December 2019
Mission Moment
Mylinda Baits is one of the missionaries we support each month through our Missions Fund.
She served with her husband, Gary, for many years in Costs Rica. Gary is no longer a missionary, but Mylinda continues to serve as what is now referred to as a Global Servant by International Ministries.
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
In October she wrote: I just returned from Valleta, Malta where I had a rich experience of training in using the Expressive Arts in Transition. Together with 11 other expressive arts practitioners from around the world, I explored exile from the body as a result of trauma and displacement and what leads to embodied health through movement, painting, imaginative storytelling, photography and poetry. I am so grateful for the beauty that surrounded us, drew us together, and fed my soul. Out of this experience, I hope to offer more nuanced and effective restorative arts trainings and support to my International Ministries colleagues and global partners in ministry. I had the opportunity to hone my facilitation skills, receive valuable peer and expert coaching, and expand my network of global practitioners who can partner in this restorative work.
In October I had the chance to experience this network expansion with fellow Expressive Arts therapist in training, Claire Baldry from the UK. She joined me to co-facilitatea Restorative Arts training in Kathmandu, Nepal. I was invited by my International Ministries colleague, Carole Sydnor to train almost 60 Nepali leaders in arts-based coping strategies.