Quote of the Week: "Luke Skyscraper"

Vancouver is big, beautiful, and seems to be very proud of their history and heritage. The humidity definitely agreed with me. It was ridiculously warm and there was grass on the ground. In JANUARY! There's something seriously weird about that. We went to Gastown, which is like Whyte Ave times ten, and Granville Island, which has some amazing artistry shops. Things like fabric painting, glass art, crafts, etc. If you're an artist and you ever go to Vancouver, spend some time in Granville Island.
We performed several times at Missionsfest this weekend, spending a good chunk of our time lugging props and costumes from one end of the convention centre to the other. If you've ever been to The Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, I'm sure you understand. Let's just say it's a little bigger than the Shaw Conference Centre. The shows went well, with no major screw-ups. On Sunday, our last night, I got to hang out with some of the young adults from our billets' church. It reminded me of after-River outings with the Southsiders...good times.
So now we're on the road again, stopped in Revelstoke on our way to Winnipeg. Under Rhonda's tutelage, Jonathan has learned to crochet. She brought a giant ball of yarn the size of my head, and I'm convinced that by the end we'll have an afghan. The unofficial score of the "Name that Band" game is Maura: 6, Jeremy: 387509. We've named March 2 "Reneyah day," since she is the only team member who is not celebrating a birthday or anniversary on tour.
At some point in the last week, we decided that our many brilliant and funny comments should be recorded, and we now have a quote book. Reneyah has dominated the quotes with such sayings as "Give me an arm" and "Mic me! Mic me now!" However, the official quote of the week was when she said:
"Didn't Harrison Ford play Luke Skyscraper?"

Don't assume that snow will hold you up

Monday:
Today we said goodbye to Barrett, Elaine, Ella, Dale, and Barons to put 600 kilometers under the wheels of the van. It's actually nice to relax after a very, very stressful week. I'm gonna miss Barrett, cause he's freakin' hilarious, and Dale, cause he thinks everything is freakin' hilarious.
One thing I will miss from the prairies is the sky. It's so huge and moody. You go outside, and all you see is field and sky. Every kind of cloud in every size and shape blankets the pale blue. And the sunsets...oh, the sunsets. The entire sky comes alive with colour; golden fingers of sinshine painting orange, pink and gold in the west while an audience of pink-tinged clouds watches from the east. You just want to stand there and spin so you can feel all the colours. It's beyond words.
I think this tour will be a lot of hellos and goodbyes, meeting a lot of people and maybe even making some friends. The only constants will be us (the team, the family) and God. Already I've been blessed by the hospitality and generosity of God's family...it's amazing. They feed you and bless you...and feed you, and feed you... Last night, I met a couple with a very interesting story; he had grown up in Saudi Arabia, she in India. They met in India, married in Switzerland, moved to the States, then to Canada, lived in many different cities, and are now pastoring in a tiny little town in southern Alberta. Pretty crazy.

Tuesday:
Well, Ajeep (the van, who is East Indian) made it from Barons all the way to Revelstoke, where we stopped to get gas. Ten feet from the gas pump, he stalled and refused to start again. Every time we tried to start him, he sputtered and sputtered but didn't go. We ended up calling AMA and getting towed to the nearest mechanic shop. Jeremy and Rhonda went in the tow truck, while Reneyah, Jonathan and I headed to a restaurant to get some comfort food and wait for their call. When they called and gave us directions to the shop, we stepped out of the restaurant and stared down Trans-Canada Highway 1. We needed to cross it in order to get to our destination, but the crosswalk was an entire block away. So, of course, we jaywalked. Unfortunately, another obstacle lay in our way; the median. I didn't want to go around it, and it was directly in our path, so the obvious choice was to cross over the waist-high snow. So, disregarding Reneyah's protests, I climbed over the big pile of dirty snow that had been plowed off the highway and promptly stepped into snow that came up the middle of my thigh. I had nowhere to go, so I took another step forward and couldn't move. "I'm stuck!" I yelled. "I'm stuck!" Reneyah stared laughing, and Jonathan came to help me out. We were almost successul when I noticed vehicle coming around the corner. "Car!" I yelled. "Jonathan, A car!" I pulled him a little further up the bank so that he wouldn't get hit (cause that would really suck). All of a sudden, Reneyah ran toward the vehicle shouting " A bus! It's a community bus!" I finally made it over the snow, and we all hopped on Revelstoke's only bus. We met a little old lady who had just come back from bowling, who told us some of her life story before the driver dropped us off at the auto shop, where we got some strange looks from Jeremy and Rhonda.
The moral of the story is: don't assume that snow will hold you up. Turned out that the van had bad gas; well, not so much gas as it was water. We stayed the night in Revelstoke and continued on the next day.

