Category Archives: workshops

Winds of Change?

chaplain, Chaplaincy, Icon Retreats, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorized, workshops, , , , , , , , ,
Painting by Christine Hales

Sometimes, Christine and I, get to feeling that a cross roads is approaching and God may have a different direction on the horizon for us. We start to look to see what might be calling us in a different direction. It is like being on a sail boat and noticing that the wind has shifted, as it blows over the sea some distance away, and one wonders if that will get stronger and come to you. One has a rapid bracing and alerting of the senses to anticipate what will need to be changed, which sails to adjust and how.

I expect everyone goes through such moments. If the change is radical, we naturally want some kind of confirmation before we alter course and upset where we are established, by asking God for a sign or a ‘fleece’.  Well we have not come to that stage yet, but there seem to be flags waving around us.

Homeless Chaplaincy

This morning I had a wonderful chapel gathering and communion service with four homeless people at Resurrection House. Each one there was dedicated to God and knew they belonged to His family, even though they constantly experienced, ‘not belonging in the world’. They have nowhere to call their own; no address, no bed, no coffee maker, no shower or toilet, no place they can sleep legally without being moved on, except the Salvation Army, which has it’s own issues and costs $12 a night. Existing on the streets is a dangerous place to be, especially for women. They have stories of being cheated, attacked, of the fear of drug pushers thinking they are connected to the police. They ask questions about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit. They ask if they are prescribed medication by a doctor should they take it, or just believe in Jesus for their healing? Should they approach drug pushers to tell them about Jesus, and if they do not, are they walking away from what God has asked them to do? We prayed for healing, for things stolen to be replaced, for wisdom and guidance, for protection and provision.

It is hard for them. When you do not own things; cars, homes, shoes, society has decided that you do not belong. When we do not belong in society; thank God we still have a place in God’s family. God will never deny us because of what we own, but the Lord cares deeply as to whether we know Him; and in Chapel this morning all five of us did and God was pleased.

Bishop of Spain proudly showing Christine’s Saint James Icon she made for them.

After I came out of Resurrection House there was an email from the director who happened to be on the Camino de Santiago and had just had lunch with the Bishop of Spain, who shared that he had recently Blessed an icon Christine had written and given to an Anglican Meeting  House in  Santiago, for those making the pilgrimage of the Way of St James.

Christine’s ministry quietly touches people all over the place. Her teaching iconography, also has a Spirit filled presence for the students, even when it is online.

Kingdom Arts Ministry- A New Vision?

Kingdom Arts Ministry, has been quietly active for over a decade, but it may be God wants us to become more visible. We have been in touch with a group in Bradenton who are training up a team of people for inner healing prayer under the umbrella of Amazing Love Healing Ministry, directed by Rev. Dr. Sharon L. Lewis. My heart is for healing prayer and this new development is exciting to see it take off with other centers  connected in Gainesville, Lake Placid and Stuart, Florida.

Mick’s photo from his recent NY trip

There is call for ‘all hands on deck’, through what is going on in the world around us and it would seem as though we are all coming up to some cross roads ahead.

1 Corinthians 12:13. ” For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—

Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”

Christine’s painting of the Calling of Peter and Andrew

It is such a beautiful gift that we share the family of God and His Spirit, no matter where we find ourselves or what we own. Just to know the perfect love of God, means we belong, too.

1 John 4:18.  “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

Christine’s News:

I have been making short demonstration videos for my patrons on Patreon- a website where people can contribute a small monthly amount and receive icon posts that will interest and teach them about making really great icons. I’m also preparing two new icon writing classes, one for the end of this summer and the other for next March. They take such a long time to prepare, I find it works better for me if I get them finished well in advance of the due date!

I was recently barred from having an exhibition at a wealthy retirement home because they were under the impression that I would be exhibiting my icons. They won’t tolerate Icons in their gallery because they are overtly Christian! How absurd! It just goes to show that you can’t please everyone- so why try? It just makes me more determined than ever to show my work to the public, as God leads. That door was closed. Another one will open.

