New Directions...

I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well during the ongoing coronavirus crisis. If you’re like me, you’re finding a hunger to connect more deeply with others even as you practice social distancing. 

This is obviously a difficult time for everyone, and theater groups are no exception. As you might imagine, all our performances and workshops for the foreseeable future have been postponed or cancelled, and it remains to be seen how long it will be before that changes. 

But the news is not all bad--In 2019 we experienced a wonderful year of ministry, culminating in a trip to East Asia to work with women coming out of the sex trade, and monthly visits to a behavioral care facility for adults. And this year we're looking forward to new challenges and opportunities... 

We’ve joined the steering committee for a proposed outreach theater program for young people sponsored by City Gospel Mission in Cincinnati. And--thanks to a grant from The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids, Michigan--we'll be training a team at a local Methodist church to use improvisational theater techniques in worship. We're also exploring how we might increase our online presence with video presentations and podcasts. It’s something we’ve discussed for years—but now the possibility may have become a necessity. And it’s intriguing to consider: at this point in our ministry, perhaps God is calling us to communicate to an audience unrestricted by time or distance. 

This new reality we’re experiencing also provides an opportunity to reexamine priorities. If I’ve learned anything over the past few years with two serious hospital stays, it’s that trying times are the whetstone that sharpens the blade of faith. And faced with dark days, old truths speak with new power. In that light, I offer some of my favorite words of scripture, which resonate more deeply now than ever: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” –Romans 8:38-39 

Blessings,

Tom Long