Pray for Mylinda Baits, Global Consultant, helping to bring Christ’s healing through restorative arts.

Mylinda is a pastoral artist and trainer. Serving as a global consultant for Training Through Restorative Arts, she partners with IM colleagues, national church leadership and social change organizations to seek justice, healing and transformation through restorative art and creative expression. Compelled by Jesus’ prayer that the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, Mylinda creates spaces where servant leaders and those who do the hard work of rescue, relief and restoration can be nurtured and renewed. As sinner and saint, she sees beauty in broken places, wonder in wounded people and life in loving God and others.

She writes – Soon you will hear the official word that I have been assigned a new role with International Ministries as a Global Consultant for Training Through Restorative Arts. This will allow me to accept invitations that I have been receiving from partners and colleagues beyond the Spanish speaking regions. Some may be asking, “What will you “do” as a global consultant who travels, but doesn’t live overseas like a “normal” missionary?” Just like I served as a regional missionary, I will travel to serve a wide variety of ministries in community and leadership training workshops, but then come home between trips to be with my husband Gary who is teaching in Washington state. Some may be wondering, “What are Restorative Arts and what do they have to do with Jesus, the Good News and ministry?”

In a nutshell, restorative arts are tools for dealing with overwhelm and healing from inner wounds caused by tragedy and trauma. I engage in first aid for the heart using art. Restorative arts seek the Shalom of God: God’s dream of repair and reconciliation with God’s creation. I engage the arts for restorative and redemptive purposes. Art that is restorative points us in a direction that shows on the outside what is happening on the inside.  Healing is an inner process through which a person becomes whole and can occur on physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual levels. Art has a very important role in the process of healing. Throughout the centuries, and across cultures, creative expression through dance, chants and songs, image-making, and storytelling have been used as a part of healing rituals.

Training in the use of restorative arts allows faith and community leaders to create opportunities for growth and healing in hopeful and life-giving ways. … As a pastoral artist and trainer, I will partner with IM colleagues, national church leadership and social change organizations to seek justice, healing and transformation through restorative art-making and creative expression. I will seek to nurture and uplift the servant leaders and those who do the hard work of rescue, relief and restoration.  As sinner and saint, I see beauty in broken places, wonder in wounded people, and life in loving God and others.