Well, that’s all for us this month enjoy the beginning of summer! Sending lots of love and prayers, and don’t forget to pray for us too, God knows we need it! 😊

Love, Christine and Michael

Christine’s Icons Michael’s Photography

Thoughts on the Resurrection

chaplain, Chaplaincy, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, workshops, , , , ,

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

Sowing Seeds

chaplain, Chaplaincy, Icon Retreats, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, workshops, , , , , , , , ,

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!

chaplain, Chaplaincy, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorized, workshops, , , , , , , , , ,

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

chaplain, Chaplaincy, Icon Retreats, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorized, workshops, , , , , , , , ,

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.

Kingdom Arts Ministry, Mick and Christine Hales

Our love and prayers go to you all,

Christine and Michael

Mick’s Photos Christine’s Website Icon writing classes

Seek Alternate Route

chaplain, Chaplaincy, Icon Retreats, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorized, workshops, , , , , , , ,

‘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

Climate Change Caution!

Prayed Up?

chaplain, Chaplaincy, Icon Retreats, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorized, video, workshops, , , , , , , ,

Christine’s PBS broadcast has received a lot of attention and great responses, if you missed it here is a link . Indeed last month Christine had an article in Guideposts, the PBS video and she placed a in-house show of icons at the facility where Michael works. It has been wonderful to hear all the different positive reactions to her work and particularly from non believers and those of the evangelistic traditions which tend to be unfamiliar with icons.

She is now being contacted by another television station to possibly do another video which has a very large audience base. The wonderful part behind all of this is that these opportunities came to Christine without her physically seeking them, although praying for new doors to open for Christine have been consistently offered by us for years.
Christine also completed teaching another icon writing class online and has built up a healthy group of students who love to take the classes with her, this class wrote an icon of Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene written by Christine Hales

Michael has taken on a further body of people to minister to, as well as the independent living population, who are all in need of assistant care or active nursing care. One of the hardest realities for people to face in this age group is that of loss. Loss comes in so many ways, loss of memory, loss of driving, loss of hearing or seeing, loss of independence, loss of loved ones; the list varies with each person but the pain of these losses keeps surfacing for them.

One lady recently told me of her home of many years which she had to give up to move into assisted living. Apparently her old Floridian home had a large porch and she would sit out painting water colors and get visited by a wood stork. This had been happening for nearly twenty years and she called the stork, ‘Ugly, because wood storks are.’ She missed that stork so much and she was sure it missed her.

Orchid photo by Mick Hales

Different stories rise to the surface of lives once lived, memories which can not be experienced again except as memories. Bodies become slowly unresponsive, tired and slow, until they can’t do what they could do a month before.

I have come to realize this is a work, a ministry, which can not be done if I am not prayed up. Of course that is so obvious, and yet so easy to fall down on.
Global Awakening always taught us, not to go into any ministry arena, without being totally in touch with God in prayer, and yet somehow I found myself dry praying for others.

I know full well that my prayer life had not been calling to be filled with the Holy Spirit as it now requires. The business of getting myself physically ready for the job had overlooked the more important responsibility of being closely in touch with God. After all it is our responsibility to pray, to open the door, for God to answer that prayer. We have a role to play from which God answers according his sovereign wisdom. At the end of Job, God says to Job’s friends, that Job will pray for them so He will ‘not deal with you according to your folly’. [Job 42:8]

Our role as believers to really focus on prayer and staying close to God is so easily lost, especially when we are in active ministry, but it is the most important role we have. That is the role God has given us to do, with which He will flow into this world.

Please keep us in your prayers, and please pray that Michael and I can focus and go deeper in prayer.

Pride

chaplain, Chaplaincy, Icon Retreats, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorized, workshops, , , , , , ,
Beautiful Flower Found at RIngling Museum Garden

I had to admit it, my pride had been running my ministry. Actually, my pride had been running me. My pride was evaluating ‘my ministry’, when in reality God is the minister not me.

The Expanded Duties

Two weeks into visitations with a whole different set of residents, those receiving nursing care, short and long term, rehabilitation and memory care, I realized I was coming away exhausted and unhappy about what I judged as ‘my ministry.’ I was having a hard time making a connection with people, let alone a meaningful one. I was opening doors to doubts about myself and why I had requested to expand my Chaplain responsibilities to include these residents. It was clear that the need for a spiritual presence was there, of all the people in the large elderly residential facility, these were the most challenged and by extension, the nurses and staff were as well.

