Jessica Lai-Ong on using her creativity for the glory of God.
Women Working For The Glory Of God - Part 1
During my research on women working for the Glory of God, I stumbled upon this beautiful quote by Wendy Pope, “ The woman who serves unnoticed and unthanked is a woman who loves God more than she desires the praises of others.”’ A quote that reminded me of Jessica, a mum from my school community, who has a deep and prayerful connection with The Lord, who loves God and therefore chooses to use her talents to glorify His name.
Meet Datin Jessica Lai-Ong, aka ButterfLai (her artistic name), Malaysia. She believes in doing things passionately and finds great joy in using her talents to the best of her ability; namely painting on canvas, baking, cake decoration, cooking, flower arrangements and even a range of homemade skincare products made from natural ingredients. She is extremely passionate about being creative!
It’s always a pleasure to chat with Jessica and this telephonic conversation turned out to be one absolutely worth sharing….
Natalie: It’s amazing that you are using your talent of painting to glorify His name, what drives you to do this?
Jessica: I am passionate about being creative, Natalie, and I’m humbled to share that I am guided by The Lord to experience His love through my talents and hobbies. I will always pray before I start my work, a prayer for guidance from The Lord, a prayer to express the love of God through all that I do. Mother Mary at my grotto has been an intercessor for me in all aspects of my life, especially when it comes to my creative works.
Natalie: I’ve seen most of your paintings, Jessica, and I must admit they are beautiful! Can you share some of the techniques you have been using?
Jessica: The techniques that I use also are a gift from God. Let me explain to you why I'm saying this: I enjoy baking and have been baking for a while now, so decorating my cakes and piping the icing with cakes nozzles comes naturally to me. It is some of these techniques of cake decorating that I have been applying to my paintings on canvas. I’m learning to try and apply my cake decorating experience to acrylic paint on canvas.
Natalie: That’s a very interesting combination; I believe it’s the ‘in’ thing now. Have you been formally trained on this?
Jessica: Well, I’ve graduated from the Malaysian Institution of Arts as a graphic designer. As an artist, I’m still learning each day with trial and error, and a lot of practise. The internet has served as a great learning tool for me.
Natalie: Tell me more about your hobbies Jessica….
Jessica: Well it all began with…
⭐️Jess Creative: An event project was entrusted to me and then it gradually moved on to organising larger personalised events.
⭐️Jess Yummy: Designing personalised exclusive cakes for weddings, anniversaries and birthdays.
⭐️Jess Pure: This is a range of homemade skincare products made from natural ingredients: lip balms, hand/ body moisturisers, body oils with essential oils, coconut oil, vitamin E oil. I’m currently working on making lip gloss too! The idea behind this range of products is for it to reach those who are undergoing treatment, especially those who are confined to hospital rooms. Perhaps a little lip balm or gloss to moisturise their lips, which is made from all natural colours, could cheer them up and make them smile. My lip balms were sent to a few government hospitals as well.
A number of lip balms were sold at St. Ignatius Church, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, The Little Sister’s Of The Poor, Cheras, to friends as well as to members of my BEC (basic ecclesial communities). The proceeds of the same were was given to charity.
⭐️Jess Lovely: I’ve started learning to explore with flower arrangements, something that I just began during lockdown.
⭐️Jess Arty : When it comes to my paintings I call it Jess Arty. I particularly enjoy modernising the love of God through my paintings, Eg: The Happy Jesus painting. We often picture Jesus with a serious loving face, rarely do we see a laughing Jesus; since laughter is the best medicine, and definitely contagious, it certainly makes me happy. One of the reasons behind me doing this painting is that I hope that this Happy Jesus painting brings joy to all those who receive it: this picture has been shared with my friends and church communities as a love sharing. Putting a smile on someones face brings much joy to me.
Happy Jesus - ‘ In thy presence is fullness of Joy’ - Psalm 16:11
And finally, my deep desire is to have an art exhibition in His mighty glory.
Natalie: That’s beautiful Jessica! I’m speechless! There is so much we can all learn from you. I’m sure my readers will agree with me on this. I do know, Jessica, that you are a kind-hearted, prayerful and generous person. You try to contribute in different ways as a member of the school community too. What draws you to do all this marvellous work? And can you share a little bit on the projects you undertook during this lockdown?
Jessica: My drive has and will always be The Lord Jesus. As for my friends and I, working on these two projects - producing face shields and plastic aprons for our frontliners- was a blessing and a wonderful opportunity, one in which we could give back to society during this unprecedented pandemic. I looked at it as an opportunity to grow and learn, to work as a team: organising, coordinating and managing around 7-8 families who volunteered for the same. We managed to make around 5000 + face shields & around 1300 plastic aprons for our frontliners.
We worked together in unity towards common objectives. It was a project that involved a lot of our love, time, effort and energy. It was His grace and blessings that kept us all going. Unity and Teamwork is what led to the success of this project. We were grateful for this opportunity to serve the frontliners.
If you look at it, Jesus and his disciples were a team too, working on one common objective: to go out and serve his people.
Natalie: Blessings to you and your team of families for what you did for our frontliners. Finally, do you have any messages for my readers today, especially those who are creatively inclined like you?
Jessica: My sincere advice to them would be to combine all your learnings and experiences into whatever you seek to do. Unbox your passions and be brave to pursue and explore with love and joy. In 2019, I decided to unbox my graphic designing experience and began experimenting with paint on canvas. I am able to contribute my past experiences to whatever new hobby I try.
I bless you and pray that my sharing will be an inspiration to you.
I hope The Lord continues to use me as a tool to express his love in all that I do.
I pray that He continues to bless me with His vision, knowledge and creative wisdom.
Amen.
Natalie: Thank you Jessica for sharing, on Natalie Inspires You , how beautifully you are are working with the talents that you are blessed with. You are truly an inspiration. May God Bless You for that and may you continue to do what you are doing. Stay creative, stay blessed.
Click below to view ButterfLai’s creativity…
The theme for the month of July on Natalie Inspires You, is one that is very special to me, something that I am very passionate and proud of. All through this month, there will be life sharings from women who are woking for the glory of God.
I couldn’t think of anyone better than my spiritual mentor and friend - Fr. Reuben Tellis from Mumbai, India- to bless this segment with a powerful sharing on women of The Bible; women working for the glory of God. If you missed it last week, click on the link below…
