God's Glorious Gospel Garden

Elsewhere on the Web, I've discussed my vision for the Christian Artists' Resource Center, which would be a residential art colony for artistic Christians representing all art forms.

One of the features I want to eventually include on the campus for the Christian Artists' Resource Center would be a botanical garden, similar to the Chicago Botanic Garden, but with additional features such as Christ-centered outdoor art (e.g., sculpture, mosaics, topiary, etc.).

I've wanted for some time to write a poem which would complement that vision. A while back, the muse visited me and inspired me to write that poem. Here it is:

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GOD'S GLORIOUS GOSPEL GARDEN
© Mark W. Pettigrew

There's a garden that I know of
where the flowers seem to sing,
and the glory of the Lord is seen
in every living thing.

In God's Glorious Gospel Garden,
there is magic in the air.
You can leave behind your worries.
You can find a refuge there.

There are springs of living water
flowing over holy ground,
and God's Glorious Gospel Garden
is where mercy can be found.

So receive the Father's pardon
for iniquity and sin.
In God's Glorious Gospel Garden,
your new life will then begin!

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I hope you enjoyed the preceding poem.

UPDATE: I just finished taking some of my own floral photos and combining them with the preceding poem in order to design a file suitable for making a large fine art print or poster. Here's a web-sized version of the design:



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NOTE: To download additional Christ-centered poems I've written (stored online in the form of PDF files which can be downloaded from a public SkyDrive folder), visit this link, then select the poem in which you have an interest, and then click the Download button.

Christ The Redeemer

The image shown here depicts one of the world's most well-known works of public art. It's known as "Christ The Redeemer".

It's always struck me as a bit strange that the statue is located in Rio De Janeiro, which is also known for its colorful and carnal Carnival, and for its equally colorful beaches, where the swimming suits are sometimes so skimpy that they might as well not exist. It would be comparable to locating such a statue on the outskirts of Las Vegas.

However, regardless of what one may think of its location, there's no question that the statue is a big tourist attraction. There's also no question that it plays a role in terms of drawing people's attention to Christ, if only for a moment. After looking at this statue, it is impossible to deny that Christianity plays a major role in the lives of many people.

In my mind's eye, I can see a comparably influential sculptural work located on the campus of the Christian Artists' Resource Center, which would be an ambitious Christian ministry of the arts. Specifically, I would like to see a large sculptural grouping in which Christ would be in the center of a group of individuals who represented various major artistic disciplines. There would be a jazz sax player, a painter (with palette and brush), a writer (seated before a notebook computer), a cinematographer (with movie camera), a photographer (with camera), a ballet dancer, a choral singer and possibly others. The objective would be to portray the idea that all of those artistically talented people had dedicated their lives to the goal of serving the Lord with their respective talents.

I don't think that the individual statues would need to be as monumental as the "Christ The Redeemer" statue is in terms of size, but certainly, they would be lifesize, at the very least, and probably a lot larger than that. When they were all gathered together into one location, the effect could potentially be extremely impressive. To heighten the effect, it might be cool to place the sculptural grouping in front of an extraordinarily beautiful and photogenic backdrop, such as a large manmade waterfall.

The sculptural grouping might be located somewhere on the grounds of God's Glorious Gospel Gardens (the botanical garden on the campus of the Christian Artists' Resource Center).

In addition, I envision a high relief sculpture or a mosaic mural, based on that same image, located right next to the front entrance gates and the Visitor's Center.

Miniature replicas of the grouping could be sold in the gift shop (located inside the Visitor's Center), along with printed products (postcards, greeting cards, fine art prints, etc.) depicting the statues. One might also sell a DVD documentary which would tell the story of how the sculptural grouping was created.

It would also be nice if a highly talented Christian painter (such as Frank Ordaz) could create a full-color painting based on that same scene. Prints of such a painting and various products featuring that painting could likewise be sold for fundraising purposes.

