Three Days Later

Tonight I was at a cast and crew screening of Three Days Later, a film that tells the story of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord in such a unique and creative way. We’re in the upper room with the disciples after the crucifixion as they battle their doubts. Those who raise hope and faith have them batted down by their friends. We hear stories that only some of the disciples had experienced, which makes them so fresh. I’m so blessed to have had the small role of one of Peter’s accusers in a flashback. 

Many of you prayed that the forecasted rain would be stopped, but the Lord answered through creative staging: They used a covered alley! Cast, crew and equipment stayed dry, but the rain fell so consistently in the background that it became another character in the story of Peter’s depression. 

March 1, 2021

 

A prayer of my heart from about 1994 was answered last night. 

When I was a boy Mom read The Cross and the Switchblade to us. If you're not familiar with that title, it tells the story of how David Wilkerson felt called by the Lord to leave his rural surroundings and go to New York City to minister among gang members. It was quite dramatic and captured my imagination. 

When the Lord called me from my rural setting to New York City in 1993, shortly after discovering that David Wilkerson had founded Times Square Church I attended one of their services. I walked into the Mark Hellinger Theatre, the Broadway theatre where they meet, and I prayed that one day I'd get to be a part of one of their productions. 

Last night I performed in their post-apocalyptic Passion project, Three Days Later. I play Xavier, the third person to accuse Peter of knowing the Lord. 

I give the Lord the glory for answering this prayer so many decades later... but right on time.

Three Days Later will be released on Good Friday (Part One), and on Easter (Part Two) on www.TSC.NYC.

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

The Escalator

When Joyce and I first moved to Midtown Manhattan in 2008 I was coming down this escalator the first time we saw a movie at the AMC Empire 25, and I said a prayer that one day I'd be coming down the same escalators having seen a film in which I'd performed.

Maybe I was prompted to pray that night because I had been at the grand opening of the theatre in 2000. The gala was a benefit for a few Times Square charities including The Lamb's Church of the Nazarene, where I had been an intern for four years. The new cineplex's 25 screens were attached to the Empire Theatre, a playhouse built in 1912 where Bud Abbott and Lou Costello first performed together in 1935. The theatre was moved 168 feet westward to make way for the screens, shops and restaurants! The 3,700 ton structure was pulled by two giant balloon images of Abbott and Costello. LOL! You can see a number of fascinating features from the original theatre, which now makes up the lobby of the megaplex here. The grand opening was really something and had a major impact on me. 

At any rate, that prayer I said on the escalator two years before I'd even been in a feature film was answered tonight -- on Joyce and my 226th monthaversary -- in a small way. We saw the trailer for Providence, in which I play one of the lead roles. It's playing in AMC Theatres that will host the film starting February 12, but if you're not near one of those you can watch it below. The 4K footage looked stunning on the big screen. So, the greater answer to that prayer will be fulfilled 21 days from now when Providence opens in this architectural wonder.

Another way this is answered prayer is that Joyce had prayed I'd be cast in a lead role in a film that honored the Lord literally days before I was cast as Mitchell. She's trying to place when it was and she said it was as we were anticipating the theatrical-on-demand release of Beyond the Mask, in which I play Dr. Bonneville. That opened a week after I was cast.


When we were in Israel in May 2011 Joyce put a prayer in the Wailing Wall that I would be cast as the lead in a film that honored the Lord and I was soon cast as the adult lead in Indescribable, my first lead role in a feature film at that time.

I play a lead in Providence, a modern silent film opening in theatres coast to coast starting February 12.

Registration is now open for the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.

90 Minutes in Heaven

I believe one of the reasons my faith has remained strong all my life is that every year on the anniversary of my grandpa's death in 1942, my grandma retold the story of how Grandpa saw heaven.  He died of spinal meningitis, but Grandma, one of the greatest prayer warriors I've ever known, begged the Lord to let him live, so she wouldn't be left alone with my 9-week-old mother, my 17-month-old aunt and an insurmountable debt. The Lord did bring Grandpa back from the dead, and he proceeded to beg Grandma to let him go back to heaven. "Hilda, I'll miss you and the girls, but it's so wonderful there! I've seen the Lord. It's far better to be with Him. He will give you another husband who will be a father to our daughters," he prophesied. "Let me go." Grandma continued to beg the Lord to keep him here, but about a week later, when she released him in her heart, he went Home to be with the Lord he'd seen when he had died.

