It's downright scary...

..staying with people who have The Creature from the Black Lagoon as their guard dog.

Actually the Saloomey family has 5 guard dogs (but only 19 legs between them). They get host of the year award for providing corn on the cob picked that morning, eggs laid the day before, and 1st c. accoutrements for my performance tomorrow morning.

The Mighty Hudson

I'm cruising up the Hudson en route to Poughkeepsie, where I'll perform Journey to the Garden tomorrow morning.

In my rehearsal this morning I connected in a very deep way Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane with his final words on the cross: "Take this cup/Your will be done" and "Why have you forsaken me?/Into your hands I commit my spirit." What a gigantic (too small of a word) sacrifice.

Pray I can communicate some element of that sacrifice in a deep way, and that the piece will make a lasting impression of the great love it represents.

In Christ alone,
Rich

Westchester Chapel

On Sundays my wife, Joyce, and I commute out of NYC to attend a small church in White Plains, NY, (WestchesterChapel.org). The pastor, Jim Warren, produced ads for Broadway and was the Creative Director at MTV before he was saved, and he loves to use all the arts in worship and evangelism. We've needed a larger space for some time now, and we've just come across a building that is double our current size. It happens to be double what we're paying in rent, but the Lord has shown us clearly that He will provide. I'm sure that in no time we'll double in size, but for our first year or so we need a bit of extra support.

If you'd like to invest in ministry through the arts in the NYC area, please consider supporting Westchester Chapel.

The MasterWorks Festival

We just had a fabulous time at the MasterWorks Festival, and you can follow our exploits in my June and July archives to my blog.

The artistic and spiritual seeds that were planted continue to grow as we've stayed in community through the internet: lifting each other up in prayer and encouragement. Last night we even had an online chat.

The Festival based their budget on some significant grants that they had expected year after year. The grants fell through, so they really had to scramble. They ended in the black barely, and now their doing the same thing in England. Please pray for them now, and if you can give to their mininstry, I'd be quite grateful: Support MasterWorks.

We're already looking forward to next year!

In Christ Alone,
Rich

Pray for Joyce's recovery

Please pray for Joyce as she recovers from surgery.

Pray for strength to return and for her to stay positive.

If you're not signed up for updates on her health you can do so and/or find out more at RichDrama.com/Joyce.

Mission Year

On my trip to Bolivia with Compassion I came across an organization called Mission Year (MissionYear.org). Oreon Trickey was one of the Compassion artists on the trip, and she's on staff with Mission Year.

In a nutshell, Mission Year is, as the name implies, a year of mission work in an inner city. Missionaries raise their own support, with a goal of $12,000 for the year. One of the goals is to live as simply as the poor they are serving, so they only have direct access to $60/month after rent.

I just had lunch with David Malcolm, who is the son of my parents' friends. He's spent his year volunteering (they can't receive an income) at a church and public school in Philadelphia's inner city. He was able to facilitate a Bible study at the school, where he saw God moving through David's efforts.

To contribute to Mission Year go to MissionYear.org. If you'd like you can designate David Malcolm or Oreon Trickey.

In the recording studio

I just laid down the vocal track for a DVD we're putting together to promote some trips to Israel in which I'll be performing biblical sketches where they took place. Watch for details as they unfold.

Adios

Lilli Ramirez blessed us with a Flamenco dance entitled "Adios" as MasterWits held our closing ceremonies. Lilli and her husband, Hector, are artists in residence at Belhaven College in Jackson, MS, but the former YWAMers have a vision to found a performing arts center in Madrid.

Peter Jennings is on the phone

...and CNN is on hold. The Green Grocer is planning on featuring our pears. Amazing what one article on the cover of the New York Times can do.

Dad's pear made front page of the New York Times

Last night my Dad was re-elected as president of Southern Oregon Sales, a pear packing house in my home-town of Medford, OR. This morning one of their pears was featured on page one of the New York Times. Those annoying stickers on fruit are being replaced by tattoos, burned into the outer layer of the skin by a laser: Tattooed Fruit Is on Way. Unfortunately the online article doesn't show the photo. For now, Dad's packing house is the only one set up to use this system for pears.

The unGong Show

Broadway level quality one night, complete craziness (and immense fun) the next.

We're in the country now

The Kavanaughs, who founded and direct the MasterWorks Festival, invited the faculty and families out to their home amid the Indiana corn fields. Their neighbors own shetland ponies. Kathryn Wilder, 11, poses with 2-month old Triple Time.

