Eight months ago yesterday was my last day as the Mission business manager. Even before that, the Lord was giving me a vision for something new on the Navajo Reservation. That's grace! While I was still too busy to think or have a life outside the office, God was encouraging me by showing me what lay ahead: LifeHouse Pottery & Arts. It was while I was in Williams, Arizona in May 2013 that I first had the idea for a pottery, and it was about a month earlier that I bought a potters' wheel with part of our tax refund. By August, I recorded fifteen (15) different and specific events that, combined, confirmed to me that this idea for a pottery was not just my longing for earlier days (I spent 20 years working with clay from the 70s to the 90s). Key among these fifteen was the fact that Katrina (my very practical, no-nonsense wife) really believed this idea was from God and not myself.
Now I have carved out a bit of studio space in the back room that serves as a shop and built a shed out my backdoor for my kiln. I have started to revive the old knowledge and abilities of 20+ years ago: I have fired my kiln three times and have thrown my first bowls (with more planned in the next week). This is my personal beginning.
As for the broader idea of a place for Native American artists to create, be healed, grow as Christians, give back to the community, and share what God has done with them to the world -- the how and where is beginning to become clearer. While there is a building on our Mission grounds that I would like to use for the pottery, there is a space in the basement of one of our houses that would be ideal to clean up and use as studio/work space for the community to come to. The space is probably 20 X 50 feet and the whole of one 50-ft side is solid windows, facing the northwest. A group may be coming in June to give it its first cleaning!
A lot more needs to be done. I am going to start on a business plan, and continue to develop things I can make--that can be sold to the public. Thank you for your prayers and gifts. God is going to make this happen!
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment