During EuroTour18Joyce was invited to speak in Frankfurt. She's translated to German by our friend Thorsten M.

I play a lead in  Providence, which I like to call a feature-length music video.

Joyce and I presented plays and teachings in eight nations throughout Europe in August and September. Later, Harald Sørlie, who produced Rich's performance of I Dreamed I Was Free in Oslo, visited New York City. We met with him and Danielle Campbell, who introduced us to Harald, at the restaurant where it all started.

We talk about that first conversation that blossomed into an eight-nation tour... and about the sounds animals make in Norwegian.

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https://www.youtube.com/embed/Id8Tyy-gd3Y

In a time when darkness, strife, and division seem to reign--very much like the time Jesus was born--we pray Joy to the World!

We finally sorted all of our photos from our trip to Europe this fall. You can find all the albums at www.SwinglesEuroTour2018.Shutterfly.com.

Here are the individual albums:

We started our trip in Copenhagen, Denmark...

Follow us into Tivoli Gardens and to other wonderful sites in Copenhagen.

Then we presented in Denmark and Sweden on the same day...

Joyce was translated (through headphones) into Danish. Swedish translations were used for Rich's performance of Big Fish Little Worm that evening.

We spent a couple of days in Randers and Ørsted, Denmark, where Joyce's grandfather and great grandparents lived...

Solve the mystery of the golden boot in Randers and Ørsted, Denmark

Back to work in Oslo, where Rich performed  I Dreamed I Was Free at the Nordic Black Theatre and Joyce shared her testimony...

...and we had a shockingly great time in Norway.

Then to Finland to perform for the Nazarenes and catch up with Timo, the Swingle's foreign exchange student when Rich was in college...

This church was our first stop on our tour of Helsinki.

Next we spent time in Sweden with Niklas, a foreign exchange student from Rich's youth, who inspired this whole trip. We were delighted to meet his wife, Jenny...

We loved spending the day with Niklas and Jenny on the island of Öland, Sweden.

Then to Frankfurt to perform I Dreamed I Was Free, and Joyce brought the Sunday morning message...

After our presentations we relaxed with dear friends in the Rhine Valley, Germany.

With all major presentations out of the way we started our 21st honeymoon in Switzerland...

We found lots of swans and lots of references to Rich's ancestor's brother, Ulrich Zwingli, in Zurich, St. Gallen, and Wildhaus, Switzerland.

... with a stop in Liechtenstein...

...where we did an enacted prayer for the nation and stopped in Triesenberg, Liechtenstein, which Rich's mother's family is named after.

...and then a 24-hour stop in Iceland on the way home...

It doesn't look like it, but we were about to dive into that water, which was actually quite warm in Iceland.

 This is a Google translation of a review in DER BERGEN-ENKHEIMER 13.09.2018,
Mosaikkriche präsentiert Rich Swingle's Theaterstück:

Still up to date: the subject of "slavery"
Mosaic Church presents Rich Swingle's play

Bergen-Enkheim (zbs) - The old slave Dolly had a dream in South Carolina, in the United States of the 18th century. She had run and walked until she got to the sea and went swimming there. For people like her then that was an impossibility. The New Yorker Rich Swingle took up the story and presented the one-man play I Dreamed I Was Free in English for the Mosaic Church Bergen-Enkheim.

Dolly served with other slaves of a Christian white family in the country. John Woolman was the first in the family to think more deeply and philosophically about what it means to be a Christian, but still possess, sell, and trade in slaves as if they were animals. Woolman kept a diary in his day that is still quoted today when it comes to slavery.

Rich Swingle performs regularly with his one-man play
More than 200 years later, in 1997, Rich Swingle had the idea to write a one-man play out of this story, with which he performs regularly. On his tour through Europe he visited Copenhagen, Brussels,   and Frankfurt, more precisely: The Riedsporthalle in Enkheim. "We were really happy when Swingle agreed," says Katharina Steinhauer, Pastor of the Mosaic Church, who made this event possible.

It's about faith in God, anger and despair
In the English-language play in which Swingle's wife directed , it's all about faith in God, anger and despair. In the work, the protagonist tells an anecdote that describes the key message well: John had heard two slaves talking (in a dream) on his travels. One said to the other: "If these colonists attribute everything they do to their God and Jesus, then they must be the most terrible characters."   He then felt obliged to do something about the situation in his country and for the slaves, no matter how much it took to release them.

Rich Swingle takes on nine different roles in the play
Swingle took on a total of nine different roles in the play. He slipped from an august white slave owner and within seconds was in the skin of a dying young black man who will never see his child again. The story showed the transformation of the characters of Woolman, the slave Dolly and the slave trader Michael Worthington.

In the first part of the play John Woolman was presented as a small child. In the second part he is 19 and later he returns after a long journey as a 38-year-old and wants to convince Michael how immoral he acts.

The spectators are also required in the theater performance
Another special feature of the evening was how interactively Swingle designed it. So the spectators acted as "participants" in the "Philadelphia Yearly Meeting." They stood up against slavery and were so quiet between the first and second parts for several minutes after the request of the artist , that you could hear a pin drop.

After the end of the play Swingle sat down on the "Hot Seat" and everyone could ask him questions about the characters, or to himself, of course in English. The approximately 100 spectators asked if the problem of slavery was still happening and if so, what Woolman would do about it today. "Unfortunately, there are currently more slaves than at the time, though not in the US . It is still very bad. In total there are nearly 30 million worldwide. What we can do is fundamentally change our behavior towards people of whatever origin. It is now, more than ever, important to show love and to believe," were then the words of the actor.

Joyce taught on Jeremiah for the Church of the Nazarene in Oslo, Norway. It is a Portuguese community with people from Cape Verde, Brazil and Norway.

Click the arrow below, or if you're reading this in an email you can click this link, to play the service:

https://archive.org/embed/JoyceOnJeremiahInOslo

Before Joyce taught, Rich performed Jonah. We were both really moved to share with this community.

Afterward we got to see the city, including the Oslo Opera House, which is in the photo above. That's Joyce in the far right.

We were in the city to perform I Dreamed I Was Free at the Nordic Black Theatre. Everyone seemed to feel that it went really well, and we're talking about a return with a longer run. Here's my report...


This is the first of a series of posts I'm planning that will share details from this trip with performances in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Germany: Europe2018.

Joyce shares about God's love from  1 John 4:7-21 for the Nazarene Church in Greve, Denmark, just outside of Copenhagen.

Joyce was interpreted into Danish through headphones for those who needed it, so she doesn't pause for interpretation, but you can hear the interpreter speaking into the headphone system.

Click the arrow below to play the message, or if you're getting this via email, click here.

https://archive.org/embed/JoyceInDenmark1Jn7To21082618

Joyce shares how she committed her life to Jesus Christ. If you're interested in knowing more about Jesus, visit www.RichDrama.com/MyPassion.