Learning to Follow Your Calling with Linaya Bunbury

Linaya was paralyzed by self-doubt and uncertainty, unsure of how to find her calling and identity. As a stay-at-home mom she began painting during naptime and it was in that moment when she felt God begin to stir in her heart an opportunity to help those trapped in trafficking. Saying Yes to God’s call on her life meant faithfulness and patience, and opportunities beyond her wildest dreams.

Transcription:

Linaya Bunbury:

Eight years to get to that point where I was selling. And then it took me four more years when the board position came open and I can look back and see how there were moments of preparation along the way where God was faithful. He was with me in the waiting. As I was faithful to him, he was faithful to me and his timing is absolutely perfect.

Producer Luke:

Welcome to Brought Back to Life, a podcast where we explore how Jesus changes everything.

Linaya Bunbury:

My name is Linaya Bunbury and I am the associate pastor at Calvary Christian Assembly in Seattle, Washington. And if I were to say there was a common thread that’s been weaved throughout my story from childhood to even up to this point, it would be creativity. I have always loved making things. I’m a maker. I just can’t help but do it. Whether it’s in prior jobs or even just my interest as a kid or hobbies now as an adult, there’s always creativity that’s woven through.

And so I’m just amazed how sometimes God can use a gift or a talent, something that to me feels more like a hobby, but he has a greater intention of turning it around and using it to really further what he wants to do through me.

In 2010, I had become a stay-at-home mom. At that point I had a two-year-old son, and I had a full-time job. I had quit all of that. I had quit a couple years of working to stay at home and I was just really trying to figure out what this looked like. And as I stayed home with him, he would take these glorious three hour naps. We had gotten him to that point where he could do a really long gap nap in the middle of the day.

And so I utilized those three hours to paint. I had painted in college a little bit at a ceramic studio. And so I got out some very basic Crayola paints and an old watercolor book that I found in our pile of stuff. And I just would take those three hours and I would just carve out time and just make and create.

And it was so life-giving to me because the life of a stay-at-home mom at that point was a lot of just following my son around, errands and just cleaning and all of that stuff, which is all great, but there just was no creative output or there wasn’t any outflow for me.

So I really loved being able to paint in watercolors. And watercolors were becoming, were on this resurgence of popularity again. And so there was so much inspiration online that I was following and I was really finding my voice artistically through it.

So what I didn’t realize is as I was painting, God was at the same time really changing my heart. He was starting to open up a desire in me to have a passion for people who where stuck in human trafficking. I really started to just go there in my mind of people who are stuck in the sex trade. And it was heartbreaking to me that these are not a people who chose this lifestyle. It was chosen or inflicted upon them. And yet here I was, a mom, a stay-at-home mom in Northern California, and I had no idea how to make a difference.

I didn’t have a stream of income ’cause I wasn’t working. I didn’t have time to go out and help because I was in addition to a stay-at-home mom, I had so many other responsibilities on my plate. And so all I had in my hands was a paintbrush. And I was just trying to bridge this as God was birthing a desire in my heart for these people in particular. And how do I create this pathway of freedom or help clear a pathway of freedom for people who do not have a choice, who have been forced into this lifestyle that they can’t get out of.

And so I was on a long drive to my parents’ house with my baby in tow, and I felt like the Lord specifically spoke to me. I mean, it’s just kind of one of those burning bush moments like what Moses had. It was that for me. And I was sobbing in the car in my little Mini Cooper, and the Lord very clearly told me, “Linaya, I want you to start selling art and I want you to give away half the proceeds to anti-trafficking organizations.” And it was so clear. There’s probably a handful of times where there was just a very clear as day message like that.

So that was in 2010 and I was sobbing and “Yes, Lord, I want to do it.” But from the yes to the actual I’m doing it, there was just a huge gap of time because I was so paralyzed in not knowing even how to start. Does that look like painting on canvas and selling in an art studio? Does that look like selling art prints? Does that look like … I mean, there was just so many options that it actually created a paralysis for me.

And then on top of that, I’m an Enneagram six loyalist, and that personality type is highly doubtful of themselves, tons of self-doubt. So in the midst of knowing the calling, knowing what God was saying to me, there was so much self-doubt of who would even want to buy it. It’s one thing for your friends to say, “Oh, wow, this is really good.” But when you really put yourself out there, ’cause it’s not just art, you’re putting your heart out there. And if no one’s buying it, there’s a statement that’s being said even in the inaction of others.

And so the fear of that just paralyzed me. And I’d love to say that I got over it in five months, six months, but it honestly took years. And so for me, sometimes the difficulty isn’t necessarily external situations, but it’s within the mind. That for me has been some of the biggest hurdles for me to get through. And in the midst of it, God was faithful.

I feel like one of my favorite Bible characters who I identify with is Joseph, and I’m talking about Genesis Joseph where there was a distinct calling on his life. He had this vision in the beginning, but he did not realize it for years. And there was a lot of ups and downs that he had to face. There were moments where it seemed like things were going his way and then tons of waiting. And I would characterize this season as so much waiting.