Oh WOW.

During worship tonight we opened with songs about dancing before the Lord, and the Dance dept. brought them to eloquent life. We prayed over the dancers since their performance is tomorrow night. That led into an enacted prayer in which a dancer led an audience member's spirit to dance. From there, hearts were opened up wide and some very deep requests were covered through enacted prayer. In other words, very real prayer requests were taken and members of the theatre department and some that were from other disciplines took the roles of those being prayed over. One actor plays the role of the Lord in each prayer. God moves in the tableau, and without words, brings his will to bear on the situation. Some of the requests were so deep we were all weeping, but refreshed and (Lord, hear our prayer) healed.

I'm spent.

In Christ alone,
Rich

The World's Greatest Romance

Last night Carol Jaudes, who was on B'way in CATS for five years, blessed the MasterWorks Festival and the Winona Lake community with her 1-woman play, The World's Greatest Romance. It told the stories of Susannah Wesley, Fanny Crosby, and Evangeline Booth. Carol brought her Broadway-level sense of excellence to the piece and moved us all.

We moved right into another hour and a half of continuous praise and prayer. This time there were several with deep needs that came to the surface. We prayed over them, and one girl even experienced a healing. I can hardly wait for the next worship experience!

Welcome Carol Jaudes & Patricia Mauceri!

Carol, who performed in CATS on B'way for five years, performed "You Know Me." Her intro was a reading from Psalm 139, which had been read by one of our students that morning in our worship service.

Patricia Mauceri has already been recognized on campus as Carlotta Vega from One Life to Live.

Good Bye Susie

We bid fare well to Susan Somerville Brown, who was an instructor for the first two weeks. We're striking a pose in honor of her work in CATS.

Now they're really going!

Thank you Lord for our liberty.

An early 4th

The concert tonight, if timed properly, will end with the 1812 Overture as the city's fireworks (moved to match the festival's orchestra schedule) errupt over Winona Lake.

Student Recital

Ben Crisman and Irene Kao just performed a delightful scene as Peter and Anne from the Diary of Anne Frank.

Improvisational worship

The MasterWits performed comedy improv tonight. We closed it out with enacted prayer and then went into improvisational worship. If they were a bag of popcorn, they wouldn't have been ready until five minutes to curfew. I don't think two seconds ever went by before someone would lead out with a song, prayer or scripture reading. We worshipped the Lord for over an hour and a half, and I think everyone was truly surprised when curfew came around. It's my prayer that this kind of full worship will continue when we meet tomorrow night.

Them's fightin' words

Bob Borwick was our latest master class instructor here at MasterWorks (MasterWorksFestival.org). He is the fight choreographer for Taproot Theatre in Seattle, so he taught us how to stay safe in fight scenes, how to fall without breaking something, and how to respect our fellow actors.

In this shot he's hanging out wth some of our students after a round-table discussion he did with Harvey Johnson, the director of our play, and myself. The topic was finding work in the theatre.

Faculty Recital

We just got back from a fabulous MasterWorks (MasterWorksFestival.org) faculty recital. Besides all the world-class musicians, Harvey and Susie did us proud. Harvey Johnson (director from Pittsburgh) portrayed the title role in a monologue from Othello. Susie Somerville Brown (B'way's CATS) closed out the evening with "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera.

Billy Sunday's Field

Billy Graham is preaching this evening in NYC, and I hope you'll pray for his ministry. This morning I just got to perform my short work, "The People Jesus Knew," in this tent, set up on the same field where Billy Sunday (and later, Billy Graham) preached in tent revivals. This morning it was for a group called Men Following Christ. These guys have a vision for this field to be filled with thousands the way it was when the Billies were preaching.

End of week one

We've just finished our first week of MasterWorks, and we're all pretty wiped out. Three wonderful weeks to go!!!

Jellical CATS

Susie Somerville Brown, one of our great theatre faculty here at MasterWorks is teaching our students dance steps from the Jellical Ball from CATS. She was in the closing company of the longest running musical in Broadway history.

Peter Parros

6/21/05 3:50 pm
Peter Parros, Dr. Ben Harris on As the World Turns, is doing his first of two Master Classes here at MasterWorks.

He opened by saying "Can anything good come from Nazarth? Can anything good come from soap operas?" He's showing our students that there can.

His testimony is very inspiring, and he laid out a paradigm for acting.

