We have a very small congregation at the church where hubby preaches- about 30 people on a good Sunday. All of us support the kids as much as possible and fortunately, we all have a good sense of humor.
For the last 4 or 5 years there has been a Christmas play that the kids wanted to do, but it had quite a few characters in it and it would take a lot of practice, so they never got to do it. This year we decided it was going to be done no matter what. We went through the play and consolidated as many characters as we could and had enough kids to do everything but the “commercial breaks”. Some of us adults stepped in and covered those parts; it was all going to be fun! We practiced every Sunday after church all through October, November and the first 2 Sundays in December. The night of Dec 12 arrived and it was the big night… But, oh oh – the flu hit!! Well, we were down two people and that made us short three characters. Okay, the mom who was directing quickly recruited new cast members to play the three Magi from the East. This means that one of the elders, who is a professor at a local university and one of the dads, me (yeah, I got to be the “token woman” magi!), and another dad were recruited. Since there was very little dialog we knew we could handle it. Well, our cue came and the three of us, me in the middle, came dancing onstage to reggae music – with the professor in front carrying a boombox on his shoulder! I was so horribly out of breath that there was no way I could sing the song we were supposed to lead; but that was okay since the physicist sings loud enough nobody could possibly notice me not singing. Then we were supposed to kneel by the manger while some more dialog went on.
So far, so good.
But then we were supposed to stand up and lead “Joy to the World”. The guys stood up, I discovered I couldn’t get up! My first thought was that I would just fold my hands, bow my head, and assume a prayerful attitude…. Then I couldn’t help but start laughing – but I was SO out of breath! The audience then started laughing when I did, and the two guys suddenly realized I was still kneeling. They both knelt back down, grabbed me, and stood up. The piano player was behind me and I could hear her laughing but she started playing, still laughing. It was SO funny! And I was so glad they were; 1) big enough to pick me up and 2) nice enough to pick me up instead of leaving me on the floor. A good time was had by all! (then we ate some goodies! Our bunch uses any excuse to bring goodies to eat…)
Article submitted by Gayla Peterson, © 2006 butyoudontlooksick.com