I'm Only One Voice in a Million

I made this on my Sabbath and few weeks ago. It was inspired by a Natasha Bedingfield song, "Strip Me." There is a line that says, "I'm only one voice in a million but you ain't taken that from me!"

It kind of looks like it should be in a nursery. That wasn't what I was intending, but its cute and was fun to paint.

WJPK updates to come soon.

Wed July 27th!!!

When Justice and Peace Kiss is an artistic fusion of original visual and performing art created by youth from South Los Angeles and artistic adult leaders. Centered around the theme of our hopes and dreams, it will be a night of self expression through music, dance, poetry, theatre, painting and more.

What I am most passionate about is giving students a venue and outlet to express themselves and for the world to hear their stories and thoughts.

This is a night where students voices are heard, talents are shown, dreams are honored, and stories are told.

Please join us for the culminating performance of When Justice and Peace Kiss on Wed, July 27th.

Our performance will be held at 24th Street Theater. The address is 1117 W. 24th St. Los Angeles, CA 90007.

We will have two performances, one at 5:00pm and another at 7:30pm.

Admission is free!

Cockroach Combat

Supplies needed for cockroach combat:

Metal kitchen ladle

Study shoes (for squishing)

RAID

Lots of paper towels

Garden gloves

Hot glue

Trash bags

mug

Our story today is story for bravery, heroines, battles and victory. It begins on a typical day in the kingdom of Los Angeles in the castle of JAM (Jennifer, Amanda, Megan). The brave and beautiful Jennifer was brushing her teeth in the bathroom when she caught out of the corner of eye, a rather peculiar sight. When she turned there before her on the wall sat the most enormous cockroach she had ever encountered. It was an orangy gold color stretching about 2 inches long and ½ and inch wide. The brave and beautiful Jennifer remained calm in the midst of encountering this vicious creature and slowly backed out of the bathroom. She called for her roommate the fair and fierce Megan. Megan came to see this enormous creature. They knew that they must devise a plan to defeat this enemy as they would not let him conquer their bathroom. Megan volunteered to lead the attack, and Jennifer would come as back up. Megan armed herself with a coffee mug to smash the creature against the wall. But he dodged her attack and scurried down the wall to the floor. Both maidens screamed out in fear of the beast’s movement. New armory was needed to defeat this beast. Jennifer armed herself with a metal kitchen ladle and Megan put on study tennis shoes to squash the beast. As he ran across the tile, brave and beautiful Jennifer leaped on his path striking him with the ladle. She struck him until his body cracked and crumpled, his guts oozed onto the bathroom tile. Although there was much screaming in the battle, they could rest easy knowing that their bathroom was safe from the beast.

But this was only a small battle and although they had possible assassinated the leader, there was still an army of smaller cockroaches living in the kitchen. They devised that they must strike when the troops were sleeping. Fair and fierce Megan and brave and beautiful Jennifer enlisted the help of another mighty warrior, the kind but killer Amanda. Jennifer and Amanda decided to do a deep cleaning of the kitchen in attempts to discover their hiding places and clean out their army base. The first site of this cleaning was the counter shelving unit. This shelving unit has holes to change the levels of the shelves, pictured below.

Jennifer and Amanda discovered that the younger cockroach warriors were turning these holes into their own little condos. The kind but killer Amanda invaded their homes by sticking q-tips through the holes and then putting hot gluing in so that they would not return. Mission #1 success.

The next attack site was under the stove and fridge. Jennifer was not only brave and beautiful but has the strength of a lion to move the fridge by herself. Hidden beneath the stove and fridg, was a cockroach grave site. It was sickening to discover. The fair but fierce Megan went in with Raid to gas out any sleeping survivors. Both maidens, armed with gardening gloves and lots of paper towels cleaned out the dead bodies. Mission #2 success.

Although even now a remnant remains, the strength of the cockroach army has been defeated by the Kind but Killer Amanda, Brave and Beautiful Jennifer, and Fair but Fierce Megan. And the King stands over the JAM castle to protect it.