In 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper, played by Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episodes II and III) begs the Lord to take him Home after he is prayed back to life by a friend, played by Michael Harding (Captive), who doesn't recognize him in his injured state. We see glimpses of heaven throughout the film, but we see it most vividly through Don's apathy for life back in this pain-filled world. He asks the Lord to take him back. "That's my Home," he pleads.

Fred Dalton Thompson's character breaks
has some harsh words with his friend.

But an arc of hope begins when his father, played by Tom Key (artistic director of Theatrical Outfit and fellow performer of one-man plays), a three-war veteran whispers the greatest love into his son's soul. Then a mentor, who stepped out of retirement to fill Don's pulpit, played by Fred Dalton Thompson (Law and Order, 23 Blast), rebukes him for not allowing people to express God's love by serving him. Soon Piper gets a chance. Then we see light stream into his dark room (well lit by Denny Mooradian) and into his soul as he ministers to a teen in the next room going through the same painful rehabilitation.

His wife, Eva, played heroically by Kate Bosworth (Lois Lane in Superman Returns), asks Don what he thinks of the smaller single-story home she picked out to match their budget and his recovery. He's finally able to say, "I'm home."

Soon there are a stream of friends sitting watch on the Don Patrol, including Susan Long (Ashley Bratcher of Princess Cut) and Cliff McArdle (Michael W. Smith in his second feature film). "I can sing for you," he offers, and the Contemporary Christian Music icon does... in the sound track.

Eventually Don's able to tell his best friend and his wife what we've been dying to know more about as we journeyed through the hell of Don's rehab... about seeing heaven, something that felt too personal to share with anyone until his friend, played by Jason Kennedy (90201) helped him understand that sharing heaven's hope was one of the reasons the Lord brought him back to earth.

Three thousand churches have been inspired by Don's story as he's told it around the world, and now you can be inspired in a theater near you. I hope it does for you what Grandpa's story did for me as a boy.

If you're able to see it before opening weekend is over, I hope you can get out there and keep the momentum rolling from War Room's NUMBER ONE PLACE AT THE BOX OFFICE! As I said as the theater was emptying, "Next week: Captive!"



See more trailers, scenes and photos at www.90MinutesInHeavenTheMovie.com.

Christians should know:
It's rated PG-13 for intense accident and injury images

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Divine Appointments

Joyce and I were hanging out with Nathan when Josh texted to see if we could get together. I asked if Nathan Clarkson could join us. He said, "I just had dinner with someone who said I should connect with Nathan Clarkson!" So I told them both about how a friend gave Patricia Mauceri a DVD of Settled (2012), and how her son noticed my name on the DVD. Our friend told them he ran into me on the subway about an hour earlier! Josh was also in Settled. You can watch it for free: www.RichDrama.com/Settled.

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War Room: Number One Film in America

I was wowed by War Room! I wasn't the only one. Variety called it: Box Office: Zac Efron Getting Outplayed by Faith-Based ‘War Room,’...

I heard Stephen Kendrick speak at the final San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, and he said that the Christian film industry is growing up. It may have started by crawling, but it's walking and will start to run and then fly. The Kendrick Brothers are picking up speed!

The acting was superb. I was deeply moved throughout. I checked out the credits of the three leads and expected them to have long and deep filmographies. That's not the case, and that's a credit to Elizabeth Becka, the acting coach, who does a fine job in her principal role in the film as well. I got to teach with her at the Christian Worldview Film Festival Guild, and she had nothing but great things to say about her experience on set.

Miss Clara was LOVED by the robust crowd on Times Square. Karen Abercrombie had been rejected for the role because she was younger than their idea for the role, so she aged herself for the audition! Beth Becka said, "She is brilliant. We prayed over her and the presence of the Holy Spirit was as palpable as I have ever felt it in that little room that day!"

Garry Nation (left) as Polycarp, and
(right) accepting his Best Actor award 
for the role at the 
International Christian Film Festival

Mary Smit was responsible for her film version of Miss Clara. She's done makeup on all the other Kendrick Brothers films (except Flywheel, and there's a funny story behind that) as well as Princess Cut and her masterful work on Garry Nation in the title role of Polycarp.

The writing was also quite sharp. Joyce and I just had a discussion about how some of the prayers were very neatly wrapped up. Pre-believers may find that hard to swallow, but those who have walked with the Lord for years and have seen bigger prayers answered than portrayed in the fiction find it true to life. Of course God is not a magic box. It's when our prayers align with his will and timing that we see these kinds of miracles come to pass, but that's exactly what the script lays out. Joyce pointed out it's a real challenge to make a film about prayer, and if they weren't answered that would be even harder!

