Dear Friends and Family:
This month Christine received recognition from New York State for the work she has been doing with the ‘artists dinners’, in Hudson. This a huge achievement as it has been building community for artists who often follow a pretty isolated life. It has also opened many opportunities for artists to share about their lives and what is important to them. People come together and eat, then two or three talk about what they have been doing in their art, their lives and their spiritual walk. Many different relationships have grown out of this monthly event and it has been recognized now by the state of NY.
Christine also led an icon retreat at St James Church in the heart of New York City. It was a wonderful gathering and again many people had the powerful presence of the Lord through the class.
I have done a lot of driving in June and as there is no radio in my car it becomes the perfect place for prayer. One of the revelations I have had this month is a correction in one of my prayers, which has been a prayer of ‘God help me, God help me, God help me, please.’ That was corrected to ‘God how can I help what you are doing? How can I be your helper?’
The difference is I am not asking God to help me with what I am doing but to have help- to help God with what He is doing.
Having prayed this way for a couple of hours on the way to photographing a Greenwich garden, a man approached me out of the blue and asked if I had ever photographed spiritual bodies. This opened up a whole conversation into the spiritual world, Jesus Christ and we ended up in prayer together.
Another revelation from my car time has been the praise and worship of God for His nature as creator. I felt a call to return to worship the wholeness of the Lord, his magnitude and particularly His creative nature, not only for His creation of us as human beings but also the purpose that He has for each one of us. The extent of His creative nature is far beyond our ability to hold or comprehend. To walk in the woods with all the tree leaves now fully formed, I notice each leaf has it’s own place. Each leaf has a particular placement. The bible talks of how God knows all the hairs on our head. He knows each one of us so well. We are a part of His creation, His purposes are deposited in us for us to live out through our lives. As Creator he watches how we unfold what He created in us, as He does in the trees, in the animals and in our nations. The size and magnitude of His creative nature goes unnoticed and undeclared. It is so vast, it remains untold and unrecognized. But God desires our praise and worship and I believe yearns for us to comprehend His love for His creation and for us to discover each element’s purpose.
Consequently we carry a responsibility as stewards of what God has created to allow and enable that purpose to unfold. In His wisdom God has chosen us to work with Him in this world. For us to be in relationship with Jesus, to love Him and to love our neighbors as He does. For us to steward God’s purpose for an unborn child as much as those who may stand before us in need. This is all a part and form of His creative nature and it deserves our praise.
I am also working on a video project on Psalm 23 and find the Lord is taking me deeper and deeper into this Psalm of David. Often thought of as the Psalm read at funerals, it is of course a very powerful prayer which talks of our relationship with God and His with us. I often just get filled by the first line, ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.’
There is such an assigning of authority and declaration of security, I can stay with that for hours.
Please know that you are all inner prayers daily. And we love hearing from you, with how best to pray.
Until next month, may God bless youth good health, family love, and peace and safety.
Love and prayers, 
Christine and Michael
Mick’s Photography Website Christine’s painting website
Kingdom Arts Ministry 