Story Time- My First Drama Monologue in my Church

In 1996 one Sunday morning I performed my first drama monologue in my church. At first preparing for it did not seem like a big deal. I had been part of a theater group performing dinner theaters in the 1980s. I had experience acting. But something happened a few days before.

It was Friday afternoon and I injured my left hand which resulted in a visit to the emergency room, having a splint put on my hand and wrist, and being prescribed pain pills.

A few days later I drove to church, in a stick shift car, only using one hand. I did not take a pain pill that morning so my performance would not be affected. My church has two services, so I performed the monologue twice. My hand was throbbing, my stomach was churning from the pain, but by God’s grace I did it.

The following week when I showed up to church still wearing the splint, people told me they thought it was a prop. That was due to my character in the monologue having been in an accident. One person asked why I didn’t cancel telling me everyone would have understood. The thought never occurred to me.

When I told the worship pastor I almost threw up on stage, he joked, “that would have been an interesting prop.”

Now here I am after having not been involved with drama ministry, except for one I wrote and directed for Christmas Eve a few years ago, since I started ministry for refugees and immigrants in 2000. Here I am talking with people about making short films and perhaps doing a night of short sketches for an outreach. Full circle time.

There are no past experiences that go to waste in serving Jesus.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.