Star Bazaar is the gift shop for Bethlehem Bible College. It was originally started to bring in extra funds for the college. Now, the gift shop supports students attending the school and many local artists in the community.

Anne*, the gift shop manager at Star Bazaar, says, “We noticed that we had a need in the community for people to have a platform to sell their items.

“We feel that this is a wonderful way that we could actually help the people on the ground as well as get their items known and sold over the world as we also have an online gift shop,” she adds.

Star Bazaar Supports Education

(Photo courtesy of Bethlehem Bible College)

The gift shop provides many opportunities for students attending Bethlehem Bible College so they can fund their education. Some students make and sell products at the gift shop to support their schooling. Those who can’t make products have the opportunity to work at the gift shop when they need help

Anne adds, “The shop helps with generating extra income for scholarships for those who do not have skills that can actually sell their product.”

Community members working to fund their children’s education can sell products at the Star Bazaar too. One staff member at the Star Bazaar created a Christmas item this year called “Holy Land Spices—Christmas Edition.”

Anne explains that the shop also supports those with disabilities, including one man who can hardly move his leg.

“We helped him develop a very basic and simple product; it’s a coaster set that helps him because he only has a saw. So, we developed a product for him so that he can also have some funds because he would like his daughter to study at the Bible College,” she says.

Christmas Shopping Made Easy

(Photo courtesy of Bethlehem Bible College)

The Star Bazaar has many unique items for sale during the Christmas season this year. Some of their most exciting items include the Holy Land Spices set and the Olivewood spice jar. This spice jar includes a packet of Za’atar, a spice eaten with bread in the Holy Land.

They also have wooden, hand-made nativity sets and blown-glass Christmas ornaments.

Would you like to get involved with Star Bazaar and Bethlehem Bible College? Click here for more information on how to connect with Star Bazaar or click here to learn more about Bethlehem Bible College.

Anne explains that supporting the gift shop can happen through online Christmas shopping and prayer. “[It’s] a unique opportunity to have something from the Holy Land that… you cannot find anywhere else.”

She asks for prayers for wisdom and community, as well. “We would love to have your prayers and help us to always be a community that reaches out and lifts the love of Christ,” she says.

Pray for Star Bazaar this year that they may receive support and the funds they need.

*Name changed for security purposes.

Header photo courtesy of Star Bazaar and Bethlehem Bible College.

We spoke with Melanie Spinks, an art professor at Wingate University, Leighton Ford Ministries representative, and guest speaker for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

She says rather than have a contentious relationship with art, believers can approach art with a missional mindset.

(Photo courtesy of Martino Pietropoli via Unsplash)

Spinks personally felt called to missions 20 years ago, so she approached several missions organizations hoping to use her artistry.

“I was already a young art professor at the time and I thought, ‘I would do anything for the Lord. Just give me a task,’” she says.

However, none of the ministries needed an artist. Spinks faced rejection after rejection, but it didn’t snuff her passion.

“I’m not a very emotional person, but every time I would hear about the nations my eyes would just tear up for the lost. I knew that God had called me and I have to plug in somehow to this Great Commission.”

Spinks signed up for a perspectives course and listened to a talk by Don Richardson. He shared the story of the peace child and how God hides redemptive analogies in culture to serve as bridges to the Gospel.

It was an epiphany for Spinks. She realized art can do just that — be the bridge for redemptive analogies to the Gospel.

“I feel like you kind of can bend the rules when you talk about art because art is so personal and people expect it to be subjective. They expect you to get [beyond] what is politically correct. Artists talk about politics and religion all the time because artists make artwork from their heart.”

(Photo courtesy of The Digital Marketing Collaboration via Unsplash)

A poignant moment of Spinks’s ministry through art occurred when she taught at Georgia State University.

“At Georgia State at the time 20 years ago, the art department was not a place where you could express your faith. [It was] very antagonistic. Well, you could but there was a price to pay.”

Spinks taught a sculpture class and the students asked about her work. She offered to talk about her work outside of class and any students who wanted to come of their own free will were welcome.

Spinks didn’t expect many to attend since the open gathering was at 9 am — an impressive time for college students to show up unmandated.

“I was shocked that the whole class showed up except for one…. We had a really great relationship, really good chemistry in that class.

(Photo courtesy of Alice Achterhof via Unplash)

“So I got to show my artwork and also give my testimony along with it. They said that was the most helpful thing they had learned that entire semester.”

However, the most fascinating discovery came after the gathering. For the first time, her students started sharing their own Christian faith as well.

“I had a student in the background saying, ‘Hey, I’m glad you talked about being a Christian. I am too, but I’m the only one here.’ Then another student would come up and say, ‘I’m glad you’re talking about being a Christian because I am too, but I think I’m the only one here,’” Spinks says.

“After a while, I realized most of the class is Christian and we’re all just cowering because of the outrage of a few people who are intolerant.”

Please pray for Christian artists to have the courage and vulnerability in their work to point others to our Creator God. Ask the Lord to use art in the Church to open Gospel doors that would otherwise be closed.

You can view Melanie’s work right here.

Header photo courtesy of Amaury Salas via Unsplash.

Jack* from OM Arts explains that OM Arts’ goal is to use the unique skills artists bring to the table to spread the Gospel.

“Our focus is rather than seeing the arts as some kind of gimmick or a tool, but… God working through artists to contribute to and help facilitate the unique beauty of the worship and the witness of local communities of Jesus followers,” he says.

OM works with the unreached in the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and Europe. Before sending out artists on mission trips, OM Arts works to prepare them and bring out their skills to spread the Gospel in their own ways.

“We should be more encouraging to artists, while at the same time inviting them to step up more fully, into who God’s created them to be….We want to challenge our artists, to be reaching out in the culture, and to be helping us as we worship,” Jack says.

Christian Art

(Photo courtesy of OM Arts)

For OM Arts, art as a way to spread God’s Word comes in two categories: worship and witness.

An artist may choose to use their art as a way to worship God or to show others a piece of their story as a witness to God’s work in the world.

Jack explains that a big area of need in many countries is in their worship music. In many places, Christians are using translated English songs in their worship.

“There’s nothing wrong with English language songs, but the metaphors that are presented, they don’t touch the heart of those cultures that God has uniquely created. So, some of our projects are about helping local Jesus followers develop their own biblically appropriate, culturally relevant worship expressions,” he says.

Jack adds, “It can help foster unity within the church.”

Artists Creating

OM Arts works with artists and communities to use art in several ways. These include working on community projects and therapeutic programs.

“Art has a way of asking questions [and] delving more deeply into the world around us… Artists are able to ask questions [and] engage with people’s thoughts and hearts in a way that sort of that welcomes them in, [and] dares to think differently,” Jack says.

(Photo courtesy of OM Arts)

Going into the mission field to spread the Gospel using art is a unique opportunity. OM Arts asks for prayer for their artists and their mission trips.

Jack says, “Please pray for our hearts….Our real work is cultivating the characteristics in artists that allow them to thrive on mission, and especially in places where Jesus isn’t yet known.”

Pray for these artists to have the resources to go on mission trips. Pray that they can help share the Gospel through their art.

If you want to get involved, donate to OM Arts here. You can also connect with them and go on trips with them here.

*Name has been changed.

Header photo courtesy of Amaury Salas via Unsplash.