Photo by Jan C.

I got to open the service this morning at Westchester Chapel talking about this photo of the Cross in the clouds.

https://livestream.com/accounts/245732/events/7460854/player?width=400&height=225&enableInfoAndActivity=false&defaultDrawer=&autoPlay=false&mute=false

I teach annually at the  Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.  Subscribe to get a note that registration is open.

This morning I got to share a report about the  Salvation Army's Territorial Arts Ministry Conservatory, and I made reference to a series of Divine appointments that occurred yesterday,  which you can read about here.


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I teach annually at the  Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.  Subscribe to get a note that registration is open.

We never got all five faculty members who were my former students together for a single photo, but this is Jonathon Shaffstall, Brad Cain, and Kathryn Ballantine.

All week I've been performing, teaching and directing at the Salvation Army's TAM Conservatory, where we've been meditating on Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

This morning during the send out I shared with the community how the Lord had been speaking to me about his long-term plans with the Conservatory. The Territorial Commanders, William and Lorraine Bamford, addressed our students after many faculty and students shared, and Commander William Bamford pointed out that we're approaching 1500 students who have been trained at the Conservatory, and many have gone on to do great things for the Lord. This year four faculty members had been my students at TAMC years ago, and one other was a student at a Christians in Theatres Arts event in Puerto Rico. I asked faculty members to stand who had previously been a student at TAMC, and I believe there were nine!

We had a BLAST catching up with Sean and Cath Gaffney, who taught me so much about writing, acting, and teaching!

So, this morning I was on faculty at TAMC with Brad Cain, who had been my student at TAMC 15 years ago. Then, tonight Sean and Cath Gaffney messaged me that they were in NYC and asked if we were free. Sean was on the faculty at Regent University while Brad and Cath (Sean loved being a professor dating a student!) were working on their M.F.A.s in acting at Regent together.

But wait, there's more! Sean and Cath were in the city to see Samantha Sturm, who the three of us taught...wait for it... about 15 years ago! Samantha is now in her sixth Broadway show, CATS, and that's the Broadway show that brought Carol Jaudes, the founding director of TAMC and Susie Somerville Brown into their first collaboration.

OK, so now it gets really interesting: Samantha was 14 when we worked with her. On Thursday Susie worked with my students, who were 14 and up, and this morning a 14-year-old student of mine at the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp a month ago was staying with her family at our place while we were at TAMC.

So the only four 14-year-olds I believe I've ever worked with were connected by this day.

Ryan Livingston was my student for acting, and though he was on faculty to teach visual arts he used his flair for performance in the presentation of their artwork.

Lord, raise up all of our students to co-create with You, the only One who could have even thought of arranging that many Divine appointments in a single day to blow my mind and encourage me to pray all the more diligently for my students, no matter their age!


#PowerToBe
#smallworldBIGKINGDOM

I've been having a blast performing, teaching and directing at my 13th Salvation Army TAM Conservatory. Our theme has been "Power to Be," based on Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth," and we've been seeing power and witness!

Early in our rehearsal for the finale there was a technical issue. I prayed that, since we've been learning to call upon the Power of the Lord, that He would help us with all of our technical needs. They fixed the problem so quickly that everyone got that it was the Lord and we all cheered!

Two of the actors and two of the dancers have trained this week not only to perform but to become leaders in the future. The quote that hit the slide before their dance was from Hudson Taylor: "The power of prayer has never been tried to its full capacity." That being said, our students did quite a lot of exploring!

Jonathon, Brad and Kathryn hanging with me.

It's been such a privilege to be on faculty with five of my former students! Last night Jonathon Shaffstall and Kathryn Higgins made me laugh until the tears were streaming down my face with late night improv. The tears actually fell into my ears since I was a guest artist, playing a cadavre.

On Wednesday night Brad Cain taught a master class on directing. I felt like he put the brush strokes of a whole semester into the canvas of an hour!

Speaking of artwork, my former student Ryan Livingston brought his experience as a performer into his visual arts students' presentation of their work, including a board you just have to see to understand.

Mabel López-Cuevas attended one of my sociodrama workshops at a Christians in Theatre Arts Conference in Puerto Rico. She directed her students in creating one of my favorite choreodramas.

