Thoughts on the Resurrection

Life is so busy for most of us, the last thing we need is a rambling account of someone else’s business, so I’ll be brief.  Looking back over the last two months in brief, I led four memorial services, eight bible studies, I married a couple in their 80s, we went to four opera performances and the beach several times, I preached six times and did multiple services through Holy week. After all that, and much more that I skipped writing, what really is worth thinking about?

Resurrection

There is no question about it, it has to be Christ’s death and resurrection. That event in time where Christ reversed the works of Satan and offered himself for mankind to have a path back into relationship with God. An axis point, from which, God starts to call the church body back to himself. The mustard seed was sown and it is still growing, although if you did not know Christian lingo, Easter would seem more about bunny rabbits, eggs and all things sweet. How did we get here? How do we arrive at the ‘Holiday of Easter’, over shadowing  the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection?

How did we arrive at where we find ourselves now? That question is applicable to so many areas of the contemporary world, not only about Easter. The political conflicts and climate changes we see developing in our world leave huge issues for us to deal with.

However, all of these issues are undergirded by a spiritual failure: the spiritual failure Jesus Christ came to save us from. Christ highlighted this on his last discourse to the disciples as recorded in John 13:34 
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.“

This was more than He had been commanding before, that we love ‘others as ourselves’, the bar rose, to we are to love ‘others as Jesus loved us’, a much higher standard.

God has used prophets through the years to direct people’s attention to where they now stand and what they are now facing. Their message always comes with a call to action and warning.  As Christians we are to address these huge issues touched on above, with the love Christ has shown to us, and to stand firm in loving those in need. Ephesians 2:4-5 reminds us of where we have come from and our call to demonstrate God’s grace.

^” But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” 

We would be giving much sweeter gifts, if along with chocolate Easter eggs we were explaining the full story of God’s grace by Christ’s death and resurrection. A small explanation of the cost of love by Christ, will go a long way towards salvation. Michael

Christine: Amen!

And gratitude for the immensity of All that God has given us is key to living in the joy and life that the Resurrection brings. It is unfathomable, the many plans of God to save and redeem human kind. From the subsiding of the flood waters and the saving of Noah and all the animals, to the parting of the Red Sea, it is humbling to really take in how very much God loves us and wants us to be cleansed of sin and in HIs saving embrace.

When I was a little girl, on Easter Saturday early evening, we would take baths, wash hair, get into clean pajamas and go to bed excited for Sunday to come. We would wear our new Easter outfits to Church, and to me that symbolized a new life in Christ, clean and joyous and grateful!

And I am very grateful for all the opportunities God is giving me to share my work with others. I have a large exhibition at All Angels Church on Long Boat Key that will be up for two months, and various other icons and paintings on view in galleries in Sarasota. Here is a link to a recent newspaper article about the Icon exhibit:

We know your lives are probably full as well, and we are so grateful for each one of you. At the end of the day, what matters is the God we love and the people we love.

Please do keep us in your prayers, as you are in ours,

Much love,

Christine and Michael

Michael’s Photography Christine’s Paintings

Forgiveness

Christine has several opportunities to hang her art work, both the icons and her contemplative paintings, in different shows and venues, happening in Sarasota. First Friday of the month the local businesses open for the evening and crowds promenade through downtown visiting galleries and shops. Christine has two large paintings in the window of the Define gallery, on Palm Ave, which are catching a lot of attention.

She has been working on creating icons and religious paintings, exploring how God wants her to do each one. It’s such a privilege to be able to do this work and she uses just about all of her time either teaching , praying, reading, writing, and painting. She’s pretty happy!

To exercise my creativity, I started exploring the early method of cyanotype printing for my extensive collection of photography. It has been a lot of joy rediscovering the pleasure of seeing images in print form develop and come alive again.

Chaplaincy offers the opportunity to run different programs for the activities of independent living residents and we offer at different times of the year the Alpha Course, which is a great blessing to the folks at work.

Home

Originally from Holy Trinity Brompton, Alpha has had a powerful impact on our lives when we first attended the course, on it’s initial introduction to Saint Bartholomew’s in NYC. Since then we have run the course many times for different churches and communities, always with wonderful results.

