(no subject)

Last night I met a very interesting woman. She has just started attending our church, because before now her work scheduled forced her to attend a different congregation. It turns out she has lived in the same apartment complex as I have for over 2 years. As we sat and talked, she began to tell about her past and it was fascinating. She grew up Amish. When she was 5 years old she was made the community healer and when she was 7 she delivered her first baby. She was engaged her cousin at one point (an arranged engagement) but both she and her cousin decided against it. When she was 20 she went to the local community college and told them she wanted to take classes. They told her, since she only had a 6th grade education, that she would have to get her GED first and that would cost $40. She picked up aluminum cans for 6 months to earn the money. When she went in to take the test, she just randomly guessed because she had no way of studying for it and most of the subjects she was totally unfamiliar with. When she received her test results, they were accompanied by a letter stating that she had scored the highest in the state for that month. Talk about a miracle! The same thing happened when she went to take her SAT. She went to school to become a nurse but she was only attending for a few weeks before she was discovered by her grandfather. He exposed her in front of the congregation (she said that is how sins are always confronted). When she was told she had to stop going to class or be banished, she chose banishment. Her grandfather then asked for the whole family to be banished. This included himself. His request was granted and she lived with him while she finished up school. She is now an ICU nurse who works four jobs. Four jobs!! It was amazing to talk to her. She began looking for a religion shortly after she left the Amish. When she spoke with the Mormon missionaries it didn't take long for her to realize she already believed much of the same doctrine we do. Pretty interesting.

Zack's self portrait

Here it is, the long awaited debut of the highly acclaimed up and coming artist, Zack. Behold his dramatic use of coloring and texture. Note his subtle use of dragon decor on the t-shirt. His style seems to be reminiscent of Picasso, but still has many unique qualities that only Zack can produce.

 

Here is the whole portrait.