Christ Statue at the Missionary Training Center

"Other Sheep I Have"

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.  -John 10:16

The statue displayed in the lobby of the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah has a personal meaning to us as we know the artist Dr Steven Neal from Pendleton, Oregon.  My sister and brother-in-law, Debbie and Larry Pope took us to meet her friend and artist at his home 1999.  He and his wife were very gracious to show us their home, his paintings and sculptures.  We were amazed and touched by the beauty and emotion of Steven Neal's talent.  He told us that he wanted to start a new project that would be a sculpture of Christ based upon the scripture in John 10:16 "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold".  We expressed an interest and he invited us back to his home on several occasion over the next year to see the new Christ sculpture as he carved it in clay.  On one of our visits he told us of a recent visit he had to Salt Lake City in which he was privileged to meet with President Boyd K Packard, a general authority of our church, and he showed him pictures of the Christ sculpture that he was working on.  President Packer has a strong interest in art and he suggested to Steven Neal to make Christ's arms a little stronger looking because his earthly father was a carpenter.  Steven Neal followed President Packers suggestions and made the arms stronger looking.  We asked Steven what was the next step and he said he would like to sell this sculpture to pay for the casting in bronze and pay for his travel and study to Italy to carve in marble this exact sculpture into life size.  He had never work with marble so he took the clay sculpture to act as his guide.  His plan was to donate the marble statue to the church.  We then told Steven that we would like to buy the sculpture from him to help make this all happen.  Which we did and we have the original one quarter size beautifully bronzed statue and in our home.  The church accepted Dr Neal's donation of his life size marble statue of Christ to be place in the lobby of the Missionary Training Center in 2000.