Sad News from Heather and John Novak

Please keep Heather and John in your prayers. Here's an e-mail I received from Heather.

"I am just forwarding John's email to his colleagues & friends...he covered everything well. May I add that we are grateful for such great friends & family...and God's love throughout this time. I am ridiculously blessed with this amazing husband....everything is better with him.Hello Everyone,
I never did make a formal announcement of Heather and I expecting, although I did post some things on Facebook to indicate the pregnancy. Unfortunately, Heather and I had some very sad news when we went in for the second prenatal last week. We didn’t hear a heartbeat, and it was confirmed by a couple of ultrasounds. The pregnancy measured only 7 weeks along, but Heather’s body continued to grow to 11 weeks. The doctor preformed a procedure yesterday to make certain she was OK after the miscarriage passed.

I’ll spare you further details, but needless to say we are quite sad about it. We’ve had a number of days to mourn the loss, so we are doing pretty good now considering. Heather is staying home one more day, and she’ll try resuming work tomorrow. I’d been with her almost constantly over the past 5 days. We’ve found some peace, and we are talking about trying again. In another week, we will have been married a year, and we have so much to be thankful for.

Please know we feel very blessed to have such good friends and family to share both happiness and sadness with, and our refrigerator has been holding the manifestation of that love over the last several days along with several flower vases. We appreciate any thoughts and/or prayers. If you feel you want to do something more, I’d encourage you to look into the March of Dimes (http://www.marchofdimes.com/). Thanks.

John"

Wow . . . what a meeting!

We had an incredible meeting last night. We started off by brainstorming some possible series topics and drama elements and we came up with some amazing ideas that will definitely go in the "hopper" (whatever that means) to be used. Mark Meyer also had a great suggestion to produce our own art for youtube (or sermon spice as Steph suggested) so we can keep producing great art for the kingdom beyond the bounds of the big ideas given for weekend services. What a great way to continually stretch ourselves as artists! We'll talk more about that later!

We moved on to another amazing part of the evening, the characterization monologues! Janet performed as "me" retelling my story of the night my father-in-law passed away. She completely captured the story and "me" as a character as well as working really hard not to nod as much as she does in her natural character. Steph performed a hilarious conversation that Janet once had with her daughter about "appropriate clothing"and added a few nods and Janetisms to add to the authenticity. Sherry's monologue from Diana's viewpoint was compelling and thoughtful. Sherry altered her posture and motions and it was like watch Sherry paint a clear portrait of Diana right before our eyes. Phil slowed his tempo a bit as he delivered Dave's soothing storytelling style when he talked about a turning point in his faith journey. And Dave in turn sped up his delivery and captured Phil's no nonsense sincerity in a great story about his grandmother and learning to trust God. Lisa didn't tell us who was her partner at first but it didn't take us long to see Becky appear before our eyes as she retold an incident with "officer handsome" and a near speeding ticket. I increased my energy level a bit to capture Steph's hystericl true story about how someone actually tried to steal her prize cake. John M. captured a memory from Jon C.'s school days adding layers of Jon's spirit and delivery style that drew us all in. In turn, Jon C. captivated us as he presented the beginning of John <.c faith journey as he visited various churches with his beloved Aunt. I still can clearly picture her in my mind and see John sitting on the Cleveland buses! Paul's monologue from Kyle's point of view offered a huge range of emotions from the hilarious humor at the beginning to the transparent honesty of his worries about being a father. Paul revealed many of Kyle's quirky mannerisms that truly make him whole as a human being, which is what this particular exercise in characterization was all about!

Great job, everyone! Our next step is to read the chapter on "Observation". Be on the look out for the dialog throughout the chapter that we will hold here and for someone different from you that you can observe for the exercise. See you March 24th!

Idea Brainstorm Tonight

At GCC, we usually cover some of the same general topics from year to year. Some of which are:
parenting
marriage
work
purpose
salvation
focus on five (read your bible, serve, friends, invest/invite, the next step)
temptation/desires
money
summer series
Easter
Christmas

Tonight we will brainstorm some possible series ideas as well as specific drama elements or characters you think would be great in a weekend service. Anything from this past year that you thought worked or didn't work? Why? Any impressions or roles you've been itching to use? Anything off the wall from our normal programming that might catch that seeker who's been on the fence? Bring all your great ideas to the meeting tonight. See you then!