Talking with an independent counselor and Christian, I was able to recognize I was attempting to minister through my own abilities, rather than placing it in God’s hands. It was then the phrase, ‘You have a big spitball of pride,’ was born in my brain and I just had to verbalize it.

Proverbs 16:18 is succinct. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

My counselor had been able to turn my inward thinking, outward. Pride can be a difficult sin to see in oneself, it is inherently so by it’s very nature. It can take a large dose of truth to recognize pride at work.

Sea Shell photo by Mick Hales

What Does Pride Do To Us?

So what happens when pride is set free to operate within a power rich arena, where counseling and criticism are not happening or not allowed? Unfortunately, we see this too often in the workplace, even in the church, we see it in state and national politics, and we are having a text book review of how pride’s deadly consequences are realized, in the Ukraine. Putin’s pride has been working to restore the Soviet Union era’s position that Russia held, no matter what the consequences are for lives of innocent people.

Pride is such a powerful and insidious sin it is placed as first on the fictitious list of ‘seven deadly sins’, since all sins separate us from the love of God, spiritually they are all on a par with each other. However, within the affects they have on other people’s lives in our physical world, some are much more deadly than others.

Photo by Mick Hales

So the question arises, and perhaps it is too vague to be answered. Is pride more prevalent in our highly visible social media lives now, than it was even twenty years ago?

And here is another question, which is not vague at all, is pride trying to lead your life?

Please partner with me over the next month, for God to reveal ways that pride might be getting a foothold in our lives. Let us pray also for God to remove all vestiges of it and replace it with knowledge of our utter dependence on Him, His mercy, and His love. More of You Lord!

Christine’s News

Mary Magdalene Icon in Progress

I’m working on a double commission to paint a new and original icon of Saint Paul- as a young man and as a tentmaker. I’ve spent countless hours researching, drawing, and painting studies. And now I’m ready to start painting! Yay! My favorite part!

I’ll be teaching another online Icon writing class May 24-27 that I am very excited about. The subject is Mary Magdalene. I’ve written a blog about her that you might also want to read. I can’t remember if I shared the link to the Guidepost article about my work, so here it is.

Sending you all lots of love and prayers- and we very much appreciate yours! We can’t do this without each other!

Love and Prayers, Christine and Michael

Michael’s Photography Christine’s Icons

God’s Hand in Our Lives

chaplain, Chaplaincy, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorized, workshops, , , , , , , , ,
Photo from PBS Interview, Courtesy Dalia Colon

Well, the exciting news in March was the filming of Christine in her icon studio by a PBS film crew, for a national spot on ‘Arts Plus.’  As this is being written the editing is underway. We do not know yet when it will be aired, but will be sure to provide a link, when that is available.

God has been at work in all of this from the start!

St. George des Gardes Convent in France where Christine had a God encounter with Icons and Sister Myriam

It is so wonderful to see Christine’s years of work teaching and promoting Contemporary Christian Icons in America, finally get some televised recognition. What is particularly wonderful, is recognition from within the contemporary Art arena, for a Christian medium so often rejected out of hand. Christine has taken the gift assigned to her from a French nun in a monastery in France, to bring iconography into a broader church body in America. She incorporated with that overall commission, her own painting style of innocence, naivety and depth of color, moving away from chiseled hard edges and precise detail, but still heavily leaning on the traditional Russian Icon writing style.

Christine Painting Prophetic Art During Global Awakening Ministry School

Using the visual image, as a bridge, to bring people closer to God, has been in the roots of Kingdom Arts Ministry for many years. It is always wonderful to discover how God wants to direct and develop the gifts God has given us. In Christine’s case, when she went to that meeting with Sister Myriam in France, it was more as an appreciative guest honoring an invitation than the expectation a life changing spiritual encounter.

Mick Hales Photography

We never know what God has waiting for us to do. Often it is associated with a path we have been on; only for us to find ourselves on a similar path we had never thought about, but that we are also gifted in. John 10:10 reminds me, God’s way is much more abundant than a way I would create for myself.

‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’

March has also been, sadly, heavy with the actions of ‘the Thief’ in Ukraine.  We in America have no concept of the tragedy being endured in Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, the same could be said of most Russian people, even though they are citizens of the aggression.

Mick Hales Photography

For millions in that area, life has been turned upside down. For thousands life is no more. It is even more important now for us to pray for the destructive power wielded by Putin to be bound and replaced by the power to heal and renew. For God’s Holy presence in Ukraine through the Holy Spirit. After all, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, with God the Father, for such a time as this. Never doubt the power of prayer.

God is With Us

 But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.  John 1:2.

Michael the Adventurer!

MORE NEWS, JUST IN:

Predictably, Michael has been adding so much Holy Spirit to the Chaplaincy he has been working at for the last three years that he has been approved for a program expansion. He will now be able to pray for even more people at the retirement home- and you know how much he loves praying for people! Congratulations Michael!

We love you all and love praying for you! Let us know if there’s anything specific you need prayer for! And thank you for your prayers for us! We can feel them and are so grateful to all of you!

Love and prayers,

Michael and Christine

Michael’s Photography Website Christine’s Icon Website

Seeking The Approval of Man or God?

chaplain, Chaplaincy, Icon Retreats, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorized, workshops, , , , , , ,
Icon of the Bridegroom by Christine Hales

One of the visiting teachers who came to Global Awakening School of Supernatural Ministry, while I was a student there, was Pastor Surprise Sithole. God called him out of a family of witchdoctors when he was a boy of fifteen. He was literally called out, by an audible voice of God, awakening him from sleep in his family hut in Mozambique. Consequently, he went on being powerfully led by God to minister in Malawi, Mozambique and throughout Southern Africa, starting countless churches and God is still working through him powerfully.

Pastor Surprise

Photo by Mick Hales

The story of his life is recorded in a book, Voice in the Night, published by Chosen Books and it has been my choice to read and accompany with video scenes of nature, for the elderly community at Freedom Village.  

It is wonderful to relate, through this book, how God can work incredibly powerfully through someone’s life who started with no material wealth, little education but had the willingness to be available to be used by God. His heralding of Jesus is refreshingly direct and wholehearted.

Availablility

Photo by Mick Hales

So much of the Christian walk is about our availability and not our ability. People will measure our usefulness by our abilities, our qualifications, our university degrees. God knows our usefulness depends on our willingness to step out and be available. God wants to work through people’s hearts, not through qualifications. God provides the quality.

This is reflected in Jesus’s choice of his disciples, mostly just regular people, who became willing to follow and eventually to continue God’s purposes after Jesus’ death.

The question of availability has come up for me, Michael, as there may be an opportunity to do a ‘work’, which would require being always available; 24 : 7. There are many professions which require that sought of life style; to be always available, firemen, police, doctors etc.

The hardest part of it is, to be available in one area means your less available in others, that is where discernment and prayer are needed to be sure God is initiating the ‘work’, not our own pride.

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.  ‘Galatians 1:10’

But as the years add up and our life expectancy diminishes, making certain we are doing what God has called us to, becomes more and more pressing. This last month I took part in a memorial service for a nurse who had died very quickly, after Covid initiated other health issues to kick in. He was young, with a wife and four children, a natural leader and an exceptional care giver. His team were deeply affected by his loss as of course his family was, but they all knew he was doing the work he had been called to do; to lead the night team on the Covid ward.

The question is: What am I available for? Can I make the choices that lead to my being available to hear God’s still, small voice in the night? I hope I can and do!

Christine’s News:

Photo of Christine’s studio by Mick Hales

Christine loves teaching icon writing online! She puts a tremendous amount into preparing her material and delivery but it is so rewarding to her to carry on the tradition and see her students grow in ability and excitement. She will be teaching another class May 24-27 online on Zoom where they will be painting an Icon of Mary Magdalene.

She has two large commissions that are occupying her time and thoughts- one of Saint Paul and the other of Saint James. Such great people to think and pray about and with!

Please do keep us in your prayers- we need them! And let us know how we can pray for you!

May God bless you and keep you healthy,

Until next month,

Michael Hales

Michael’s photography Christine’s icons