Greenland

...Greenland...

How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things... Isaiah 52:7

Hej, Hello, Today we’re going to talk about Greenland.

What comes to your mind when you think of a word like Greenland? Lovely grass? Lush green fields? Well, you might be surprised to learn that around 80% of the country of Greenland is covered with ice. Actually, the name Greenland means “Land of the People”.

There are several different languages spoken in Greenland but the main one is West Greenlandic. The second language is Danish, which is the greeting I used above. The currency is called the Danish Krone.

Around 56,225 people live in Greenland and 17,000 of them live in the capital Nuuk.

One more interesting tidbit is that the sun doesn’t set from May 25-July 25.  (It would seem like there wouldn’t be any ice if there was sun all the time, huh?)

I did not find a mission to share about in this post, instead I have a song I want to share.  This song was written in 1819 by a man with the name Reginald Heber. Reginald had a strong interest in missions and was a very influential writer and preacher.  He wrote the song From Greenland's Icy Mountains to go along with a sermon is father-in-law preached.  Later in his life he went to India as a missionary and died there at the age of 43.

From Greenland’s icy mountains,

From India’s coral strand,

Where Afric’s sunny fountains

Roll down their golden sand;

From many an ancient river,

From many a palmy plain,

They call us to deliver

Their land from errors chain.

What tho the spicy breezes

Blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle,

Tho’ ev’ry prospect pleases,

And only man is vile. 

In vain, with lavish kindness,

The gifts of God are strown;

The heathen, in their blindness,

Bow down to wood and stone.

 

Shall we, whose souls are lighted

With wisdom from on high,

Shall we to men benighted

The lamp of life deny?

Salvation! O salvation!

The joyful sound proclaim,

Till earth’s remotest nation

Has heard Messiah’s name.

Challenge for the week, try contacting (by mail, email, social media, etc.) a missionary that you never have before (someone you know or maybe a complete stranger). Better yet, someone from Greenland. Just send them a few encouraging lines to let them know you care.  I'll do it too and I might report on it next time. 

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Today I’m going to show you some of my “photo” and painted cards. I know different people have different interests so if you don’t enjoy photography or painting you can always just skip over this part.

I enjoy taking pictures.  This time of year, especially, when the trees are budding and there are new flowers coming it’s fun to take pictures.  I haven’t really done much photo taking this spring though because a couple years back I took so many flower pictures that I haven’t felt like I need any more.

Side note: Here is one of the pictures I did take this spring.

Now , to the cards…

 For this first one I get photos developed at Walmart before I can do anything else. Actually first I have to take the pictures. Some of the ones you’ll see are from when I had a group of children over and had them pose for the pictures for my cards.  I also like to take nature pictures and use them.

Once I have the pictures taken I like to edit them on the computer. One of my favorite programs is PrintMaster 0.6 Platinum because its very easy to use.  There are probably other programs to use but I’ve not tried out many and am content with how this works.  Next I order my pictures. Because of Covid-19 we can only order pictures from Walmart online and can either get them in the mail or in store.  Their pictures are only $.09 a piece (for a 4"x6"), at least where I am. J

Once I get the pictures I cut my cardstock to fit.  Usually when I edit the pictures I’ve made where they are only 4”x 5 ½” that way when I trim off the white they fit onto ½ a piece of cardstock folded in half. Once I’ve got the paper ready I use a combination of double stick tape and stick glue to fasten the picture to the card. And ta da! 

The card is done.

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Do you enjoy shopping? thrift store shopping to be more specific. Are there ever times when you’d like to go shopping but you don’t really need anything? I’m like that a lot of the time. I enjoy, for the most part, going shopping with my friends or family, but I often don’t really need anything so what I like to do is look for ideas of things that I can make or do at  home.  Where is this all going? Well, it leads up to my next kind of card which is something I discovered at a thrift store.  The idea was to glue a 4x6 photo (of a flower) onto a canvas and then add to the picture by painting additional flowers, leaves, etc.  You’ll see what I mean in the pictures.

Well, I went home with that idea and edited pictures on my computer so that parts of the flowers were chopped off, then I would have to paint in the missing parts. I actually did these smaller so the finished cards are about 2 ½”x3 ½”.  I cut the pictures out and then glued them onto thin cardboard so that the paint wouldn’t soak through.

#1. It’s kind of hard to explain what I did to do this and obviously you won’t be doing the same pictures as me if you decide to try this.

#2. You can kind of see in the pictures how I added green leaves, red part for the rose, darker shadows under the leaves, and the stem and some coloring for the vase.

#3. Next I added some tan for the wall and then since it was too orange

#4. I tried adding some washed out gray to make it more natural

#5. Last I added the vase with black paint and then painted over it with watered down white so it wasn’t quite so “bright”.

This picture shows ho adding more green and yellow changes the look.

After I had finished the painting part I decided I wanted to make the cards where they could open...

#1. So I cut a piece of cardstock 3” x 3 ½”

#2. I folded the cardstock about ½” from the edge so that it was now 2 ½” wide.

#3. I used double stick tape to fasten the card front to the back.

#4. Shows the finished product. 

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Last of all, for today, you can just paint a picture on your card.  Using watercolors or Acrylic paint. I kind of enjoy seeing what I can come up with leftover paint which is what this picture was made with. (Its called school children’s excess J ) I usually just get my paint directly from the inside of the lid instead of squirting it out, unless I am going to mix paint.

And that’s all for today. Goodbye. Baaj.

P.S. You can also cut pictures out of magazines to make cards with.  

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Sources:  World Book Encyclopedia

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