6/22/05 4:07 pm
Now he's working with our students on their monlogues: great stuff.

Compassion

Joyce and I sponsor two children through Compassion: Riquelmys in the Dominican Republic and Wendy Yoselin in Honduras:

The sponsorship process has been delightful! We know we're impacting their lives in a significant way by the letters, drawings and pictures we receive from them. And those letters, drawings and pictures (not to mention their prayers!) impact our lives as well.

I've travelled with Compassion to Bolivia and Honduras, so I've seen first hand that sponsorship money is being used wisely. In fact they made the The American Institute of Philanthropy's list of Top Rated Charities.

You can read my journal with pictures, and watch a video of my last trip:



I hope you'll choose to sponsor a child today. It will change the world for both of you: Sponsor a child Now!

Caught

I am glad to have been caught in the reckless raging fury that they call the love of God.
--Rich Mullens

Salvation is all about letting yourself get wrapped up in the love of God.

God created us so He could be in relationship with us (Genesis 1:26 and 27).

Unfortunately we blew it (Genesis 3).

To bring us back into releationship God sent his Son Jesus (or Yeshua in Hebrew): John 3:16.

Jesus lived a perfect life, so when he was crucified he became the perfect and final sacrificial Lamb. He took on our sin so that it would no longer keep us from God (II Corinthians 5:21).

All you have to do is trust Jesus (Yeshua) to do this for you (Romans 10:9-13).

You can do this right now! Have the kind of LIFE that's been bouncing me around the stage and around the world. Pray this prayer:

Dear Jesus (Yeshua),
Thank you for loving me. Forgive me of all my sins. Cover them for me. Become Lord of my life and help me to live for you.
Amen.

If you prayed that prayer you can have assurance that you will have life more abundant while living on the earth and life eternal in Heaven. There's no magic to the prayer that's here. It's about trusting Jesus (Yeshua) as lord of your life: trusting that He knows what's best for you because he created you. It's about trusting Him to cover you when you mess up.

I'd love to know if you prayed that prayer. Shoot me an email .

If you're not ready to pray that kind of prayer and really mean it, here are some more things to consider: Who Is Jesus and Knowing God.

Thomas Tornado Tinglehoop and the Three Christmas Clues

Thomas Tornado Tinglehoop and the Three Christmas Clues
Originally uploaded by RichDrama.

My brother got me into a Book Expo held at the Javitts Center here in New York. I was able to leave query letters with SEVEN publishers! It was like walking all around the country in a couple of hours.

Please pray that one of these all-new contacts will choose to publish it.

In the query letter I told them that there are comments about the book online, but at this point I only have one. I received numerous emails encouraging us about the book, but unfortunately my inbox was corrupted. Ach!

If you happened to have read the book and have something good to say about it, please go to RichDrama.com/Tinglehoop and click on "What others are saying..."

Thanks so much!

In Christ Alone,
Rich

Photos from Israel

Though Beth lost her sight at birth, her presence on the trip brought a greater awareness of the details of Israel to the rest of us. Here she is "seeing" a replica of a first century cross.

Other pictures from our trip are here.

There were a few from our trip to the Dead Sea that were taken at a low resolution, so they weren't allowed on that other site. Here they are.

Grammy Award-winning cousin

My brother, Bob (left), was in town for the Book Expo held at the Javitts center. He and his wife, Shannon, run Lightbourne, a small company that creates book and CD covers. Bob won a pretty major award for his cover of Reflections in the Ice.

Between Bob and I is our cousin, Nick Brophy. He was in town to engineer an album for the band, Radio Mundial. He won the Grammy for his work on the album, Tribute to Tradition.

Here we are with Bob's wife, Shannon, at LaGuardia Airport:


Nick's brother John was also in town, but it never worked for all of us to be in one place at one time. John designs backgrounds for video games.


Though the Brophy family never lived near us when we were growing up I think it's cool that we all turned out to be full time artists.

My playwriting mentor honored

Tina Howe, who was my playwriting professor at Hunter College has just received the Distinguished Achievement in American Theatre Award from the William Inge Theatre Festival.

Site Feed Updates

One way to know when my blog is updated is to subscribe with a Site Feed reader. Here are a few Blogger.com recommends:

Bloglines (web-based), and NetNewsWire and Shrook (Mac OS X). More are listed at AtomEnabled.org.