When Justice and Peace Kiss Week 1

We just had our first night of “When Justice and Peace Kiss.” It went great!

Our theme for this year is “Our hopes and dreams.” We started off the night telling the story of Moses and Israelites crossing the Red Sea through a short skit. We then broke everyone off into smaller groups based off what type of art they were most interested in. We had a group for music, theatre, rap/poetry, visual art, and dance. In these groups we had them write reflections based on themes from the bible story. In the passage the Israelites were about to have their dreams come true; they were finally able to leave the oppression of the Egyptians and say goodbye to their life of slavery. But after leaving, Pharaoh changes his mind and sent his army after them. As the Israelites see the Egyptians army coming toward them, it seems as though all their dreams are crushed. We had the youth reflect on ways they have had dreams that were crushed or broken.

Thankfully the story does not end there. In the passage we see how God took this situation where it seemed that all hope was lost and revealed his power and love for the Israelites. He parted the Red Sea so that they could pass through and then sent the water back over the Egyptians, drowning them. He provided a miracle to save them. We had the youth reflect on ways that they have seen God come through for them or a dream that was fulfilled.

Then it was time to respond artistically. We had a bunch of images cut out from magazines and had them make collages that represent dreams for their family, career, community, and what kind of person they want to become.

Then we had them take pieces of broken garden pots and write downs dreams that they have had that have been broken. They put the broken pieces at the bottom of the cup and added soil and seeds. We encouraged them to think about what God can grow out of something that seems broken. How do we want God to take our broken dreams and grow something new this summer?

Lastly we had them give us ideas about what type of art they wanted to create this summer. I worked with the theater group. I will get to hear more about how the other groups went later this week.

It was a little bit difficult at first to get them to think about dreams that have been broken or fulfilled. They responded well to the collaging and seemed excited to make it. When it came time to come up with ideas for a theatre skit they actually had a lot of ideas which I wasn’t expecting. They came up with an idea for a story that that is very true to their experiences and relevant to their life.

If you were considering supporting this ministry and have not gotten a chance to yet, there is still time.

You can donate online at:

http://www.streetlampstudio.com/get-involved/donate/

Please choose Fundraiser for Megan Ibarra in the Dropdown menu

Safari Adventure

This is a project I have wanted to do with my kids and has been in the works for months. I have been asking friends to save their toilet paper rolls for me. I wanted to do some recycled art with them. Here is how my lesson went.

First I checked out books from the library about different animal environments. I had them in groups look through these books to discover which types of animals lived in which environments. They only had one book per group. At the end of their kindergarten year they still are terrible at sharing and looking at a book together. Oh well. Then as a class we went over which types of animals lived in the sea, desert, rain forest, and mountains.

Then I gave them 2 toilet paper rolls that I had glued together with a sting attached. I told that that these were magical binoculars in which they could see things that you can’t see in normal life. I had them decorate their binoculars with markers. As they were decorating, some of them were looking through it and saying they didn't see anything special. To which I responded, “We haven’t put the magic on yet so don’t worry. “

After the decorated the binoculars I told them that the magic comes from their brain. So we took the magic from our brain to put into the binoculars. (The idea was that they use their imagination to see things that are not there.) Then I took them to different areas on the playground outside. I told them that we were approaching the mountains and asked them what type of animals they saw through their binoculars. (The hope is that they would remember animals that live in the mountains that we talked about previously). Then I took them to another area to enter into the rain forest. They started getting more into it once we saw a lion and had to run away from the lion. Then our course at every environment there was another dangerous animal right behind me that we had to run away from. It was cool to see one of my students who has a lot of behavior problems really be engaged and have fun with this activity.

I loved this lesson because it included science, visual art, reading, and theater. I love the integration of the academics and art. And I did this the last week of school.

Thank you all who saved their toilet paper rolls for me. Very successful project.