I have also been facilitating another course which the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, initiated called Difference. https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/priorities/reconciliation/difference-course

The Difference Course, sets out to teach three basic habits to help us overcome division, in relationships, in community etc. We can see how destructive division can be not only close to home, but on a large scale, we see polar opposites in politics, in the church and between nations. The three habits fall under; be curious, find out as much as you can as to how the other person arrived in their present position; be present, do not run away but be able to represent yourself and hear the other; to reimagine, a better outcome for both sides than the present.

This week in the course we were covering forgiveness and we watched a video of a white South African talking about the ending of Apartheid and what happened after the reconciliation period, when he realized he needed to take responsibility for his unwitting complicity in the ramifications of color separation and racism. The discussion about this video afterwards within the group, led to several deep personal revelations, as to how racism had affected their lives as children growing up in America on both sides. From the simplest of childhood memories, like black and white children not holding hands even though their gym instructor had told them to line up as a circle holding hands. The discomfort of early rejection and separation can easily become a root of bitterness, with one layer of hurt after another being laid on top of it, so the division is so embedded it becomes normalized.

Sadly, as we come to black history month in America, those layers upon layers of rejection, negative judgements and fear, has created a full closet of unconscious divisions between black and white people. Which inevitably breaks out as violence and hatred causing death and destruction in this land; once heralded as a melting pot of people. This has to be an abomination to God and all of us. We, collectively, placed those layers of rejection, we are all complicit to one degree or another. Some by radical racism and some with blind eyes or simple denial. And yet when another incident occurs, a killing or a riot in reaction, we express surprise at this outcome and question how could this be? Yet, we told them to go to the back of the bus, we would not hold their hands in gym class, we stopped them swimming in the sea with us, we saw them as nameless and called them ‘boy’, no matter how old they were.

I have to accept my complicity in this tragedy. Born in slavery and colonialism, continued by greed and fear, normalized by rejecting our complicity. I have to accept my complicity and ask God into a full awareness of the cost my behavior has been to others.  God is the only way forward through this tragedy and His opening the door for awareness, repentance, forgiveness and healing. Only God through His grace, can direct a way forward, for unraveling and releasing years of pain.

“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;”

Hebrews 12:15

Please, lift up your prayers for healing of these racial divisions and that all the body of Christ would seek God’s grace to help us all to forgive, repent and heal.

Sending much love and prayers,

Michael and Christine

Michael’s Photography  Christine’s Icons

Expect Miracles

Christmas, for Christians,  Christ’s birth, is one of the most significant happenings ever to occur in this world, it is on par with Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection. And it is a miracle! A miracle that keeps birthing more miracles is one that we don’t want to overlook!

Christmas, as a holiday celebration, can be mostly a family gathering that centers on gifts, food, decorations and carols, with a nod to Christ’s birth and a sprinkling of good wishes.

Keeping a healthy balance between those two sides of Christmas can be a challenge, but attending Advent services, reading the gospels pertaining to the birth of Jesus, they all help build an anticipation to what really is the most earth shattering reason for joy! 

I always have to add to it Christmas celebrations with my own birthday on Dec. 24, and this year a memorial service, a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day service and then there is New Year’s Eve ….and it becomes something one is just glad to have come through!

My Nativity Icon at Church with myself and a friend looking at it!

But when we stand back and review the big picture, nothing else, so far, can be compared to Jesus Christ’s presence as a human being on this earth, fully human while still being fully divine.

The concept that God could have a son, to some, is fully outrageous or just plain folly. The concept of God as a trinity being in the form of a person, is equally difficult to absorb. That Jesus Christ came through a virgin’s birth and the supposed King, was born amongst animals, just goes against all reason.

And yet, for two thousand years Christmas has been celebrated and it’s significance held high through many different cultures and nations.

God is still working powerfully around the world, even when our clarity of who Christ, the Holy Spirit and God the Father are, or correctly, is and how we relate to each Person of the Godhead.

