Lottie’s Art Gallery

A few weeks ago, our GA leader approached me and asked what I thought about bringing back our “Latte Moon Café.” She wanted my opinion on the safety of serving doughnuts and coffee again as a way for our GAs to work and earn donations for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

As I processed what it would look like to have girls wearing masks and gloves and serving doughnuts as they shared information about the offering and our international missionaries, I just kept thinking that there had to be a great idea brewing for a new and different idea for our GAs.

Over the course of the pandemic, our children’s groups did not meet; they have just restarted with missions discipleship this fall. It has been a wild journey to get here, and our children’s minister, Chuck, has done a great job of holding everyone together as best as possible. But returning to in-person meetings has meant that our children’s groups have had a chance to restructure and rethink how they do everything.

As Diane and I talked about getting the girls involved in the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, she mentioned having canvases, and we started talking about an art gallery. By the end of the conversation, we had invited a local artist to come and lead our girls in a “painting party” where they could create two works of art—one to take home and one to be “sold” in an art show.

Here’s our plan:

• The instructor will draw out the painting on the canvas for the girls and then walk the entire group through painting this design. Once they are done, we’ll have a gallery that members of our congregation can enjoy. The members can choose one to take home with them in exchange for a donation to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
• We will also create ornaments to display during our gallery. A community member donated quite a few clear, glass ornaments a few years ago, and we found them in the children’s department storage area. We are going to put a few squirts of paint (two different colors) in each ornament and let the girls swirl the paint around to make a great swirl of color. These will need to sit for a week to dry out, but once they are dry, we’ll tie a ribbon to the cap so the ornament will have a hanger.

I’m excited about this event and look forward to hanging out with our GAs as they create and paint to support this offering. And I’m thankful that Diane thought to engage me in a conversation about getting our GAs involved.

By taking the time to talk through what we already have on hand, our connections in the community, and our desire to see the girls participate and learn even more about international missions, Diane and I were able to come up with a new idea that will allow the girls to be involved in a new and different way.

It’s a win for everyone—our congregation, our girls, and our effort to support international missions!

Heather Keller is the Girls in Action and Children in Action consultant at national WMU. She is currently serving in both the children and student departments in her own church and is always looking for fun ideas to engage children and students in missions discipleship. Email her your ideas: [email protected].