The Hope of Christmas, moving forward

On Sunday night, Brenda and I went to Kirk and Stephanie's. We had a good old time. They were giving me all the dirt on what's been going on with CYT while I have been gone. I also pitched the idea of The Hope of Christmas to her as our winter pre-launch event.

She got excited about it and she agreed to help me promote it so I could start auditions. A few days later, she came up with this.

Mosaic will have space to have the auditions downtown. We're going to open a coffee house downtown. Way cool! I'm going to submit the ad to The Inlander Magazine to go out the week after next. I sent out an audition notice as well:

Hey Friends,

Mosaic Arts is putting on a show this Christmas and we need some help putting it on. It’s a community theater type gig not affiliated with CYT, Lake City Playhouse or any other established theater in Spokane. Although, I know most of you from those organizations. We’re looking for actors, actresses, backstage crew, musicians, make-up, costumes etc. If you want more info, contact me at melodrameric@comcast.net or ring me up at 325-3472..

New Worship Surroundings:

From John:

"While The Big Easy in downtown Spokane doesn’t conjure up visions of worship services for most church-goers, we really believe God is up to something very unique with this probable Sunday venue targeted at the 300,000+ unchurched of Spokane. In a conversation with Pastor Ken Ortiz of Calvary Chapel recently he told me, "We’ve been trying to get in to the Big Easy for years and the door has never opened!" Guess now is God’s time and even more surprisingly, we seem to be God’s instruments for this new outreach.
Well, having walked through the concert hall and restaurant again with a larger group of leaders, we learned a few new things. The Big Easy, having been bought recently by a national entertainment group, will be up-scaling, changing its name, undergoing renovations and in general seeking to reposition itself in Spokane. Every manager we’ve talked to there has been super-excited to have us there. They have even offered a few surprising accommodations such as covering all the bar areas with curtains and including Mosaic Fellowship in their weekly advertisements in publications like The Inlander…all at no extra charge!

Speaking of their managers, as we were leaving after our walk-through, we helped a fellow whose car had stalled at a nearby intersection. As he hopped out of his car to thank us, he asked, "Would you guys ever like tickets to a concert?" Funny question for a guy whose car can't make it through the intersection! Turns out he is the General Manager of, guess what? The Big Easy! Don’t tell me God doesn’t order our steps! I think God has his sights on the souls of a few people working, living and playing downtown, don’t you?"

The Hope of Christmas Revived

I talked to John yesterday at his parent's lake house. I committed to helping him with this church plant for one year. He asked me to officially do this pre-launch musical production at The Met. It's actually called The Bing now. Anyway, I presented my idea about The Hope of Christmas to him. That's a three act original script I wrote while in Japan. I didn't think he would go for it, but he did! I also presented the idea to Kari Papst. I'm hoping she will be my musical director.

If this is really going up, there is a lot to do. I have to schedule auditions. Where will I have them? When? I feel overwhelmed and excited at the same time. The writing of the play wasn't a waste of time after all! I wasn't able to produce in Japan but it looks as if it will find an audience here in Spokane.
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Getting Together with John

It's been very hard getting together with John so that he can share is vision for this church plant with me. I feel I need to be on board if we are going to work together. He keeps on changing appointments on me. We were set to meet on Tuesday but he changed his plans. We were then set for Saturday morning but then he changed his plans after that in favor of helping Art Cosgrove move.

"About Saturday a.m., since I talked to you I found out that Art needs help moving that morning. That move will start at 8:00 a.m. Any chance we could move ours to later, say 10 or 11? Or how would you like to join the moving men? :) Just let me know. Either way, since I'll be out by 5 mile, perhaps meeting someplace farther north would be better.

Let me know."

It seems that if John wants me on board he had better start making some time for me!