I've been fairly pleased with Bloglines. It updates every hour, so it's not as fast as receiving emails, but could be faster if you check your email only once or twice a day. It has a notifier you can download (Mac or Windows) that will tell you when the site's been updated. If you go with them, here's a link that will set it up for you:





Bloglines is free, as are most of them. A lot of sites are moving to site feed updates because all of our email boxes are getting so over-crowded!

We just got back from Joyce's ordination

Ordinand
Originally uploaded by RichDrama.

Joyce is now officially ordained as an elder in the Church of the Nazarene. She's holding a gift from Eastern Nazarene College, a sculpture by Scott Stearman, who once took us horse riding in the Colorado Rockies.

Itinerary Updates

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Wendy

The Honduran Director of Compassion, Orestes Zuniga, spoke to us this morning.

He compared us, as Compassion artists and speakers, to Miriam, who was the mediator between the princess who wanted to help baby Moses and the mother who raised him. In the end, the slave and child of poverty became the national leader who led his people out of bondage.

He thanked us on behalf of the local churches, who are partnering w/ Compassion.

I got to meet the next child Joyce and I are sponsoring today. Her name is Wendy.

She and the other kids in her class performed some songs and dances for us, and I performed La Gente Que Jesús Conocia (The People that Jesus Knew) for them. At the end I asked if any of them wanted to know Jesus more. All of them I could see raised their hands, including Wendy. I led them in a prayer of Salvation. Without hesitation that was the highlight of the week for me!

I played a game with them in which they would grab hands with a friend, creating a loop and a third child would stand in the loop between their arms. When the teacher would give the command the children would raise their hands and the third student would need to find a different place. It was like musical chairs in that someone would not have a place to go. I was drenched in sweat after five minutes of scurrying and ducking!

Wendy told me she wants to be a doctor! Lord, help Joyce and I to give her all she needs from our letters and gifts to overcome the poverty all around her and bring healing to her patients and to her nation. Amen!

We went to her home but her parents had already left for work. Though the door was locked, I could see that her home was slightly better than some around it. It's made out of concrete and painted green. She has both her parents living there, so that gives me even more hope for her success.

As we were walking away I was told that there have been girls kidnapped from this neighborhood that attended the Compassion project. They believe the girls were taken by a group known to kidnap kids and sell them as sex slaves in Mexico and America.

Wes Stafford, president of Compassion, happened to sit next to me at dinner. He has a vision that one day a Compassion child will grow up to be president of his or her country.

He gave me great hope for Wendy truly becoming a doctor when he told me that Compassion will bring their Leadership Development program to Honduras. On my Compassion trip to Bolivia four years ago I was able to meet students in the program. They are the best of the best Compassion graduates, who are given scholarships. The developing leaders in Bolivia were preparing for careers in everything from medicine to pastoring. One student had a vision to be an influencer on his president.

Wes said every time he visits Compassion kids and their families he takes a picture with about 10 kids who don't receive letters from their sponsors. He writes those sponsors and tells them what a very special child they've chosen and encourages the sponsor to let the child know that.

Wes is our speaker tonight. These are my notes from his talk:

He said 35,745 kids have been sponsored through the artsts and speakers in this room.

He told a story about a 6 year old who had been hit by a bus. The church was packed with kids for the funeral. Someone asked each child why they were there, and 50 of the 60 children there said they came because the 6 year old (before he died) led that child to the Lord . Wes said the sponsor that encouraged that child will be shocked to know how much he or she impacted the Kingdom of God.

The hero in Peter's denial was the rooster. "The look you imagine on Jesus' face as he looked at Peter when the rooster crowed says everything about your concept of who Jesus is and your relationship with Him." Wes brought up all the arguments the rooster might have had: I'm not the right one for the job. I can't be called there! Why should I? He was obedient.

[A note from the present: When we were standing in Caiphas's courtyard on our trip to Israel we heard a rooster crowing!]

Jesus looked at Peter not with anger, not with disappointment, but with love. Peter's only rebuke was that Jesus asked him 3 times if he loved him to match his 3 denials. Jesus request: Feed my sheep.

During the massacre at Littleton Cassie Bernal was asked if she believed in God. Before Cassie heard the pistol she heard, "Cassie, I believe in you." She said yes at the right time and inspired hundreds of thousands of teens. When God says, "Do it now," go for it!


Tonight we debriefed our experience. One of the things that I was encouraged to do is to speak into the childrens' lives powerful names: mighty warrior for God, talented, beloved. Lord help us to communicate how very much they are loved by the Lord.