Angie Henry Needs a Babysitter

Angie Henry (vocalist and counseor extroadinaire) is in need of a part-time baby-sitter, and I told her I would post here to see if any of you might know of someone. Here's the basic info. from Angie"

T/Th's 2-4:30p.m. and periodically, and half of any other morning that works for them (babysitter), but preferablly W.
At the end of May, when schools let out, it turns to T/Th 9-4:30p.m.
It's always $10.00/hr of tax free money.
They have to be able to drive and love little boys!!! (7,5,and 4).

Small Groups

Please share here your honest thoughts about the small group idea of once a month in the second week:

Do you have time? Is this something that excites you or drains you? What will be the rewards? Would some of your prefer the blog to small groups? Vice versa? Should we expand this to the OPA team as well and include all people involved in drama upstairs and down? Let me know your thoughts. Your voice matters.

Like Totally Awesome Drama

We redefined "triple threat" this weekend as we had three dramas going on at once!

On the platform: Anita, Diana, Kyle and Ted
Heir Force/Jungle Room: Levi, Brad, Carolyn, Paul, and David, directed by Phil
Under the Sea/Garden Patch: Mary Davis

A Great first-timing service for Anita, Diana, and Mary!

See Mark Beeson's post here!

Highlights: Anita trying not to let her blue mascara run, Diana's "Psych!" look, Ted's speech about his career choices, Kyle and his "cellular phone device", Levi's hilarious actions as geeky gordo, Brad's side-splitting Italian accent as "Spaghetti Tortellini", Carolyn's motherly pursed lips and tender illustration of grace, Paul's film noir detective Sam Shovel that is always a crowd favorite, David's hysterical looks as he contemplated and then finally answered "no" to Sam, Phil's icing on the cake blocking tricks to keep the kids engaged and entertained, and Mary's sweet, motherly voice that has the magical power of quieting a room full of three year olds just long enough for them to lean in and learn about Jesus in a way they can understand.

I am so proud of our team! The talent, commitment and servant hearts are
"like totally awesome"!

Prayer and Celebration

What can we pray for you for?

What can we celebrate along with you?

Where have you seen God show up in your lives recently?

February Assignment

Hey Guys,

Just a friendly reminder to run some rough ideas of scripts by your partner for the monologues for the next meeting. (only between 1-3 minutes). This is not a huge pressure thing, just a fun exercise in characterization and character analysis. I can't wait for what's in store! See you on the 25th!

Welcome to the Mark Side . . .

Mark Meyer has crossed over to the dark side and joined the magical addictive world of blogging. It's amazing how persuasive his wife can be!

Now Playing . . .

This weekend Anita's cool version of Romeo and Juliet set in an unexpected time period premieres at Bethel College.(You'll have to go to find out what's up her sleeve!) If anyone would like to go as a group on Friday night, comment below and we'll meet there. Here's the info. from the Bethel website:

Thurs. Friday and Saturday Feb 7-9 beginning at 7:30pm

"The story is, of course, about a pair of star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. These two teenagers, pursue their love for each other despite the fact that their families have been at odds with each other for decades. The story combines sword fighting, disguise, misunderstanding, tragedy, humor and some of themost romantic language found in literature, all in the name of true love.

Tickets are $12 adults and $10 for seniors and students Call 574-257-7633

Turning Point Drama Ministry

The future's so bright we gotta wear shades! (I can't help the cheesy lyrics, we have an 80's series coming up!)Our new turning point dramas are going extremely well, thanks to some new faces. Josh Hoeft and Hannah Brooks are great representatives of an up and coming generation of talented actors as well as Brad Miller's versatile characterization abilities. Join me in applauding this talented team soon to be joined by other talented actors incuding Paul, Scott Haddix, tom Templin, and Larry Richey. It's an awesome privilege to play a part in helping kids who are struggling with real issues to take steps toward Christ.