Holly Scurry
Holly was just a young girl when her father left. For years she felt alone and abandoned. But then one day, something changed.
On February 6, Rev. Joy Gonzalez welcomed a crowd to a first birthday party at the House of Blues. This party was to celebrate a labor of love that took over two years of planning, and as Rev. Paul Rasmussen tells it, many knocks on his door from a passionate, persistent pastor who wanted to start a church for people that didn’t have one — Uptown Church. “So why in the world did we start Uptown Church?” Rev. Rasmussen said. “Because we know that so many walk into a church and feel like that don’t fit in here because church is for church people. And I had a young pastor that wanted to help fix that.” Rev. Gonzalez wanted to break down those barriers and help people feel connected and find community. Little did she know, she and her team would be building that connection and community through a pandemic. “We are not just celebrating the last year but the life that has yet to be lived… That’s what we are celebrating,” she said. “Not just that we made it a year in a pandemic and all the things that come with that, but the future that God has for this place. The journey God has just begun.”
“Doodling and coloring,” that’s how Cindy Johnston’s father, Jim, would describe what this father-daughter duo does together. But it’s so much more than that. It’s art. For over two decades, Cindy and Jim have teamed up to create unique masterpieces, rich in color and visual intrigue. After Jim draws the designs, Cindy carefully selects the colors and meticulously fills them in, producing truly beautiful works. “I didn’t think she would enjoy it one bit,” Jim said. “It really started out as a physical therapy, later on as our relationship developed in the art side I noticed at the beginning she couldn’t stay in the lines that I drew. And then two or three years later she started staying in the lines. Two or three years later all of a sudden the pictures and colors started looking really interesting. And two or three years later they really got good and I said, ‘Cindy has a skill, she has a talent, and she’s an artist.’” Watch Cindy's Story: The Art of the Doodle.
