Rich & Joyce Swingle

God of Hope DVD now available

In this section of the larger God of Hope project, which includes a book, music CD, audio book and DVD, I play the Apostle Paul.

When Paul begins telling his story, his hatred of Jesus' followers -- of these traitors to Israel -- is obvious. Paul describes the trial of Peter, the bloody stoning of Stephen, and then his life-changing encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus. realizing he has been an enemy of God, the terrified Paul believes the situation is hopeless and that he is to be severely judged, but instead he receives God's grace, unlimited love, and the assignment to tell the world that Jesus is King. Paul speaks of rethinking his convictions and learning that God's secret plan is to defeat evil through His Son Jesus.

For the next thirty years, Paul tirelessly and fearlessly preaches the gospel that Jesus is King. Paul also confesses that he is burdened by guilt for his persecution of God's people. Emperor Nero is also persecuting Jesus' followers, and Paul is taken out to be executed. Jesus has not returned, but Paul knows he has fought the good fight and kept the faith. He knows that nothing can separate him from God's love as revealed through God's son Jesus. Before he is executed, Paul calls on the readers to have a spirit of power, of love, of self-discipline; to stand firm in the faith as they wait for Jesus to return; and to do everything in love.

Video and audio excerpts are available here: God's Story.

Quotes
Your performance, GOD OF HOPE, was anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit of God!! Enjoyed it very much... Thank you for blessing the Nyack students with the gift that God has given unto you for His glory!!
--Latricia T. Moore
Pastoral Ministry student (class of 2012)
Nyack College, Manhattan Campus

Rich - I wanted to thank you once again for the awesome performance yesterday at our church! It was a powerful message from the life of Paul who seemed to step out of the pages of the scriptures yesterday. The papers stopped rustling, the auditorium grew silent as the Spirit of God moved amongst us. And I'm SO glad you worked extra hard to prepare this new play as it was exactly where our church has been and exactly what we needed!
--Scott Cornett
Pastor
Bethel Baptist Temple
Cincinnati

I really enjoyed your dramatization/sermon of Saul/Paul! You have a gift!!! Hope you can come back and visit soon!
--Sarah Beth Zylka
Cincinnati

Thank you for coming to our church today. Everyone so enjoyed you!!! I was truly impressed by your drama of Paul's life.
--Mark Doeding
Cincinnati

It was great to have you minister to our people. You certainly did make Paul come to life. Thank you so much.
--Larry Cornett
Pastor
Bethel Baptist Temple
Cincinnati

Rich recorded the voice of Saul/Paul for the Audio Book and performed for the DVD of God of Hope. They are both available now.

Registration Deadline Approaching for CITA Secondary Festival!

I'll be adjudicating events and leading a workshop...

Everyone at CITA hopes that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great start to the holiday season! We also wanted to remind you that the registration deadline for the CITA Secondary Festival is January 3, 2012! Come take part in this exciting opportunity for students.

Two $1,000 scholarships will be offered to the best male and female performer. Representatives from several colleges will also be attending, including Anderson University, Rocky Mountain College, Asbury College, Abilene Christian University, Lee University, North Greenville University, Indiana Wesleyan University and more!

The CITA Secondary Festival is an opportunity for students who share their common faith and passion for theatre to connect with one another during a weekend of workshops, professional performances and student performances for ajudication.

For more information, please visit our website!

Also, "like" us on Facebook and receive updates about how to prepare for the festival!

The Covenant Keeper

Rich Swingle performed his sketch "The Covenant Keeper" from his Christmas play, Views of the Manger, and Joyce taught on the text the piece dramatizes: Genesis 15. This service closes the Freedom Series and launches a five-part series which will include each sketch from Views of the Manger. Opening prayer by Dr. Linda Warren.

This service is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.

Wielding the Sword of the Spirit with guest Rich Swingle

I'll be interviewed by talk show host Donald James Parker on Dec. 11 at 6pm ET. You can also call in and ask questions. I'm looking forward to it.

Click here to listen.