Wednesday:
We've gone through the Rockies, and I feel inadequte to describe them to you. This is partially because I saw them from the back seat through the cracked windshield of a semi-clean van, but also because they're just hard to describe. They're more majestic and impressive than they are beautiful; no one colour or characterisitic defines them. On our way back through, I'll take a window seat and try to put some words to them. If you haven't seen them, do.
I'm not sure who said it, but this is a paraphrased quote from one of the Christy videos:

"A girl can be beautiful like a mountain or a tree or a river. She doesn't have to be a flower."

God is not safe

Sometimes, I go to church and completely zone out during the sermon. Correction; a lot of the time. The times that I don't are directly correlated with the level of interest and excitment of the preacher, or if it's something God specifically wants me to hear. Then, there are those preachers who really, truly hear the heart of God and convey it with passion. I heard a sermon like that this morning. In one sentence, it was "God is not safe." When you enter the presence of God, nothing is safe except you yourself.
Too often, the North American church has reduced God from the Lion of Judah to a cute teddy bear. Jesus is an Anglo-Saxon with a long straight nose, a hint of a smile, light glowing all around him as his blue eyes stare meaningfully (insert desired meaning here) at a fixed point in the sky, his head slightly tilted with flowing, light brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. I don't like this picture of Jesus. He didn't go around staring meaningfully at things. He probably didn't wear white. He wasn't white. He was Middle Eastern. Jesus called out the hypocrisies of the pious Pharisees; he rampaged through the temple, turning over tables of those who were blatantly disrespecting God's temple. He said outrageous things, made mud out of spit, got up early to pray, saved a woman from stoning, ate with the "bad guys," invited himself over to other people's houses, and finally allowed himself to be hung on a cross. Jesus was not safe. Christians are called to be like Christ. And still, for some reason, he's widely used as a security blanket.
For anyone who is not a Christian and is reading this, I hope that your conception of Jesus is not characterized as a white guy who stares at things meaningfully. He's so much more than that.
Well, we had our second dress rehearsal last night, with an audience. It went well, but our backdrop fell down a couple times. The roads to Vancouver were closed last week, but they're open now and we should have no trouble getting there. Tomorrow is our final dress rehearsal in the city of Champion. Well, technically, it's the village of Champion, but I just like saying city of Champion. What a good name for a city. And Tuesday morning we're off. Our set is made, our props are ready, our lines are memorized, our van is clean (on the inside), I can sort of juggle, and there's very little to do in Barons other than rehearse. We have a few last minute details and we're on our way!
Oh, and for my family and friends back in Chinookless central Alberta; it's ten degrees here. Reneyah and I cleaned the van for two hours outside with all the doors open, wearing sweatshirts and jeans, and I wasn't cold. There's hardly any snow left. I can't believe it's January!

The Easy Bake Oven

Remember that toy you wanted as a kid? The one that your mom said was too expensive, or that you didn't need, or that she thought was too violent. I had several, but one of them was an Easy Bake oven. Remember those? They came with little packages of powder, and you added water or milk or something and poured the dough into a little tray, then put it under the warmth of a light bulb for about 15 minutes. It actually did make cookies; at least, one, anyway. I wanted one, but either I wasn't insistent enough or it really was too expensive. I didn't get it, and after I'd grown out of that desire my sister got one. So the Easy Bake oven ended up being part of my childhood after all.
Well, I was in Value Village, trying to scrounge up some props, when I saw it. Sitting on top of a clothing rack as if no girl had ever wanted it as much as she wanted blonde hair. A hot pink and purple box, containing the little metal pan and the plastic oven with a heat lamp to bake little cookies. An Easy Bake oven, complete with the original packages of powder.
I looked at it and thought; "I should buy that. It's only four dollars." But I couldn't bring myself to do it! It seemed so...ridiculous. I could hear Jeremy, Jonathan, Barrett, and Dale's laughter at my stupidity for buying a toy oven. So I left it there, alone on the clothing rack.
Later in the evening, we were at Salvation Army, where Reneyah fell in love with a desk. It was one of those school desks that was a chair and desk in one, with four green metal legs. And she bought it for five dollars.
That was it. If Reneyah could buy a desk for no apparent reason, I could buy an Easy Bake oven. At 8:45, Rhonda raced to the other side of Lethbridge, trying to get to Value Village before it closed at 9:00. We made it with six minutes to spare (Lethbridge isn't that big), and I walked out with that Easy Bake oven in my arms.
I don't plan to use those original packages of powder, because they could be ten years old. I don't know if it works yet, but tonight I'll find out and let you all know.
Everything is going well. It's crunch time, and we're all a little tired, but it's all good. We hope to perfect humming "The Star Spangled Banner" on our kazoos. The juggling is coming along, and our first dress rehearsal is on Friday. On Tuesday we head to Vancouver.

