Indiana

​We have been in Indiana for the past 10 days.  We are going home tomorrow.  

I say "Home" but as Tommy and John boy have informed me several times on this trip, "Home" is wherever we are!

I contemplated staying "home" this trip, but about 3 days before we were to leave, Tommy said "the person who goes on a journey, has a story to tell."  So I packed  my bag and came!

I'm glad I did.  Yes, it has been a bit inconvenient, but we were together, and that's what counts.  I dreaded it at the beginning, but the time has flown by and I DO have stories to tell.  Lots of stories!

Everywhere we went I prayed for a good audience, and the Lord answered that prayer!  It makes a difference if you have a responsive audience, and so far we have!  Today is our last show, and I am praying the Lord will come through for us once more on this trip.

We have been rehearsing "Hallelujah Chorus" for several weeks now, and performed it at the first place...a church camp that was raising money for the camp.  We actually had two performances at the camp...one at night and the other the next day.  They raised the money and we felt good about our "show".  The Hallelujah Chorus is NOT easy, but we made it through.  The rest of the show also went really well.

Our next show was "Star Queen" our musical about Queen Esther from the Old Testament.  There was a family on the front row...a Daddy and his three children...who had lost the Mother to cancer a few months back.  All through the show they were engaged...even the youngest boy.  He was about 6 years old and even though he had a hard time sitting still, he was "with us" the whole way.  At some point in the show, one of the little girls  got so caught up she muttered "OH NO!" at one of the actions in the play.  Of course the audience loved it!

When a child engages like that, you feel like you "have" them!  When Hamman (the bad guy in the show) comes off the stage to scare the audience, he went straight for the little boy, who curled up next to his Daddy...not sure if Hamman was serious or not.

One of the women in the audience, would barely let Tommy do his thing for booing him!  A very appropriate response, by the way.

We have spent most of the week at The Gathering Place....a huge metal building sitting in the middle of flat Indiana.  Our good friend Joyce owns it, and she opens it up to us to stay in any time we are up here, and we are up here a lot!  She has it decorated for Christmas, and when we aren't performing or working on our script, we have had some restful moments sitting in front of her fire, or talking with her over dinner.  

When the Lord said we would have houses, and lands and family if we followed Him, it has truly come true in our lives.

So, step outside your door, and start collecting stories.  Your life will be fuller and richer for it.  Merry Christmas!

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