2 of 2

By 1990 a second bout of typhoid fever sapped Robin's energies. Returning grudgingly to California to rest, she experienced another stroke of providence. Mark Merrill, a holographer and painter, featured her photography at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. Within a year of their first meeting, Mark and Robin married. Mark committed to Robin's overseas calling, and the two have been making art in Manila ever since, while raising their four-year-old son, David.To support Kanlungan Sa Erma, a shelter for Manila's street kids, and other projects, the Merrills sponsor cottage industries through CCDF's Mission Gifts branch. Six years ago, they hit on the idea of making a line of greeting cards using original work."The kids were taught to make paper from recycled newspapers by a government agency," she says. Mission Gifts markets the cards and a line of casual clothing manufactured by former prostitutes rescued by Robin and others.Mark and Robin frequently exhibit their art professionally. They witness covertly at their public exhibits, and the pieces they sell raise some funds for CCDF's ministry. Mark and Robin are active members of two secular arts organizations on the island, the Saturday Group and the Antipolo Thursday Artists' Group. Both groups host some of the Philippines' finest professional artists and mount major mixed-media events.In such contexts, they've witnessed some surprising conversions—like when a performer from Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet visited Manila. "Yuri [Vyskubenko] was hired by the Philippine Ballet Theater to teach for a year," Robin says. "During that time, someone in the 'biz'—a theater director, a woman he dearly respects—led him to Christ."The Merrills still need to dodge figurative bullets—like visa and work- permit crackdowns, floods, erupting volcanoes, intemperate landlords, and constant threats of robbery. Robin struggles with health problems aggravated by the area's toxic pollution.At times the Merrills are dismissed as "outsiders" by neighbors who link them to the island's colonial past. Sometimes it's Christians, some of whom fail to grasp the vitality the arts can inject into spiritual work."People ask me about 'using' the arts for ministry," Robin says. "I try to tell them I want the art to be art on its own terms, and then to let God use the art as art to open doors."For more about the Merrills' work as artists/missionaries, contact Artists in Christian Testimony, P.O. Box 385, Franklin, TN 37065; (615) 591-2598.

E-mail Robin Haines Merrill , or contact Artists in Christian Testimony (ACT).The following Web sites offer a number of options for those seeking information about Christianity and the arts:Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) exists to explore and nurture the relationship between the visual arts and faith. Christian Realists is an online community of illustrators, writers, and musicians who believe in the integrity of art enacted through an honest commitment to Jesus Christ. The Spiritual Mind offers resources, projects and exhibitions for the Christian mind.Visit Crossing the Boundaries to experience a multidisciplinary art project with original poetry linked to visual assemblages. Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion is a quarterly publication featuring short stories, essays, poetry, and art. Christianity and the Arts magazine recently won several awards from the Associated Church Press.Previous Christianity Today stories about the arts include:

• He Made Stone Talk, March 6, 2000
• Who Do Artists Say That I Am?, November 15, 1999
• A Nation That Sang Itself Free, October 25, 1999
• A Quaker at War with Himself, October 25, 1999
• Constantine's Mother, August 9, 1999
• Let's Get Physical, August 9, 1999
• The Art of Being Christian, May 24, 1999
• Gallery: Outside the Gate, April 5, 1999
• Muddy Murals, February 8, 1999
• The Calling of Elmer Yazzie, November 16, 1998
• Unreached People Group: Classical Musicians, October 5, 1998
• What the Hands Reveal, July 13, 1998
• The Word Became Art, February 9, 1998
• Arts Archives

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

first page |  2 of 2

share this page

September 4 2000, Vol. 44, No. 10