Christine and I just returned from a Global Awakening Retreat, fortunately held close to our home. It was an opportunity to look into each of the Persons of the Trinity and their interconnected indwelling. There was some excellent teaching and times of refreshing with powerful worship.

I got a word from the Lord, which has resonated through me since it dropped into my mind during a long period of holy silence, at the end of a days’ worship. ‘Stop looking back, Michael. Look toward me, your Lord.’ As I consider the many different messages in that word; of discipline, intimacy, direction, authority and security. I thank God that He loves us.

Christine’s News

We had our daughter and her family- husband and two sweet little daughters visit for the week after Christmas. Lots of fun family times and getting to know each other and bond together as a family. Michael took them to see the flamingos at Sarasota Jungle Gardens, and their other grand dad took us all for a boat ride to midnight pass! So very much to be thankful for!

I have begun two icons of early Christian Martyrs, Felicitas and Perpetua. Also getting ready to bring two large paintings to the Define Art Gallery for a February exhibition. I’ve been asked to be secretary for the Women Contemporary Artists Group I am a part of, and I’m still learning the ropes on that one. But I’m as excited as I’ve ever been to continue exploring the type of paintings God has called me to do. This year you will no doubt see some of the new work and I will look forward to your feedback.

Until next month, stay warm, and close to God. You can’t go wrong that way!

A Prayer Against Hatred

There are two events in November, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving, which indicate we are approaching the ‘holiday season’, this is the politically correct way of addressing different religious celebrations which have become an annual merchandizing opportunity. Buddhism celebrates Bodhi Day, Wicca celebrates Yule/ winter solstice, Judaism celebrates Hanukkah and Christianity celebrates Christmas.

Community Outreach For Thanksgiving

The wonderful thing about Thanksgiving is it has not yet been pulled, full force, into the merchandizing calendar, although Black Friday is knocking on the door, by being extended in both directions, before and after. Thanksgiving has remained primarily a family affair with people focusing on eating together and giving thanks. The community where I work as a Chaplain has a tradition of raising donations for turkeys for the homeless. We are still doing it, but now we give gift cards for grocery stores, because turkeys are not always the best choice for the homeless. This way they get to choose what works best for them. We raised over a thousand dollars and the gift cards went out in decorated envelopes, through the assistance of ‘Turning Points’, an organization that provides help and hope for those in need.

Michael’s News

I’ve been photographing at Myaka, a state park close to Sarasota, as a way to stay connected to nature. Myakka River Park was hit very hard during Hurricane Ian by wind and flooding, many of the live oak trees were felled, and the park was closed for months while some restoration was undertaken. On a recent visit feeling overwhelmed by the news from Israel and also here in America, I decided to pray and it became a spontaneous prayer against the hatred that appears to be compounding around the world.  I recorded the prayer at that time and later created a video using evocative images from the park. Here is the link:

An overarching question arises, why is there so much hatred in the world? Hatred just creates more hatred. It can only fuel a destructive downward spiral, but that seems to be the only tool many select. Jesus instructed us to love our neighbors and turn the other cheek, but the skeptic says where is the power in that? If you bomb me, I will bomb you back ten times over. Love seems to be powerless against bombs. But love is not powerless against hatred. When hatred morphs into violence everyone is off to the races; arms races, abusive behavior, destruction and revenge.

Alternatives

There are some examples though, where nations chose to try a different route. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in the 1990s, helped galvanize South Africa’s peaceful transition to democracy after decades of white supremacy as the law of the land.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission granted amnesty to those who would fully confess their crimes. “Human beings can leave you speechless, really. They can leave you speechless by the horrible things they do, but they also leave you speechless with the incredible things they do. We saw so many times people who ought to have been bristling with bitterness and anger, and when they meet the perpetrator, actually being able to embrace.”

Proverbs 10:12     Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

There is no doubt humans are capable of incredible good as well as incredible evil. But when we think we can live this life without God’s love flowing through us, although we may hold all the destructive weapons of the world, they can only lead downwards. Whereas the power of love and God’s direction, can only lead us upward to healing and rebirth and connection to God. That is a choice everyone must make. Please pray with me especially during the Christmas Season, that peace will indeed rein on earth in our time.