Views of the Manger throughout Advent

I'll be performing my play Views of the Manger throughout Advent and Christmas at Westchester Chapel. Each week I'll perform one of the sections of the play:

Sunday, November 27
The Covenant Keeper: Abraham looks forward to the Christ

Sunday, December 4
Guess What?: Gabriel brings the Good News that the Light of the World is about to shine

Sunday, December 11
What!? part 1: Mary tells her fiancé, Joseph, that she and her elderly cousin are with child

Sunday, December 18
What!? part 2: Joseph sees that his fears were unfounded

Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25
Harvey Silverstein: The innkeeper had no idea who they were

Sunday, January 1
The New King: Wise men cross the earth to worship Him

After Rich performs in the main service he'll bring the sketch to the nursery. On December 18 he'll perform Thomas Tornado Tinglehoop and the Three Christmas Clues for the nursery in lieu of What!? part 2.

Join us each Sunday at 11am at The Crowne Plaza, 66 Hale Ave, White Plains, NY.

Audio recordings will be posted to WestchesterChapel.org.

Freedom from the Fear of Circumstances

Rich Swingle preaches from Matthew 14: 22-33 on Peter's walk on water. Opening prayer by Pastor Randy Solomon.

This sermon is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store. Here's footage of Rich performing the role of Peter walking on the Sea of Galilee from their May 2011 trip to Jordan and Israel with Christians in Theatre Arts:

The First Thanksgiving

Tonight at our Thanksgiving Eve service one of our pastors, Randy Solomon, told the story of the first Thanksgiving. It's such a powerful story of the Lord's grace on those that came to America for religious freedom. You can read about it in Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving, which you can download now on a Kindle:

The Jeweler's Shop Off-Broadway

This year the MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program will include performances in an Off-Broadway theatre after our final performance in Winona Lake.

Our master class instructors are falling into place. Phillip Telfer wrote, produced and directed a recent documentary called Captivated. I heard Phillip speak to the cast and crew of Indescribable, the film in which Joyce and I played the parents of nine. The documentary wasn't complete last summer, and in fact Phillip interviewed at least one crew member on set. But his talk was so spot on for many of our goals for the theatre program I'm excited that he'll be speaking to us and sharing his documentary. Captivated was featured at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, where it was runner up for best documentary and an Official Selection as a finalist for Best of Festival, which was won by Courageous.

Our first night in New York we're planning to join a Bible study made up of Broadway actors.

Because this will be our first on-the-road experience, we decided to keep things simple with our play. We'll be performing The Jeweler's Shop, written by Karol Wojtyla, who later became Pope John Paul II. Before he was a priest he was an actor and playwright through the Rhapsodic Theatre in Krakow, Poland, during Nazi occupation. Their focus was on simplicity of production so that the full attention could be placed on meaning and acting.

Besides simplicity, we specifically chose a lesser-known play because New Yorkers have access to popular plays with A-list actors. We wanted to choose a play that would be intriguing to audiences in both Winona Lake and New York, and we believe this play will do just that.

A photo of me from an article
on The Jeweler's Shop

I had the opportunity to perform two roles in the play in the mid-90s with the Polish Theatre Group of New York. We performed it in Michigan, Georgia (here's an article from the Augusta Chronicle: "Pope's play testifies to enduring power of love"), Florida, including Miami. We also performed it throughout the New York City area, including a performance at the United Nations that received a standing ovation. In fact, I can't remember a single time during our performances that it did not receive a standing ovation. Before I came on board, they'd performed it at Carnegie Hall and The Lincoln Center, and bookings were underway at Princeton University, Tokyo, Paris, Poland and in The Vatican for the Pope. Unfortunately our director died of a heart attack before those dreams were realized.

The director of our 1990s
production with
Pope John Paul II.

The play tells the story of three couples and the joy and pain of love and marriage. New York's Daily News reported on our production: "City's Polish Troupe Thrives On Pope's Play".

The play employs a very different style from plays we've produced in the past unfolding mostly in a series of monologues directed to the audience. It invites audience members into the private thoughts of the characters at various stages of life and love. This makes the play a great challenge for actors, and as we experienced, it affects audiences in a profound way. Richard Barbuto wrote of our UN performance, "...the play made me feel like I was participating in it. ...It was clearly the the objective of (the) author... to invite the audience to more than aesthetic appreciation: to artistic participation!" I just saw a play Off-Broadway that used this technique with great skill, and it was captivating.

