Performances and workshops in almost 40 nations, about 30 films... Invite the Swingles to inspire your audience! Mobile users, our index is on the line below...
Then in January 2010 they ran a feature article on my work: Going Solo. In that article I mention how I was inspired by Curt Cloninger, who is going to be a master class instructor at MasterWorks this summer!
Some time back, while a theatre student at MasterWorks, Irene Kao sponsored a child through Compassion. When she returned home to Australia she went online to see if she could correspond electronically to save international postage. While she was there, she discovered that Compassion had an Australian branch...and that there was a job opening. She's been working for them for about three years now, and she arranged for me to perform for their national headquarters while I was there. As a bonus, I got to lead some enacted prayers for their team. Some of them were quite powerful.
If you don't already sponsor a child, you can do that right now by clicking here.
Graeme and Neryl, who arranged our trip to Australia, introduced us to an Aussie meal called The Tiger, a meat pie covered with mash (potatoes), mushy peas, and gravy. I was telling friends at church about it, and I got such a hunger for one that I made them for dinner. There was no sign of meat pies at our local grocery store, but they did have Jamaican beef patties, which actually came pretty close. Yum!
This Thursday at Thirst, we'll be sharing some of the miracles that took place surrounding our performances in Australia and New Zealand as a kick off to the study of the miraculous Exodus. Hope you can join us for Aussie snacks at 6:30pm: WestchesterChapel.org.
Joyce and I walk past a flock of geese on the way to church each week. They can be intimidating, but we're glad they aren't equipped with knife-like claws like Australia's cassowary.
As we touched down at JFK, Joyce said, "There and back again." We've seen the wonderful land of Oz and Middle Earth on the same glorious adventure. Bilbo would be proud.
So many prayers were answered on this journey, and so many times we saw God move more mightily than we dared Hope.
One small miracle was that, despite the fact that we booked all of Joyce's legs with frequent flyer miles and we were rarely told (or offered a choice) of seat assignments on any of the seven flights we took, God always answered our prayer that we sit together. Now that we're back in NYC it's been about 31 hours since our last shower, so you'll get no proof of this last miraculous seating!
The only exception was that flight to Taupo, where there was only one seat on either side of the aisle. But we could still smooch across it and see the other's coastal view as we treasured times away from the performances as our 13th honeymoon.
To our friends Down Under, We're in LA, and we've never been so pleased to have had a delayed flight! It reduced our layover at LAX from 9 to 4 hours. Much better.
Coming through customs an officer asked us if we were carrying any TimTams. We told him we were, and he said, "They're illegal. You must give them all to me."
Grateful for humor at immigration, and a stock of our TimTations (which will run out all too soon) we're glad to relive Saturday. With all the delays we're not sure when we actually lifted off, but we arrived about six hours before our scheduled departure. It makes up for that Wednesday we missed heading over. How's that for fun? We exchanged a weekday for an extra weekend day!
But oh how we miss it Down Under! The flaura and fawna were amazing, but it was the people that made it such an absolute joy!
Thanks for your part in making this the trip of a lifetime!
One of my lowest points this year was when the Theatre Department at MasterWorks received a box of TimTams, an Australian cookie, from MWF alumna Irene Kao, and by the time the box reached my eager hands it was empty.
We were told there may not be TimTams in New Zealand, so we stocked up in Melbourne. There are TimTams aplenty here on the North Island, by the way.
Our friends in Newcastle, Australia, told us how to do the TimTam slam: you bite off opposing corners of the cookie, and use it like a straw. Last night I was given a different strategy, which was to bite off the full ends. I tried both approaches last night with warm milk, and found that fuller saturation levels were achieved by the latter method.
I tried it again this morning with coffee. Oh, yes, they're delightful for brekky (breakfast).
Since experimentation was put to rest I was overjoyed to discover that a second take was necessary, since the first picture didn't show my TimTation.
When we were in Sydney we performed at the William Booth House, a drug rehabilitation facility. I performed Sheepish and led a bibliodrama and some enacted prayer, while the Sydney Staff Songsters blew us all away with sweet music. Graeme Press, who leads the Songsters just sent me the following quote from one of the pre-believing residents: "I didn't know that anyone, including the Salvation Army, could care enough for me to succeed in this program so much that they would give us a night like last night." Succeed, my friend, succeed!!!
Thanks so much for your prayers! Things have been going miraculously well
down here in Newcastle (2.5 hours north of Sydney).
I got a text requesting me to teach a couple of workshops in a Christian
school here. Though I only had about an hour's notice I felt the Holy
Spirit guiding, and both classes went quite well by the grace of God.
Last night's performance of The Revelation was well received, and someone
spoke to me about extending our trip a bit for some additional
performances. Follow http://RichDrama.com/Itinerary to see what develops.
A number of young adults went out after The Revelation, so the ministry
continued. It wasn't until then that it was confirmed that I'll lead a
workshop on sociodrama and enacted prayer tonight, so that should be fun!
In a few hours we'll lead devotions for the staff at Compassion's national
headquarters ( http://RichDrama.com/Compassion ), so pray that these
advocates for the world's poorest children will be encouraged by the
stories of Jonah and Gideon.
We were blown away by Sydney's aquarium, saw 130 Aussie species at an animal park, looked down on Sydney from The Tower, and watched The Mikado at the Sydney Opera House.
But the real highlights were performing The Revelation with the Sydney Staff Songsters on their 20th anniversary celebration in downtown Sydney, performing Lazarus and a bibliodrama with them at a local corps (Salvation Army church), and performing Sheepish: the story of Gideon, at a Salvation Army rehab center, The William Booth House. The residents, and Songsters, brought some very touching requests to us for enacted prayer. After we prayed for the end of human trafficking and snuff films (people are paying to watch people killed) a police siren went blazing past, and one of the residents yelled out, "God's answering our prayer!!!"
The Songsters are such a high caliber choir, which performs all over the world. They're getting ready to tour Hong Kong. They gave their all at Congress Hall in downtown Sydney, at the Rockdale Corps, and at the William Booth House. They are a shining example of excellence. When they finished the main section of the program (many residents came back for more enacted prayer) with "We Are Not Alone" most of us had tears streaming down our faces. What a privilege it was to partner in ministry with such amazing group of people on and off the stage. We will forever be grateful for Graeme and Neryl Press for forging this group into such a mighty Weapon in God's arsenal, and for bringing us out to partner with them.
We had a bit of a delay (though no worries about a connection since this flight goes all the way to Sydney), so we took off at sunset. This shot was taken about two hours into our leg to LA.
Because Joyce is flying to Oz on frequent flyer miles we weren't able to choose seats together before getting to JFK. Prayers were answered, and we're together all 20 hours to Sydney!
Now we're praying for seats together on 5 more legs, none of which offered a choice of seats for either of us.
The Salvation Army of Australia ran an article on my performance of The Revelation in Sydney. It's on page 9 of Creative Ministry, October 2009.
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