In this year’s annual update, I’ve listed 12 things for which I’m grateful.

Merry Christmas from my OCF Leaders!

As a child I always wanted to grow my hair long. When I was younger, and finally allowed to grow out my hair, I would often end up cutting it because of tangles, damage or lice. Over the past few years, I grew my hair to the longest it has ever been (even managing to keep growing it after getting lice while traveling abroad in 2014).

I decided that when I eventually cut it, I would donate my hair to a cancer charity. I also decided I would auction off the rights to my hair style as a way to raise scholarship funds for MARKcentral. My staff partner Jamie “won” the rights, and gave creative control to the students who received the scholarships, and the results were as follows:

(Can’t find the “before” photo, but this was taken a few days before the cut)

And here is the after:

In September, the same students gave me a trim and more pronounced undercut:

I am really happy with the look and length! Its grown out quite a bit since then, but I enjoy rocking the “Asian bob” with modern flourishes. I’m grateful for my Knights who came over and did the cutting and styling. One of my favourite memories of the cut was having my roommate make a video of the process (which she’s posted on facebook).

After completing the 47 days of my experiment, I saw some of these results:

– joy in making art for me again, which hasn’t been true for nearly 14 years!

– inspired visually by the Word

– more depth in my understanding and ability to relate with major and minor prophets

– greater perspective on God’s presence, provision and working in my life

– more peace that came alongside developing a grateful heart

I continued all aspects of the challenge until July. Afterward, I still spent mornings in Scripture, working through the books of wisdom after I finished all the major and minor prophets. I also continued making art as a weekly discipline, but started making a colouring book for a dear friend instead of making standalone pieces. After i finished the colouring book in August, I started making one for me.  The process is a lot slower, as I find it hard to take time for myself, but the practice of making art calms my soul and brings deep peace. It also has the added bonus of helping me connect deeper with my students, as we discuss pros and cons of various mediums. I think that helps me build a deeper rapport with students so they are able to trust me with other aspects of their lives sooner.

Here are some of the pieces I made during the 40 day challenge.

If you did an experiment, I would love to hear how it turned out! If you’re interested in hearing more about my experiment, let me know!