God in Our Backyard

The Light Meets the Dark Tour - Fall 2010

I can't believe I will get to see this band and other strong Christians on this tour in 14 weeks from now!

Saturday, July 17, 2010 Staff Appreciation Dinner

Yesterday was the Staff Appreciation Dinner and I can't believe we're celebrating and saying 'goodbye' already. It seem like this was the only time staff were able to hangout beside the busy crazy MNM meeting on Mondays. The place where we celebrated was at the tip of South Ferry at Wagner Park onlooking the New Jersey shore, Statue of Liberty, Governor Island and the Hudson River at Gigino near Battery Park. The night was relaxing and we enjoyed delicious cuisine. I got the mussels, salmon and chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. Because of the beautiful sunset and scenery we took a lot of staff pictures including the art track. I had definitely made some friends with the staff here on project and will miss them dearly. Hope this is not the last time we will intersect.

Friday, July 16, 2010 Free Day

Today was a free day but we did have an art track devotional and spend some morning time journaling. The art track staff and interns briefly had a meeting talking about tear down and any updates about the opening. Apparently a lot of the art mentors came today or yesterday opening. A lot of other people came as well friends of the students or staff. Anthony shared with us that one of Lauren H.'s friend who recently moved into the city came to the show. She spent a lot of time in our exhibit and when she walked into the "intimacy" house she spent a long time reading those private secret messages written on those tags and came out in tears. Apparently the exhibit had some impact on her and I see it as a sign from God as one success story that our exhibit had made some eternal impact.

Later today we had time to be tourist and I went to see the movie Inception with they guys and Emily. Afterwards I met up Caleb and Norah at the Metropolitan Museum and head back to NYCAMS to gather folks to go to South Ferry, which is an amazing sight to see at night.

Thursday, July 15, 2010: The Opening!

Tonight was the opening and al this anticipation on the Arts track builds into one night. We work so hard and put so much effort wrestling with our word that it felt strange and weird come opening night. The pace slowed down greatly and some of us didn't know what to do with the free time after we finish our cleaning chores. The space looks a bit empty at first sight but one of the worker at NYCAMS said it is "one of the best art show I seen from this project good use of space." The space was free flowing and viewers had time to walk from one group collaborative to another intersecting each piece. Congrats students we did it together. Thank God.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Tomorrow our Opening!

"Double Crosser" My piece of the light boxes series of betrayal. Tomorrow is the opening I'm excited. Can't wait for the anticipated moment. Everything is coming together nicely.
Praying for our collaborative pieces hoping our work will bring about revelation to people as they contemplate what does this piece mean.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 Rick James: Backstory

Today we accomplish so much in a day. At Campus Crusade office we heard from Rick James the author of Backstory which is a Campus Crusade tool to share the gospel in a story format. It has 7 points unlike the KGP which has 4 but same message.

1) Starting with the "intimacy" with God wish of us,

2) but "intimacy" was loss when we "betrayal" God.

3) We anticipate a hope from God to restore this brokenness.

4) God "pursuit" of us pour upon His grace upon us,

5) to do so God had to "sacrifice" His only Son for us.

6) He welcomes us to an "invitation" into his trust to receive the gift of Christ's "sacrifice".

7) We are finally at a climax of "reunion" with God because we believe in the gift of Christ.

The use of backstory is a longer dialogue with someone so he explain how and when you should use Backstory.

Benefit of Backstory is people can internalize the gospel more deeply and understand the meaning of these words.

A lot of the "Christianese" words we use like "sin", "repent", "redeem" have little meaning in a post-modern which does not have context of history for these words as much in our present day.

I like the visual aspect of Backstory and the storyline of the scheme so I can see myself using something like this as a follow-up with those I share the gospel initially with who had never heard of the gospel before.

I went running with Caleb in the morning west toward the Hudson River and south toward Chelsea Pier which we rest and enjoyed the view before heading back to shower and clean up for Rick's James presenting Backstory.
Ran into this staircase on 28th street, thought it was a photo opportunity waiting to happen as if someone want our attention.
I'm so proud of my team figuring out an obstacle today nailing drywall screws into thin drywall with help from Jonathan and Adam. Thanks a lot. I'm so relieved we are close to finishing our project it looks great. I will post the final thing once the show opening begin. Tomorrow the only thing we need to finish is tacking our imagery on to our light boxes.
The intimacy group is hanging secrets of people on our project written on tags on their red fabric. Looks good guys.
The invitation group working hard on cutting our those invitation leaves to make an illusion of a pile of leaves in the center of the gallery flooring.

