I've taught, performed and/or directed at the Salvation Army's
TAM Conservatory for 11 of their 15 years. I've only missed it for the
Olympics and performing at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This year it was just as fulfilling and rewarding as ever!
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I got to speak before and after
Princess Cut. |
When I realized that
Princess Cut would be opening in theaters during the Conservatory I asked if they'd consider setting up a screening at a the theater to which the students could walk. I was ecstatic when they pursued that, but the theater never returned their calls. Instead, with the blessing of producer
Paul Munger, they opted to show it outdoors! Since they needed to wait until dark they scheduled 75 minutes of praise and testimonies beforehand. The testimonies went long, which is always a delight! If we'd shown it in a theater we would have needed to leave on time to get to the movie, but we would have missed some amazing prayer requests and stories, including Matt Frye's. He shared that he was the result of his mother being raped when she was 16. Not only did she set aside her hopes and dreams to honor the life within her, she gave him a name which means "Gift of God." Now he's a pastor. What a great fulfilment of that prophetic name he's turned out to be, and what a picture of beauty from ashes our students would have missed had my dream of showing Princess Cut in a theater come to pass. By the way, it's not too late to
bring Princess Cut to a theater near you!
One of my favorite events during the Conservatory was handing out free pizza and MetroCards with our Small Group. We had a number of profound encounters, but the best from my perspective was an answer to a very specific prayer. We prayed that we'd be able to
introduce someone to the Lord. A woman accepted a MetroCard, and when asked if we could pray for her, she said she'd like the city to become easier. One of our students prayed for her, and our group leader, Chuck Goodin, noticed that she wiped her eye after the prayer. I mentioned to her that she must be new to the city. She said, "Oh, no. I've been here two years." I told her she was most certainly still new to the city. I told her I've lived here 21 years, and she asked when it started to get easier. I told her it was about five years in before it really started to feel like home. Then I asked her if she'd found a church home yet. She said she prioritized getting a job and getting settled into that. She said she was considering
First Corinthian Baptist Church, and I asked if I could pray with her about that. She agreed, and I ended up praying the
Gospel over her, that the blood Jesus shed for her would cover everything that had come between her and the Lord and that she would grow deeper in her relationship with Him. Pray she receives this and walks in it.
I got to direct a Branch Group with students from the Northern New England and Western Pennsylvania Divisions of the Salvation Army. We staged a piece we hope to perform in Rio during the Olympics. We're building our team, so pray about joining us:
www.RichDrama.com/Rio.
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| Our title slide by Ryan Livingston |
On Friday night we put all of our hard work together, and you can watch the entire finale below. There's a short video highlighting the week at 5:44, and the piece my students developed through
sociodrama can be seen at 47 minutes.
http://livestream.com/accounts/245732/events/4244612/videos/95540740/player?width=400&height=225&autoPlay=false&mute=false
