Our education team returned to Nairobi to present a "Healing Arts" camp to 40 students at New Dawn High School located in the Haruma slum. Our purpose was to introduce the students to the idea of using a variety of arts to express emotion, address pain or trauma, and potentially experience some healing as a result. We centered our three days around the Old Testament story of Hagar and the "God who sees me."
Students read a script of the story of Hagar, who represents the outcast, yet despite this, is seen by and visited by God, not once, but twice. Ken served as our chaplain for our time together, and each morning shared a different devotion about the Hagar story using Psalms that she might well have sung as she cried out to God in her distress. The story of an outcast resonates with these students as many of them come from situations where they have been rejected by family or feel like an outcast due to their circumstances.
Lance and Sanna led a group of students in the art of song writing.
Ann and Nina led a group in using poetry to address our emotions.
Judy led a drama group of course!
I led a group of students in the visual arts, of course.
The students really got into the theme song that Lance and Sanna taught all of us, called "Joy" by Rend Collective. Look it up! One of the lines in the song is "The dark is just a canvas for Your grace and brightness." This particularly resonated with me and the group of very quiet, but thoughtful students in my painting group. More about this in the next blog!
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