Quote of the Day

‎"Can you take a picture of me that doesnt look unattractive for once?" Sunny
"How bout this one?" Brian
"ehh......whatever" Sunny

Mondayy, July 12, 2010: 3 Days till Opening!

Tonight was M&NM and the campus track hosted it at the Inner City Here's Inner City Warehouse on Steinman and 36th Street off of 33rd Street on the 7 trains in Queens. The warehouse was a furnace even with fans running so everyone was sweating and hot. The night we talked about the word "sacrifice" and what it means. A student from each of the 5 tracks gave a story from their lives how the significant of the word "sacrifice". Kristine from the Arts track came up talking about what an irony to think anything is a "sacrifice" because truthfully everything we own is God, so if God take something away how is it a sacrifice if it belongs to Him already? She talks about what a blessing being on this art project is yet knowing her family is going through grief of her dad hospitalized she wish she be with her family and fix their brokenness. But it is as if God ask her to surrender her family ideals to His' hands who lives in Indiana while she goes to school in Arizona and spending a fun time in New York. We end the night with worship lead by the campus track.
During M&N&M we wrote on sticky notes something we are committed in sacrificing this semester for God. I wrote: "I'm willing to sacrifice my time my senior year to build into freshmen."
Jayson's drrawing for his lightbox.
Sacrifice tent

They finish their handmade fabric walls with sand and plants inside as well as a fan. The group plan on leading viewers inside sacrificing one of their senses to prove the point that sacrifice is not always a bad thing. When we sacrifice we receive an award for our loss.

Favorite Quote

"You know the movie have in their top 10 but no one likes- Ocean 11." Adam

Sunday, July 11, 2010 Free Slurpee Day!

Saturday July 10, 2010 Four more days till Opening!

Today I finish the last layer of my light box images. The finish product starts out with the appearance of an old defeated man starring at a victim he betrayed. As you flicker the switch you can see the image behind his past moment of being the betrayer.
Today I enjoyed two subway street performances one guy playing soulful music and singing on 14th Street Union Square and another mexican trio at Time Square. This is one thing I love about the city with variety of music and people passion to be heard. God would love for everyone of us to find out the convictions God bestow upon us and make a passion out of the things we love to glorify Him.
Lauren K. pitch her group "Sacrifice" last update before the gallery opening. The group is building a structure and space where individual will be lead through the opening with one of their senses blindfold, or loss of hearing, to experience a sacrifice of one of their senses.
Jayson's drawing of "betrayal" on peach cream paper. The piece is of his past girlfriends and each character represent a specific desire we have which betrays God when we put that desire in the forefront of our lives.
Favorite Quote of the Day

"Hammer time!" Lauren K

"Flashback. You guy sewing and chicken wire and the smell of sawdust." Kari

"You should title it 'Sex Box'." Kari

"I do nudes everyday..." Larry "Shouldn't it be 'I drew nudes?'" Kari

Friday, July 9, 2010: Tomorrow our Critique!

Fairy Tales are not just kiddie stories anymore they have real life implication as the "Reunion" group discover with biblical story tale endings. Scriptures tell us to be reunited with our enemies and often we don't account it to our lives. Our lives can be like this picture of Jayson and Natalie dressed up as the Wolf and Little Red Ridden Hood. We went to Central Park and received a lot of stares as Joseph and Tiffany photographs their series of fairy tales characters.
Your favorite childhood tale of the Turtle and the Hare race starring Jayson and Sunny tied today in a 3-legged race. Talk about reunion, being tied together to finish a race doesn't get more reunited than that. So who won?
Jayson busy using graphite drawing on his imagery for the "betrayal" group.
Morning Devotional delivered by Joseph with chairs in a family style format.
Jayson sharpen his 2H pencils with a knife. Look how sharp they are.
The staff meeting we had lunch over New Yorker pepperoni, cheese, and mushroom pizza. We talked about the "storm before the calm" in the midst of the most busiest part of project getting ready and preparation for our big gallery opening night on Thursday. Please pray for the following:

Pray for unity as we come together while setting up the space and contribute to make this a glorifying time for the work we done.

Pray for the Spirit to be alive in our studio time as we have conflict with each other and feel stressed out.

Pray for the staff responsibilities will be manageable as we promote and invite guests and prepare for the opening.

Pray for incoming guests and people to be welcome into the space with a heart to hear and listen to what the work say about themselves about the words being portrayed: Betrayal, Sacrifice, Pursuit, Intimacy, Anticipation, Invitation and Reunion.
Favorite Quote of the Day

"I been breathing too many sharpie" Brian