MasterWorks Theatre Alum in VW spot

Chad Rasor, a MasterWorks alum and recent master class instructor was just featured in this very fun VW ad. (He's the one in the driver's seat.)

VW "engage" :60 from derrick borte on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving Greetings from all of us at Graceworks!

For over a decade I've used my theatre background to coach people on their presentation skills through Graceworks. I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had to see major breakthroughs, and we send our Thanksgiving greetings to you.

Graceworks Inc.
470 West End Ave. New York, NY 10024
212-724-1541 | info@graceworksinc.com | www.graceworksinc.com
© 2009 - 2011 Graceworks Inc.

forward

Shepherds Reflect on Psalm 23

Conceived by Pastor Linda Warren, who plays the role of Shoshona, Rich and Pastor Joyce Swingle address their flock as Zelophahad and Pethahiah, shepherds with a perspective on Psalm 23.

This service is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.

For more sermons by Joyce, click here.

To book Rich and Joyce for a live performance visit RichDrama.com/Booking.

Music at the start of the service is from "Stand Up and Give Him the Praise", from the album Shalom Jerusalem.

The Tree of Life

I just experienced a masterpiece. Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is profound.

Christianity Today has a couple of reviews that you should read before or after the film. Joyce had already seen it and urged me to read them before hand, but I ran out of time. I'm glad I did. It was enough to have her recommendation. If mine is enough, check it out, and then read these articles. They'll enhance your experience even more:
Brett McCracken points out that the form of the film is more like a symphony.
Kristen Scharold highlights some of powerful reflections Malick has made on the meaning of life.

Don't go in looking for a traditional narrative. Joyce described the style like seeing life through the eyes of a child. What an appropriate way to look at a journey to faith.

Freedom from Fear of the Future

Pastor Joyce Swingle preaches on Revelation 14:1-5.

This sermon is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.

Recent Reports from Both Swingles

On October 23 at Westchester Chapel I reported on recent ministry opportunities in Taiwan, Singapore, Oregon and his recent performance in the film The Screenwriters. For photos from the Swingles outreach in Asia visit SwinglesInAsia2011.Shutterfly.com, and for more stories visit blog.richdrama.com (September and October 2011).

On October 9 at Westchester Chapel Joyce reported on recent ministry opportunities the Swingles have had: Performing Five Bells for 9/11 in NYC on 9/11, leading Spiritual Life Week at Morrison Academy in Taiwan, and performing The Acts during Homecoming at Rich's alma mater, George Fox University.

These reports are available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.

The Marvelous Month of MasterWorks!

[To share this page, send people to RichDrama.com/MWF.]

We're constantly amazed by the depth of growth spiritually and artistically that happens at MasterWorks, and this year was no exception!

The schnoz Brandon Langeland used for the title role of our MasterWorks production of Cyrano de Bergerac cast a long shadow.

We produced Cyrano de Bergerac, the story of a swashbuckling hero who won't dare to express his love for Roxane because he believes that his long nose makes him too ugly for her to love in return. Here are my closing statements after the last performance:

The level of professionalism our students brought to it was astonishing. We've been so pleased with the steady artistic growth in the program that next year we're taking our production of Karol Wojtyla's The Jeweler's Shop to New York City. More on that as details develop.

This year's faculty brought spiritual and artistic insights from several cultural hubs: NYC, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Melbourne, Virginia Beach and Jackson.

Curt Cloninger, who gave the very first one-man play I'd ever seen, inspiring me to make a 15 year career of it, came from Atlanta to share his play Witnesses for the Festival and community. It introduces us to people who knew Jesus first hand: They were witnesses of his walk on earth. Curt has taken his plays around the world and performed them for live audiences as large as 30,000. The way the play was received by our community gives me hope that he has inspired a new generation to use its gifts for the Kingdom.

LA casting director, Bev Holloway, returned for her fourth straight year. She's worked on more than 30 projects, including Like Dandelion Dust with Barry Pepper (nominated for the Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards) and Oscar winner Mira Sorvino. She came fresh from Thailand with stories of casting the upcoming film Trade of Innocents in which Sorvino also performed.