An Amazing Life

On April 10, I got a phone call from Ken Wales, the Executive Producer of the movie "Amazing Grace". He called in response to a message I left for him at Walden Media, which had been involved in "Amazing Grace," as well as the earlier movie "The Chronicles of Narnia". I'd called Walden Media in order to obtain contact information for Mr. Wales, because I wanted to tell him about my vision for a Christian arts ministry. I figured that if I was going to get the project off the ground, it would be extremely helpful to receive support from people who had proven themselves in terms of their artistic abilities and their use of those abilities in ways which lifted up the name of Christ.

In April, Ken spent about half an hour on the phone with me, discussing our mutual faith and telling me about the work he was doing on various film projects, including a sequel to "Chariots of Fire", as well as a movie based on the C.S. Lewis book "The Great Divorce". During our first phone conversation, Ken was kind enough to allow me to spend time talking about my vision for the Christian Artists' Resource Center.

Earlier, I had learned that Ken would be one of the guest speakers at the annual conference scheduled by Christians In Theatre Arts (CITA) to take place in June at the Moody Bible Institute, just down the street from where I lived. I was therefore hoping that our phone conversation would lay the groundwork for a personal meeting between me and Ken when he came to Chicago.

Yesterday, I walked over to Moody, knowing that their conference had begun on Wednesday, and hoping that I would be able to meet Ken, as well as some of the key figures in CITA, such as Dale Savidge and Melanie David. (Dale is the Executive Director of CITA. Melanie, who is the Western regional director for CITA, had corresponded with me earlier, after I sent her a copy of my Easter poem entitled "The Tomb". She had been very encouraging to me when I discussed my vision for a Christian arts ministry.)

I learned with pleasure that Ken was scheduled to speak in Moody's Alumni Auditorium last night, during a meeting which began at 7:30 p.m. So I headed over there at around 7:00 p.m., and waited for people to begin arriving at the auditorium. I wasn't sure whether or not I'd be allowed to attend the evening event, because technically, I hadn't enrolled in the conference, due to uncertainty regarding whether or not my schedule and my very limited budget would keep me from attending the conference.

Melanie David seems to have been otherwise occupied last night, because I never made a connection with her there. I'd been hoping to speak with her, on account of the kind things she said to me when we corresponded by e-mail earlier in the year.

Fortunately, I was able to speak with Dale Savidge shortly before the event. After I told him about my correspondence with Melanie David and my phone conversation with Ken Wales, he allowed me to attend the event in spite of the fact that I hadn't paid to attend the event. That was a blessing.

Shortly before the evening's presentations began, I saw Ken Wales sitting in the audience. I walked up to him and introduced myself. I was pleased to see that he remembered his earlier conversation with me. He said he'd visited ArtisticChristians.com, and he'd liked what he saw on my web site. He gave me his business card.

The evening began with prayer, not just in general terms, but also in relation to a couple of individuals who meant a lot to the members of the group. One of those people was Ruth Bell Graham, Billy Graham's wife. Ruth who died yesterday at the age of 87. People at the CITA conference expressed their love for Ruth, and they rejoiced in the knowledge that she had gone at long last to be with the Lord.

The evening's entertainment began with a one-man play by a man named Alan Atwood. The play was entitled "The Heart of God". It was essentially a retelling of the Old Testament, culminating in God's decision to come to earth in the form of a man in order to save all of mankind. Atwood played a variety of parts, including God, Satan, Abraham, Moses and others. Alan's portrayal of God was neither stereotypical nor bland. His God was a passionate God, deeply in love with his creation, and deeply hurt and disappointed when Adam and Eve brought sin into the world. Atwood's portrayal of Satan showed someone who was incredibly angry at God, contemptuous of God's ways, and determined to do anything he could do to hurt God, even if it meant destroying God's creation in the process.

Atwood's portrayal of Abraham was serious, portraying Abraham as a man whose faith in God was so deep that he was willing to sacrifice Isaac on the altar, even though his words and his body language demonstrated that every fiber of his being feared that God would actually require him to go through with the sacrifice.

