Scatterday Thoughts

Every September there is one day when everything seems to be happening, and that day this year was today. I had an 8 am appointment to meet someone for prayer, my daughter had a birthday party to go to (though NOT the same friend whose party she's gone to the past few years; someone ELSE moved in with a birthday party on the busiest day of the year), the 19th century historic site two blocks from us had their annual fall "Erntefest" with costumed craftspeople and tourguides, the Sewickley Academy had their annual Clotheseline Sale, and a co-worker had a party and ceremony to bless her new home. And it's Saturday, so I made breakfast (thankful for the fact it was an "Egg Day" and not a "Pancake Day") and we did our family trip to the Sewickley Library. In the crunch of events, I RSVP'd that we would NOT be attending my co-worker's party, and we ran out of time to make it to Erntefest (which was probably best, as it was raining and Boo has a bit of a cough). So the busiest day of the year wasn't as busy as it could have been with better weather, better health, and more to spend at the Sale...

I taught my second session of Fall Drama Camp on Tuesday. There was no other adult on hand to help me (though there was a guitar class down the hall), and things were a bit chaotic. I'm still finding it difficult to wrap my mind around this class--I enjoy it, and the kids seem to enjoy it, but a lot of the things I've done before in similar situations aren't working. Part of the problem is I'm used to working in theater with older kids or young adults, so I'm having to adjust and pitch things for a younger group of actors. But I think I'm probably also dealing with some levels of ADD in some of these kids, which is something new for me to try to tackle (both in teaching and in group dynamics). I'm trying to read up on the subject and make MORE adjustments to my goals and methods of teaching...

Praying at the high school this morning, I realized how totally out of touch I am with what is going on there. A decade ago, when I started working with the youth group at church, we had quite a number of kids who not only attended the high school, but who were all pretty active in band, theater, and other activities, so I had a pretty good idea from them on what was going on on campus. The youth in our church today are few in number, and the vast majority of them attend other schools. The two who do attend the local high school are both introverts, so even if I asked them directly, I don't know that I would get any clear sense of what life is like for the majority at Ambridge High...

Aside from the Drama Camp, I am not actively engaged in any outreach projects at the moment. There may be an Alpha Course in the Spring, and we may have a youth track to that I can be involved in, but we could not field enough volunteers to continue offering the KidzLife program, and what needs our teens have for a youth group seem to be being met by their Sunday school teachers. I've not been asked back to teach any classes for the Center for Hope, and I'm feeling a bit rudderless. My wife says God is giving me time to relax, be refreshed, and work ahead on some projects, but I'm having a tough time seeing where we're going from here...

We finally got around to getting a converter box for our TV. For years (since cable got pulled) the only channel we have received was ABC, with a lot of snowy static. As the only TV show we watched with any regularity was LOST, that worked out fine, but with the switch to Digital, we got nothing. So now we get CBS, NBC and something called RTV (which we'd never heard of, but airs reruns of REALLY old shows--the same ones that were in reruns when we were kids 40 years ago!). My goal is to find ABC before LOST starts its final season this winter...

In the meantime, we've been catching up on episodes we missed (most of Season 3), and that has been fun. I'm developing a theory that the entire show my be an adaptation of Archibald MacLeish's J.B., with Jacob and his Nemesis sitting in for Mr. Zuss and Nickles (who in turn stand in for God and Satan in the book of Job), observing human suffering and placing their bets on how it will all turn out. We shall see...

"Babies Are Happy..."

Last night my daughter asked me to draw a baby crawling. I did so (in my typical Disneyesque fashion), with a short-sleeved shirt, long pants and socks. Then she did her 7-year-old version (evolving from stick-figure to a beginning sense of mass and perspective), but when it came to clothing the crouching figure, she asked how to draw a diaper. Then she asked how to draw diapers by themselves, and did three of different sizes across the top of her drawing. She asked about the different kinds of diapers she had worn and then asked how spell "HUGGIES" and added that in large capitals at the bottom. She then informed us she was drawing a diaper ad, and asked what else an ad would have in it; I suggested she put a price in one corner and label the three diapers across the top "Large," "Medium" and "Small". Then she added other smiling baby faces around her full-figured baby and explained "Babies are happy when they wear Huggies!" I told her that was a great slogan ("What's a 'slogan'?") and she asked me to write it above her big "HUGGIES".

