Jerusalem; 2024; 19.5" x 25.5"; mixed media: watercolor, ink, chalk, acrylic. Three of us walk its busy streets at dusk, life pulsing all around. Cars revving, children laughing as they swing in a park, light fading over a vast city. We follow our map down a quieter lane to an obscure gate in a wall,…Read more Jerusalem
Spiritual journey
Let It Rain
Photo by Keenan Morgan, (c) 2023 We walk their community where half a million people live in six square miles. We slip in sewage-laced mud; duck under live, pirated-electricity wires; crowd into one-room, windowless homes; gaze over a garbage clogged river. We mourn the gap between what is and what should be. In their living…Read more Let It Rain
Unspeakable Treasure, Tucked Into the Cracks
Photo used by permission. (c) 2023 Keenan Morgan, Hope's Promise Kenya Connection Trip, Mathare Valley treasure. We walked their community where half a million people live in six square miles of abject poverty. We slipped in its sewage-laced mud; ducked under its live, pirated-electricity wires; crowded into its one-room, windowless homes; gazed over its garbage…Read more Unspeakable Treasure, Tucked Into the Cracks
Becoming
With great joy, I share with you a dream come true - an artistic collaboration of dancer Rachel Quiner, songwriter and performer Janelle Briggs, and myself as the painter. May it inspire you in your journey of becoming. Rachel Quiner Becoming (youtube link) written and performed by River Briggs Music (Janelle Briggs) Becoming; 2021; 2021;…Read more Becoming
Hope and transformation in Vietnam
Our friend tells our team that we will visit a village in the mountains where two kids started their lives who are now members of a Hope's Promise family for orphaned children and where Hope’s Promise implements a Thrive scholarship group for thirty orphaned and vulnerable children who live with relatives. That’s about all we…Read more Hope and transformation in Vietnam
Unquenchable
When I was young, I consumed missionary biographies like candy. These people seemed so daring, brave, other-worldly. Pressing to the ends of the earth with a message more valuable than their very lives. I read of men and women who lived for years with unreached people groups, simply to learn the language so the Bible…Read more Unquenchable
Refuge
Refuge; 19.75" x 11.5"; watercolor, ink, acrylic, water-soluble pastel. Another morning. Another heartbreaking headline. Mass shootings, earthquakes, climate change, disease. I wonder, Where can I go to escape this darkness? Even in the highest mountain refuge, the darkness is still there. In me. I think of Jesus’ words in Luke 21:25-28 “There will be signs…Read more Refuge
When God Weeps With Us
Weeping With Us; 2013; 20" x 29 1/2"; mixed media: watercolor, charcoal, pastel. Many years ago, I painted this image about grief and finding God so very present, actually weeping with me in it. Now, please allow me to share with you about a book written by a dear friend of mine that powerfully captures…Read more When God Weeps With Us
Seeing God in Zimbabwe
So privileged to break through the "Covid barrier" again and witness God at work in Zimbabwe.... Imagine for just a moment: you are a newly widowed mother with nowhere to go. No income, no family support, no government social services. You re-locate to uninhabited land, build a mut hut, and eke out subsistence. Amidst the…Read more Seeing God in Zimbabwe
When the Physical Expresses the Spiritual
Tonia Nifong and Evelyn Wyss, 40:31 Dance Collective of Colorado Springs, "Hide me in the cleft." I am currently intrigued by the idea of the physical body as a seed for our eternal being, as a tangible hint of transcendent truth. Through artistic studies, I'm ruminating: What if our visceral beings germinate in the soil…Read more When the Physical Expresses the Spiritual
Colleen Briggs Art & Writing 