Flight of the Kambu; 2024; mixed media: watercolor, acrylic, chalk, ink. Dear friends, Writing a novel is an interesting journey. There's the writing, and then there's an entirely different process of building "platform." I'm definitely much more interested in the first. Nevertheless, my process of signing with an agent a few yeas ago felt like…Read more An invitation…
Healing to Become A Healer
Around the world, I’ve discovered a universal truth in my work as Director of Orphan Care for Hope’s Promise. And in my role as a parent, family member, and friend. As a human. Trauma wounds. But attachment heals. Flight of the Kambu: from wounded to healed; 2024; 15.5" x 8.25"; mixed media: watercolor, acrylic, ink,…Read more Healing to Become A Healer
Jerusalem
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
Becoming keeps becoming
The Becoming collaboration began with three people walking down a street, talking about a potter, about clay in His hand, about yielding to His vision. About a song, swelling in one heart. And an image, emerging in another. Merging into a photo of a dancer, leaping into hope. Rachel Quiner, dancer Becoming became a painting,…Read more Becoming keeps becoming
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