Colin Harbinson, a Brit who makes his home in Jackson, MS, has worked for forty years in the arts, education and missions. He is the creator of the internationally performed musical Toymaker and Son. He preached to the whole MasterWorks community using the story of Lazarus to talk about the death of a vision, and how the Lord resurrects greater things if we choose not to live in our woundedness. The stories he used as illustrations were profound and moving, as was his time with the theatre company the next day.

Susan Sommerville Brown, was back for her seventh straight season. She shared insights gained from decades of professional work on Broadway and in Chicago. She brought Maria Callas to life in a monologue from Master Class for one of our faculty recitals.

New Yorker Patricia Mauceri was also back for her seventh season. She shared stories of taking master classes with Callas that brought new meaning to Susie's work. As always, she worked with our students to build the spiritual lives of their characters.

This was the Festival's 15th anniversary, and to celebrate, we featured two alumni, who recently earned their masters degrees in Virginia Beach at Regent University: Chad Rasor served as fight choreographer for our play and Brandon Langeland, who played Cyrano, taught improv classes which culminated in what is a highlight of the Festival every year, our Theatre Improv Night, which segued into improvised worship and enacted prayer. We also had a Skype call with a MasterWorks alum, Irene Kao. She stayed up late to speak in our first class of the day. She's studying acting in Melbourne, Australia, at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, where Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe trained.

Just before MasterWorks started this year I took a four-day course on Whole Brain® Thinking. I used some of what I'd learned with our MasterWorks students to help them understand how they and the characters they played think.

I performed Paradise Lost for the festival with MasterWorks faculty members Terry Ewell and Doris DeLoach. Ewell wrote this new work, based on Milton's epic poem, for the International Double Reed Conference in Tempe, AZ, at which we had just performed. We also performed it in Baltimore, MD, for YouTube.

All our instructors impart not only their expertise and wisdom in acting for stage and film, but they also share their testimonies as followers of Christ. On our final day as a company each student shared his or her purpose statement. We were all sobbing to hear the breakthroughs students had made on many levels throughout the month.

On the final day of the festival the entire community erected a pile of rocks commemorating the decisions we'd made throughout the month.

For information on this summer's program visit RichDrama.com/MWFTheatre2012.

For a report from last year's program, click here.

Paradise Lost

Here is the full performance of Paradise Lost for Narrator (with Percussion), Oboe, and Bassoon by Terry B. Ewell. Westchester Chapel hosted the first public performance of the introduction. Since then it was performed at the International Double Reed Conference in Tempe, Arizona, and at the MasterWorks Festival.

Rich Swingle, Narrator, percussion; Doris DeLoach, oboe; Terry B. Ewell, bassoon. 1. Introduction. 2. Adam. 3. Eve.

The Mighty Macs

This film is just stupendous! It's right up there with Miracle and Hoosiers. You seriously won't believe it, even though everyone where pins that say, "Believe!" Best of all, your in a theatre where everyone is rooting for people dedicated to serving the Lord. Awesome!

The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry

We LOVED The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry! Such a sweet story. It was produced by Chad Gundersen, who produced A Christmas Snow in which I played Claud. The casting director was Beverly Kennedy Holloway, who is a regular at MasterWorks. I was a huge Love Boat fan, and Gavin MacLeod was one of the first actors I ever met. He's a gem, and his work in this film is so touching. Thrilled to hear him say this role was the pinacle of his career.

Report on Asia

This morning I reported on our recent adventures in Taiwan, Singapore, Oregon and Writers' Block. For photos from the our time in Asia visit SwinglesInAsia2011.Shutterfly.com, and for more stories visit this blog's September and October 2011 archives.

This service is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.

Report on Writers' Block

This morning at Westchester Chapel I shared about the overwhelmingingly positive experience I had performing the role of Forrest Woods in Writers' Block.

Freud's Last Session

After our board meetings today we went out to see shows. Most had already Freud's Last Session in NYC the month it opened (July 2010). That production is now moving to another theatre and is currently the longest running play Off-Broadway. But I've been out of town so much I haven't been able to take it in. So I saw it here in Atlanta.

