Intro Movie

This is a video that I put together to introduce us to the kids in the BICF youth group.
It's not great video quality, but, but it is a lot of fun.

We're going to China

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy New Year, and a belated merry Christmas to you all. We were waiting to send out a Christmas letter because we knew that our lives might be changing dramatically, and we wanted to make sure that we could let you all know. Sure enough, we have just accepted the Youth Director position at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship, and we are moving to China at the end of February.

A lot of you may know that Matt's parents moved to Beijing in September. They attend the Beijing International Fellowship , a church for foreigners living in Beijing which is able to operate legally and without any interference from the government there because Chinese nationals aren't allowed to attend. This is where we will be working with kids from all over the world who are currently living in Beijing. We have given them a two-year commitment and will be there until spring of 2010.

It's a paid position, and the church is paying for our plane tickets and visas, but the move has put several expenses on fast-forward for us. We will have to break our lease, and if we can't find a sub-leaser we will be responsible for paying rent through May. Kara will need the basic immunizations, and we have several medications that will need to be filled (and paid for) in advance. We are also planning on bringing our cat with us, which adds another expense, but several people have recommended bringing things that make it feel more like home, and she sure does that. We will also need to purchase a lot of things to set up our home in China.

We are trying to raise some money for the move. We are selling a bunch of our stuff, including furniture, cars, guitars, and other things we have accumulated. Matt is also selling some of his paintings. We'll be posting some pictures here of them very soon, so check them out and email us if you are interested.

We will probably have a going away party or a get together of some sort both in Eau Claire and in Minnesota before we go, we'll let you know what's going on. In the meantime, we are putting together both an email and a Facebook list so that we can stay in contact with our friends and family here. If you would like to receive updates on Facebook, send us a message there. If you would like to get updates via email, write to us at mattbanker@gmail.com. We will also be keeping this blog about our time in China, so you can check back and see what we've been up to.

Although the big news right now is that we’re going to China, there has actually been a lot of other cool stuff going on this year in our lives.

Going all the way back to December 2006 Matt graduated from the University of Wisconsin Stout with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with a concentration in sculpture and painting. He had an installation sculpture piece in the Arts West show, a juried show at the Eau Claire library. He has also been painting a lot this year.

This summer Matt helped plan and execute a big music festival here in Eau Claire. He also helped put together a compilation CD of local bands and musicians in conjunction with the festival.

Kara graduated in May of this year with a degree in English-Creative Writing. She worked as an editorial intern at a local arts and culture magazine, Volume One, for the summer.
Although it was not a paid position, the experience was great and made her think more seriously about working in the magazine industry at some point in the future.

In March, we flew to Los Angeles to visit Kara’s sister, Sarah, as she was starting her first semester out on the coast. For research for a story (and general interest), Kara took advantage of a connection and saw an episode of the Young and the Restless taped. The story she wrote about this experience actually became part of her final, capstone project for her major. Matt took the day to explore all the art galleries available around LA.

The highlight of our summer was the mission Claire. There were almost 90 participants on the trip, and it was a crazy ride, especially across the border in Tijuana. From the border, we traveled farther onto the Baja peninsula, and trip that we went on with our church here in Eau ministered to two churches in the area through work projects, medical care, and VBS. We learned a little Spanish and experienced a lot of joy in ministering in that intense environment that always arises on these trips.

We adopted a kitten from the Humane Society in July and named her Pigeon. She is quite cute and very mischievous. We’re hoping to bring her to China with us, but if we decide it’s too expensive we have friends willing to take her.

Matt's paintings

These are some of the paintings that I have. They are for sale, unless they say (SOLD) next to them. There are two more in process that are similar to the Grain Silo painting that will be finished in the next couple weeks.

Grain Silos - 18"x 18"- 2007 - Oil on canvas - $250 (SOLD)

Guitar (in process) - 24" x 48" - 2007 - Oil on panel - $750

Creamer - 9 1/2" x 12" - 2007 - Acrylic on canvas - $300 (for pair)
(part of a pair, the other one is a coffee mug)

Farmland triptych - 8" x 24" (each) - 2007 - Oil on panel - $250 (for set)

The Twelve Apostles - 48" x 24" - 2007 - Oil on panel - $250

Industry - 8" x 24" - 2007 - Oil on panel - $100 (SOLD)
Laundry Mat 1 - 8" x 24" - 2007 - Oil on panel - $100
Laundry Mat - 2 x 8" x24" - 2007 - Oil on Panel - $100

Blocks - 12" x 12" - 2007 - Acrylic on canvas - $75 (SOLD)