Beyond the winsome story arc there are witty lines throughout, and the crowd on Times Square erupted with laughter during this scene...



War Room has already sold close to $10M at the box office, and the weekend hasn't really even started. It's Friday and Sunday's coming! Get a big group together and see it after church! Cast your vote for more films that unapologetically shout the answer to this world's problems: Jesus Christ! As Miss Clara says: Don't leave Jesus out. That's why this world's in the trouble it's in!



In its second weekend, Labor Day Weekend, it moved into the number one position at the box office.

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Performed in Northern Ireland

I got to celebrate Independence Day in Northern Ireland with high school friends, David N Tricia Howell. It was significantly cheaper for me to fly into Dublin than London for The Dragon and the Raven, so I planned an extra night in Ireland, hoping to connect with the Howells, who minister an hour south of Dublin. They told me they'd be at Summer Madness, 2.5 hours north of Dublin. I asked if they might like to use one of my dramas. They weren't a part of leadership but encouraged me to contact them. I sent an email to info@WhateverTheWebsiteSaid.UK.Co, and I was shocked when the founding director of the 28-year-old festival sent a note the very next day asking me to pitch ideas. I went ahead and booked a rental car in case it worked out. I praise the Lord that it didn't since I arrived after that program began! I was waiting to let the Howells know I'd be there until I knew for sure whether or not I'd be performing. They didn't get internet access, and Facebook was the only point of contact I had for them. So after hearing a phenomenal teaching and worshipping the Lord with 2,000 young people I started looking for my friends in the dark tent. Just when I gave up and was walking to the stage to ask about using their mic there was Dave! What a happy reunion! I was actually quite astonished at how many there celebrated with us independence from their rule! Great fun! They have friends who use American terms like trash instead of rubbish on the Fourth. smile emoticon

I also got to perform Sean Gaffney's "Lazarus" for the 30+ youth the Howells had helped bring up from Ireland. That was significant since this month marks 20 years in which I've made my income exclusively from the performing arts and applied theatre, and that was kicked off when Sean asked if I'd drive with him from NYC to Seattle for him to start work as managing director of Traproot Theatre. Sean and his wife, Catherine Pleis Gaffney were in London while I was, so it was a bummer our schedules couldn't coincide, but it was delightful when one of my colleagues in The Dragon and the Raven asked if my last name was Swingle. He was on his way to tea with Sean and Cath!

Hear my report on these stories and more here. 

Three of our five short films from the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp are now online. Sign up to receive notification when we're ready to take registrations for 2016. Now taking sign-ups for Rio Ready.

Njeri "Miller" Gitonga

With Njeri in 2007.

As soon as I could understand English I was hearing stories about my mom growing up in Kenya when my grandparents were missionaries there from 1948-1953. So I grew up grateful for Njeri Gitonga, who watched over Mom and my Aunt Jeri when Grandma and Grandpa Miller were away ministering in the bush.

Our families had lost touch, but sometime in the mid-90's my Aunt Jeri was visiting Kenya and asked someone how she might go about finding Njeri. The local asked her what her maiden name was, and when he heard, he exclaimed, "There's an Njeri Miller living up on that hill." Aunt Jeri knocked on the door, and Njeri invited her into her home, where Aunt Jeri saw photos of herself, Mom, and my grandparents. We've stayed in touch over the years, and though I haven't made it to Kenya yet, I have had two miraculous connections with Njeri!

Njeri in 1999.

In 1999 I did a 16 city tour of England with my play A Clear Leading. I happened to be there the first time Njeri visited England to visit her children who were staying there. Though Njeri wasn't there when I was performing the play, her daughter, Alice, made it to a performance in Muswell Hill, a suburb of London. When I performed the dream of my character Dolly swimming to Africa I had tears streaming down my face. I'll never forget that performance.

With Mom and Alice in 1999.

When Njeri did arrive we spent time at a mall, where Alice interpreted for Mom and me. One memory of that visit was when Njeri got on an escalator for the first time. What a frightening contraption that must have looked like in her eyes.

Then, in 2007 I was back in England, where I got to perform "Lazarus" with some Swahili translations for Alice's church. I learned the start of a Swahili praise song, and opened the piece with that. They all joined in and went way past what I had memorized! I can still sing some of it: "Sifu bwana, sifu bwana, dayama. Moyuwangu, sifu bwana, dayama."