John 15:18-19.

 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Luke 2:13-14

“They said, ‘Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors. ‘” The Good News: In announcing the arrival of Jesus to the terrified shepherds in the field, the angels declared God’s wish for everyone: peace on earth.”

Merry Christmas Everyone, and may Peace Reign on Earth!

Christine’s News

I’m just finishing up teaching and leading a four-day icon retreat online.  It’s a tremendous amount of preparation and it skills to make it all happen but it is very rewarding.  Many of my students have been studying with me for a few years at least, and I feel we are beginning to make very beautiful contemporary icons.  This week we are painting a very beautiful icon of the Nativity.

I am still showing some of my paintings at a gallery in Sarasota, and that is a source of pressure, unfortunately. If only I had inherited a large income to support us in our old age!  Please do pray for us, for income sources to open and for God to open new doors of opportunity as He feels best for us.

I’m delighted that I’ve been asked to be on the Board of the Contemporary Women Artists group in Sarasota. They are a great group of women artists and I look forward to getting to know them better in the coming year.

That’s all for now.  May God bless you and your family and we wish you all a very Merry and Christ filled Christmas!

Love and Prayers,

Christine and Michael

Michael’s Photography       Christine’s Icons

Sowing Seeds

God and nature use multiple ways of getting seeds out into the world.

Going through my photos for this month’s blog, I realized that many of my choices  were pictures of seeds. This being the autumnal season, one would expect a harvest of seeds, in the form of grains, fruits and nuts. Jesus uses in the parable of the sower, the story of seeds falling on different types of soil or stone, and which seed succeed or fail. In this parable he is using the seed to represent the Word of God, or the gospel, and the type of people where it can grow, mature and spread.

When Christine and I moved to Bristol, England, after finishing training at Global Awakening School of Supernatural Ministry, in Pennsylvania, we were drawn to include Psalm 126, in our daily morning prayers. These two verses seemed to fit our situation from that Psalm and I always found them encouraging.

⁵ Those who sow in tears
    shall reap with shouts of joy!
⁶ He who goes out weeping,
    bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
    bringing his sheaves with him.

Now, some thirteen years after that eighteen month England venture, I realize how unaware we are about the seeds we have sown and what grew from them. In fact, at one point of total frustration soon after returning to the States while doing two sets of tax returns, for both England and USA, I asked God, well what was the point of our going over there?

I immediately got the answer, ‘It is none of your business.’ It took me some time to process that God was telling me, not to question, what He was doing with what Christine and I had done, but to hold fast in faith, that He was doing His work.

We so often look for a visible result while God is doing a much deeper work. It might take decades for sown seeds to bear fruit, but it is our faith that God will continue to nurture them in His way and purpose. Simply put, ‘let go and let God.’

Unfortunately that does not always satisfy our human yearning, ‘to come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.’

We have a built in desire to know how we are doing, how well we are performing. In a culture where ‘success’ or winning, has to be evident, slow germinating seeds appear to have little worth. But this culture is not the Kingdom of God’s. Walking in faith that God is working, so often requires time.

Today we would question; Why would you plant an oak tree, they take forever to grow?

Apocalyptic Archangel Michael Icon by Christine Hales

Where as our great grand parents would have reasoned; an allee of oak trees will bless our family for generations to come. Have we lost our faith that there is time for future generations? Are we subconsciously acting, from seeing the world fall apart around us with climate change and the radical challenges in Ukraine, Israel, Palestine and so many parts of the world, as though we are approaching the ‘end-times’?

In a group exhibition “The Narrative” at the Sarasota Art Center

I have been leading a bible study in the book of Revelation for two months now and it has been intense, but very worthwhile. John, the author, delivered his vision to the seven churches, in a time where the Roman Empire infused it’s culture on everything, including the churches. It was inescapable because of the glamour, domination and success of all things Roman and that included the worship of the currant emperor as divine. John had been banished to the Island of Patmos, because he spoke out to both the church and the state: there had been a fusing of nationalism and religion. A very powerful bond, which we can trace, empire by empire, through the ages producing unholy extremes behind a veil of righteous religiosity. 

