Imago Art Newsletter July 2018

IMAGO ART Hope and Wholeness Through Creativity

Mission Imago Art Ministry, an outreach of the New Life Center Foundation, uses the visual art-making process to • Facilitate personal insight, inner healing, hope and joy • Help people become more attentive to God’s presence in their lives • Promote social connection, culturecare and peace

Therapeutic Art Therapeutic art classes and workshops create a positive, playful environment in which to achieve specific cognitive, kinesthetic and therapeutic outcomes for holistic development and inner healing.

Classes promote mastery of skills and self-reflection, while also covering essential artistic principles. The techniques have been used effectively with survivors of sexual abuse, domestic violence, labor exploitation, human trafficking, unplanned pregnancy, burnout and other kinds of stress. Kit offers weekly therapeutic art classes for students at the New Life Center Foundation.

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Art and Prayer Retreats

Art Workshops Kit designs workshops tailored to meet the needs of specific groups. Workshops offered in recent years include stress management, how to incorporate arts into the elementary classroom to improve lesson retention, Art4Healing®, art and contemplative spirituality, Christmas card making, and foundational principles of therapeutic art. Over the last year, Kit led workshops for an American MOPs group, a group of Thai seminary students, and two groups of international workers at a missionary conference.

During Art and Prayer Retreats, participants practice being attentive to God’s presence through creating art. Retreats combine devotional teaching, traditional liturgy, Bible readings and music with the spiritual practice of creating art as a form of contemplative prayer. Kit does art demonstrations designed to spark creativity and offers personalized art and prayer consultation throughout the retreat. Over the last year, Kit led 2 retreats in the US, and 2 retreats in Thailand. In the 7 years that she has been leading retreats, over 350 people have attended, many of whom have come to multiple retreats.

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Publications In July 2017, an article written by Kit was published in an online publication called Streetside Conversations. The article is entitled “Making Art for Hope and Healing”.

In July 2018, another article by Kit was published in the Lausanne Global Analysis, an online publication focusing on current issues in evangelical missiology.

The article highlights current statistics on human trafficking and offers recommendations for organizations serving survivors of trauma, based on the New Life Center’s 30 years of grass-roots experience. The article is entitled, “Life After Modern Slavery: Helping Survivors of Human Trafficking in Thailand”.

How can I support Kit Ripley and Imago Art Ministry?

To learn more about how you can pray for Kit and the people she serves, email her at kitripley@pobox.com.

To support Kit and the ministry of Imago Art, go to the International Ministries website at: www.internationalministries.org.

Checks can be made out to “International Ministries” and sent directly to IM with a notation that your gift is intended to go towards “Kit Ripley” (for personal support) or “Specifics” (to support ministry expenses).

International Ministries

P.O. Box 851 Valley Forge, PA 19482

Phone: 1-800-222-3872

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