Eric Liddell Joins the Global Hymn Sing

02.23.18 03:03 PM Comment(s) By Rich

Keith and Kristyn Getty have invited the world to a Global Hymn Sing this Sunday, February 25, 2018.

The hymn they've chosen is "Jesus Will Reign," which Eric Liddell led a crowd in singing just before boarding the train which started his trek to China. His Olympic gold and bronze medals, not to mention his world record in the 400m, opened up many prestigious offers in Europe and the U.S. But he left it all behind to serve the Chinese as a teacher, track coach, and missionary for the rest of his short life.

I've been portraying Liddell since 2004 in my one-man play Beyond the Chariots, and I planned to dramatize Liddell singing "Jesus Shall Reign" in a follow-up film to Chariots of Fire, but we were beat to the finish line.
I just found out about the Global Hymn Sing, so I thought the best way to dramatize him leading that hymn, given the short time constraint, would be to portray him reflecting on that event at a point of his life that gives us a peek into the life he sacrificially chose.

Here's our Facebook Live Hymn Sing with the video we created:

Recording of the Facebook Live Hymn Sing
Here's the Facebook Live Hymn Sing we did earlier today. I didn't figure out how to switch back and forth between our camera and the video, so I just prerecorded our opening and closing comments and just put it into a single video. That turned out to be great because Joyce had lunch with a friend after church and she missed the train that would have brought her here on time! The bummer was that I didn't realize it would take the audio from my computer mic, so you could hear me typing up where people were from and singing along with myself! LOL! So here's the straight video with much better sound!

The lithograph on the wall behind us was given to me by Eric's middlest daughter, Heather, while she was speaking after one of my Off-Broadway performances of Beyond the Chariots. The story behind that lithograph is told in the play, which you can watch at www.RichDrama.com/BtC .

We've had 215 people watch so far from at least the following: England, Malaysia, Czech Republic, Germany, OR, SC, TX, MA, MD, NY, GA, TN, CO, KY, MI.

Find out more about the Global Hymn Sing at www.RichDrama.com/EricLiddellHymnSing
Posted by Rich Swingle on Sunday, February 25, 2018

And here's the video alone:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/SKC7SPrHUPw

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See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story in Beyond the Chariots. Watch it online and book a live performance.