Later I was at Eltham College, where Eric Liddell had attended school. I was interviewing the headmaster and had an idea for a shot of their choir singing a song which was written about Liddell for the documentary Olympic Hero in China: The Eric Liddell Story. In the midst of scouting for the documentary I got a text from Mom saying she couldn't get to Heathrow in time to greet Njeri. So I hopped on the next train... the wrong way! I turned around, got off at Piccadilly and transferred to the metro bound for Heathrow. As soon as the door opened I sprinted for Arrivals. Just as I came bounding up, someone was pushing Njeri out in a wheelchair. I calmed my breathing, walked up like I'd been there for a good long while, gave her a Kenyan handshake (flying down from up above), and said, "Jambo!" That's a Swahili greeting. I also know a few phrases of her tribal language, Kikuyu, so I was also able to say, "Wimwega." That was about it until Mom was able to arrive with Alice who was able to take over the translations.

In my post from December 14, 2007 I wrote:

What are the chances my trips corresponded with hers without either of us knowing of the others' schedule either time? Only the One who set up both visits knows.

Njeri "Miller" Gitonga went to be with the Lord earlier this month. My heart is filled to the brim with gratitude for how she cared for my mom and how the Lord allowed our schedules to connect in England twice!!

Our prayers are with her whole family!

With Njeri, her son, Kamau, and Mom.

An Ipoh connection

We were waited on yesterday by two people from Ipoh, Malaysia, where Joyce preached and I performed Beyond the Chariots. One of the women said in 24 years she hadn't run into someone who had been to Ipoh. The other one knows how to make white coffee (a mix of coffee, tea and milk that is just an amazing experience), but she couldn't make it for us because the restaurant didn't have the right machine.

Pray that the Lord works through this experience to draw both of these women to Himself.

A mid-journey report

We've come to London to share my play about Eric Liddell (RichDrama.com/BeyondTheChariots) during the Olympics.

Last night was the debut of the Tamil translation, which was well received. They translated it for seven people who had come from Sri Lanka and India to attend the International College of Officers for the Salvation Army.

This morning a woman told us how integral Eric Liddell's story was in her coming to faith, and there she sat in the William Booth Officers Training School, where she'll start attending in the fall, watching a play about the man who had inspired her to go into ministry! The things that our Father orchestrates are so far beyond what we could ever plan!

Before we came here we performed the play in Romania with Hungarian translation slides. It was in Transylvania, a region that used to belong to Hungary, and the people we visited were Hungarian speakers. One of the men there asked us to tell him more about Jesus. We stayed up until 1am. In the end he prayed that Jesus would cover his sins, so that he could be in a relationship with the Father. The next morning he walked into our room radiating joy, but he still wants to see miraculous signs to confirm this. The next day, when we flew to London there were seven specific Appointments that we knew were all about confirming our friend's new relationship with the Lord. The highlight was when we discoverd that our waitress was from Tirgu-Mures, Romania, the city from which we'd flown only a few hours before. We'll also tell our friend about the woman who will start training school and her story. We're praying that these Love letters will encourage him to grow in his new relationship with the Lord.

On Friday we'll have breakfast with 120 Olympic athletes (some of which will be sitting at our table) as the Eric Liddell Award is given to two gold medalists who exhibit not only outstanding athleticism but also a strong committment to the Father.

filled with Hope,

Rich

How Cliff married the family

In 1942 my grandfather, Jimmy Ostema, the first husband of my grandma, Hilda Triezenberg, had taken a trip to Chicago, which was almost 200 miles away from their home in Charleston, Illinois, to show off his newborn baby, my mom, Judy, to friends and relatives. On that trip he got sick, and his temperature rose to 108 degrees.

Their daughter Jeri, who was 17 months old, was singing to her father, but she and Judy, 9 weeks old, were both pulled away from him for fear that they contract spinal meningitis, the source of his illness. Hilda begged the Lord to keep her 26-year-old husband alive to help her raise their two daughters. Hilda asked the Lord how they could ever crawl out of $600 of debt, which would have been almost $10,000 in today's economy, if Jimmy didn't get better. But he got worse. On October 29 his heart stopped beating, and he was declared dead. Hilda was sobbing and sobbing and still praying when he came back to life! He said, "Hilda, I'll miss you and the girls, but it's so wonderful there! I've seen the Lord. It's far better to be with Him. He will give you another husband who will be a father to our daughters. Let me go." He lived another week, but Hilda eventually told the Lord she trusted Him to take Jimmy home.

