Painting With Purpose: St. Andrew’s Mural Brings Community Together

At the beginning of June, people picked up paint brushes before and after church at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church.

The congregation, friends and family helped paint a four-panel community mural that highlights the church’s ministries. It was the first community mural Sara Nguyen Harris designed.

“I think the biggest part of it was that it was a community led experience that we all got to pitch in,” she said. “Everybody got to help and leave a mark on the church.”

The mural highlights the church’s food pantry, a program for elderly people with dementia or Alzheimer’s, the children’s ministry and the pumpkin patch the church is known for.

She said she was not nervous about having strangers work on the mural she designed because it was done in stages. The first step was adding large color blocks and then painting over a projected outline.

“I know quite a few people were nervous, but I think they were able to really get into it,” she said. “And I had a couple people that were very involved and invested in the project.”

She has been a part of St. Andrew’s for about two years, and the pastor, Jayne R i d e o u t , heard she was an artist. Pastor Rideout reached out to Nguyen to design a painting that would decorate the side of the church.

The project was supposed to start on May 31, but Florida’s usual summer storms pushed the launch back to the next morning. But Nguyen said it worked out because people got to spend time with their church community. She also said it was an opportunity for the congregation to invite others to church.

“I think that was the biggest and most rewarding part about it was that it was such a community experience,” she said. “A lot of people got to meet each other and talk, or have known each other but never really talked or gotten to work together.”

And she added that the process of designing the mural was meditative, and she appreciated the opportunity to share her love for painting with other people.

To see more of Nguyen’s work, visit her Instagram @nguyenindoubtart.