It’s Friday – but Monday’s coming

(Due to the fact that I haven't had time to blog in ages, I am going to post these as separate items since. That way it is easier for you to actually read them).

For those of you who don't know, Pastor Russell put me in charge of the "production" for Easter for the first NZMI Breakthru Convention. The first time he mentioned it was just in passing and so I didn't really know what I was saying yes to. I believe that "conversation took place in February and I didn't really think too much about it until I finally was able to sit down with Ps. Russell at the beginning of March (right before we left for Mthatha) to find out what the heck this actually means. And all I really have to say is wow, it's definitely been a journey.

I don't really handle stress very well. I've known this. I like creating more drama then there needs to be. At school, this was especially true with basically every project. Crazy. But I don't think that I've ever been this stressed out about something in a long, long time. It was unbelievable. It kept me awake at night, it made my heart hurt (literally, which hasn't happened since jr. year of Bluffton when I was so stressed with so many things that the muscles around my heart actually hurt), and it made me cry a lot. Wow. I made a fool in front of a lot of people. Thankfully, everyone was pretty understanding about it.

Anyway, Good Friday was the big day. But the whole time leading up to this convention/production was really frustrating since we were so busy and I couldn't get people organized very well and stuff with the tent wasn't ready until practically the day before (or of) convention itself. So we were finally able to put the pieces of the production together an hour before the service started that evening. Oh man. That was not good for me at all.

I guess I should explain a little bit about this. Since the production was for Good Friday, I had it center around the crucifixion since it was Good Friday. So the title of this piece of works was "Prelude to a Resurrection" which features, audio, visuals, dance, drama and music in order to tell the story of Christ's crucifixion. Instead of being like a play or a musical or something insane like that I took pieces of the arts and placed them together. It all started off with a dance/mine to an audio track that Tim and I recorded using music, sounds, and pre-recorded voices to tell the story of creation, the fall, and a people crying out for the Messiah. This was actually my favorite, favorite, favorite part of the whole thing. Tim and I worked FOREVER on this thing – recording people's voices, re-recording them, placing music in the background, and finding the right sound effects. I think the whole thing was close to 4 minutes long but it took us probably about 24 hours total (if not more so) to complete it. But what was really fun and probably the most fun I've had at work here at BCI. Getting to hang out and be creative all day long is probably the best job any one could ever have. After that part came Yonela's poem (a friend from the senior youth leader's who is an amazing writer) which depicted the voice of Jesus. Third came Ntuthuko's rap (another senior leader) about the crucifixion itself. And then finally was the monologues I did with Ayanda and Nicole depicting three women that interacted with Jesus, telling the events leading up to his death. (Ayanda was Mary from Bethany who washed Jesus' feet with oil. Nicole was the adulterous woman who Jesus saved from stoning, expect this time she was a witness when Jesus was in front of Pilate and then I was one of the women at the cross).

All of it flowed together pretty well too thanks to the audio/visual transitions that we added in between each act. We recorded people's voices saying the Lord's prayer in French, English, Spanish, Afrikans, and Zulu as well as meshing of the Beatitudes with Jesus' words from the Lord's supper. It turned out really nice, especially thanks to Ps. Irvin (from Bloemfontain)'s Mac. I had actually spent a ton of time working on the powerpoints for these things. However, on Thursday, Ps. Irvin told s that we should reconstruct them in his Max movie whatever program, which was a very good thing but it also meant that on Thursday night before the convention started Connie and I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning (in the stupid tent) working on this. I am glad we did it thought because I think we might've had some major glitches if we didn't.

Overall, things were really hectic but it was definitely worth it I think. I know that all my dancers for the first part really enjoyed doing everything with the billows and the lights. (We can't wait to see the video). But it was also really exciting to see stuff that I had written and seen in my head come to life. It makes me very excited about the possibilities of exploring this type of things further, even though I don't really know what that means. All I know, if nothing else, I am grateful that BCI gave me the chance to do something big like this. It's definitely cool to be in a church where the arts are really important and focused on a lot.

And now it's all over. All that hard work has suddenly faded away. And all I know is that I am going to sleep very well tonight.