Taking This Mission of Beauty Overseas

We took our mission of beauty overseas! Yep, we packed up our little family along with sacred art and music to share God’s love through Beauty internationally.

If you know our mission, you know that we typically travel by van throughout the United States to share the Good News through encounters with Beauty. We have specially installed shelves in our van to bring original paintings everywhere we go. When partnering with churches, schools, and other organizations in the states, we unload sacred art and music equipment to create a sacred art gallery and unique presentation experience.

But…This was a completely new endeavor! In fact, Watch this video for a taste!

Luckily, we were up for the challenge! God helped us find new ways of sharing our arts and expressing this message of love that God has tasked us with. We gathered art by rolling up canvas, taking lots of mini works with us, finding new ways to hang it with special frames that break down easily, and some neat travel friendly spotlights that worked perfectly.

Aside from finding new ways to display things, we learned a lot from this trip that we will certainly take with us moving forward.

Here are three things we learned on our international mission of Beauty:

1. Everyone needs Beauty – Even Italy’s hubs of Sacred Art

Everyone is hungry for beauty and stillness! Even if they are in countries that seem to be surrounded by it, people long to encounter God. The evil one has been fighting hard all over the world to drown out Beauty. Even if it’s right in front of you in some of the most iconic works of art in history, the enemy works hard to pull your gaze away.

As we traveled and shared our mission across Italy, we saw a country covered in Beauty. Yet when we talked with people, we learned how many miss the encounter with Divine available to them in the beautiful around them. When we shared our mission, we saw how God was reminding hearts to be still. Be still in front of the beauty that is before you. Don’t miss what He is saying to you.

For those in countries rich with natural, cultural, or historic beauty, God is waiting for you there! He is inviting us to Learn how to truly receive what’s being offered.

2. Misinterpretation, Lies, & Heresy are everywhere – How do we know truth in beauty?

All over the world, lies about matters of love, beauty, and faith are spread. When we visited some friends in Italy, they told us about an experience of heretical interpretation of sacred art. A tour guide for sacred art churches was teaching the message of a painting to a group of tourists. The painting depicted Our Lady of Sorrows and contained rich symbology as to the truth of our faith. However, the tour guide’s interpretation was completely false. He related that this image of Our Lady of Sorrow showcased suicide. This contradicts Church doctrine which means it is heretical. By definition, heresy endangers souls.

This is precisely why we are on a mission of beauty – to bring truth to others!

How is it that sacred art tour guides can blatantly teach lies about the art they are meant to be trained in? Whether they slip through the cracks without qualifications, or they have let the world seep in and create an agenda, they do far more damage then just giving false information. At the root, the evil one is doing what he can to cause confusion and pull people away from the truth available to them in sacred art. Uninformed and trusting individuals will believe harmful lies. Taking it one step further, they will not get to know the truth the sacred artist intended.

For example, the symbolism of Our Lady of Sorrows depicts how Mary enters into the passion of Christ her son. We express this in sacred art to show how important it is to share the cross with our Lord. Not to glorify suffering but to realize that suffering provides a way that we too may enter into full communion and full Beauty with Him. Mary shows this so beautifully. In fact, God permits her to enter into Christ’s suffering even fully more fully at the foot of the cross. This is why she sits next to Christ in heaven. Even in the midst of utter sorrow, she is continually said yes on Earth.

3. Beauty is for each of us, even in busy seasons

God gives us opportunities to experience Beauty in our unique location and stage of life. Sometimes, we have a grand idea of what our lives should look like. When I was single, I was able to travel overseas several times. I could visit all the beautiful sites and sit for as long as I liked and pray. What wonderful freedom!

Traveling overseas with a toddler brings a whole new aspect to the journey! My husband and I did not get many opportunities to simply Be Still… I asked the Lord what would it should look like to love Him during this time and to experience His Beauty. His response brought tears to my eyes:

Love the people that I’ve given you, your son and your husband, who are right before you. There is beauty before your eyes and it looks different but this is how you will serve my heart.

I share this last point because sometimes when we hear this message of Beauty and feel tension.Beauty invites us to be still, but not every location or stage in life encourages opportunities for stillness. We may think where we are in a current situation that this not possible. The truth is when we are focused on Christ and being intentionally present to Him, beauty is there. No matter what that may look like. It is so important to seek out ways to be in front of beauty. Some seasons this may be only a few minutes or be us looking with God’s tender eyes at the lovely gifts before us already. We might only be able to be walk to the back of the church as your crying child is having a hard moment and find the stillness within our hearts. Even in such cases, we are still meeting Christ there. He has not left us!

Beauty is Transforming Our Hearts even if it looks different than it once did.

This message is essential for every single one of us at every stage and part of the world. It’s why we said yes to bringing this mission of beauty across the seas. I’m so grateful for the opportunity that we had to share that with many hearts while we were overseas. Rolled up canvases, instruments in hand, and aching hearts, eager to share and encounter the Lord together with others.

Interested in having us come your way? Lets chat!

The events we offer are immersive experiences of original art, inspirational topics, live music, and often Adoration of Christ in the Eucharist! We call them Sacred Beauty Events because they help people know God through His gift of Beauty. We’d love to come to your community! Reach out with our contact page to get a conversation going.