The Story of Our Christmas Play

I must admit, I did not think that I would make it through it.  I have a tendency of getting myself in way above my head.  The children's bell choir was planned, but a Christmas play was not.  It had been on my mind and I was casually glancing through skits online.  We were now down to about 4 weeks, maybe 5, either way not much time.  Reading through them one in particular caught my attention.  It had such a powerful salvation message that I could not help but do it AND it only needed a few actors with an adult doing most of the talking.  Lina quickly translated it and we started practices.  They were interesting to say the least...the practices and the kids.

Bogdan

Let me begin with bell practice.  I had imagined them listening intently and ringing on key.  I mean, it is three 10 year old's and the other three were mine.  HA!  They were making their own melodies and harmonies, bells were in mouths, wiping noses (NOT by the younger ones either!)...Talking in Russian is hard enough without all of these distractions, not to mention that kids don't have the patience to wait while you try to explain yourself. ;)  Then there were the babooshka's singing a different melody to "help" the kids know what to do asking them questions right in the middle of a song.  If they stopped me and started talking, the boys would disappear within a second and I would have to go chase them down again.

 Our Cast :)

Now the skit.  Usually the practice consisted of me chasing down kids to get them to come for their part, trying to get them to be quiet enough so that the others could say their lines...  A lady, Olya, stayed to watch our practice the Sunday before our performance.  She and Eric were laughing the entire time, THEN asked if it was supposed to be serious or a comedy!

I approached this with my usual big dreams.  I had a folder of costumes I wanted to make, lists of things we needed (like a couch, HAHAHA)...you get the idea.  Well, we came down to 2 weeks of our play and I had just gotten back my sewing machine from Slavic.  He had needed it for his business.  But, my sewing machine is now having problems!  AHHH!  I started to get worried and stress over it.  It seemed like it was on my thoughts day and night.  How foolish of me!  I guess I didn't think God could take care of my little costume problem!  Eight days away from our play, I walked around the second hand store looking for some sweaters for the boys.  After we had already paid for them, I noticed some princess dresses on a stand.  The girls were SO excited.  There is another section that is cheaper so I decided to walk over there first to see if they had any princess dresses.  I'm sure you can guess what happened next, but I did not have a clue!  I was not looking for the Lord to provide or care for my worries, especially since they were such little ones.  There they were, 2 costumes that looked perfect for shepherds, one for Joseph and one that could work for an angel!  I was practically floating in air through the store!  I still needed a Mary costume, but WOW!  Look what the Lord had already done!  I then went back to the first section to get the princess costumes for the girls and EVEN MORE was waiting for me!  An even better angel costume, another shepherd costume AND A COSTUME FOR MARY!!!  What a blessing!  I am so thankful the Lord still blesses when I am leaning only on myself!

 The mom, son and daughter

Sunday morning we arrived at the church early, as planned.  Lina went over to Bogdan and Nikita's house to gather them, but Bogdan would not get out of bed!  As I was arranging to have Lina ring his bell, I turned around to see his mom walking into the door and Bogdan shoveling the pathway with the other boys!  Interesting start to our day. ;)

Our 'manger' scene characters...Max played both Joseph and Isaiah.  And I just noticed that Lydia has baby Jesus upside down...ooops!

Overall, the Lord really blessed.  The play moved pretty smoothly.  I was very proud of the kids.  They did a super job.  Nikita knew his lines perfectly and Anna did a good job with her lines too.  But the one who stole the show was Daniel.  He was a little 'lamb' in a basket at the manger scene while the kids sang 'Angels We have Heard on High'.  Everyone started laughing and I looked down to see our little lamb swaying back and forth in his basket to the song!  I about died {from laughter}!  He was just too cute!  And Joseph ended up moving so the lamb was front and center, between Joseph and Mary.  Lina and I ended the skit by singing the song by Ron Hamilton about long ago in Bethlehem.  It summed up our play perfectly.  We decided to sing it only the week before.  I was desiring to do parts, but we ended up singing it together...which is good since I had been moving at high speed the entire time and had a hard time slowing down.  Add to that, I was SO nervous that I could hardly get my lines out correctly at the beginning!  At the end, two ladies were crying (one left the building).  I am not sure if it had to do with the message of the play or not, but we are praying for their salvation.  Also, Bogdan and Nikita's mom came to the play too.  For those who have been praying for our Christmas play, thank you so much!  We tried to video tape it for you guys, but our 'video man' didn't get the whole play.  He's learning so we'll get there.  Because of the video camera, Bogdan left saying he was a movie star now. ;)

Nastia, a young lady who we are doing Bible lessons with.  Also one of the ones crying at the end of the service.