The Present Meets the Future

I recently began to read C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters and came across a profound way of looking at time, which I felt was appropriate since we are beginning a new year. The quote reads: "The present is the point at which time touches eternity." In our perception of time, the past and the future do not meet except for in the present. We tend to think of the now as the middle of the timeline, but in reality we simply cannot fathom eternity. It is a bit of a sobering thought to think of today as being virtually invisible in the grand painting of eternity. Even so, that does not make the present meaningless. It is quite the contrary. The present becomes all the more important because it only happens once.

I think it is important for us to realize that the time we are given will never be given back to us when it passes. We must make the most of the short time we really have here on Earth because we only have so much time to take it in and to be with the other people on it. My generation has coined the term YOLO, or You Only Live Once and although this philosophy (if it can even be called that) could motivate some people to do great things, it is largely misused. It has become an excuse for people to do stupid things, or spend all of their time finding new ways to live life to the fullest. The latter is the bigger problem of the two because the way to the fullest life is not something new or in need of discovery. It is right in front of us. John 10:10. Christ has come so we may have life to the full.

Time is precious not because I will die, but because others will.

Live Shows: Live Mess-Ups

When you have a live show, there are many variables at play, which means any of those things could go wrong. The lights could glitch, the music could skip, queues could be missed, or someone could keel over right then and there. Although the last one is a bit extreme, there is no telling what will happen during any given show and since The Donkey’s Back has about thirty-five shows in the span of three weeks, things are bound to go wrong. Even so, the good thing about live shows is that you can just roll with it and that, among other things, is what we have learned to do this past week.

The Donkey’s Back is a 45-minute multimedia production for children from 4-12, although adults often enjoy it more than kids do, complete with puppets, song numbers, drama, illusions, and a clear gospel message. Our team consists of Anna, Cornel, Barbara, and myself and we are one of two Christmas show teams from OM Ireland. We started our tour last weekend and we will be going to schools, churches, and community centers across Ireland until the 21^st of December. This past week we went up to Donegal, meaning about 4-5 hours of driving each way. Our set primarily lives inside a trailer as we travel and the jostling around doesn’t seem to be good for the screws, as we keep losing them. We have a few spares, but clearly not enough (or in the rights sizes) so several times this week the set was being held together by duct tape.

Over the course of the week, the shows had great feedback from teachers and the kids all seemed to really enjoy themselves, but often times, they didn’t see what was happening behind the stage. During several shows, the costumes for the donkey completely came off and during Friday night’s show all the costumes had malfunctions. At some point, I accidentally knelt on the cable from Anna’s microphone that is strapped around her neck, causing her to nearly choke to death for a second. At one school, where the room was packed with kids, a small autistic boy decided he wanted to see behind the stage so he booked it all the way across the room and ran behind the set. Needles to say, he was shocked to see Anna’s arm up a puppet and he stood there stunned for a moment as two teachers came running after him. From the beginning of our show, we have had technical difficulties with the lights. We have mostly worked out a method of changing them to do what we want during the show, but every once in a while they have a mind of their own. During a show at a church, the lights would not stop flashing. We tried to fix them, but they kept on flashing. Thankfully, we were able to stay focused and kept going. When people came up to us afterwards, they didn’t even say anything about the lights! That was the same night that I missed an entrance with my puppet because I heard some rowdy children very close to the stage, and when I realized I had to come up, I started coughing. I guess my brain was in tune with my hand because I just made the puppet cough too, and then proceeded with my line as if coughing was in the script.

I am sure there are other examples of mess-ups during our shows, but I tend to forget them. We don’t really have time to dwell on them. If we did, the show would unravel itself and we would become afraid of ruining the show every time we did it. There is no denying that God is the one who has given us peace of mind. We have had to carry all our equipment up frozen stairs and through endless hallways, but He was with us. We had to do a whole show in an echoing hall where we couldn’t hear our own voices and only hoped the kids could hear us, and He was with us. We were an hour late to a show because we got lost in Dublin, but He was with us. All of those little stressful moments didn’t matter because He was with us. We have to remember that He is the one in control. Even when a show seems to be flawless, He alone is the one who drives the message home and opens the hearts of those watching. In view of His power and grace, our stressful moments don’t mean a thing.

I am so blessed, thankful, and honored to be a part of team with the purpose we have. Along with our Cameron Show brothers, we are proclaiming the gospel to over 1,000 kids, students, and teachers in Ireland. We don’t always get much sleep and sometimes our arms feel like they are going to fall off, but God is with us.

The two teams

When we aren't sleeping on the road, we try to have a little fun. :)

Taste of Ireland: Although most schools are English speaking with Irish-Gaelic courses, there are some Irish-Gaelic schools where speaking English is strictly prohibited. Everything is taught in Irish-Gaelic, including math and foreign languages, such as French.