Some people give up things for Lent. I'm
wondering if you might consider giving up seven minutes of your time and
a $.37 stamp to help FINK do something absolutely wonderful.
Some of you have
seen the marvelous art in our Total Family Advent and Lent PowerPoint
presentations. A few of you have even jumped over to visit the artist, Dr.
He Qi , at his online gallery at
www.heqiarts.com.
I am wondering if
all of you would consider assisting us in arranging for Dr. He Qi and his
family to immigrate to America?
Here's the scoop…
We
first ran into Dr. He Qi's work online when we were looking for art
for our Total Family Lent PowerPoint presentations. In his kindness he
offered to share his work with our network, and with the 22,000 kids
showing up at Youth Encounter Quakes and Congresses this spring. Later
we found out Dr. Qi became a Christian in prison; watched a child die
in Tibet; received the first Doctorate in Religious Art in China's post-cultural
revolution history; studied Medieval art in Germany; and has created a style
all his own - absolutely beautiful. Dr. Qi is a professor at the Nanjing
Union Theological Seminary and a tutor for master candidate students in the
Philosophy Department of Nanjing University. He has been committed to the
artistic creation of modern Chinese Christian Art since 1983. He hopes to help
change the "foreign image" of Christianity in China by using artistic
language, and at the same time, to supplement Chinese Art the way Buddhist art
did in ancient times. In his works, Dr. Qi has blended together Chinese folk
customs and traditional Chinese painting techniques with the western art of the
Middle and Modern Ages, and has created an artistic style of color-on-paper
painting.
After falling in
love with his work, we invited Dr. Qi to come and teach at our Renaissance team
training event this summer. We thought it would be marvelous to have him teach
high school students how to express their faith in art. This week we discovered
Dr. Qi was hoping to get his 16 year-old son to America for his education. He
had applied for a visa to bring his family over, but after “9/11” things
slowed up at the INS.
In comes the
miracle.
You.
What if 20
churches, or 200 Churches, or 2000 churches started a letter writing campaign
on Dr. Qi's behalf? What if thousands of cards and letters hit the INS on the
same week - next week - thanking them for approving Dr. Qi’s visa and
expressing hope that it will be processed quickly?
Would that unclog
the clog? God only knows.
Anyway, we have
offered to sponsor and house he and his family free in our guest apartment
at the FINK headquarters in Stillwater, Minnesota for his first year. We
are also working to help him find a teaching job in the Twin Cities, plus some
transition help.
But first, we've
got to get him here.
If you'd like to
help this kind friend, I'd ask you to send your letters of commendation to:
Customer Service/
Visa Processing
Immigration & Naturalization Service
Vermont Service Center
75 Lower Welden Street
St. Albans, VT 05479-0001
He Qi, GUZ2002523044, China Mainland
Please be nice to the INS because they are overwhelmed in the current world
climate. Simply say you are a friend of Faith Inkubators' efforts to
bring this wonderful artist and his family to America to teach us about faith
and the arts.
Len Sweet says,
"There was a day when the church saved the arts. There may be a day
when the arts save the church."
Perhaps you could
make the letter writing a pre-Lenten servant event?
I thank you
in advance.
Rich Melheim
Faith Inkubators