I've often thought I could have made a decent living on Madison Avenue (if I could only shed my conscience), but I attributed my fascination with advertising to certain teachers I had, especially in Jr. High, who stressed educating us as critics of media, and advertising in particular (we had to collect or journal examples we saw of "snob appeal," "sex appeal," "bait-and-switch", and other tactics). I thought I could be successful in the field because I could identify (and then master) the tricks.

My daughter, however, has largely been shielded from mass media. We don't have TV, rarely listen to radio, hardly ever purchase a newspaper, and what magazines we may have had subscriptions to have almost all lapsed. I'm not sure where she got the idea to create an ad, much less where she got her sense of layout, design, and her ease with summing up the whole appeal in such a snappy little saying.

I guess maybe it's not all "tricks" that can be learned. Partly it must be innate.

How I Spent My Summer "Vacation"

Many apologies to anyone who has been trying to check this blog to see what I'm up to. I assure you my "radio silence" has been due to more, rather than less, activity. For two weeks in June and all of July, I was involved in Ambridge Arts Camp, a companion to Ambridge Sports Camp, run by Ambridge Youth Ignite and my friend Eric Geisbert. Each morning from 9 to noon, kids were invited to participate in a different sport each week, then from 1 to 3 in the afternoon (after most of the kids enjoyed a free lunch provided by the YMCA and hosted by Church of the Savior) we gave them a chance to explore their creativity. For the first two weeks we focused on visual arts, studying eras and artists from the past (that's a photo of me teaching the kids about Matisse), letting the kids draw, paint, sculpt, and do art with various materials and methods. The next two weeks we taught them drama, and the final two weeks, we focused on music. I was director for the visual arts and drama weeks, and Sadie Rankin directed the music weeks, during which time I worked with the kids on writing lyrics for two original songs. It was all very fun and exhausting, and we all got stretched in a number of ways! Four of us plan to offer more classes in the fall, and Eric is hoping to offer one sport not otherwise available in Ambridge, so we're looking for ways to continue this ministry and these relationships throughout the school year.

On a somewhat sadder note, we had to cancel our VBS due to lack of adult volunteers. I still plan to work on the scripts and other materials in hopes of doing it at another time, but clearly we did not have the people to make it fly this summer. Many things seem to be in transition with our children's ministries at COTS, and it falls to me to discern what direction we need to take. Your prayers are welcome in this endeavor.

Surviving the Apocalypse

Well, we did it! Three nights worth of puppet shows adapting Revelation in a single night. It was incredibly rough, we were short by about four puppeteers (requiring a lot of running around and simply holding up the puppet who was speaking, without having a chance to actually get your hand in and move the mouth; my worst moment was juggling the woman clothed in the sun, her male child, the red dragon, AND one of Michael's angels at the same time), but we made it through. Thanks to all who helped, thanks to all who prayed, and a special thanks to Pam, who managed to find and execute a number of key musical cues (what's heaven without music?)!

I'll have more to write as I reflect on this. For now, I have to try to re-organize all my puppet materials and devote those energies to the puppet class I'm teaching for the Center for Hope over the next few weeks. And puppetry may make an appearance in Arts Camp later this summer. (I don't think we will do much with it in VBS, though we'll probably bring back Paolo the Parrot in some form.)

The most discouraging part of our final program was attendance. We had been drawing fewer and fewer kids as the end of the year neared, but based on other closing programs (when we mail out invitations and encourage the kids to bring their whole family), I was anticipating we would have a fair turn-out. We had only six kids. Clearly we need to take some time off (and with some key team members away or otherwise engaged this fall, it is looking like we will have a half-year hiatus for the ministry) and re-evaluate what we are doing and who we are trying to do it for. Hopefully the neighborhood survey we will be conducting this weekend will help us start to analyze what is going on. We shall see...

"Gazing on the stars and walking in the dust"

Several months ago I caught a piece on NPR where they were discussing a comic featuring a pirate with an eye-patch, a peg-leg, and a hook for an arm. Behind this pirate were two other pirates talking about him, and, after reading through several possible captions (which apparently listeners had sent in), the guest gave the official (or winning?) caption of what the one pirate was saying to the other. Pointing to the pirate in front, the one says to the other admiringly, "I could never be HALF the man he is!"