Things took a decidedly lighter turn when it came time to portray Moses. Moses, the Bible tells us, had a speech impediment which made him wonder why God would choose him as the liberator of Israel. Most dramatic portrayals of Moses minimize that aspect of the story. Not so with "The Heart of God". Atwood donned a Mexican hat made of straw, and portrayed Moses in a manner which he accurately described as "a Mexican version of Daffy duck", with a pronounced and heavily accented lisp which left everyone rolling in the isles, figuratively speaking. There were many other memorable characters as well, such as a drunken Israelite who had to try to explain to Moses why they'd fashioned a golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain talking to God.

Later in the play, equally memorable characters helped to portray the continual battle between good and evil which often caused Israel to abandon God and turn to idol worship. In Atwood's tale, the Devil often delighted in rubbing this in God's face, thinking that it proved that he was right and God was wrong. But God ultimately surprised Satan by choosing to come to earth in order to die on the cross and redeem all of mankind.

Overall, it was a very innovative and inspiring performance which used the full gamut of human emotions in order to make the Bible seem more real to the audience.

Atwood's performance was followed by a very interesting two-person performance consisting of interpretive dance which seemed to focus on the striving for inner peace which ultimately finds fulfillment when people seek God in prayer and learn to find rest in God. I forget the names of the performers offhand, but the performance itself was memorable, albeit somewhat ambiguous in its meaning during certain moments. Part of the ambiguity came from the fact that God was portrayed as (or by) a woman. The fact that she was in fact portraying God was never stated up front. It was solely on account of her continually loving and gentle responses to the man in the performance that it was clear that she was in fact portraying God. (Clear to me, at any rate.)

Then Ken Wales took the stage, and he began to talk about his work throughout the years. We learned a number of very interesting things about Ken, such as the fact that his Christian values were shaped by his father, a Christian pastor who had studied at Yale University, prior to the time when things took a decidedly liberal and anti-Christian turn at Yale.

Ken told us that after his family had moved from Indiana to California, he'd been mentored by giants in the movie and television industry, such as Walt Disney. Ken told about spending an intense week being mentored by Walt Disney himself, who wanted Ken's perspective in order to be able to more accurately portray life from the viewpoint of a teenager. For a week, Ken and Walt shared meals together three times a day. At the end of that week, Walt Disney took Ken on a trip to Disneyland, which was clearly a big thrill for Ken. Ken told us that after that excursion to Disneyland was over, Disney pulled out his personal checkbook and wrote a check to Ken for $5,000. That money later paid for Ken's education in the film department at USC.

Apparently, Walt Disney was happy with the results of his investment, because information which I found online says that Ken Wales later worked as the Vice President of Production at Disney Pictures. USC, where Ken currently serves as an adjunct professor, was apparently pleased as well.

One piece of advice Disney gave to Ken was that a good story always involved some element of danger or jeopardy. Disney observed that many of those who attempted to imitate Disney's movies failed to understand the importance of that element, and consequently, their work felt two-dimensional and false. Disney pointed out that Bambi's mother had to die in the movie "Bambi" so that the audience would be emotionally pulled into the story. Ken commented that one of the problems with a lot of Christian movies is that they presented overly simplistic visions of reality, in which conflicts were minimized and happy endings were a foregone conclusion.

Ken later talked about his work on some of the "Pink Panther" movies, as the assistant director for Blake Edwards. He told us the story of how his quick thinking during a particularly stressful day on one of Blake Edwards' movie sets had opened up the doors for their professional relationship, which lasted for many years. (Apparently, the microphones with which the director was supposed to communicate with the people in the helicopters were not working, on account of the corrosive effects of the moist sea air. Ken improvised by removing the microphones from a couple of nearby pay phones and attaching them to the radios so that communication could be restored. He attributed his quick thinking, in part, to the values imparted to him by his father.)

Ken showed some very funny film clips from the Peter Sellers movie "The Party". Later, he played film clips from "Amazing Grace". The quality of the projected image was considerably lower than the quality of the movie when I saw it in the movie theatre, inasmuch as it was occasionally too dark to make out the figures on the screen, but I was familiar enough with the movie that that didn't bother me a great deal. I was more interested in Ken's comments about the movie.

It became apparent that Ken really enjoyed talking about his work, particularly in the context of an audience consisting of committed Christians who were involved in the dramatic arts themselves on a variety of levels. He talked about how he derived a great deal of pleasure from the process of mentoring others.

