vbs hero hotline: show grace

When we rehearsed this yesterday before breaking for home, Tom had planned it as a straight "readers' theatre", with us sitting in a line of chairs and perhaps rising for our dialogue.

That changed.

We all started in the chairs, but as our character came into the story, we stood and even moved around in the small space of half the Story Station.

That was fine, and certainly more engaging for the children!

I was initially cast as Disciple 1; however, as we were an actor short for the scene, both Disciple roles were merged, giving me more lines.

Good thing I knew about that last night, so I could do a bit of rewriting of the script from the  Cokesbury VBS resource site.

And what's up with my hair???

Well, I thought I'd change things up for the kids, for a look more fitting for a roaming around person.

Today's shirt color was blue, so... I gave the black one a rest, finding a sleeveless tunic as a costume.

Nice, right?

(smile!)

The story tonight was about Saul's transition from a blind evil guy into sighted Paul, a changed man (played by Rhonda Reed) who followed the examples of Jesus, with the help of Ananais (Tom) and me.

Not everyone liked, or believed, this change, so Cheri and Natalya got to have fun as Plotter 1 and Plotter 2, who hatched a plan to kill him off.

The Disciple alerted Saul/Paul and hatched a "helpful plan" to save his life, engaging Ananais to help lower the threatened man, via a basket, into the river.

So... what to use as the basket?

Just pantomime it?

How about using a hula hoop!!!

I meant to send that thought to Tom, but it all worked out: he had the same thought!

Plus, as we were able to have two hoops, our "basket" had a top and bottom, with a cloth attached as the sides to mask the escapee.

The kids loved it!

Me, too!!!

(smile!)

 

The lesson tonight was: Heroes are called to SHOW GRACE.

What a lovely message!

The kids even saw what happened when people chose to not forgive other's past actions, but to hold those acts against them and plot bad actions of their own.

My jukebox had a nice trio of tunes with the theme of forgiveness!

Of course "Amazing Grace" was at the top, as old as it is.

Plus, it was Grandma's favorite and Elvis sang it, too.

(smile!)

Then, up popped up The Beatles' "We Can Work It Out", an encouragement of others to forgive and let live with a bright beat!

Yep, I still love that 1965 hit!

And for the third one, think about what was on the airwaves in that time frame.

Specifically, think of all the folk songs, like Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right".

I'm sure I heard that one quite a bit from its first spin in 1963 on radio.

Good songs!

Thank you, Mama and Daddy, for instilling a love of singing in me! 

(smile!)