We stand there again, now, wondering is our’s the final empire heading into the final time? Have we reached the point where it is too late to sow seeds for the side of the Lamb? Never, because ‘it is none of our business’ to know, how God uses seeds He sows through us, for His Kingdom. It is though our work, to show the love of the Lamb, in complete faith of His holiness to come.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

“The Threshold” painting by Christine Hales

Sending love and prayers to you all in these bewildering times. Thank you for being our prayer support all these years. May we all continue supporting each other in prayer until heaven calls us home!

Love and Prayers,

Michael and Christine

Michael’s Photography Christine’s Art work and Icons

Don’t Be Lukewarm!

Michael’s News

I had a quick visit for some photography in Tarrytown, NY,  to shoot a house, which was great to catch a taste of late summer in the North East, with it’s exuberant plant growth.

New Chaplaincy

This month I was asked to be the Chaplain for a homeless day center in Sarasota where I served as a volunteer up until covid started. It is wonderful to be ministering with that population because there seems to be no middle road, in terms of their beliefs. They are either hot or cold in their beliefs, very few are lukewarm. So it is a wonderful challenge and very different from the working with the elderly population who I have been immersed in for the last four years.

In the book of Revelation 3:15-16, Christ criticizes the church at Laodicea with these words, ‘Would that you were either cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

Whenever I read those words they come as a wake up alarm going off again in my mind.

How easy it is to become lukewarm and not even realize it; not just in our walk with God but with everything we do. The longer we do the same thing the more likely we are to become indifferently warm about it. I know when I ask some of my coworkers how they are doing today, most likely the answer will be. ‘Same old, same old’, with a broad tired resigned grin.

Gratefully, doing a ceremony completely differently can help us reexamine what we are doing usually. I had a request to do a Celebration of Life Service for a family which had just lost their father. As so often happens, due to the various family member travel schedules, it needed to be done quickly. The father who had passed was not a church goer and had requested just a small gathering when he passed. The family booked a boat and via the canals of Anna Maria Island moored close to a former property of the family. Wine was drunk, memories shared, rose petals thrown into the water, a small ceremony spoken with Psalm 23 attached, a prayer for wood workers [he had been] and we were off to find dolphins and manatees. Which we did. The sun had set by the time we were returning to port and his wife asked me, ‘Do you think we will have closure now, will the pain go?’ There would be closure but the pain does not go, but slowly, I assured. But in my own mind I questioned, have I given this man a true commendation to the Lord? So now I recognize how unfulfilling being lukewarm for the Lord is. So when we do not push through, with a full expectation and a complete request of the Lord, we are unlikely to receive it. Being lukewarm is rejected and unrewarded by our living God.

I also made a short video, Christ Our Mediator, https://youtu.be/VPlWjWoIIJQ.

The inspiration for that came from two sources, one was a banana plant we have in a pot in our little kitchen enclosure started to bloom and make bananas. How incredible that whole process is and not something we usually get to witness up close. The other source was from my ESV study bible’s notes on the overall view of the Bible. Please take six minutes to look at it and pass it along where you can.

Christine’s News

Just as the Art Uptown Gallery closed its doors in August, an new opportunity came up with the Define Art Gallery, also in Sarasota, but this time on South Palm Ave.- a very nice part of town and just on the next block to our beloved Church of the Redeemer! What a great location and opportunity! Last night was the first opening and it was packed with well wishers and local art afficiandos.

At the Define Art Gallery opening with a friend and my painting “Celebration” on the right.

Also, I’m so blessed that one of my icons- “Archangel Michael of the Apocalypse”, was juried into an exhibition at the Sarasota Art Center , opening next week. Now I’m preparing for the advent Online Icon Writing Class that will be on Zoom, Dec. 5-8. We will be painting an Icon of the Nativity. Below is the first drawing for it!

Please pray for us to be on fire in our ministry and not lukewarm, and that we can spread the immense joy and love that God has given us for all the world to see and receive, through our ministries and art.

We love you all so very much, and you are in our prayers daily.

