How A Collaborative Art Project Is Changing One Community

What do art, agroforestry, and community have in common? They all combine beautifully with mission and transformation. Chad and Dara Vanden Bosch, who serve in Mozambique as missionaries with the RCA Global Mission, will testify to that after a collaborative art project earlier this year.

The story

In a small corner of Mozambique, there is a dusty, busy road that hundreds of people travel each day. Just off the road is a gazebo that stands adjacent to the Vanden Bosch family’s home.

Gazebos, in their nature, are designed to bring people together—a place for rest, community, and cover from the hot sun. Dara, who provides palliative care in her community, had been exploring the use of art as a tool for her patients but also to bring her community together. Dara had a strong desire to use this gazebo space not just to bring people together, but to tell an untold story for their community—a story of abundant life.

To put this plan into motion, Dara contacted West Michigan artist Joel Schoon Tanis, whose work she had admired from afar.

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“Much to our delight, from our first video call with Joel, it became obvious that what Chad and I are doing in Mozambique combines beautifully a few things that Joel is deeply passionate about: art, community art projects, environmental issues/agroforestry, missions, and travel,” says Dara.

Joel, a master of bringing community together through art, was all in.

After a year of planning, Joel and his daughter, Harper, arrived in Chad and Dara’s village. Joel witnessed the agroforestry work Chad is exploring at New Harvest Farm, and he met with 40 community members, including Dara’s palliative care patients and New Harvest Farm staff. 

“When Joel and Harper arrived with us in Mozambique, we instantly knew we were in for a treat,” reflects Dara. “The enthusiasm they arrived with was refreshing to our tired souls. They came with a goal but we didn’t know how we were going to go from a blank canvas to the telling of a story for our community: our hopes of how creation care through agroforestry can bring the kingdom to earth.”

But as Joel broke out the paint, beauty emerged in ways Dara and Joel could have only imagined.

Left to right: Dara, Harper, and Joel outside the freshly painted gazebo.

The artwork

The art panels, painted by Joel and local community members, depict hope, life, and the kingdom of God on earth. The panels, shown as follows, now adorn the gazebo outside the Vanden Bosch home, near a busy road that hundreds of people pass each day.

The first panel represents Mozambique’s current reality. People are looking at their fields, noting the poor soil, the yellow corn. Fields are being burned, and litter is carelessly tossed about. There is little sign of abundant life, much of what is felt in Mozambique daily.

The second panel shows a quickly changing landscape with some simple alterations that Chad is teaching at New Harvest Farm—that agroforestry is a philosophy to return the earth to a healthy ecosystem, one that God intended us to nurture and order, like the Garden of Eden. In this painting, the community is working together. They are not just planting a monoculture of field corn, but they are planting a variety of trees and plants in one area (coffee trees, pineapples, native hardwoods, eucalyptus, moringa, citrus, etc.). And, as important as the hope of food, the lion and the lamb enter the scene. We are working to bring the kingdom to earth, not just waiting for this to come in heaven.

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The next panel shows a healthy ecosystem beginning to flourish. A worker is pruning and tending to the forest. The Peaceful Kingdom (Isaiah 11:1-10) is present. It is as it was intended—living, working, and serving together, peacefully and with abundance.

In the fourth panel, the lion and the lamb lay together. The forest is flourishing and streams of living water flow. People are working together and sharing the fruits of their harvest. If we understand what creation care is supposed to look like, we will care for the earth differently. As a result, we’ll live differently—healthier and thriving. Ultimately, we’ll care for one another better. We’ll be working together. We will be one, bringing the kingdom to earth, as it is in heaven. This is the hope, prayer, and dream for Mozambique and our entire earth.

“The results of our week together far exceeded our greatest hopes and desires,” says Dara. “May this art bring glory to God, gather people around to talk, think, and dream, and may it be a lasting symbol of hope to our neighbors in Mozambique. And, may each of the 40 people whose hands helped in creating this feel a sense of pride and dignity as being a part of something larger.”