Survived "The Journey"

I'm dead tired and it's midnight. But I know that if I don't blog "while I'm in the mood", the next two days of packing and then eventually whisking off to DC for Christmas will cause me to forget what an awesome time I had playing in our church's Christmas production "The Journey".

First of all, the music/drama itself was beautiful. I caught myself misting up at some point in each of our 6 performances (and sometimes in a good dress rehearsal too) at the beauty of some of the songs, the soloists, the dialog. And I never got sick of watching the performances from the jokes of the charming and quirky magi to the consistent supercuteness of the Micah & Deborah characters (married in real life) to the cutest chubby cheeks of the kid who played max (there is hope for Tobey in grade school yet!) to the beauty of the Holy Spirit dancer. I'm glad Pastor Dan gave us all CD's to practice with, because now I can keep playing the music in the house to remind me of The Journey. Even Tom was humming the music before he even saw the whole production because we played it so much at home. I hear we (cast/crew/orchestra) get a DVD since we don't ever get to see the whole thing as an audience member. Can't wait!

Secondly, playing in the orchestra for The Journey released the inner orchestra geek in me. While growing up, youth orchestras, whether school, local, or state was a lot about competition and "Why does he get a better seat than me?" kind of mentality or a snobbery from some of the better players (but never you, Alicia!). I had friends in the orchestras but in general a bunch of competititve adolescents doesn't exactly produce a "community" feel. But here, there is zero competition. There was no designated principal 2nd violinist although appropriately, there was a designated concertmistress for solos. One of our violinists had some intonation issues and while at first I was a little frustrated, in the end, I reminded myself that he's a brother in Christ and his heart was definitely in the right place, especially for a Napoleon Dynamite kind of teenager.

It was a great community feel because ALCF has such awesome church members. The choir was constantly cheering and encouraging the orchestra as we played through the whole musical. And even if we didn't know each others names, they might even cheer me on personally or clink fists, as if I were a friend they've known for a long time. I could always strike up a conversation with someone over our quick dinner time or before warm up. One of the times I cherished was eating dinner Saturday with Charles (cello), Janelle (clarinet), and Dan (violin). None of us knew each other before doing this but we sat down and ate and chatted about orchestra days and how rehearals have been going. I guess just finding each other to sit with, even in a sea of 200 other perfectly nice people, is always nice to have. I could always find someone to walk back or hitch a ride to the parking lot with at night. That community feel is why we have church and not just stay at home and worship God by ourselves.

And finally, The Journey is unforgettable because of how awesome Tom has been. From day one, he's been totally supportive of me playing in The Journey, even though it means lots of Tobey-n-Eli time for him while I'm gone. From giving me time to practice for my audition to not complaining one word during the past 7 days of putting the kids to sleep every night. There've been times this week that I felt like we were living the lives of emperor penguins a la March of the Penguins: the mommy penguin goes off to feed while the daddy penguin stays at home and guards the egg in harsh and brutal circumstances. I get to go off and "do ministry" while Tom stays at home with the boys. As the week wore on, we both got tired, my homemade dinners for them turned into a stash of frozen pizzas, the kids got sick and made today a tough day for Tom. But there no complaining or whining from Tom about when will The Journey be over. Being in ministry is definitely a family effort: I'm the one on stage, but Tom holds the fort at home and the kids miss out on Mommy each night. But all for God's glory as I got to see so many lives touched and changed and it all started with Tom pointing at the church bulletin announcement saying, "Hey, you gonna play in that Christmas orchestra?"

Thanks, Tom, for the awesome experience to play in The Journey! In the words of the choir members: YOU ROCK!