MIME 2011

Every Year our HS Youth put on a Mime performance that shares the story of Jesus during Easter.  Well this year Rob and I are the Youth Directors at our Church, so we were faced with the challenge of helping these kids organize a Mime performance.  Let's me just tell you...our gifts don't neccessarily fall in the category of Directing and Producing (if they did we would be in Hollywood making a heck of a lot more $$ than we do now).  None the less, the Youth are very passionate about this performance, so we said we would give it a whirl.  I mean really the story is already has an amazing Author (God), so how bad could we mess it up?....We found ourselves digging in the Bible, reading & rereading stories.  Trying to put together a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of Christianity that could inform and expose those that would be hearing (or should I say seeing...it is a Mime afterall) it for the first time.  All the while we needed to touch those that have heard the story a thousand times over and somehow inspire that audience as well.  You know I often say if God takes you there, He will take you through it also.  It ended up being 40 days (lent season) of fear, mental & physical stress, trust, patience, and inspiration all working together to carry us to the end product.  Below are a couple of snapshots of the group.

 The cast (HS) and crew (MS) posing prior to praying in before the performance.  It is really cool because they all take a vow of silence from the moment of exiting the room until the performance is over.  The kids told us the night before that they do this so that they can focus and personally experience the story without the distraction of conversation.   I was so impressed by their ability to not only not speak for over a solid hour, but also be able to communicate with each other through expression and hand signals.

Here is Jeremey (playing Jesus) and Mason (playing child Jesus).  It is so cool because when Jeremey was Mason's age, it was the first year they introduced the character of the boy Jesus in the temple and Jeremey was asked to play that part.  He has come full circle.  We have been blessed beyond measure to work with this group of 16 High Schoolers, 5 MS, and 1/2 dozen elementary kids to pull this performance off.  We had a full house....standing room only...would have never imagined that kind of a turnout....160 people attend...(err umm, I mean 146 people were there Mr. Fire Marshall, yeah that's it).