After his presentation, Ken remained close to the stage, speaking with people who wanted to ask him questions. We were told by the security officer at Moody that we needed to vacate the auditorium by a certain time, but Ken wasn't finished. He knew that many people there had longed to ask him questions pertaining to his work. Several people suggested that they move the discussion to an all-night restaurant, but since I lived only a few blocks away, I was pretty familiar with the neighborhood. It was already pretty late --- around 10:40, as I recall. If it had been earlier, I would have suggested going to the Borders or Barnes and Noble bookstore nearby, since they both had nice coffee bars. Instead, I told them that the only place I knew of where they were open 24 hours was the "rock & roll McDonalds" located across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe. That probably would have been fine for some, but others apparently didn't like the idea of going to McDonalds. In any event, Ken eventually decided that there was no need to go to a restaurant in order to continue the discussion, since the weather was very pleasant. There was a very nice large courtyard on the Moody campus, complete with several outdoor picnic tables where we could all sit while asking questions. Ultimately, it was a better location than any restaurant would have been. It's unlikely that Ken would have felt as free to talk in a restaurant setting.

During that outdoor session (during which I sat immediately to Ken's right), we learned additional interesting facts. Ken discussed his work on the TV series "Christy" (based on the Katherine Marshall book) in great detail.

We learned about the work Ken had done as an actor in various movies. He told a memorable story about how Earnest Borgnine had once saved Ken's life during a shoot. It seems that they were doing an underwater scene, and Ken forgot to take a breath of air prior to removing his regulator from his mouth. In order to enhance the drama, the actor immediately behind Ken was supposed to look as if he was trying to push Ken's character to a position of safety, but in fact, he was holding him back in order to prolong the scene, not realizing that Ken was struggling for air. Earnest Borgnine saw what was really happening, and he pulled Ken to safety. Ken said that his mind briefly envisioned the possibility of dying in front of the movie camera. I commented that Ken had, in effect, been saved from drowning by McHale! (Borgnine played the lead character in the TV comedy "McHale's Navy".) Later, I realized that an even more apt comparison would have been related to the fact that Earnest Borgnine also starred in the original version of "The Poseidon Adventure".

Another interesting tidbit: We learned that the movie "Rebel Without A Cause" was filmed at the high school Ken attended, and that the locker used by James Dean in the movie was in fact Ken's locker in real life! Apparently, James and Ken got into a little skirmish in relation to that fact. (I wasn't clear on all of the details when Ken told the story.)

Ken talked about numerous other famous names with whom he had been associated over the years. If I'd had an audio recorder, I could undoubtedly recall them all.

Ken shared a lot of insider information regarding the way that the film industry operates, and he discussed the fact that people with Christian faith are often outsiders insofar as that industry is concerned. He discussed various factors which had played a role in bringing that situation about.

Ken shared a lot of information about the filming of the Billy Graham movie "The Prodigal". He talked about how they had consciously tried to avoid creating the typical syrupy Christian movie when making "The Prodigal", which portrayed a very dysfunctional family to which many people could relate.

Ken talked about how he tried to hide the fact that he was working on that film from people in the offices of MGM because most of them were unbelievers (primarily Jewish), and he was worried that they would ostracize him if they knew that he was using their facilities in order to work on a Billy Graham movie. Instead, many of them were incredibly moved when they saw the movie, and they offered him a very lucrative distribution deal which would have been extremely advantageous in terms of contributing to the success of the movie. He presented their offer to Billy Graham, but Billy eventually turned the deal down (even though he understood its potential significance) because some of the people within Graham's organization feared that they might lose their own jobs if the deal was accepted. Ken had tried to persuade Billy Graham that that was a mischaracterization of the MGM deal, and that no one's jobs needed to be jeopardized by the deal. In fact, he said, the deal would have made money for Graham's film division, helping to insure job security for those within Billy Graham's organization. It made Ken sad when he considered the impact which the film might have made if those people had been less fearful and more faithful. The film still did very well (second only to "The Hiding Place" in terms of Billy Graham films), but it could have done much better if the MGM deal had gone through, because it would have been seen in far more theatres, and it would have received much better publicity than it received.