Blessings, Christine and Michael Michael’s Photography Christine’s Art and Icons

Revelations

Michael’s words:

Hurricane Lee is pounding away in the Atlantic, hopefully it will stay away from land and people’s homes. It is hard to imagine being at sea in a hurricane pushing 160 miles an hour wind and I hope the seafarers have managed to avoid such a storm. We were fortunate with Hurricane Idalia, we had very limited damage here in Sarasota, but those further North will be recovering for a long time yet. Hurricane Ian hit us much harder, mostly fallen trees but again we were fortunate compared to those South of us who are still restoring their flooded homes, a year later. Property insurance is skyrocketing, we had a fifty percent increase this year and most likely another 40 to 60% on top of that in 2024.

The foundations of the weather have been shaken and we could easily have more storms this hurricane season. Of course, it is not just hurricanes or storms, it is fires, excessive heat and loss of food supplies. Sometimes, it feels like the ‘Woes’ are already being released.

It is within this context that I took up reading an insightful book, ‘Revelation, For The Rest Of Us, A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus As A Dissident Disciple.’ By Scot McKnight with Cody Matchett. McKnight is leading a bible study on the book of Revelation and came upon it in his research. It is a great book and has a call on Christians to resist falling into Christian nationalism, social injustice and adopting a domination mentality. Reminding us that Jesus’ victory came as a Lamb not as a Lion, and certainly not as the dragon. The book avoids the various schools of thought on the timing and nature of the pre-Trib/ post-Trib, millennial and rapture, and sees the value of seeing the world anew as ‘dissident disciples of Jesus.’

At the same time, some of the James Webb Space Telescope’s photography of the outer reaches of space, were released, which show the extraordinary dynamic of God’s creation. The images are beautiful and apocalyptic, not unlike John’s vision in Revelation. Where God finally addresses the sin within the earth quite radically, while still hoping people would turn to Him, so opening the way for a purely holy place to be prepared for those who believe in Him; to be with Him worshiping through eternity.

Revelation was thought to have been written by John around the year 95 or 96, most likely this was not the Apostle John, but another John, who had been banished to the Island of Patmos because he was critical of the Roman Empire’s culture and the ways the church was being seduced into it. McKnight, draws many parallels within the church and American culture today.

All that being said, this is a time, where we look back at ourselves, realizing many events in the world are pointing towards a culmination of disasters or a perfect storm of maladies. We have to examine ourselves and our own responsibility for actions or inactions towards our neighbors and our God, which have brought us so far from the love and power of the Lamb of God.

Mathew 8:24 “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”  And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.”

Christine’s News:

After finishing teaching an online icon writing class at the end of August, I have been spending time exploring a virtual abbey-Abbey of the Arts, with an online retreat on being a monkin the world. It’s been fulfilling to connect with this Irish Abbey and go deeper into my own spirituality through lectio divina and archetypes studies. I think this will inform my icons and paintings moving forward. It’s so rewarding to experiment and go deeper with God into the creative gifts I’ve been given.

The Sarasota art gallery I had been selling my paintings at has closed, but many of us from that gallery have joined up with a beautiful new gallery in Sarasota that opens in October. I’m excited about it and happy to see how it develops. I’ll be leading another online icon writing course in December- an Advent icon retreat. I agree with Michael, these times are like being in a pressure cooker and I wonder if it’s the same for all of you? Let’s all agree to pray together for peace, safety, provision, and health for us all as we get ready to meet the times that are ahead.

Our love and prayers go to you all,

Christine and Michael

Mick’s Photos Christine’s Website Icon writing classes

Seek Alternate Route

‘Seek Alt Route’, now that is a sign which is tempting to not notice. Quite often our reaction is, ‘Well, maybe that is not for where I am going,’ so we just continue. Then a few minutes later we come to a traffic hold up and we are stuck.

Well, there have been multiple ‘Seek Alt route’ notices about Climate Change, but we recklessly disregarded them. Our inactive arrogance as a nation, can only be seen as a sin of omission, from a Christian perspective, or maybe even more than that, when we pulled out of the Paris agreement completely, turning our backs on the solutions most of the world were working towards.