Yikes.

Happy birthday to me

Today is the first day of my 21st trip around the sun...I am now 20 years old. (think about it.) It was a weird sort of birthday; no anticipation or excitement. It's possible that this comes with age, but I think it was partly because of the lack of friends and family needed to throw a party/go snowboarding. The team did surprise me with a cake, so that was awesome. And my mom sent a package with cards and letters and money and a phone card, which may or may not be a subtle hint. I also got money to buy books; intellectual books to allow me to learn something new in my eight-month absence from formal education. Wow, I’m a geek.
Today was a good rehearsal; I'm happy to report that I am not a blubbering mess, at least not today. I'm tired, still sick, but feeling better. God is good. I got to talk to my family yesterday too, which was nice. And now that I have a phone card (thanks mom) I'll be able to do that even more!
Other than that...Barons is still small, southern Alberta is still flat, and the team is getting ready to head to Vancouver. Oh; and Rhonda and I discovered that the van is East Indian and that his name is Ajeep.
Ajeep is going to be spending a lot of time with us.

Third time's the charm

When I signed up for this, I didn't anticipate the flood of emotions that have come with my first real exposure to acting. Our director, Barrett, keeps talking about breaking down walls in order to express yourself on stage...something I'd never considered before and that I don't really like to do in life in general. So, needless to say, God has been identifying my barriers to expression and even experience of emotion, with far-reaching implications. Not fun, but this is likely the reason that he led me to go on this trip. I have a sinking feeling that I will be a blubbering mess for the next month or so, which is a very rare state for me. But I want to be the best actor I can be. Please pray that I'll allow God to help me live up to my full potential.
We went to Calgary last night, in my third attempt in two weeks to buy a camera. I was succcessful! I am the proud owner of an Olympus digital camera, sponsored by my wonderful parents. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Then we went to Boston Pizza and played Wizard. It was interesting, playing around our food. I think we got a surprised look from the waitress, but she didn't say anything. This time, I was the champion.
And I've converted another team member into the world of blogging; first Reneyah, and now Jeremy. Two down, two to go.
The stupidest thing someone can do is assume they know something about which they know nothing. Judging from my reference to Billy Idol as the singer of "Tainted Love," I would be one of those people. Fortunately, Jeremy tactfully pointed out that Billy Idol never sang that song, and I can attempt to save face by letting you all know that I know little about pop culture, expecially from the 80s and early 90s. So please, don't expect much from me.

I can hear Lesly laughing from here.

Wizard

Reneyah and I discovered something wonderful the other day; there's a sound system in the gym. Complete with a microphone. We put on an impromptu World Wide Message Tribe concert after finding the "Jumping in the House of God II" CD, sang to the soundtrack of Evita, and did Adelweiss (sp?) acappella. And there's more where that came from, let me tell you. We also went into Lethbridge that day, and got lost coming home to the sound of Billy Idol singing "Tainted Love." Then we requisitioned a CD player from the basement and danced to U2 in our room. It was a very...musical day.
Yesterday, I was introduced to Wizard, a card game of high emotional stakes. I did pretty good for my first try, but I messed up a couple of Jeremy's hands and he was a little ticked. He actually turned red. And called me names. All in love, of course. Jonathan ended up winning.
Oh, by the way...if you post a comment, could you please sign it? I have no idea who wrote half of the comments on this page.
Thanks. Peace out.

Day Pass

After getting our headshots done last Monday, we stayed inside for the entire rest of the week. Sunday morning, bright and early, we all piled into the van like a family of....chuchgoers and went to church. I really liked the church we went to in Claresholm; I didn't recognize a couple of the songs, which is pretty amazing for a lifer like me. Anyway, I'm now convinced that there must be a class required for every person who wants to become a pastor in Canada that is fully devoted to the use of acronyms and alliteration in sermons. This week, it was "CPR." I can't remember much else from the sermon. P stood for prayer. Well, there ya go. It works.
So we came home and had lunch, and then went into Lethbridge to go to Starbucks. It was like coming home. I got a peppermint mocha, of course. Then we headed to the Enmax Centre to see the Lethbridge Hurricanes face the Red Deer Rebels. It was a lot of fun, but let me tell you, I miss the NHL. Probably the best part was the second intermission when we were treated to the "Subway Cup;" 4, 5, and 6 year old boys falling all over the ice. They were really cute. To top off the experience, I had mini-donuts. Sooo good. I also lost miserably to Jeremy in the "name that song" game, though for me it was a pretty good showing. Then we all came back to the school, and I got to see a movie I've been waiting to see for about a year now. Yes, Al Yankovich's timeless classic, UHF. Of course, it was for homework as well, but I can't tell you why or I'd have to kill you.
I'm sick again, and in the last day and a half I've gone through an entire box of Kleenex. I'm glad I'm getting sick now as opposed to on the road, though. Please pray that my sinuses don't explode and that my nose stops running like a tap. I leave you with these words....