At the funeral many expressed their grief for the family by slipping Hilda money. Every year on October 29 Hilda would sit her girls down and tell them about their father. In the same way the people of Israel celebrated passover every year so that each generation would remember the Lord's protection and deliverance long after they begged Him to stop talking to them directly, Hilda told the girls about their father's love for them, about how he would play his trumpet to draw people to their Bible Center so they could understand their Heavenly Father's love for them. She told them about his glimpse of heaven, about how they counted up the gifts from Jimmy's funeral on their bed, and about it all adding up to $600. It was exactly what they needed to escape debt!

When my brother Bob and I came along, Grandma would tell us those stories, too. There were many times that she would tell us how the Lord would guide her by providing an exact amount needed for a ministry endeavor to which she felt called, and that intimate language she shared with the Lord was first spoken and understood at her husband’s funeral.

When she was only three years old, Jeri shared these amazing truths on Moody Bible Institute's radio program. Hilda and Jimmy had met while students at Moody. Cliff Miller had attended the school at the same time, but they hadn't known each other well. The station received numerous calls from people who had given their lives to the Lord because of the young evangelist.

Jimmy's father, a retired minister, was invited to shepherd the small congregation of the Bible Center in his son's absence, but on his first Sunday he told them that he knew of a young Moody Bible Institute graduate who was working on his masters degree: He recommended Cliff Miller to fill the pulpit as an interim preacher.

Meanwhile Hilda and the girls went to live with their widowed grandfather. A little over three years later he remarried, and Hilda thought it wise to re-empty her father's nest. She found a place back in Charleston. She was told about the young man now preaching at the Bible Center.
 

Here's Cliff's description of how they met from his memoirs:

I was speaking... one Sunday morning early in 1946 when a young woman with two little girls came through the front door. After the service I went to the door to greet people. One of the little girls (Geraldine) grabbed my leg and announced to her embarrassed widowed mother that she wanted a daddy, too! Well Geri* probably started something..." 

So on September 28, 1946, Cliff married the family, fulfilling the promise the Lord had made to Jimmy.

I started hearing this story when I was the age I was in this photo with Hilda and Cliff, but Grandma went to be with the Lord in 1988, and I haven't heard or told this story on the anniversary since then, so far as I can remember. But on October 29, 2021, the tradition was rekindled in a big way, when this article was republished on www.HeadlinePrayer.org! Here's the direct link: Prayer Can Bring the Dead Back to Life!

On September 4, 2021, I was working on the sitcom What’s a Girl to Do, and we got word that a three-year-old had been found in a pool and declared dead. We were four hours and twenty minutes behind schedule, but we prayed for forty minutes. During that time I shared this story about my grandfather coming back from the dead. At a certain point the show runner, Janet Porter, architect of the Heartbeat Bill, pointed to me and said, “Rich, pray this family will celebrate September 4 as the day their boy came back from the dead!” I prayed into that, and moments later someone on the team sensed it was time to start praising, which we did. Moments later a cast member came running down the hall yelling, “He’s ALIVE!” A few days later I got a text saying, “He’s 100%!” There were no complications! Praise the Lord! 

You can hear me telling that story days after it happened at www.RichDrama.com/AliveAgain.

*Aunt Jeri changed the spelling of her name to be closer to Njeri, who helped raise her and Mom.

Love bade me welcome

This is one of five poems by George Herbert that I performed at The Kennedy Center in 2002.  It was hanging on the wall in the room where I stayed while in Chicago with the father of Melissa Lorraine, who performs the one-woman play, Juliet: A Dialogue About Love.

Wheaton College Church, where I miraculously performed that night, had asked Melissa's parents 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, there 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.

So her folks returned the favor.  I asked Melissa's father about the significance of the poem, and he shared that after many years of rejecting the love of God and her family she wrote out this poem and framed it for her father's birthday present, to let them know that she had accepted Love...

"Love bade me welcome, but my soul drew back

Guilty of dust and sin. 

But quick-eyes Love, observing me grow slack 

From my first entrance in

Drew near to me, sweetly questioning

If I lacked anything.

"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here."

Love said, "You shall be he."

"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? Ah, my dear, 

I cannot look on thee."