Ken says he's hoping that "The Prodigal" will soon become available on DVD so that it can reach a new generation of people who have never seen that movie.

Ken also answered general questions related to the marginal influence of Christians and Christianity on the film industry. In his opinion, things were pretty good up until the end of the fifties, but then various cracks began to appear in the unity which had once been enjoyed by the Christian churches throughout the United States. Values which had bound American Christians together began to be questioned and disputed. Movies which previously would have been considered unthinkable were made and released. As a result, the more fundamentalist elements of the Christian church began to suggest that it was inherently ungodly to go to the movies.

The unfortunate effect was that the voices of conservative Christians ceased to have much of an influence on the types of movies which were made in Hollywood. There was no longer an economic incentive to make movies which portrayed Christians and Christian values in positive ways, so the film industry increasingly catered to those who were opposed to Christianity.

We are still living with the effects of those changes today. Thankfully, there are exceptional men and women, such as Ken Wales, who are determined to make films which impart Christian beliefs and values, without doing so in a manner which inadvertently drives people away from the Church.

By the time our session in the Moody courtyard was over, it was somewhere around 1:30 in the morning. I could tell that Ken was getting very tired. He threw out a few subtle suggestions to that effect. Yet, he continued to be gracious with those of us who still had a few lingering questions.

I then left Moody in order to go to McDonalds and get a little bite to eat, prior to hitting the sack at about 2:00 this morning. I awoke just a little bit before 10 a.m. Chances are good that Ken had already been up for hours, since he had various things scheduled for him on the following morning, including a class he was teaching to those who were attending the conference. I couldn't help but admire his dedication and his unselfish desire to impart his knowledge, experience and ideas to the next generation of Christian filmmakers and theatre people.

Ken talked a good deal about what he looked for when looking for a story worth telling. I would suggest that his own life story constitutes such a story. The Lord has used him, and continues to use him, in order to bring light into spiritually dark places.

An Urgent Plea for Help and Prayer

The following blog post may be of interest to people searching for terms such as Christian music, Christian art, Christian ministry, Christian charity, Christian benevolence, emergency funds, Chicago Christians, etc.

Introduction

Background Information

Health Issues

My Other Blog

The Christian Artists' Resource Center

More About Me

The Chase

My Contact Information

Concluding Comments

Postscript Re: Print Sales


INTRODUCTION

Have you ever had an iron anvil dropped on your head? Neither have I, but I think I have a pretty good idea what it would feel like, because I've felt that way a number of times in my life, and I feel that way now. I'm writing this blog article in order to explain why that is the case.

Now, you may be from the "cut to the chase" school, and you may just want to know what the main topic of the blog is all about. Well, that's why they make scroll bars and internal links and anchors. You don't have to read this entire blog post if you don't want to do so.

You can scroll to the bottom of the post right away (or click "the chase") and you can get all of the basic information you need without bothering to get any background information which would help you to put this urgent plea into its proper context.

I'm providing preliminary background information for the sake of those who are inclined to be skeptical about pleas for help, and who feel that they need to know a lot more before they will donate anything to help a person in need.

Back to Introduction

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

If you've read all of the other blog posts on this site, then you know that my primary passion in life is using my artistic talents (as a musician, writer, poet, photographer, pen & ink portrait artist, digital artist and more) as a means of doing the best I can to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, achieving the goal of making a full time living pursuing that passion has been much easier said than done. Consequently, I have struggled with finances for a substantial portion of my life, and I've often found myself working at jobs which paid poorly and which had little or nothing to do with my passion.

For the past nine months, I have been working about 30 hours a week as a telephone surveyor. It is hardly what I would describe as my dream job, but I desperately needed a job when I was hired there in the middle of February 2006, and I couldn't afford to be very choosy. Since losing my job as a legal assistant in the middle of October 2005, I had been unemployed, with the exception of a couple of very brief temp assignments doing office work.

I'd been very active in my job search, particularly in terms of responding to classified ads I had found at CraigsList, but I hadn't managed to find an office job despite my numerous job skills, which included a typing speed of 65 to 70 wpm, as well as fluency in Microsoft Word and Access (with more limited knowledge of Excel and Powerpoint).