Craig Timmer, my first liaison for Compassion, talked about how different the sponsorship process would be if the kids were really there in the back of the room after the performance.

They live in poverty, but they are not poor when they have Jesus.

If you would like to sponsor a child click here: Compassion.

Hangin' with the kids

We got to hang out with a lot of kids. A favorite thing of theirs to do was to take "un foto" with our cameras.

Among the best

This family invited us into their home. The three boys are all sponsored through Compassion:
Dwight, 13, is one of the top two students in Honduras.
Hugh, 11, is receiving a scholarship.
Bruce, 9, is ready to conquer the world.

My liaison with Compassion is chatting with some of the neighborhood children to the left.

Compassion Concert

Tonight the Honduran Compassion staff asked for a concert! It was quite awesome to have all these talented musicians get up and bless us all. Most of the songs were either written to help them talk about Compassion or could have been. I put together an iMix of all the songs that are on iTunes, so you can press your own CD of almost half of the songs. The rest can be purchased on the album listed here:

 

Phil Keaggy	"Who Will Save the Children" from ReCollections. Randy Stonehill sings the duet with Phil Keaggy. (iTunes)
Bruce Carroll	"While I Have this Chance" on the Compassion Sunday DVD. "Shelter Me" from The Psalm Project.
Geoff Moore	"Every Single One" from Every Single One
Rich Swingle	"La Gente que Jesús Conocia" (RichDrama.com)
Jeremy Camp	"This Man" from Restored. (iTunes)
Andrew Peterson	"The Land of the Free" from Clear to Venus. (iTunes)
Randal Goodgame	"I Did not Catch Her Name" on War & Peace. (iTunes: Randall's song as performed by Caedmon's Call)
Jeremy Casella	"Love That Will Not Let Me Go" from 10,000 Angels.
Danny Oertli	"God Wrote a Song" from Nothing Left to Prove. (iTunes)
Shane from Siler's Bald	"Real Life" from Real Life. (iTunes)
Peder Eide	"What a Ride" from What a Ride.
Mark Smeby	"All I Want Is You" from Smile for Jesus.
Eli	"Stand" from Second Hand Clothing. (iTunes)
Richard Allen Farmer	"I will Make the Darkness Light" on Leadfoot.

 

Tony Campolo

While finishing up our lunch, Wes Stafford, President of Compassion, complimented the staff of this site on the tremendous work they are doing. They told us that 100% of the older kids have accepted Christ as their Savior.

Tonight we got to hear from Tony Campolo.

This is me with Tony and his grandson, Roman Campolo.

Before you read my notes, you should know you can listen to the talk in full on Tony's website. The talk is entitled, "Carpe Diem! - The Last Great Idea." (It's a recording from a different event.)

My notes:


Tony opened by talking about a Francis Fukayama essay entitled "The End of History." Fukayama says that the last great idea is democratic capitalism. It brings great success, but our society has become about stuff. Couples speak less than 12 min./day, and to their kids less than 5. We have been seduced into a delicious slavery to things we don't need. Soren Kierkegaard said this society will die not from sin, but from lack of passion. There is a deadness falling on the land. That is what we should weep about most. The last great idea is that the Kingdom of God is at hand. In the Lord's prayer we pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Hundreds of thousands died and continue to die from the Tsunami and more money has come in than they can handle. But 30,000 children die every day of starvation.

He cited Philipians 1:6: "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (NIV) We will never make the world perfect, but at the Lord's return He will complete what we've started. World illiteracy has dropped from 80% to 20%. We can alter the course of history. It's part of the movement to bring the Kingdom of God on earth. The extreme poverty we saw today in the Compassion sites was not the result of human error. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph. 6:12, NIV). God is alive in the world. If it weren't for faith-based orgs like Compassion, America would look even more selfish in the eyes of the world: we make up 6% of world population but consume 43% of the resources. We can be the balm of Gilead and bring healing to a sin-sick world. People say they want to leave their resources to their kids. Tony said, "When I die I don't want anyone to be happy!" The beginning of the vision is small. $32/month isn't much for us, but it's the start of life transformation.