Friday morning I got to do a reading of John 4:1-45, The Woman at the Well, with Kathryn and her husband, Kyle Higgins. Then Kathryn's mother, Heather Ballentine, showed us the video at the bottom of this page. Heather and her husband Len led the Territorial School of Music and Gospel Arts (TSoMaGA). We talked this week about thin places, where we sense the reality of Heaven in a palpable way. TSoMaGA is one of the thinnest experiences I've known.

Heather reminded us that in non-Western societies miracles are being experienced more often: the lame are walking, the blind are seeing, the dead are coming back to life! She closed by inviting us to invite the Holy Spirit to have unfettered reign in our lives! It got seriously thin! We anointed each other with water, and waited on the Lord, who visited us palpably.

When our drama team gathered afterward we shared how the Holy Spirit spoke to us, and we did a couple of powerful enacted prayers.

Here's a powerful spoken word piece that was used early in the service:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hYVwsym41Vc?rel=0
If you received this via email visit http://blog.richdrama.com (8/11/17) to see the video.

More reports at #TAMC on Instagram and Facebook.

This will be the 13th out of 17 years at which I've taught and directed at the Salvation Army's Territorial Arts Ministry Conservatory. Carol Jaudes, who runs the program, was in CATS on Broadway for five years before the Salvation Army brought her on to facilitate using the performing arts in a greater capacity. There are several faculty members who have been more regular than I have been! Carol pointed out that we keep coming back because there's something very special here, and that it is so because we really focus on the students. I also think it's because creating with the Creator is catching a glimpse of Heaven.

I’ll be directing a piece from the Book of Acts. We’ll create a sketch through sociodrama, exemplifying the theme of the week: POWER TO BE, based on Acts 1:8…But you will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my WITNESSES in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Pray we tap into the unsearchable wisdom of the Lord and create something that reflects his brilliance. I’ll also teach a technique class using exercises developed by Sanford Meisner, which put an emphasis on listening. I’m going to focus on the importance not only to listen to our fellow actors but also to the Holy Spirit. I’ll also be teaching enacted prayer.

Pray for stamina, Salvations, rededications, calls to ministry and missions.

If you're in the area, you're welcome to join us for our finale on Friday at 6:30 or 8:30 at the Salvation Army College for Officer Training, in their Lecture Hall at 201 Lafayette Ave, Suffern, New York.

Though the conservatory is only open to members of the Salvation Army, I also teach each year at the  Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp. Sign up for the announcement that we're taking registrations for 2018.

I opened our service at Westchester Chapel this morning with another report on how the Lord worked in the lives of the students at the  performing arts conservatory last week.  Dr. Linda Warren led prayer over Joyce and I, who will be ministering at a retreat in Ohio next weekend.  Pastor Randy Solomon preached on  Matthew 10:26-33 and how a relationship with Jesus Christ eradicates fear.  Rachel Taylor prayed for the sermon, shared announcements and led prayer over Rebekah W. who leaves for college.

https://archive.org/embed/RandyFearMt10082116

I led our church, #WestchesterChapel, in an act of worship introduced at www.RichDrama.com/TAMC. I showed a photo of chains on a church wall in Toledo. Muslims imprisoned Christians, but when they were released in 1494 Queen Isabella had their manacles attached to the church as a sign that the Christians are free. We passed out strips of paper and challenged people to write their fears on the strips and make them into paper chains, which they taped to the wall as a sign that Jesus is setting them free! You can hear the sermon at http://blog.richdrama.com (8/21).

A photo posted by Rich Swingle (@richswingle) on Aug 21, 2016 at 4:41pm PDT

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.

If you want to more about starting a relationship with Jesus Christ visit www.WestchesterChapel.org/Salvation.

Photo courtesy of NicolettiPhoto.com.

This morning at Westchester Chapel I reported on  the performing arts conservatory where I facilitated all week.  Joyce teaches on Matthew 10:16-25. Rachel Taylor opens with Psalm 126, prayer and announcements.

https://archive.org/embed/JoyceFellowshipInPersecution081416

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.

If you want to more about starting a relationship with Jesus Christ visit www.WestchesterChapel.org/Salvation.

Photo courtesy of NicolettiPhoto.com.

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!

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.

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