What's worse, my former boss had successfully challenged my application for unemployment insurance benefits, and I'd never made a huge amount of money at that job to begin with, so I had very little money to live on. I was beginning to get desperate.

I might have been evicted from my apartment for non-payment of rent if it had not been for a monetary gift which I received from the church I was attending (and still sometimes attend). But that money only went so far. I didn't want to have to go to that church and ask for similar help a second time, partly because I didn't want to be an excessive burden on any individual or church, and partly because I wasn't sure that they would have said "yes" if I had done so. (Not that they aren't generous people, but their financial limitations had been apparent to me from the time when I started attending that church.) I hated having to accept charity from my church, but I would have hated being thrown out into the street even more, so I was grateful that my pastor saw my need and responded to that need.

Nevertheless, if I hadn't gotten the job I have now, it seems likely that I would have been in serious trouble. After all, it's not as if I was living in luxurious digs to begin with. When you've been evicted from an inner city YMCA because you can't pay your rent, you know that you've gotten pretty close to rock bottom, and you know that the chances of finding another landlord willing to rent to you are extremely slim.

My phone surveyor job does not allow me the option of working a full-time, 40-hour work week, but I could have had a work schedule of as many as 35 hours if I'd so chosen. It might seem as though I should have chosen to work the full 35 hours available to me, but there were a couple of reasons I didn't choose to do so (although I may still do so in the future, if necessary).

One reason was that the person who taught the training class I took told us that she highly advised that we limit our shifts to 30 hours a week initially. In my experience, it was good advice. The job can be pretty intense in the sense that it requires one's full attention from the moment one clocks in to the moment one clocks out.

Back to Introduction

HEALTH ISSUES

It didn't help that I went through a period of several months last year in which I was experiencing a lot of dental pain which made it much harder to concentrate on the job. That front tooth still needs work, although the pain eventually diminished considerably after at least a couple of months of constantly dabbing Anbesol on it whenever the pain became almost unbearable.

During the past week, I've experienced additional dental issues as a result of the fact that a crown put in by a dentist some time ago recently fell off. The remaining part of the tooth is so sharp that talking on the phone has recently been very uncomfortable, and sometimes downright painful, for me.

Dental insurance? What dental insurance? The company I work for provides virtually nothing in the way of job benefits such as health insurance or paid vacations. Having had jobs in the past which did provide such benefits, I definitely wish that my current job offered such benefits as well. But one takes what one can get when jobs get scarce.

This fall, not long after my dental pain had begun to subside, I caught a cold which seemed to be going around. I've finally gotten over that cold, thank the Lord, but it took a very long time to do so. Despite the ample use of sanitary wipes when starting every work shift, a large room full of roughly 100 telephone surveyors is a place where colds are easily spread from one person to another. A cold may seem like a trivial thing, but when one makes one's living talking on the phone, constantly coughing and hacking and sneezing can be a real trial.

And of course, there have been issues pertaining to high blood pressure and to the fact that I've been need of a hernia operation for several years now.

Now, I don't want to leave the impression that I spent all of 2006 suffering from various ailments, because that isn't the case. And I certainly ought to acknowledge that my health issues may seem trivial to some people suffering from life threatening or debillitating health problems far worse than mine. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I have inadequate money with which to deal with these issues, the health issues I'm experiencing might seem relatively trivial.

As a conservative Christian, I generally tend to vote for candidates who oppose legal abortion and other things I consider to be bad for society. But I admit that I am inclined to support the idea of "universal health care" (provided that some of its shortcomings are addressed), for obvious reasons.

Back to Introduction

MY OTHER BLOG (NOW DELETED)

Another thing that occupied my time during the first half of 2006, after getting my new job, was that I set up a second blog at a site hosted by LifeWithChrist.org. Unlike the blogs I've written at this site, I got a lot of traffic and comments on that site. I'd begun to feel that I'd found a loving community of fellow Christians. The positive feedback I got about many of the articles I'd written made me feel very good. Previously, I'd felt pretty cut off from the Christian community (even when I was regularly going to church). The blog gave me the chance to communicate some ideas I'd been wanting to share with others for a very long time.