This July has been the hottest month, some say for over a 100,000 years, and there can be no doubt left that our earth’s weather is now out of equilibrium. Unfortunately our ‘Alt Route’ choices are so much smaller than they were just five years ago; that is for the wealthy nations, but for the poorer countries, many have no choices left and people are having to leave their homes. A Special Rapporteur to the United Nations, ‘said that of 59.1 million people internally displaced in 2021 across the world, most were displaced by climate-related disasters.’

The needs of so many people in this situation is unfathomable. Jesus taught the parable of a good Samaritan to a lawyer who asked who his neighbor was, and at the conclusion of the parable, Jesus asked the lawyer, Luke 10:36 ‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” A sin of omission by the first two travelers was not repeated by the Samaritan.

Some time ago I asked a priest, ‘Why is the church not being pro active towards making people aware of climate change?’ The answer was non comital to any action. I hope that this month of July is seen in the future as a line in the sand when the church recognized it cannot ‘pass by on the other side’ of this present climate reality any longer.

Please, join with me in prayer, that the church would be proactive to meet the needs of those already displaced by the climate change and ways to mitigate and reverse this disaster.

Christine’s News

I am preparing to teach another online icon writing retreat this month. Preparation takes at least a month, since I have to paint the icon and video each step for demonstrations. Then, edit videos, prepare talks, prayers, etc., and on top of that, my participation in the Sarasota gallery has been full on. So, here I sit, feeling ill and exhausted!! God has ways of showing us when to slow down and rest! 😔

To end on a positive note, my Saint James icon is on its way to the new Anglican pilgrimage Center in Santiago, Spain. Saint James is the patron Saint of Spain and his symbols are the scallop shell and the sword.

That’s all for now, now off to rest! Sending love and prayers to each of you, and please keep us in yours!

Love,

Christine and Michael Christine’s Icons Michael’s Photographs

God Prepares Us

Christine’s News

Christine has had a busy month with some large hurdles to overcome. Possibly the most significant has been getting permission to show her icons in the gallery she is a part of in downtown Sarasota. The gallery had denied that before and it was cramping Christine’s full talents. Now she can show both the iconography and her symbolic contemporary painting. She made a presentation to our church on iconography which was very informative and had people to color in some icon drawings while she was speaking. You can watch a video of the talk through this link-https://youtu.be/i_kKo9-Zbn0 .

Christine also shipped her large icon of ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe’, to Fairfield California. This was more of a challenge than we expected, but finally two UPS ladies, got fully behind the project and helped prepare the package to fly out. It is great how people are able warm up to a challenge, when they realize the full significance of it.

Michael’s News

We used to live in Philmont, a small village in Upstate NY. It had been a textile mill village, but all that work had gone abroad long ago, and the village was struggling, as so many rural villages do. Years ago, I felt like God had asked me to make a cross, but I put it off for several weeks, until he questioned me why I had not done it yet and told me exactly where to find six-inch nails in our basement. So, I hammered together two dead cypress tree trunks we had cut down on the property. Then I heard Him ask me to walk it around the village.

It happened to be a Wednesday evening in the summer and the volunteer fire brigade had all gathered outside the fire station and here I was carrying this big cross right past them. It was heavy, and I was totally embarrassed, but inside I felt very close to Christ. After that first time, I walked the cross several times around the village when I felt God asking me to; the young kids would josh me if they saw.

Back In New York for a Short Trip

Well, the reason I am recounting that story is because two weekends ago I was up in NY doing four days of photography.  Somehow my schedule changed, and I had a free evening with time to kill. I happened to be not far from Philmont, so I decided to look at our old house. “Why not?” I thought.

I parked my car down the road from it and walked through the old neighborhood. As it happened one of the neighbors who I had not been in touch with for five years happened to be outside his house and we caught up our news. We parted with a prayer together with his family. I thought to myself that was an unexpected Blessing and left it at that.

Well, I was in the airport days later, on my journey back to Florida, and my phone rang. It was that same neighbor. He was crying. His sister was in hospital in the last stages of her life. He asked me to pray for her while he held the phone up to her ear. Which I did, I shared my faith in Jesus and prayed with her. She passed that evening.