Phenomenal!

The Screenwriters

I'm excited to have played the Hollywood director Forrest "Woodsy" Woods in this fun 1940's film about a couple of writers who are locked in a room and can't come out until the script is done... at 8am the next morning.

It debuted to a packed room with about 50 people standing at the Christian Worldview Film Festival in San Antonio, March 2015. It received the Audience Choice Award Runner Up.

You can watch it now: TheScreenwritersMovie.com and on Amazon Prime.

Jason Burkey plays one of the writers. He played the lead role in For the Glory in which I played his soccer coach.

Jenn Gotzon plays the ingenue, and Jim McKeny is my character's producer. Jenn and Jim both performed in Alone Yet Not Alone with me, and several of the behind-the-scenes folks, including executive producer George Escobar and casting director Rebekah Cook, who played my daughter in Indescribable, also worked on Alone.

The Screenwriters Website Teaser from Ian A. Reid on Vimeo.

I got to report on this overwhelmingly positive experience at Westchester Chapel.

Response from Taiwan

We've been quite busy lately, so now that I'm flying home from Oregon I'm finally looking through responses from students at Morrison Academy in Taiwan where Joyce and I led the Spiritual Life Week. I'm weeping over some of the encouraging things the seventh graders wrote! Here are a few samples:

"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Swingle...it's hard to believe how you can sacrifice everything for God. :) I hope that I'll be able to do that when I grow up."

"Thank you for coming all the way to Taiwan to teach us."

"I...am very grateful that you would come to our school to talk to us."

"I enjoyed this week's talks."

"Thank you for bringing me closer to God."

"I think the acting helps lead people closer to God."

"We really learned a lot this week."

"I learned many new things I never knew."

"Now I am comforted to know that God will never leave me because of what Jesus did."

"I learned a lot about trust. I will always remember it."

"I learned to trust God even when it seems impossible."

"I learned that...we should always give thanks to God."

"I learned that God will make scary things exciting."

"I...learned that serving God can be fun and done in many ways."

"Thank you for teaching us about wisdom...and telling us that it is wonderful to trust and obey God."

"Combining acting and an interesting perspective on the Bible made this Spiritual Life Week a memorable one."

"Before you came, I didn't realize how important trust was... There (were) a lot of times that I was lost. Now I know that when we trust God He guides us through the valley of the shadow of death."

"I learned... that knowing God is the best thing you can ever have! It guides you through darkness and comforts you when you're heartbroken. I know that sometimes I may feel forsaken by God, but He's always with us."

"I have learned that nothing can really make you happy except for Jesus' love. I have my entire life to learn and serve Jesus."

"One thing I learned was that you can always trust the Lord."

"Two things I've learned: Trust in the Lord through darkness and rough times. Always believe that God will be there for you even if you don't see Him."

"It really made me think about my life and how I can change it to make it better."

"I learned that trusting God really can make a difference, and I shouldn't be afraid when God asks me to do something; just do it, and great things will happen!"

"Thank you for changing my life."

"It has been an awesome week. Thanks!"

"Our school feels encouraged!"

"We will miss you!"

"Please visit us again sometime."

Joyce and I had so much fun working together we'd love to do Spiritual Life Weeks all the time. If you know of a school that has a Spiritual Life Week, please send them to http://RichDrama.com.

Performing at my alma mater

I'm on the campus of George Fox University, where my play The Acts is being featured for Homecoming and my 20th reunion.

I get to talk after my performances about how an education at George Fox helped prepare me for full-time work in the performing arts. I actually had several epiphanies that I hadn't thought about for a while: saw my first one-man play (Curt Cloninger) here; saw my second one-man play (Roger Nelson) with a group from George Fox; my stint in the Players was basically a prototype for what I do now; a chapel speaker invited us to walk to the front if we were willing to go anywhere for the Lord. One of the theatre profs, Rhett Luedtke, said at our Players dinner that they focus on preparing Servant Storytellers. When I was a student that term wasn't used, but that was exactly how we were being prepared 20 years ago.