Eventually, things went kind of sour for me, to the point that I deliberately deleted my Life with Christ blog and washed my hands of it, but I don't regret the time I spent on that blog. I like to think that I planted some seeds of good thoughts which will eventually bear positive fruit.

The time I spent working on that blog was motivated by a number of factors. One of the primary factors was that I hoped to be able to establish connections with people in order to communicate my vision for an ambitious Christian ministry of the arts to be known as the Christian Artists' Resource Center.

Back to Introduction

THE CHRISTIAN ARTISTS' RESOURCE CENTER

There isn't adequate space here to describe my vision for the Christian Artists' Resource Center, so if you're interested in the idea of a comprehensive Christian ministry of the arts, I invite you to open and print and read the following PDF files (if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader or another program capable of opening PDF files):

Proposal re: the Christian Artists' Resource Center

To Do List re: the Christian Artists' Resource Center

I believe that once I am able to implement my plans for the website for the Christian Artists' Resource Center, I can begin to make at least part of my living by selling a variety of products I have created (such as full-color flower & garden photos to be sold in the form of fine art prints, greeting cards and other projects), as well as products I'll create on commission (such as pen & ink portraits based on people's photographic portraits), using an e-commerce website I have been planning to set up for the Christian Artists' Resource Center.

(To see an online gallery of my flower & garden photos, please visit this web page. Keep in mind that the web hosting for that site is free, and I don't have any control over the contents over the banner ads on the site.)

I've registered the domain name www.artisticchristians.com, and I've paid for hosting services which won't expire or need renewal until August 2006. That's the address (or one of the addresses) which I plan to use for the website for the Christian Artists' Resource Center.

My plans for that web site go far beyond merely meeting my own material needs by selling my art and photos on the site. I also hope to develop it into a web site (and, eventually, a far more comprehensive ministry) which will benefit many other artistically talented Christians as well.

If you take the time to read the preceding "to do" list, you will soon understand why I say that setting up such a web site and doing the many other things I felt needed to be done in order to turn my vision for the Christian Artists' Resource Center into a reality is and will be a very time consuming project. (And I've added many more items to that "to do" list since that time, as a result of things I've learned via my ongoing research into the project and its requirements.)

I still feel that that's a goal I need to pursue. I've gotten some very positive feedback about the project from some very well-known and talented Christians working in the arts.

In helping me in my time of temporary crisis, you will also be investing in the possibility that the vision expressed in the "first draft" PDF files listed above will come to pass.

MORE ABOUT ME

If you still feel that you need to know more about me in order to persuade you that I am a person who is sincere about serving the Lord, I would invite you to read earlier articles in this blog (such as this article about drinking water and Christian missions), and to visit my other website at www.markpettigrew.com, and to write to me if there are any things which aren't answered in the process of doing so.

Back to Introduction

THE CHASE

O.K., either you're the type of person who has a short attention span and/or very limited time (in which case you probably skipped most of the previous paragraphs), or else you've read the preceding information. Either way, the bottom line is this:

Tonight, I reached into my "fannie pack" and discovered something that really shook me up: My wallet was gone, along with all the ID cards in the wallet at the time and approximately $600. Ouch!!!

Was my pocket picked? Did I inadvertently lose the wallet in some other way? Frankly, I'm not sure. I've tried retracing my steps, and thoroughly searching my apartment, but so far, I haven't been able to find the wallet or its contents.

To some people, $600 is a small amount of money, but not for me. My take home pay for two four-week pay periods is slightly less than $1,000, and that's assuming that I qualify for the bonus my company offers for extra productivity on the phones. (I have good reason to believe that I won't qualify for that bonus when receiving my next paycheck.) In short, I'm pretty much living from paycheck to paycheck, with only a small amount of extra money with which to pay for an occasional luxury such as a cappuccino at McDonalds. I haven't had a working TV set in 2 years, because replacing the broken TV just hasn't been my highest priority.

