure and send you a postcard…), finding cool hobbies, and listening to lots of podcasts. Those options are on the table also.
So…blogging….
We have been busy! We will do some posts over the next week about some specific stuff, but for now here are a few random things:
Concerts we have hosted in the last month: 4 (Cass Harris, Jared Hard, and Sara Swenson all of whom you should check out)
Art shows we have hosted in the last month: 1 (with various artists, including Austin Penick)
Freelance design projects im working on…and getting paid for: 1 (hey, you have to start with one!)
Random interesting info: here
Morning radio station: KRMG (but..i have to make this disclaimer, i cannot handle Neal Boortz. He likes to yell…a lot)
Rest of the time radio station: KWGS unless you are Beth..then its 106.1
Side Project: GPS Tulsa
If you recently graduated from college and are looking for something to do you should check out: The CML and LEAD
Productivity today: Low
Years in a row one of us has not been at NLR Sunday of week1 until a few days ago : 9
next week: first day of pottery class
I have a flickr account, but its sort of like my other blog, and this other blog, i dont post to if very often…even though i want to. Although i do have a sort of cool set of pictures i will be uploading soon.
One of the most popular CQ Missional posts: here
Last weeks wedding: Russia
The week before that: Mexico
miles on my bike this week: 0
Ok, thats it. We will start blogging again. promise.
Firday (thats tomorrow!) we are having an concert at Cafe Mosaic at the Green Country Event Center. You should come. Jared Hard will be playing, and we have 5 artists who will be showing their work ranging from painting to pottery. I’m finishing up a video about each artist to show so people will know a bit about their story.
If you want to come here is the info:
Friday, May 28, 2010, 7pm-9pm (its come and go, like a coffee shop right!) at Cafe Mosaic 12000 E. 31st street, tulsa, in the lobby of the Green Country Event Center.
see you there…bring a friend!
Greg, the pastor at Garnett Church of Christ, is headed to Uganda with his family, part of what they will be doing is taking a well kit from water4.org. We have talked about water4.org on a little bit before. They are an organization that is doing some really innovative work in water wells. If you have any interest at all in providing clean water to the developing world you should check out their web site. It’r really cool to see how God has brought several people an organizations together to make all the right connections to make it possible for the Taylors to bring a well kit to Uganda. Check out this sort video explaining the kit and why they are willing to carry it half way around the world:
I can’t really stop thinking about dinner tonight with these lovely ladies.
I miss them & am really looking forward to catching up tonight.
I’m also looking forward to celebrating the arrival of baby Cadence to this cool family:
into a few things I’ve been liking lately…
- the Santa Ana roast coffee from Topeca
- Topeca coffee (in general)
- the Cosby Show
- seeing Cafe Mosaic really taking shape
