Global faith, global art

New Wineskins 2025 Group Art Project on stage on final day of conference

As Anglicans, we are a part of a global body of believers in Jesus.  We recently spent the weekend at the New Wineskins Anglican Missionary Conference where we were invited to lead a series of collaborative art projects.  It was an honor.  We pulled our kids out of school and listened to testimony after testimony of God’s power to save souls. 

Here is a taste of just two testimonies:

Bp. Yasir Eric was radicalized to be a militant Muslim who hated non-Muslims.  He almost killed a fellow high school senior who was a Christian.  In spite of this, persecuted Christians prayed for his dying nephew to be healed in a local clinic as Yasir sat by his bedside, helpless.  The Lord healed the boy.  The Christians said to Yasir that Jesus loved him.  He had never heard that before or thought that God loved, especially loved him.  He only knew a god who hated.  The Holy Spirit brought him to faith in Jesus’ forgiveness and love that day through those Christians.  He was rejected from family, home, and culture, yet the Lord met him in every area of hate and loss in his life and redeemed and strengthened him.  Yasir even met the man he almost killed as a teenager - a man who had been praying for him ever since.  His story testifies that only the grace of Jesus has the power to redeem hearts.  Yasir is now a bishop, professor, and pastor with a ministry to Christians who were Muslims.  He joined the Anglican Communion in search of community and theological depth.  You can read his full testimony in Christianity Today.

We heard Venerable Justice Onyeka Okoronkwo from Jos, Nigeria describe the genocide against Christians in his country.  He told how he was so angry at the Muslims for their ruthless slaughter; he had presided over too many mass funerals.  However, the Lord convicted him in his car as he waited in line for petrol.  He was consumed by his anger and did not notice the cars inching ahead in front of him.  A little Muslim girl rapped on his window to ask him to move forward.  As he did, the Spirit convicted him that his anger at the Muslims – even at that girl at his window – was the same as the Muslim murderers.  His anger was keeping him stuck.  The Lord gave him grace to forgive, to let go of his anger; in fact, the Lord called him to “move forward” to the Muslims and love them… love them in their poverty and their medical needs.  Under now retired, ArchBishop Ben Kwashi’s guidance, the diocese did and many Muslims came to faith.

We heard many more like this… Christians who were given the grace to love their enemies, to go to them even if it meant death, and to witness to the power of Jesus to work IN them as much as he worked THROUGH them to save, to heal, to forgive, to guide.  You can join the Anglican prayer network and find out ways to pray for and support these persecuted Christians here: New Wineskins Missionary Network.

As we returned to “regular life” on Long Island, I was culture-struck at how Jesus’ family is far beyond America and is much deeper than American nationalism.  What really unites the church is not our politics but His mercy.  The Spirit has been sending his people to their enemies, to pray for them, to witness to Jesus’ forgiveness… and hearts are turning as enemies are becoming witnesses to Jesus and messengers in his name.  We were truly honored to serve this global community of Christians. 

our collaborative art room at New Wineskins where people could create and pray

The focus of New Wineskins this year was how art is a missionary language to bridge to people around you.  They featured Anglican pastor, professor and artist, Winfield Bevins, leader of the Creo Arts Movement who is dedicated to helping churches use the arts to bring beauty to their neighbors in the name of Christ.  Creo Arts is one of many blossomings of the arts in the body of Christ, such as United Adoration, the International Arts Movement, and the seminaries with arts programs, and churches with art galleries, just to name of a few.  We were honored that Shelley Shorem and Jenny Noyes, the leaders of New Wineskins, asked Dandelion to serve this global community and the Lord through our art.  The legacy of my mother and father, leaders in this Anglican Communion, Sandra and Peter Moore, made them consider asking us.  (Thank you Mom and Dad!)

Here are the art projects we were grateful to lead:

Conference Group Art Project:

“The Arm of the Lord: Jesus the hope of the nations”

I wanted convey our rescue by Jesus Christ as well his promise to never let us go.  Jesus’ hand is the larger hand, bearing the nail mark, and lifting the smaller hand, our hand, out of darkness.  He is the life of every Christian and the hope for all nations.  

Break forth together into singing,
    you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared his holy arm
    before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
    the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 52:9,10

In their own language, throughout the conference, people wrote or drew their prayers and praises to God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - the only one who saves and sustains.  Together we made a stained-glass window alive with praise and a painted-prayer for all people.

HOPE FOR THE NATIONS, The Rev. Kate Norris, 7’x7’, oil, acrylic, oil pastel on canvas

Prayers for the Persecuted Church

Throughout the day, people added their “prayers in paint” to boards I painted that cry out: “SAVE me, us, them.”  We have brought these panels around New England with us this year inviting folks to cry out to the Lord in their place of need.  This night, we cried out for the persecuted church.  The cry of “Save” fit perfectly with the informational banners on areas of persecution, which can be found at Reachtheunreached.com.

Then, as the testimonies ended and prayers began, we brought “Gods saving touch” to represent God’s answer.  He always hears our cries.  His answers exceed what we can imagine.

We were all weeping and moved to worship by the speakers’ testimonies.  The power of Jesus’ Spirit to strengthen them - to give grace to forgive and courage to face death – was inspiring beyond words.  We were humbled and honored to serve them through the art and be used as a vessel for the Spirit.  

Hope in color:

We brought “God’s Saving Touch” and our black lights over to the parents with kids one afternoon.  We shared from 1 Peter 1, how Jesus is our living hope.  He won’t break or fade or spoil.  We talked about new toys that have broken.  Jesus doesn’t.  He forgives; he brings you to heaven.  Jesus makes hope light up in every darkness.  We had them draw a picture of “Jesus their hope” in neon oil pastel.  We showed them “God’s Saving Touch,” which represents a massive thumbprint… it is God’s hand leaning down to answer and save and light up our darkness.  They came up front to share their drawings.

Their paintings glowed too. They were surprised.  They kept coming up and sharing.  They loved it!  The Lord lights up our hope and delights our imagination and exceeds our cries. 

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:3-5

And then in our art room, Sean set up my dandelion series. It was a place to be still. I had a sound machine going with soft rain.  It was in honor of my father and inspired by grief with hope.

Just some more verses on hope for you all.

He does not fail us.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.  He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 

2 Corinthians 1:9,10

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 

Romans 5:3-5

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