Origins: An Old Testament Survey Course

Lindsay and I's plans for each page and illustration.

This summer, I was invited to attend the Rocky Mountain Region's staff training in Utah, to help design for a new Old Testament curriculum (to be called Origins) for student camps. I was so excited when my boss told me, I ran down the hall to confirm the appointment. I love getting to know our staff around the country and I love getting to know God! Lindsay Olesburg, our Director of Scripture Engagement, would be teaching the course to us staff first to develop and get feedback on the content, and later she and I would work together on the workbook.

It's so valuable to experience what I'm designing for. So many parts of a curriculum aren't on a sheet of paper, like the night we sat around a fire in groups representing the tribes of Israel. The eldest of each group read allowed the story of the births of each brother. Our tribe, the Levites, cheered when Levi's name was announced! Later, we had to read out verses from the prophets, major and minor, warning and pleading with Israel and Judah to return to God. Each time the people rejected the message. There was sadness in the room when we realized the people would be exiled, led away from the promised land, the kingdom destroyed. Lindsay wanted us to seriously step into history with our minds and hearts, and see God's love in the story He'd designed. Now I can bring that spirit into the visuals. 

Although I now not designing the final workbook (I did sketch the layout of every page and organize the chapters), I'm still doing illustrations for each chapter, showing the growth of God's people as a tree. Starting with the trees in the garden of Eden to the small tree planted in the promised land, the great tree of David's kingdom, and the stump of the exiled remnant--12 illustrations in all. The idea came from the sketches I drew in my notes with pen and colored pencil.

Drawing on my Genesis 2 manuscript, imagining the people reading about Eden and Isreal.