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

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

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.

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.

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!

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:

CQMissional recently took a trip to Colorado…we had a great time!

We stayed at Silver Cliff Ranch, where we helped out around the camp, and had lots of time to play in the snow.

We shoveled some snow:

Cleaned some cabins:

Helped serve meals:

Went snowshoeing (we also went skiing):

we even drank chocolate milk:

It really was a good week of relaxing, playing in the snow, and just hanging out. Someday we might just go to Colorado and never leave…

Tonight we went for a walk.

(Nice update, huh?)

But on our walk we ended up at Swan Lake, a really cute little subdivision just down the street. A handful of houses surround a small pond called “Swan Lake.” And there are two swans in the lake (along with some geese & ducks.) They had a contest recently to name the swans & some local school children named them Penelope & Cobbler.

Did you know that a female swan is called a “pen” & a male swan is called a “cob?”  Get the names now?
Think about it for a minute.  Now do you get it?

Isn’t that cute!

I didn’t really believe him at first. I thought he was just being silly. But he wasn’t! He was being serious.

So I got dressed up, and we started walking. We eventually ended up at the Performing Arts Center downtown. And saw these guys.

What a fun surprise! (That he came up with about two hours before…just because he knows how much I love going to shows like this.)