God Prepares Us

So, what were the chances of me being in our old village, the first time I had been back for over five years because my scheduled changed and I had time to kill; that my neighbor was outside when I walked past, and that he knew he could trust me, to pray out of the blue for his dying sister?

Maybe the reason I walked the cross through the village many years ago was so I could take the opportunity to speak for God to his sister. Of course, we never know how God is preparing us and how He may be currently using us, often not until later.

Romans 10:9-10, says there are two significant actions, to this outward evidence of an inward faith. That there is a deep inward trust in our hearts in Christ as our Lord and that we say so. Those two parts will make us want to have more of God, more of His presence, more of His love: just plain more of Him. We get drawn to seek Him out, after all it is a love relationship. With all love relationships there is a mystery and a strength we often do not value while we are involved, it is later we realize how we have been Blessed. As Joni Mitchell sang, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.’

Such good advice Paul gives in 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18.   Rejoice always,  pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

We send you all our love, on this Holy and sacred Fourth of July, praying for peace and love, in our families, in our homes, and especially in our countries.

Love and prayers,

Michael and Christine Mick’s Photography Christine’s Icons

We Shall Be Changed

Please watch this short video in conjunction with this article, https://youtu.be/iT3hYXjZ6oA , called: “We Shall be Changed”. It has its roots in 1 Corinthians 15:50-55, and resonates with where my ministry has taken me, as a Chaplain for the very old. It revolves around hurdles, we all face at one time or another, but as we approach the last stages of life, the final hurdle calls out for something for us, to hold on to. The light at the end of the tunnel.

^” I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:“

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

A vision to live on and approach our own mortality with.

Such incredible words. Such incredible force. The inevitability of ‘The change’ or death, we all know is coming to us but also the assurance of spiritual life a Christian holds real.

 Death is swallowed up in Victory

I spend a lot of time around people for whom, those words are soon to be fulfilled. The perishable aspect of our last days is gruesome, there really is no other way of describing it, but the final relief and freedom from the waning body, has to be glorious.

Recently, I spent time with an elderly couple, at an assisted living facility which I have not visited before, who were going through the agony of their failing bodies; he more than she. Right off the start he desperately asked me to get him back to bed because he said he was so exhausted; the nurse would not let him, because he had spent too much time in bed and only just got out. He would have to wait till after lunch. He felt sick to his stomach and could not imagine the act of eating. Sitting in a wheel chair and slumping over a table in the common room, the television was blaring commercials. Nobody seemed to notice the television, as loud as a leaf blower in the room.

The pain this man was experiencing was tangible, but he was caught hostage to the authority and care of the attendant. I prayed with the couple, but felt complete opposition all around. As if there was mockery pouring out at my attempts. Why would I expect to come into a situation, so established, and expect to see relief for my friends. The television was relentless, lunch was not coming, the hopeless pain was too much for me. So I decided to get them both out into a nearby court yard, away from the noise. After wheeling them out, I started praying again, now just in my prayer language and forcibly, holding on to both of their hands.

Finally my man started to relax, the extreme exhaustion started to lift, he lent back into his wheel chair. The hot Floridian air was caught by a breeze that lifted his hair. With open eyes he told me the Holy Spirit was cooling him and he started to see flashes of color in his eyes. Orange, bright, flashes he said, over and over, as they appeared. The pain was gone and a smile was back. He is 96 and she is 94.

They are dedicated to each other but not married, both of their spouses have passed, so they care for each other now. Together with God, they face their hurdles, wondering if this is going to be the final one in this perishable life; knowing, we shall be changed.

Christine has just finished the beautiful Our Lady of Guadalupe Icon and is ready to ship it to California. It is an amazing icon! She will be leading an intergenerational art activity for our church later this month on “The Face of Jesus”. Together we are facilitating a small group also for Church of the Redeemer, that will meet six times this summer. It’s a wonderful effort to help us draw closer to each other in our relationship with God.

Well, that’s all for this month. We hold you all in prayer and ask for your prayers also.

Love and prayers,

Michael and Christine Hales

Michael’s Photography newchristianicons.com