Jesus says where your treasure is your heart will be also. The great sin of our time is ignoring the poor. He referrenced Ezekiel 16:49, "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (NIV)

In Harari, Africa, a truck drives through every morning at 6 to pick up the children that die each night and burn them. One day you're going to die. They're going to drop you in a hole and throw dirt in your face, and go back inside and eat potato salad. When you're born you're the only one to cry. What are you going to do so that everyone cries when you die?

If you would like to sponsor a child click here: Compassion.

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More Recommendations

Here are some things I've found inspirational over the years:

• Joyce Swingle's Sermons
• Rich Swingle's Sermons
• Recommendations: Books
• Recommendations: Movies
• Recommendations: Audio Movies
• Recommendations: Music

I included my own sermons here since I certainly got inspired while preparing them!

Hope you get inspired, too!

Revival!

I had the privilege of initiating the first acting track at the Territorial School of Music and Gospel Arts for the Salvation Army. The chaplains for the week, Danielle Strickland and Stephen Court, led us step by step into an all out revival! I've been studying and praying for revival since college and this was the real deal! They taught us to worship with complete abandon. Danielle had us throw the chairs to the side so that they wouldn't hinder us from connecting with the Lover of our souls. I told Joyce after worship on the second night of the week that I had experienced the highlight of my year, but it kept building. Thursday night was opened to praise and testimonies. The first student shared that he had a sexual addiction. When he put the microphone down he was smothered with students and faculty lifting him up in prayer. We were praising and confessing all night. Many deep hurts, addictions, and sins were shared from the stage, but many went to the only chairs in the auditorium, which were set up in the shape of a cross.

This kind of radical connection to God has had lasting impact. A couple of students allowed me to share their testimonies:

Well, I came to Territorial a bit unsure as to what it would be like. I'd always been interested in dramatic arts, but high school drama classes had turned me off it (too much theory and history!). The idea of using drama as a form of ministry really intrigued me, tho, so I chose that as my main stream. And I'm glad I did, because it was an unforgettable week for everyone. We met Rich, the Drama instructor, and went through introductions and auditions. He was the funniest guy I've ever met, and as I got to know him and what he brought with him, it was so cool because he showed us all that a bunch of strangers can come together as a group and create some powerful works for God and His glory. We all had a blast and it was a really fun time.

After leaving Territorial, I really felt that God had brought me there for a reason, and I'm looking at ways to bring some of what I've learned into our Sunday morning services. I'm also signing up for drama lessons at the conservatory here. It was really hard the first few days back from Territorial... I had gone from eight days of the most God-loving environment I'd ever been in, to a world that just didn't care. On the way home from the bus station alone, I saw people stumbling around drunk, police breaking up domestic disputes, and filthy language that I hadn't heard all week. Quite a shock... but these are God's children too, and with everything I've got from the past week, I need to help try and bring the gospel to them too...

--Tommy


I've allowed myself to praise and worship what ever way I want to, and it's allowed the youth of the corps I attend to feel like participating more as well.. I flick on my worship music, and just sing along- I burst out with prayer out LOUD at odd times, it's INCREDIBLE...

--Ray

Barcelona to San Tropez

You can
 see more photos here.

After performing Big Fish Little Worm and The Revelation on the Costa Brava for a Church of the Brethren missionaries' retreat we spent a day in Barcelona, where we spent most of our time at La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's Cathedral, which is still in the midst of a 150 year construction. Then we drove up the coast, into France as far as San Tropez.

We celebrated the New Year in Cassis, a quaint fishing village not far from where we stayed in Marseille. 

Judah Ben Hur

From October of 2001 to February of 2002 I got to perform the roles of Simonides, Pontius Pilate, and a few other roles in the chorus of Judah Ben Hur in Singapore. This isn't the whole cast and crew, and there are people in this shot from Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, the US, and of course, Singapore.

Top photo courtesy of Joyce Swingle. Kelley Charpentier provided the following photo. Darran Hanson is in the soldier's costume.

My folks got to visit their elderly son...

Intercessor

Reese Howells, whose story is in the book Intercessor, founded the Bible College of Wales, which I got to visit after my performance tour of England. He directed his faculty and students to pray that Germany would invade Russia, which brought about the end of WWII. 

I had the privilege of meeting his son, Samuel (in his 90s), who was still Director Emeritus.  

I also got to see their War Room, where students and faculty gathered every one of the 2000 nights of WWII to pray for it to end. They’re now praying for the fall of Islam!

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I Dreamed I Was Free was the play I performed in 16 cities around England. It tells the story of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, who spoke against slavery a century before our Civil War.