"You found the marble in the oatmeal! You get a drink from the fire hose!"

I love homework.

I can only remember once before that I had to watch a movie for homework, and that was a Coke documentary. So far this week, between all of us, we've watched The Gods Must be Crazy, Monsters Inc., and a part of Zoolander as homework. I used The Simpsons as a demonstration for my devotional, and UHF is on the homework list, too. And we watched Hero because there's an intense kung fu fighting scene in Act 2.
Okay, so maybe there's no fighting scene. But it was a good movie. Anyway, we've rehearsed the first half of our production, and it's coming along. The second half will be a real challenge.
You know those stories about how one little detail of someone's life changed it forever? Well, I don't think I mentioned how I heard about this ministry. One morning, when my alarm was set to the ungodly hour of 6:45 am (to catch my bus at 7:09), I happened to catch the tail end of an ad for Spread the Word Theatre ministries. Through the fog of my half-sleeping mind, the ad caught my interest as something that I could possibly be interested in. I fought to stay awake and was able to make out the name of their webpage. I checked it out, applied, and here I am. If I hadn't chosen to wake up to the Christian radio station and my alarm had not rung at the exact time it did, I'd be in my second semester of school. Or, God may have gotten the message to me another way, but it's pretty crazy to think about.
Oh, and my darling teammate Reneyah has started her own blog! Check it out at http://reneyah.blogspot.com. I'm the fearless billet buddy mentioned.
Keep it real, kids. Stay in school and don't do drugs.

I really can't juggle...

Well, the parts are cast and we're starting rehearsal. Acting is the most exhausting thing I've ever done. This could also be because we work pretty long days, but acting takes the whole person; emotional, social, spiritual, and physical; to do it right, you get pretty tired. We're all together, Jonathan made it fine. There's five of us; Jeremy, Rhonda, Jonathan, myself and my roommate Reneyah. Last night we ate peanut brittle and watched The Gods Must be Crazy, a very interesting movie. I liked it. I also beat Jeremy at pool, which was a huge accomplishment for me because I suck at pool.
I have a bit of a problem now; I have to learn to juggle! I borrowed juggling balls from Jonathan and carry them everywhere with me, sleep with them on my bedposts, and practice every spare minute that I'm not blogging. It's hard. I hope I can do it in time for performance. So pray that I gain some kind of hand-eye coordination by the end of January!

Day Number One

I always get nervous before I start something this big, and I can never sleep. I got about three hours of sleep the night before my bus trip, so I was pretty tired on the way there. They were playing the riveting movies Taxi and Kangaroo Jack, both of which I don't recommend. However, I shouldn't be complaining too much. One of the guys on the team, Jonathan, is flying in from Toronto, and his flight arrival got delayed 14 hours; from 11:00 AM to 1:00 AM. He's not here yet.
Barons is tiny. They have a general store. I think I've seen a general store before, at Alberta Beach. They also have a Chinese restaurant, which is apparently pretty good. Other than that, the one thing I can say about southern Alberta is that it's flat. You drive on the highway, and all you see is the road and fields in all directions. There aren't even very many trees. In the distance, you can barely make out the shadows of the foothills. For every five fields you see, there's one house. Apparently, a farm of 5000 acres is a standard size. I don't know exactly how big an acre is, but that sounds like a lot. Every field has a massive irrigation system on wheels, sitting frozen on the snow-covered fields. Every one I saw was painted blue. I've never seen those in Edmonton area farms. Jeremy and Rhonda, the leaders of the group who picked me up from the bus station, mentioned that southern Saskatchewan is even flatter. I mean, completely flat. I've never been there, but we're driving through there in about a month, so I'll let you know.
The place we rehearse at is a school built in the thirties, which was closed because of the dwindling population of Barons. (which, by the way, is the "wheat heart of the west.") Apparently parts of the orginal Superman movies were filmed here. It's a good building that makes digestion noises when it tries to heat itself, but I think I'll get used to them.
Oh, and our itinerary is up at www.spreadtheword.ca. Just click on the Summit Theatre link. Good news; we'll be in Edmonton at the end of February for Missionsfest and the end of May for YC. God bless and please pray for the team as we begin rehearsing!