Mere Christians

I'm staying here in Chicago with the father of Melissa Hawkins, who performs the one-woman play, Juliet: A Dialogue About Love. Wheaton College Church, where I miraculously performed tonight, asked the Kapps if they'd host me. Later he realized Joyce and I had hosted Melissa in '07. I had met her at a speed networking session at a Christians in Theatre Arts conference, here in Chicago. We had two minutes to share about our work. She said, "I'm going to perform at the Fringe Festival this summer."

"So am I!" I bellowed. "I'll see you in Edinburgh!" Turns out she was performing at the New York Fringe Festival the same weeks we were performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. So we let her apartment sit.

Now her folks are returning the favor.

Her dad invited me to read a chapter Melissa wrote in Mere Christians: Inspiring Stories of Encounters with C. S. Lewis. I was sobbing after Melissa's profound retelling of how she found Jesus in a very secular theatre company commune in Hungary by reading pages from C. S. Lewis' book, Surprised by Joy, which her sister had selected for her. I had been praying for a chapter to assign MasterWorks students, and now I most certainly have it!