The main character in this upcoming VBS drama is a recurring character from our "Pirates in Paradise" VBS I wrote two years ago. At the conclusion of that storyline, the majority of the pirates voted to quit being pirates, accept the Royal Pardon, and devote themselves to spreading the word that even pirates can be forgiven and make a fresh start. They changed the name of their ship from "The Bloody Gem" to "The Heavenly Pearl," voted off their former captain Harry DuPillage, and elected as their new captain the former first mate, Dick Dead-Eye.

Dick Dead-Eye, as played brilliantly by our Assistant Pastor Ron, was a bit of a buffoon. Instead of a parrot, he had a chicken pinned to his shoulder, and when the children laughed and pointed to it, he pretended not to see, as the chicken was on the side where he wore an eye-patch (and hence, his name "Dead-Eye"). He also had a hook for a hand (though I can't recall which hand it was, and there is a good chance he changed it from day to tday). Elevating Dick to Captain of a missionary ship, and having his experiences parallel those of St. Paul will require some rewriting of the character (which will be somewhat eased by the fact that Ron, unfortunately, is unable to reprise the role, as he will be a real-life missionary in Brazil), but I hope to keep some of his fun-loving spirit intact.

"The one-eyed man still has one good eye," as Mark Heard sings in his song "Schizophrenia" (which focuses on seeing both the good and the bad in life). It seems a bit insensitive in the third person, but those I have known with handicaps of various sorts (including Ron, who lost his tongue to cancer several years ago), seem to be able to look on the brighter side of life and make light of their infirmities (if they are able to cope at all and not fall into bitterness and depression). That is how I imagine Dead-Eye Dick handling his disabilities. There are those who insist on referring to the Captain now as "Richard the Seer" (based on his growing reputation as a Christian leader, church planter, miracle worker, and visionary), but I see him as being a more earthy character who answers to both names. He is appreciative of the fact that he's "still got one good eye" (and one good hand), and he looks forward to the day when he lands on the King's Shore and receives a fully restored body, but in the meantime he gets by best he can, and doesn't pretend to be more than he is.

"Over on the west coast we have Treasure Island"

I was thinking the other day about VBS and the need for female roles in the drama. Pilgrims come in pairs, so of course there will be a female Puritan to help hound our reformed pirates as they try to be missionaries. But I was thinking of other possibilities and remembered reading about Mary Read and Anne Bonny, and I got to thinking of a female pirate. The ex-pirate missionaries first goal was to reach other pirates with word of the Royal Pardon they had all claimed, so I thought on the first day they could take the gospel to some other pirates, and a female pirate could be one of their first converts. Then I tried coming up with a name for this female pirate, and I got to thinking of the book of Acts and Paul's missionary journeys (which is my primary source of inspiration for this venture) and I remembered Paul had a female convert early on in the city of Philippi named Lydia, so a female PIRATE convert might be... LYDIA the TATTOOED LADY!

Delay of the Parousia

It probably surprises no one that my attempt three weeks ago of creating heaven for my puppet theater did not come together in sufficient time. I did make some progress two weeks ago, but only enough to cover the letters to the seven churches (with my translucent Jesus made of pop bottles). Last week we were lacking sufficient puppeteers for what little I had planned to move the story forward, so we are NOW planning on doing the entire book of Revelation (or at least chapters 4-21) in a single night, making our grand finale THE grand finale of all time!

I'm envisioning three scenes (which originally would have been over three separate nights), the first covering the opening scene with a door open in heaven up through the seventh seal and silence for a half an hour (seems like a good place to break). The second scene will begin with the "War in Heaven" (from chapter 12), introducing the Dragon, followed by Beast and False Prophet (I'm hoping to pick up a Pirate puppet, as for years--since reading Zechariah 11--I've pictured this character as a one-eyed, hook-handed man). Having established the Unholy Trinity and their earthly rule, we will back up to the 144,000 being sealed and the trumpet judgments, ending with the Two Witnesses of Chapter 11. The third scene will introduce Mystery Babylon, go through the seven bowl judgments ending in Armageddon, and conclude with Christ's reign, the Great White Throne, and the New Heaven and New Earth. Should be quite a night!