“I started with my neighborhood, actually,” she told me. I sat at the end of a long table in the OM Zurich office chatting with two women engaged in arts ministry in the surrounding area. Sunlight streamed through the nearby windows, and snippets of conversation floated past with the occasional clink of a dish as lunch was cleared away and people slowly returned to their offices. Salome sat next to me, filled with excitement as she shared about how she began hosting arts workshops for those in her community. A painter herself, Salome realized that art could be a connecting point with others. Burdened for her culture and those in it longing for meaning, the arts workshops provided an outlet for people to interact with Christianity in a relaxed and relational setting. Each workshop involves a creative activity, such as murals, clay, and collage centered around a Biblical theme.
The themes are designed to prompt questions in the hearts of the participants, helping them to think through elements of their worldview. There are four themes Salome focuses on, one each workshop: coming home, life like a mirror, harmony, and the one who creates. The participants create something that goes along with the theme and have a chance to talk about it at the end if they would like.
Recently, I caught up with Salome via video call to hear more stories about the workshops she hosts. “In Switzerland, I experience that many people are searching for rest in a place of peace. So, I asked God, ‘What can I do with art to help people to enter a place of rest?’” she shared. In the workshops, the participants can come and create in a relaxed setting, sometimes sorting through difficult chapters in their own lives through the creative process.
A friend of Salome’s who is not yet a follower of Jesus also hosts courses, some of which are focused mandala painting and Eastern meditation. Salome shared with her that her courses were also about art and meditation, but of a different kind. They decided to swap courses, each attending one of the others’ workshops. Salome attended one on making postcards, and her friend came to several of her workshops. It ended up that she also brought another friend, also not yet a Jesus follower. When everyone was sharing at the end of the course about their creations, some of the participants who were followers of Jesus shared how they experienced Him in the process of creating. Salome’s friend also shared what she experienced, just not about Jesus since she does not know Him yet. Then, she told her friend she had brought, “You know, it’s special. I invited you to Salome’s course because in her course, it’s different. In my course, it’s all about relief and going into yourself to experience Nirvana. But in Salome’s course, it’s different. It’s not about Nirvana. It’s about releasing things, but then you fill yourself with something positive.” Though she did not know exactly how to articulate it, she had experienced the difference in spirit between the Holy Spirit and that found in Eastern religions. Salome was encouraged by her observation of this difference.
At another workshop, Salome gives the participants each a box of pieces of a broken mirror to make a collage. She shares with them, “That’s your box with the mirror pieces. And maybe you don’t want these pieces because they aren’t in the shape that you wanted. But that’s life. You just get your box of life and then you have to do the best with it. And I believe in a God who can use your brokenness to make beauty out of it.” At one of these weeks, a participant who was walking through cancer treatment received her box of mirror pieces and found in it a piece shaped like a heart. Later, she shared this was tremendously encouraging to her, as it reminded her that God sees her in her brokenness and can make beautiful things out of brokenness.
Through these and so many other stories, Salome has been deeply encouraged by how the Lord can work in others’ lives when she is simply faithful to facilitate the process. Through the creative process, many have been able to process hard things in their lives and take away a skill that can help them do this in the future. Salome is excited about the opportunities still to come as she relies on the Holy Spirit to guide her in her ministry to others.
Would you join us in praying for Salome and her art workshops? Pray for many who do not yet follow Jesus to come to the workshops and for Salome to have wisdom as she builds relationships with them.
