The Concert and the Pastorela… the Rest of the Story

It’s about time I gave you an update about the last part of our week last week.  It’s been quite a ride!  Let me start with the concert.

The Battle of the Bands

The concert took place in the traffic circle in front of our church meeting place, and we got permission to actually close off the street.  That night I was at Nathanael’s school Christmas concert, and so I arrived a couple of hours late, only to discover they hadn’t started yet!  They were still putting the finishing touches on the massive light and sound system, I guess.  So the concert finally started with Laura Guaza and her band (Laura is from Columbia but living here), then followed Charlie Bostik, and finally Lighthouse Collective from the USA.

I missed quite a bit of the concert, because I ended up taking Laura’s band back into Mexico City that night.  It was a late night for me, but far later for those taking down the sound system, who I understand were working after 2am!

I do know that the message about Jesus as Saviour was shared at the concert, and one person accepted the Lord and came to our worship service on Sunday morning.  His name is Alberto – please pray for him, and others who heard the message!h3>The Pastorela

The Pastorela, or Christmas play, took place Sunday night in the Walmart plaza (El Cortijo).  The children from Hannah’s Sunday School were to put on a "Christmas Tree" first.  They all wore black with green capes, and using benches made up a Christmas tree, telling the Christmas story with their lines and songs.  Then the pastorela was to follow.

That’s basically what did happen, but a few things did go wrong.

• First, a teen band ended up going on stage before us – and actually about when we were supposed to go on stage.  That meant no time for a walk through on the stage and a test of the sound system and lights.  It also meant that by the time the pastorela started, the shops were closing and people were heading home.
• Next, during the children’s Christmas Tree, the microphone got handed to the wrong child at the wrong time, meaning that Hannah’s lines – which she had practised for weeks – were totally missed!  She was pretty disappointed.
• Having had no time to test the mics, we were halfway through the first scene before we discovered that no one could hear anything.  We switched mid-scene to having everyone hold mics, which wasn’t ideal.

Now the mic thing was unfortunate, but two things were amazing.  First, how prepared Martín and Miguel were, and how quickly the cast adapted, without missing a beat.  Unbelievable.

In spite of things going wrong, a lot more went right.  The kids did an amazing job (see a brief video here).  They had all kinds of special hand motions planned, and it looked great.  Here’s a clip from Rod:

The actors also did an amazing job in the pastorela.  The message was clear … very clear.  And there were surely a couple of hundred people listening, and many really were listening, not just wandering by.

I didn’t get to watch it all closely.  I was busy fixing the backdrop that had come loose, or making sure people had mics, prompting, reminding people to pray, and so on.  But from all I saw, it was a grand success, and God answered our prayers.

Here’s a brief clip from Rod, showing the entrance of the Magi.  The stage is above (you can see Mary and Joseph and the baby in the house):

A team from Lighthouse Collective agreed to help as stage hands at the last minute, and they did an excellent job as well.

Directing the pastorela was not something I wanted to do.  The language and cultural barrier are still pretty big for the subtleties involved.  No doubt the cast missed half of what I tried to say, and I missed half of what they tried to say.  But they were very patient, and I think we all had a great time (I did, anyway!), and God used it.

It was good to brush up on my drama skills anyway – it’s been a while!

The actors performed way beyond my expectations.  Kinda wondering what their next triumph will be!

Thanks so much to those of you that prayed, or through your donations helped make all this a reality.  And also to those who encouraged all of us involved.  And of course, thanks to all who were a part of it – Lighthouse Collective, the people from our church, and others!

There are some great pictures in the photo gallery – check here for more recent shots.