We are halfway through summer already! Due to the fact that I was down for 6 weeks after having some minor surgery, this is coming a little late. I am pleased to announce, however, that we have started up the mural project in El Callejon again and are having great results! Our first art team of the summer was lead by Nate Slabach, our staff pastor here at SI in the DR. Because I needed to stay at home and let my foot heal, he jumped right in and supported our artists who came from the east coast. One of the crew, Benjamin, decided to take on the challenge of addressing the prevalent issue of 'missing fathers'-- a reality many of the children of El Callejon deal with. Below you will see his depiction of a family with the space where a father should be whited out. To the right in the background is an image of Jesus, pointing towards the family, directing the father back to where he needs to be. Below that you see the father bringing food to the kids.
11 yr. old Mikael, who has been silently watching us paint for the last year, finally approached Benjamin while he was painting and asked him what the painting meant. Mikael's father left when he was very little and has not maintained contact with him. Nate shares the story of how Mikael responded to this mural and to us on his blog. You can go here to read the story. Anyway, ever since then, Mikael hangs out with us every day and gets as many hugs as he can.
Check out the rest of these beauties!!