And so what did I do in the waiting? I just stayed faithful. What I did was I just kept painting.

Speaker 2:

Peace isn’t about the absence of problems, it’s about the presence of Jesus. For more go to the Faith tab at onpurposely.com.

Linaya Bunbury:

I just kept painting and just grew in my skill set, started figuring out my voice. People started encouraging me, “Yeah, you really should start selling. I mean, this is good stuff.” And yet still I was stuck. I didn’t know what to do.

It wasn’t until I moved from California up to Washington in 2016 and I was just a little bit less afraid to put myself out there. New environment, new people. You can almost remake yourself to a certain extent. And so I kind of did that where I’m like, instead of pretending like I’m a person who likes painting, no, I’m an artist and I’m not embarrassed to say that, just owning who I am in Christ. It’s not a self-promoting thing, but it’s just stepping into that mantle that God is putting on my heart and living that out fearlessly. That doesn’t mean without fear, but just being courageous and doing it scared anyway.

I was starting to get commissions for artwork, whether it was a large wall art or something like that. And then I discovered Bible journaling. Someone had invited me to this Bible journaling class, and then I started diving. It brought me down this rabbit hole of figuring out what is this?

Then I started seeing on Instagram, there were people who would sell Bibles that the covers were painted. So they would just take a basic Bible and cover and paint over it and resell it. And I thought, “That’s really good. That’s me. I like that.”

And so I took my own Bible. I painted it. I loved how it came out, took a picture of it not knowing that my husband took that picture and went on Facebook and said to everybody, “Hey everybody, my wife is selling Bibles. If you want something like this, message her.” I’m not kidding. After he sent that, I had seven orders that afternoon. So that was a very clear turnaround moment of, okay, it’s time.

I can look back on that journey and think, “There was so much waiting. But you know what? In the waiting, there was a lot of opportunity for preparation.” And like Joseph, when he was waiting, he was being faithful where he was at. I was still being faithful as a mother who then got a job at the church, and I was still being faithful where I was, even if I wasn’t seeing the fruition of that dream coming into place.

And I believe that for people, where maybe you’re not seeing the fruition of a dream, but if you just stay faithful where you are, that time that you’re spending waiting can be used in preparation to make you more like Jesus.

And so order started rolling in. And then through that, that opened up the doors for me to start giving to organizations locally. I give half of my proceeds to an organization called REST in Seattle, and it stands for Real Escape from the Sex Trade. And they offer pathways to freedom for people who are stuck in the sex trade.

So contributions to them turned into conversations, turned into, will you come and help at our event because I’m also a pastor now, will you do the benediction at our big event? Will you do this and do that? And then that continued to become an open door where now I serve on the board for that organization. So I’m giving financially through my art and through what God’s put in my hand to paint. And now I’m starting to make decisions with a board at a 30,000-foot level of being able to implement real change towards people in the Seattle area. And I just thank God for that.

God gave me a picture, but there was actually so much more beyond that picture than I could ever see. He had other plans, and all I needed to do was just to step out.

And so there were just a couple things that I learned. One is that God is with me in the waiting. When I’m waiting. I’m never doing it alone. He was there. He was providing small opportunities in the waiting, opportunities to grow and glean and to sharpen my tools, sharpen my gifts, and also just be faithful where I’m at. That’s another thing I learned, just be faithful. And I really want to do that. I mean, not without fear or without intimidation, but still just be faithful and believe God for what he says, even if it’s not immediate or if it doesn’t seem like it’s really even going to happen, period.

And also the last thing I learned is that God’s timing is absolutely perfect. Had that come into play two months after God had told me after that car ride, I don’t think I would’ve been ready for it. I think my skill set hadn’t grown yet. I didn’t really develop a point of view yet artistically. I didn’t have contacts with organizations. It was just basically it would be like pulling out of an oven a half-baked cake. Maybe on the surface it looks good, but below it’s a goopy mess. I just wasn’t ready.

And I can look back and just say how it took me eight years to get to that point where I was selling. And then it took me four more years when the board position came open, and I can look back and see how there were moments of preparation along the way where God was faithful. He was with me in the waiting. As I was faithful to him, he was faithful to me, and his timing is absolutely perfect.

And the orders just started rolling in. It was interesting because I have done so many projects even beyond just the Bibles. I’ve done home portraits for real estate agents who are giving gifts. I’ve been part of people’s weddings. I’ve been part of people’s funerals. The Lord has used art to just open up an area of ministry that I never thought through art I could be there. I’ve had art that’s been displayed at funerals. I’ve had art that’s been used for weddings or Bibles that are used as heritage pieces for their family to pass on from generation to generation.

It’s been so amazing to think my end goal was to help with the sex trade, but really I was also being used in a ministry towards families and just an opportunity to bond with them through their story of why were they ordering this piece of art. And so I’ve just been so grateful for the opportunity.

Producer Luke:

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