The picture above is not one of my students. I don’t like to post pictures of students online and especially without parental consent. I took pictures of them doing this if you would like to see but I won’t post them.

Missing the Island

So far since moving to LA, I have not felt too many InterVarsity withdrawals with each passing event that I usually look forward to. I was surprised that how easily I was able to transition out of it. But this week has been particularly hard. This week was when UCI InterVarsity went to Catalina Island for the annual Summer Conference. This is my absolutely most favorite thing in the entire world about InterVarsity. It’s what I usually look forward to all year. Anyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely love Love LOVE Mark study. Being apart of Mark study are my most fond memories as a student. Teaching Mark was the best thing that I did as an intern. I love Mark study because you get to see all these connections in the bible that you don’t get just studying little sections here and there. You get to see the word God come to life. You get to study it deeply for yourself and draw your own conclusion from the text. My mind is blown by the character of Jesus every time that I go through it. I love the island because it’s a week away from technology and responsibilities and media. I love being with other people who are also digging into the word and really taking it seriously. I love the food, kayaking and hiking, and staying up late playing mafia, or screwy louie. This was my first year in 6 years that I have not attended Summer Con. Oh I wished that I was on the island this week. But I am thankful for the memories God has given me there and the ways he has transformed my life with him through his word. I can’t wait to hear what God did on the island this year for the UCI students.

Mark 1 2005
Mark 2 2006
Genesis 2007 (Our 12 days of creation song)
Mark 1 2008
Mark 2 2009 (Our shake it out warm up)
Mark 2 2010 (Dumb disciples)

When Justice and Peace Kiss is Coming....

If somehow I missed you on my list, here is what I will be up to this summer. Here is my letter just not in a pretty format.

Ya Ya's Story

As we were getting ready for our performance that day, I saw one of our high school students named Ya Ya sitting off to the side looking miserable. As I asked her what was the matter, she told me that she did not want to sing the song that she had been writing and practicing for the past 4 weeks. Although we all tried to encourage her, we didn’t know if she was going to perform that night. When the time came, she found the courage to sing a beautiful song she had written about what freedom meant to her. After the performance I asked her what she thought of the experience. “That was amazing! I want to do it again,” she beamed with excitement. These are the moments that I live for, moments of transforming fear into freedom. I moved to South Central Los Angeles 8 months ago to pursue what I believe to be God’s call in my life of empowering students like Ya Ya to develop their creative potential.

My Journey this Summer

Ya Ya’s story happened during a summer program two years ago called, When Justice and Peace Kiss. This high school performing arts program is put on annually by a theater company called Streetlamp Studio. This nonprofit was started by Christian artists seeking to inspire creative engagement with the community here in LA. This summer I will be leading “When Justice and Peace Kiss” with 3 other adult artists. The theme for this summer is, “Nothing Holding Back our Dreams.” The students learn about Moses: the promises, struggles, and perseverance to reaching his dream of the promised land. We will lead youth in creative activities in which they can share their hopes and dreams for the future. The adult artists will refine their stories into songs and performance pieces. The youth will practice and perform these original works at the end of the summer program.

Because Streetlamp Studios is a small nonprofit, all of their staff fundraise to be able create art and inspire high school students. This summer I will be working for them part time and hoping to raise $2000 to cover the costs of the program and supplement a partial income for myself. I am looking for people who want to partner in the work that God is doing through empowering these urban youth. If you feel like this a cause that would like to give to, we would really appreciate your support.

If you would like support me and When Justice and Peace Kiss, you can make a donation online at http://www.streetlampstudio.com/get-involved/donate/. Under the drop down menu please select Fundraiser for Megan Ibarra. Please note that Paypal will deduct a percentage using this method.

You can also make a check out to Streetlamp Studio. Please contact me for the address if you do not have already.

Please visit Streetlamp Studios website to learn more about ways that they impact the community.

http://www.streetlampstudio.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z716890Nn70