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, 

"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord; but I have marred them; let my shame

Go where it doth deserve."

"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"

"My dear, then I will serve."

"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."

So I did sit and eat.

~George Herbert

On the Christmas card Melissa wrote, "Please forgive the five-year-old quality of this gift...I wish it was just a little bit prettier.  But know that the reason this is your gift today is because I finally and fully know Him and I have at long last pulled my chair up to His feast...."

Melissa's dad invited me to read a chapter she 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.

Powerful!

My performance of Journey to the Garden was outdoors tonight. There was a light rain, but I said I'd keep performing until they decided they wanted to move it indoors. About the time Jesus was being flogged lightning began to flash over our heads. When the crowd yelled, "Crucify him!" there were sirens going off. A 7-year-old asked her mother, "Are they coming to arrest us?" I found out later that the sirens blare when a tornado has been spotted. Turns out one blasted into St. Louis's Lambert field, eight miles away from us. The airport is now closed indefinitely, so pray I can get home in time to catch my train to DC for a week of workshops! During the crucifixion the thunder and lightning intensified, and it reached a crescendo over, "Ilohi, Ilohi, lama sabachthani, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" After the line, "It is finished!" there was a huge downpour! One by one people walked into the home of my friends who hosted the performance, away from the shroud of Jesus as the heavens continued to burst. When they were all inside I changed and joined one of the most powerful worship services I've ever experienced. Some were saying that the kids that were here will never forget this. I know I never will!

Tracking the miracles

Eventually the Facebook thread will submerge, so here's the backward chronology of the prayer requests and answers for tonight's performance...

Rich Swingle: I forgot to report another miracle: there was no slow
traffic...through Chicago...on a stormy day...at rush hour.
about an hour ago via Email · Comment · Like
Tom P and Bill L. B like this.

Bruce W: With God, the absolutely IMpossible is possible!
about an hour ago ·

Pamela K: wonderful news!!
about an hour ago ·


Rich Swingle: Tonight's performance started on time! Thanks for your prayers!
about an hour ago via Email · Comment · Like
Preventemail Stalkersmoor, Brandon Joel Langeland and 2 others like this.

David W: Praise God!
about an hour ago ·

Chris HP: AMEN!
20 minutes ago ·


Rich Swingle: Just touched down in Chicago. The volunteers that got off opened a seat near the front. I'll warm up for the play en route to the baggage claim. Pray my costume and props beat me there and that my ride's out front.
5 hours ago via Email · Comment · Like
Audrey Cornett, Chris Henley Poppelreiter and Rob Plaster like this.

Lois W: Still praying.
4 hours ago ·


Rich Swingle: Finally a forth volunteer! We should take off soon! Praying for really strong headwinds for tonight's 7pm CST performance.
7 hours ago via Email · Comment · Like
Laura J Drexler, Lois Wilder, Bill L. Behrendt and 2 others like this.

Claude C: Praying!!!
4 hours ago ·


Rich Swingle: They may have to remove 4 more people! Pray for volunteers so I
can get to my 7pm CST performance!
7 hours ago via Email · Comment · Like
Renee' Carper Adams likes this.

Chris HP Poppelreiter: I know God is really going to use your performance tonight in Chicago - 'cause Satan is trying really hard to keep you from getting there. Praying that HE will be glorified through you no matter what happens!
7 hours ago ·


Rich Swingle: We were overweight, and they were going to force off the last person who checked in, and that might have been me. Someone volunteered to take a later flight. PTL!!!
7 hours ago via Email · Comment · Like
Pamela Knox and Renee' Carper Adams like this.

Carla S awesome!
7 hours ago ·


Rich Swingle: Finally boarded. Praying for a strong headwind to Chicago for tonight's 7pm performance, someone up front willing to switch with me for the last row on the plane, and for my bag and ride to be waiting for me!
7 hours ago via Email · Comment · Like

David W: Go Rich! We are praying.
7 hours ago ·

John F: excellent -- PTL...
4 hours ago ·


Rich Swingle: The upload of my Off-Broadway play can't be uploaded before I take off. At this point I may be reciting the play by phone in the car if we don't land on time!
8 hours ago · Comment · Like

Kristina R: Praying!
7 hours ago ·


Rich Swingle: I heard from the venue, and they cannot change my start or stop time for Beyond the Chariots. I'm going to upload the Off-Broadway performance in case I'm not there and ready to go. I'll interrupt the DVD with the live performance if need be.
10 hours ago · Comment · Like


Lois W: God knew about all of this yesterday. He is still in control and we are all praying for you.
9 hours ago ·


Rich Swingle: My flight to Chicago, where I'm performing tonight was just cancelled.
The guy behind me just heard on his phone that the next available flight is tomorrow morning, but after that I was rebooked on a flight this afternoon!!! It will get me in an hour, 45 min. before my performance, and I usually like 2 hours to set up,...
See More
11 hours ago · Comment · Like
Renee' Carper Adams and Pamela Knox like this.