Uncle Eric for Singapore Youth Day

I got to perform Beyond the Chariots at an invitation-only event at the Joyden Theatre at the Iluma Centre (pictured below) for Singapore's Youth Day. There were about 250 children and their families that came from around this island nation from a variety of churches. Some were invited through the Good News Club, which was an organization that helped me grow in my faith when I was a young boy. As the children came sweeping into the theatre I began to weep. I was so moved by the potential in their lives. Our prayer is that the seeds that were planted last night will grow for their lifetimes!

Spiritual Life in Taiwan

We had a great time leading the Spiritual Life Week at Morrison Academy in Taichung, Taiwan!

We performed and spoke in their chapels each day for high school and middle school on the theme of Trusting in God.

On Tuesday we led a class on improv which closed with enacted prayer (http://RichDrama.com/Workshops) and on Thursday night we did worship and more enacted prayer ending with a spectacular enactment in which about a dozen of them prayed for their friends who don't yet know the Lord. It was touching to see their love for their peers!

We closed by inviting the students into our "tent" as shepherds and treating them to matzo and hummus while we explained the 23rd Psalm.

We had some one-on-one sessions with students that signed up, taught in individual classrooms as young as Kindergarten. One of the second graders asked us if we liked God. We prayed often with them in groups big and small to dedicate their lives to the Lord.

The eighth graders watched trailers of all our films: http://films.richdrama.com.

The sixth and seventh graders sang "Trust and Obey" to show us they were following the theme.

The Women of Worth class was Rich's 16th women's group he addressed, and then two of the women's small groups asked him to answer questions and the speech class was all girls, so he's now up to 19 women's groups!

The Men of Honor class invited Rich to address them as Eric Liddell, which was a fun way to expose them to an honorable man and preview the Sunday night performance of Beyond the Chariots (http://RichDrama.com/BeyondtheChariots). There were at least three in attendance there who knew people who were in the internment camp where Eric Liddell died.

Monday we took the high speed (over 160mph) train to Kaosiung to perform Big Fish Little Worm (http://RichDrama.com/BigFishLittleWorm) for the Morrison campus there, made up of grades K-9. The photo is with some of the ninth graders.

On our last day in Taiwan we did faculty devotions and Big Fish Little Worm for Morrison's Taipei campus (K-9) followed by seven classes of all but three grades. We had a ball!

I'm writing en route to Singapore, where I'll be performing. Joyce is also in the air but--sadly--she's heading the other direction to get back home in time to speak in Pittsburgh: http://itinerary.richdrama.com.

You can see our photos at http://SwinglesInAsia2011.Shutterfly.com.

Sipping in Singapore

I'm sipping a coconut under a palm tree watching hundreds of ships go in and out of the busiest harbor on earth as I recuperate from our wonderfully busy schedule in Taiwan and recharge for performances here this weekend: http://itinerary.richdrama.com .

Meditate on the Word

Joyce got to preach this morning on Psalm 1 at the House of Blessing Church in Taichung, Taiwan.

Introduction by Dan Robinson, principal of Morrison Academy. Translated into Mandarin.

James Hudson Taylor, V

James' grandfather, the great-great grandson of Hudson Taylor, saw Beyond the Chariots three times on our different trips to Hong Kong. You can read more about him here.

We were delighted to connect with James throughout the week and to pray with him tonight.

Can't wait to see how the Lord uses your willing heart, James! We'll be praying for you!

Love,
Rich & Joyce

Indescribable Trailer

They just posted the trailer to Indescribable, the movie in which Joyce and I play Mr. and Mrs. Lehman.
Indescribable Trailer from Indescribable The Movie on Vimeo.

An amazing start to our adventures in Taiwan

It has been so clear to us that people are praying for this journey by the timing of the entire day! Every place we went the bus was ready to go within five minutes of us getting there! That morning we got our directions based on the wrong airport, thereby putting us at a station we wouldn't have gone to to catch our bus to our hotel, but that was exactly the station we needed to catch a free shuttle to Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world: a perfect place to prayer walk the entire city in a matter of minutes. One bus that was supposed to come in 10 minutes came in 1, while I was buying water, but the next was right behind it, and we loaded within 5 minutes of my return. That bus happened to be the one that English speakers boarded just before we needed to disembark, and they were able to confirm where to get off.

