Itching Fingers

Do your fingers ever just itch to make something? I want to lock myself in a studio and make beautiful things like this. I have ideas already for an Easter story and in my head it looks so cool, but although I consider myself an artist, I cannot draw. These people used a lot of raw materials and didn't actually draw very much, so maybe there's hope! 

About the puppeteers. 

A Hard Heart

I am currently reading through the book of Exodus and I have continually come across something that was rather puzzling at first. The beginning portion of Exodus is about God delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and how He does so through Moses and Aaron. The story is quite dramatic and enthralling with frogs and gnats emerging from nowhere, people getting covered in boils, and not a single Israelite being plagued when all the Egyptians suffered, but it was not until after the tenth plague that Pharaoh let the people go. Even then, he was reluctant. This is where my confusion set in. The LORD said to Moses in Exodus 7:3-4, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.” Throughout the following chapters, a similar statement is repeatedly made (Ex. 7:13, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7,12, 34; 10:1, 20) and at first I could not understand why. Why would God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Didn’t He want to set His people free?

I was so consumed with this question, that I missed the answer in plain sight. Verse 5 of chapter 7 says, “And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” Exodus 10:1-2 says ”Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.” How could I even miss it? Of course! Why does God do anything, but for His glory?

By hardening Pharaoh’s heart, God had opportunity after opportunity to display His almighty power. He also made it so the Israelites could remember how God delivered them from Egypt. At first glance, it seems almost unfathomable that something negative could be used for God’s glory, but victory comes with a defeat. In our daily lives, it is especially difficult for us to see how God will use some of the situations we are in for His glory. He can heal someone to show others his power or even simply to remind us of how dependent we are on Him. When things in our lives go wrong, we flail about, stress out, and almost always fail to see the good in the situation. The verse from this morning’s team devotions ties in perfectly: Psalm 46:10 says “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the Earth.” He will be exalted, whether we see how or not. He tells us to stop worrying, stop trying to take control, and stop relying on ourselves. Be still and know He is God.

Taste of Ireland: Even though it has been quite stormy as of late, according to the Irish Meteorological Service, Ireland’s average number of wet days (days with more than 1mm of rain) ranges from about 150 days a year along the east and south-east coasts, to about 225 days a year in parts of the west.

Ten Things to Check Off the Non-Existant Bucket List

For a while I kept up a good habit of posting about every week. As the holidays came around, I let my habit slip and have managed to only post one thing in the last month. I suppose I have hit a kind of writer's block. All of my ideas seem unworthy of sharing and nothing new in my life is particularly interesting enough to write about. So here is a list of ten things from the past two months that I did for the first time.

1. Stayed in the servants quarters of a centuries old house
2.  Scraped ice off the car
3.  Pulled open Christmas crackers – wrapped cardboard tubes with small gifts inside
4.   Lit candles on the Christmas Tree
5. Ate Raclette, complete with a small grill on the table, meat, potatoes, cheese, and wondrous flavors
6.    Saw the alps covered in snow
7.  Went snowboarding!
8.  Travelled by train all by my lonesome – I’m a big kid now!
9.   Voluntarily cooked with mushrooms (and enjoyed it)
10.  Moved into an apartment

   Taste of Ireland: Every entrance to a motorway has a “no horse and buggy” sign. 

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. 

Unity

This past weekend we celebrated the tenth anniversary of OM Ireland. The two days of celebration were a culmination of months of hard work and preparation from staff and volunteers. Many things could be said about this weekend, and many good things have been said, such as how there were more people than we expected or how George Verwer, founder of OM, came and encouraged each individual in the crowd. What I would like to share however is not about the event or even about my experiences; it is about unity. The topic of unity came about several times this weekend and whenever something is repeated, you know it is important.

The ten-year anniversary was an event for us to celebrate with others all that God has done and is doing in Ireland, so naturally we had some people on the property who were not from around here. In speaking with one of them, it was brought to my attention how very blessed I am, and we all are, to have such a wonderful community and team. Each staff member has a job to do each day, yet we still find time to help one another and see the needs of the team as a whole. Work and duties aside, we are able to come together every morning and learn, worship, and pray with one another. It never even occurred to me that in other work places people don’t generally squeeze around one table at lunch to eat together, or spend time in conversation with one another over cups of tea, because it all just felt so natural. I believe it is this unity that made my transition into the office so smooth. It would have been difficult to not feel welcome. This unity among the team allowed us to pull together all that was needed for the celebration and it allows us to continue toward a common goal.

A common thread is essential for unity, and this weekend brought to light another form of unity. Over forty people came on Friday night and over two hundred joined Saturday, coming from near and far to be with us. And what was the common thread? It was not involvement in or even people who have been impacted by OM, although both had a presence. The common thread was, and is, Christ. Some who attended may not know who Christ is, but they came to see what He has done and is doing in Ireland. OM would not exist or have a purpose without Christ, and it is in Him we have unity. The two hundred people in that tent gave a mere glimpse of the unity that is in Christ around the world and the unity that should be enveloping every nation and people group. What else can bring together liars and thieves, pastors and preachers, young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor? We are all subject to the human condition, which means we all need a savior. When we understand that, we are able to stand together in Him.

The tent on Friday morning.
Thankfully the weather cleared up later.

Floating lantern ceremony, representing the different
lights we have shining here for God's kingdom.

Taste of Ireland: If you are asked "have you had any tea?" depending on the time of day, that could be a question referring to if you have eaten supper.