This blog was written by 18-year-old interpreter, Nicole Grajeda. Nicole was passionate about wanting to serve with a mission program, and after learning about Athentikos through a classmate at school, she served as an interpreter for our 2017 I AM ART Casa Bernabé Camp. We admire her bravery in joining our team without previously knowing anyone and we’re incredibly grateful that she was able to come back for a second time this year to serve with I AM ART at Oasis.
My week at Athentikos’s I AM ART Oasis camp was one of the most challenging experiences ever!
I had the pleasure of being Jen Galvin’s interpreter, an artist who was leading the “Recycled Art” workshop; Tina Breede and Jen Arif with Oasis were also a part of our workshop team. The I AM ART camp was hosted at Oasis, a home for sexually abused girls.
I AM ART camp went really deep this time. I felt my heart curious about what the results would be by the end of the week since the workshop seemed so interesting as we would actually be making art with things that other people would see as trash. We had a group of eight courageous girls, all of them with painful stories in their lives.
On the first two days, Jen taught us how to create beautiful landscapes with alcohol ink on recycled tile pieces, the girls were so happy with the results and so was I. It hit me really hard on day three (Conflict Day) when Jen asked us to break the tile with a hammer, even though I already knew what would happen with our art project; I cannot explain how hard it was to me seeing all the girls breaking the sunsets and mountains they had put heart and soul in.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width=”3″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1513271698621-0e66badc-e9ed-4″ include=”9100,9102,9097,9103″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1513271162915{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]
These brave girls taught me a lot, and I learned many things through this art process.
The world can be a lonely cold place, and these girls choose hope, even though they have experienced the world`s evil first hand; they know that there is something that only God can do, restore. Getting sweet genuine smiles from them without knowing how many times they have been abused or beaten; without knowing how many times their hearts, souls, and spirits have been broken, over and over again, was what made me ask myself, “Who says the story has to end in brokenness?”
In our lives, many things get broken, and I was having a hard time trying to accept the fact that once something breaks, it can never be the same way it was before. I had been stuck for a while, holding my broken pieces close to my chest, not letting anyone help me with them, not even letting anyone see them. In my mind, I thought that perhaps somehow I was going to be able to make it the way it used to be, the way I liked it.
However, God opened up my eyes and helped me see the beauty in brokenness, so I could finally let go and let Him take control. Our group leader, David Lee, asked us at the beginning of the week who was God for us, and it took me a while to have an answer for that. I am getting to know God as an artist. There are times when we look at ourselves in the mirror and all we see is trash; we feel like we are useless and unnecessary. I am grateful that God looks at our lives as we looked at the recycled materials, and responds:
“Wow, we could do something beautiful with these broken pieces.”
What better way to understand redemption than taking those tile pieces and making them into something inconceivable! Because that is pretty much what God does in our lives. We used grout, jewelry, and some buttons to decorate a vase, with the tile as our principal material to show it could still be beautiful, valuable, precious and worthy of being used by the hands of an authentic artist.
By the end of the week, the results were astonishing! 
The girls, God’s masterpieces, were as beautiful as ever, with some tears in their eyes and huge smiles on their faces. The real pieces of art at this camp, made me feel the healing in them all, just like an Oasis to the soul.
“You mend what once was shattered
And You turn my tears to laughter
Your forgiveness is my fortress
Oh Your mercy is relentless.”