When she picked up that first dying man from the gutter, there was no possible way she could foresee the masses across the globe whose lives would be saved. She only knew the fire in her bones could be alleviated no other way. And so she started rescuing, one-by-one, the last and least of the…Read more The Power of a Single Flame (Part 2)
Kenya
Shine Like Stars Interview
I don't mean this irreverently, but I really think God is laughing at me. In January 2015, I wrote down a prayer request as I continued my art journey. I asked the Lord to “open doors to speak to more people.” Now, I most definitely did not mean “speak” literally. I've come a long way…Read more Shine Like Stars Interview
Dreaming of Gardens
Amani ya Juu (Swahili for "peace from above"): an enchanted garden engulfing my senses in tangible peace, healing my soul. Birds sing as vibrant green dance with breezes; and hope sprouts as surely as beautiful textiles leap from skillful hands. Amana Ya Juu, neslted in a Nairobi side street, waited for me like the tender presence…Read more Dreaming of Gardens
An Open Letter to al Shabab, and a Painting in Honor of the Kenyans Who Died
You cannot put out the light. It is like an unruly spark. When you try to suppress it, it divides into a thousand flying embers. You thought you extinguished the light when they lay dead at your feet, no longer praying to the God you despise; but look around, it ignites in my heart! It…Read more An Open Letter to al Shabab, and a Painting in Honor of the Kenyans Who Died
Rooted in Light
The road from courage and hope, to utter despair, and then finally to exhilaration stretched through wild lands in 2005. With the daughter we longed to adopt buried in a third-world orphanage and silence from the Kenyan lawyer who should be inviting us to come and claim her, I could no longer bear the separation.…Read more Rooted in Light
Prophetic Art
“Art is the language of the soul.” With these words, one of my lifelong friends exhorted me as I wrestled for years with an insatiable need to express myself visually. For decades I tried to suppress this language, feeling it could not urgently or adequately address the evils I witnessed in the world. It felt…Read more Prophetic Art
Just to Touch the Hem
Nairobi, June 2005 She refused to eat. Her forehead felt warm. She cried incessantly. Nothing alleviated her discomfort. As a sojourning foreigner, I lacked even the name of a pediatrician in Kenya, much less contact information. Even if I knew who to call, I couldn’t easily access transport. My one solace – I knew that…Read more Just to Touch the Hem
Buried in Beads!
Piles of beads are slowly but surely transforming into mounds of jewelry around here as I prepare inventory for the Texas PTA conference store. You can check out their article, "Pamba Toto spotlight," here. Danny Philhower, the store director, traveled to South Africa a decade ago with my friend and Pamba Toto co-founder, Debbie Lee and her…Read more Buried in Beads!
Abide
I feel a bit like a schizophrenic root system. The contents of my week seem jumbled and chaotic, too many off-shoots to identify a specific direction. I am deep in the soil of life, a tangle of kinked and knotted roots. I have no idea what is emerging above-ground. I remember another time I pressed…Read more Abide
Freedom Sunday
During a raid two months ago in India, rescuers invaded a room crowded with 36 women enslaved in the sex industry. Within moments of entering, they heard strange noises just on the other side of a wall. They searched for an opening, but there were no windows or doors. Finally they tore down a section…Read more Freedom Sunday
Colleen Briggs Images & Writing 