Chuck N: I made it! Time to spare! Hoping you do too! Thanks for your prayers Rich and Chris!
5 hours ago ·

Blandina RO: He works everything for your good, you'll see!!!
2 hours ago ·


Rich Swingle: Thanks so much for all your prayers for tonight's ON TIME performance!!! I was uploading them from my phone all day, but I wanted to conserve batteries, so I'm just logging on now to see all of your prayers and supportive wishes! Thanks so much for being a part of my team today. Here's the report: http://Blog.RichDrama.com/.
about a minute ago ·

Miracle after miracle

My flight was canceled today when Chicago O'Hare Airport was shut down due to thunderstorms. The guy behind me in line was on his cell and discovered that the next available seats were on a flight tomorrow morning. You can follow the blow by blow account of miracle after miracle on www.Facebook.com/RichSwingle. I did miraculously get there with very little time to spare, and I changed in the car and what I allow two hours to set up was done in 15. I even had 10 minutes to warm-up and pray...well I've been doing that all day. Now I'm praising!!!

After the performance I told them about all the miracles and then said, "God really wanted at least one of you to hear this story tonight: assume it's you, and ask the Lord what He wants you to take from it."

Thanks so much to those of you that were praying! Now pray that He'll seal the work He wants done!

What are the chances?

We were having lunch in the pizza parlor where I ate many lunches as a student of Phoenix High School, Phoenix, Oregon, a town which had a population of 2,000 when I was a kid. Who should be having lunch there but Jon Davis, the lead elder at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship, who arranged for me to perform an excerpt from Beyond the Chariots there during the Olympics!

Joyce and I went to bed at about 10pm, and just before midnight Joyce asked if I was okay. She thought I was sobbing, but I was laughing my head off thinking about the chances we would have connected with Jon where we did. She woke up thinking of the same thing, just before my uncontainable giggles.

Now us theatre folk aren't known for our mathematical prowess, but if someone were going to calculate the probability of our encounter with Jon they'd have to consider the following:

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*the vast distances between Beijing, Phoenix, Oregon, and New York City
*the relative size and populations of Beijing and New York City
*the fact that, even after doubling in size since my graduation, the population of Phoenix could fit in an average apartment complex in Beijing or New York City
*the distance between Phoenix and the closest city with at least a million people (about 280 miles)
*all the decisions that factored into placing Phoenix, Oregon, on Jon's itinerary at that point in time
*the fact that last May George Fox University chose me, a Nazarene, as one of the featured presenters for their Quaker Heritage Week, which was what brought me out from New York City
*the fact that this was one of a handful of trips to Southern Oregon on which I didn't set up a performance on a Sunday (Since I've never performed in Phoenix since graduating from high school the probability of me eating lunch there before or after a performance would have been minuscule, and I can only remember eating at the pizzeria a handful of times since graduation.)
*the probability that each in our party of eight would contribute to our conversation in such a way that our 8am breakfast would extend until after 11:30
*the fact that Joyce and I didn't hesitate to stay with family past the starting times of every local church we knew about because on Friday afternoon we "happened" to walk into my grandmother's residence at the exact moment they were starting their only weekly church service, which we enjoyed immensely
*the fact that my dad's cousin mentioned the Phoenix Historical Museum and could let us in for a tour
*the duration of each person's time at any given display
*the fact that my dad's cousin recommended Angelo's Pizzeria
*the fact that my dad's cousin recognized the pastor and his wife who were hosting Jon and his wife and mentioned he was hosting people from China (Though we shared two hour-plus services in Beijing Jon and I only spoke for about a minute that day. For the rest of the services I was either watching him interview Olympic champion Madeline Manning Mims from backstage or he was watching my backside as I performed.)

If any of these things hadn't been in place we either wouldn't have been in the pizza parlor at the same time or, if we were, wouldn't have recognized each other.