We were remarking that every time we messed up, the Lord used it for the good.
Then, when we checked in at our hotel they told us that our reservation was at a hotel in Taipei, not in Jinshan where we had just arrived! The hotel where we stood had only one room available, and it was about $1500/ night more than the room we'd already paid for. Don't worry, that is in Taiwanese dollars, and they didn't charge us for the increase since the two hotels were connected. We chose the site because it is on the beach AND has hot springs, so I'm not certain how the website put our reservation at the other hotel! Our room was usually more expensive because it had it's own hot springs. Once we arrived, we couldn't figure out how to make the water hot, so we were on our way to ask the front desk when we struck up a conversation with a family that spoke a bit of English. They ended up taking us to a night market, one of the things we'd hoped to do! Upon returning to our room the hot water in the hot springs worked! We gave the family a link to a page I set up this morning just for them to download the Eric Liddell documentary I worked on.

The timing of this morning just capped it all off! I went for a swim in the ocean and had some of the best waves I've ever body surfed. Upon reaching the shore they closed the beach. I guess the waves were so good because there's a typhoon out at sea!

As I write we're riding through some beautiful, lush, mountainous countryside, praying for this whole amazing, 100 year old (this year) nation.

We're now at Morrison Academy and are in the middle of Day 2 for Spiritual Emphasis Week: http://itinerary.richdrama.com.

The Northwest Territories

Joyce and I are flying over the northernmost Canadian province en route to Taiwan to lead the Spiritual Emphasis Week at Morrison Academy in Taichung.

Heading to Singapore

I'll be performing Beyond the Chariots at Joyden Hall at Iluma (near Bugis Junction) on 1 October at 7.30 pm.

It's by invitation only, so if you missed the note I sent out please message me on Facebook: Facebook.com/RichSwingle and I'll make sure there's a place for you.
Rich

Walking in Victory on 9/11/11

I opened worship at Westchester Chapel this morning.

I'll be performing Five Bells for 9/11 tonight in NYC at 8pm: RichDrama.com/FiveBells.

Five Bells for 9/11 in NYC on 9/11/11

For about a year it's been on my heart to offer my one-man play Five Bells for 9/11 in New York City on 9/11/11.

Shortly after those tragic events that changed the world, I took a workshop put on by the Billy Graham Association empowering lay people to counsel those who were traumatized. One of the things they told us was that it's important to bring events back to our memories, especially when we can find positive memories that were there, too. That's exactly what Five Bells for 9/11 does.

The play tells the stories of three people that were directly impacted: Bruce Van Hine, a fire fighter for Squad 41 in the FDNY; Lana Ho Shing, a mutual funds specialist for Morgan Stanley, and Father Brian Jordan, a Franciscan priest at the Church of St. Francis.

Ann Van Hine, the wife of one of the characters in the play said, "We shouldn't be coping, we should be hoping." It is my deepest desire that this play will bring hope and healing to those who experience it.

If you're in or near the city I hope you can join us. Or if you know of someone that would be encouraged by it's message please invite them.

It will be performed at 400 W 43rd St at the corner of 9th Ave. Tell the security guard that you're there for an event in The Ellington Room. The play will begin at 8pm. There is no charge and no offering will be collected.

The play will also be performed at the home church of Bruce and Ann Van Hine on September 9 at 7pm. For more information click here.

That was lovely. Thank you.
--Robert M. Fresco
Academy Award winning filmmaker Checklosovakia 1968

Rich, thanks so much for such a powerful and moving performance and message.
--Melanie M. Jeschke
Author of The Oxford Chronicles and Jillian Dare

Five Bells for 9/11 at King's Chapel

I'm performing Five Bells for 9/11 (http://RichDrama.com/FiveBells) near Washington, DC, for the first time. The King's Chapel is hosting it. This is the church that recruited me and several MasterWorks (http://RichDrama.com/MWF) students for the film For the Glory (http://RichDrama.com/ForTheGlory).

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