Fortunately, I do still have my ATM debit card, so I don't have to worry about a thief using that card to access the money I do have in my checking account, but that money is very limited. It should keep me fed for the next week or two, but it won't do much more than that. And rent is due soon.

What I need is to raise some emergency funds, fast. I don't want to ask for exhorbitant amounts of money from anyone. But if I could get a one-time donation of just $10 from 60 different people or churches --- preferably from people who share my values and goals --- that would replace the lost and/or stolen money.

Now, I know what you're probably thinking: Hey, dummy, what were you doing carrying $600 or so around in your wallet? Well, I'd just cashed my paycheck recently at the bank down the street, and I hadn't yet gotten around to depositing the money in my own bank. Ironically, right before the incident happened, I'd been planning to do just that, because it occurred to me that losing the wallet could create major problems for me.

As for the question of any "carelessness" which might theoretically have led to the loss and/or theft of my wallet, please don't go there. Believe me, I'm probably going to be beating myself up over this for a long time, so there's no need for anyone else to remind me that I might possibly still have the wallet if I'd been more careful.

If you're wondering why I provided the preceding background information about myself prior to adding this section, it's simply that I felt that it was necessary in order to help readers to better appreciate why I am in the position of needing to ask for help, and why I feel that I deserve such help (to the extent that anyone deserves charitable help).

Of course, if you're the type of person who doesn't share my interest in achieving the goals stated here, then you would have no particular reason to think that I deserved help any more than anyone else. It's all a question of what's most important to you.

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MY CONTACT INFORMATION

Mark Pettigrew
30 W. Chicago Avenue
Room 1212
Chicago, IL 60610

(773) 509-8126 (Voice Mail) or (312) 643-1336 (Home Phone)

mark_w_pettigrew@hotmail.com
(Those are underscores in-between the first name, middle initial and last name.)

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SOME CONCLUDING COMMENTS ABOUT FAITH (and the LACK THEREOF)

It would be wonderful if we Christians had all reached a state of perfection where we walked in perfect obedience to the Lord and perfect faith in the Lord. The reality, though, is that we're all works in progress.

In many respects, I think I've lived a morally exemplary life. I've never used illegal drugs. I've never been drunk. And believe it or not, I'm still a virgin at age 50. (Fun? No, not especially. But then again, I don't ever have to worry about STD's or AIDS or unwanted pregnancies caused by my actions. I like to think that my obedience to God in that area will eventually prove to be a blessing for me in other ways as well.)

So do I think I've achieved perfection? What, are you kidding? I know my weaknesses all too well.

Having trouble trusting God to provide me with my needs in stressful times such as these is very close to the top of the list of my imperfections. I still become fearful when it looks as if I may lose my home or be unable to pay for essential living expenses or be forced to resign myself to never achieving my career goals. In times like these, I want to have faith, but it isn't always easy.

So regardless of whether or not you respond to this plea with any type of financial help, I would greatly appreciate your prayers. I've survived worse crises than this one, but I'm tired of dealing with setback after setback after setback. I want to make a real positive difference in this world, and it would be much easier to do so if I had adequate material resources with which to meet my needs and with which to invest in the attainment of my goals.

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POSTSCRIPT: If you feel that you ought to get something in exchange for your donation, I'm willing to discuss the option of selling you one or more prints based on the flower & garden photos shown on this web page. I have digital files on CD-R disc for all of those images, and I can easily take them next door to Wolf Camera to make prints from those files. I can easily make 8x10 photo prints of those images and then send out the prints in standard Priority Mail envelopes ($4 for shipping and handling) at the post office.

If you would like a print of one or more of those images, just send me an e-mail message to that effect and let me know which image or images you want to order (specified by the number shown beneath each image). Then as soon as I receive your money order in the amount of $25 for each print, I'll have the print made from my digital file and I'll ship it to you. (The price of $25 would be so that I can make somewhere between $10 to $15 from each print sale after deducting the cost of making the print and the cost of the postage).

If you're thinking that this is a pretty amateurish way for me to sell my photo prints, well, you're right. Believe me, it isn't the way I wanted to do things. I have much more professional plans in the works for the future. But right now, I really could use some help.

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