It's been a long time since I've studied probabilities, but the way I understand it, the probability determined by each factor is multiplied by the next to determine the final probability.

Then multiply that by the possibility of also having sat one row behind a gal who graduated from Phoenix High School three years after me in the Bird's Nest Stadium just over a year earlier during the Olympics: Out of 90,000 Seats. I'd been invited to perform for athletes in the Olympic Village that day, but the night before a dignitary flew to Beijing unexpectedly and needed the pass I was going to be given. 

The miracle performance

Because of the miraculous was I was able to get to Chicago, so I had high expectations for the performance last night.

One hundred and forty-six people braved the weather, which was on it's way down to five below zero with a wind-chill factor of 25 below (and it's not called the Windy City for nothing).
Most wonderful of all was that a woman rededicated her life to the Lord, after walking away from Him for many years.

That's what it's all about!

Back from Beijing

From Beijing '08

I'm now in Hong Kong, and Joyce and Ava are safely back in New York. We had an AMAZING time.

We had our tickets ripped up just before we stepped onto the plane. Before we totally freaked out they printed new boarding passes, which put us in first class! Hurrah! That came in seriously handy as we waited on the tarmac in Guangzhou, where I'd run a race when I was in high school. There was a typhoon ripping through Hong Kong, so what could we do but enjoy the extra services. We did pray that I could make my performance and screening of Olympic Hero in China: The Eric Liddell Story, and that prayer was answered. I told the audience that night that the Lord clearly had something for them to hear since he calmed the storm just in time.

Here's my China album: Beijing '08

A miraculous view!

For all ten years of our marriage Joyce and I have been on the waiting list to reside at Manhattan Plaza, which offers subsidized housing to those who make over half of their income in the performing arts. About a month ago we got a rejection letter because we make too much money. Because Joyce is in grad school and my income as an actor varies wildly but has never been impressive, Joyce was surprised when she read the letter. She called and found that they base part of our income on a percentage of our savings, but the number they calculated was actually below the limit! So they looked into it and discovered that they had assessed our income the very day that the limit was raised! if they'd made the assessment the day before we couldn't have gotten in. If they'd assessed us the next day we'd never have known how close we were. We knew eventually that Joyce would leave the workforce and that our income would plummet. We sensed that the time was right, and if we'd waited much longer we'd be back at the bottom of the list for another decade or more.

Yes, that's the Empire State Building we can see from our window. We move in soon.

August 18, 2013
We've LOVED being in this miraculous apartment. This morning, during Joyce's sermon she told the story of how God opened things up for us to get into this amazing space.



For the whole sermon click here.

Here are some shots from a lightning storm...

The Miraculous Surgery

On May 17 my wife, Joyce, was a part of a prayer team praying for her sister, Amy, who was going to have a brain tumor removed on May 20. The doctors had told her that part of the tumor was wrapped around nerves that control swallowing, so they were going to leave that part of the tumor and treat it with radiation. Joyce felt led to pray that the tumor would cluster so that the tumor could be completely removed. Before the operation the surgeon reconfirmed the need to follow up with radiation. I was there when the surgeon came out, and he told us that the tumor had somehow clumstered together and they were able to remove it completely. No radiation will be needed, and he won’t need to see her again for another year.

The next morning Amy’s husband, Wallie said to the surgeon, “So, I understand there’s a chance that you won’t need to do radiation?” The surgeon replied, “There’s no chance we’ll do radiation. We got it all.” Wallie pressed, “Will you have to do another MRI to make sure it’s all gone?” The surgeon said, “I was in there. There’s nothing left.”

On May 24 Amy was released. Her kids, who were quite excited to have their mom home again.

Between the Tropics

While I was in the Philippines last week people kept oppologizing because it was too hot. I told them I'd soak it up for my return to winter. Pittsburgh gave me enough cold to make me appreciate next week in Guatemala even more.

Last night, when I performed Lazarus by Sean Gaffney I picked a gal to interact with, based on where she was sitting. She asked me afterward if it was based on her Lazarus story. She was told she'd need heart surgery, but her friends (including Jim and Pat LaBossier, who invited me to perform) prayed for her. When she returned for a presurgery scan the doctor questioned whether he had the right image! He compared it to the scan that convinced him she needed the surgery. He said they looked like two completely different hearts! Praise the Lord, our Healer. Pray for her continued healing as she recovers from the cancer that caused the heart condition.

That story warms my heart now that I'm back in NYC, where the temperature is dropping fast.