Ken Duncan Galleries - Lidia's email

a sweet email from last September (i'm learning to post by email, so this is a sample)

Dear James, Kimberley & boys

It was an absolute pleasure to meet you in the gallery.
Thank you for the sales especially YORKSHIRE DALES. I'm sure this print will bring you the joy & serenity you experienced when you were in the UK reading the vet stories.
I must say I have never met a couple that are so in touch with each other as the two of you. It was fantastic to see.

We bought a picture at the Ken Duncan Gallery

It was a pleasure to meet you too! Funny that we started our conversation over my worries that the children were being too wild in a gallery. The Dales will be a refreshing addition to our home when it arrives.

Here's that section from Jeremiah 17:5-8 i told you about when I saw the big white tree by the river photograph in the gallery. It was fresh on my mind because I'd shared it when I spoke in chapel at Wesley Institute last week. I'd spent some time with the drama
students using improvised theatre to pray for rain in Australia. I'd been in a kind of relational drought while settling in Singapore, but it's been a time to draw nearer to Jesus; a time that I've started to know him, rather than know ABOUT him. So, that's why the photo near the door had such impact on me...

This is what the LORD says:
"Cursed is the one who trust in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
He will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert
In a salt land where no one lives.

But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
Whose confidence is in him.
He will be like a tree planted by a river.
Who sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when the heat comes.
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

May you have a fruitful day full of blessing & great joy!

Had a great day today with Sally and Franklin. They are good friends who took our Chinese New Year Family picture for us. It was such an honour to be in their wedding 2 years ago this May. They'll be moving to Shanghai soon. Sob. Sob. We're excited for them, but really going to miss them too!

"TILL WE MEET AGAIN"

Tapestry Playback Group & Invited Artistes.

Tapestry Playback: Till We Meet Again

Reunions and Farewells were the theme of the playback performance I was in last night. After the cast entered, we started the show by each giving a vignette from our own lives. Here's what I told the audience:

November 2003 was the longest Thanksgiving Day ever! The night before, I served our traditional American meal early to a small group of friends here in Singapore. The next morning, before the sun was up, I boarded a plane with my two boys. We flew around the world for 23 hours and arrived in time for the Thanksgiving meal at my brother's new home in Atlanta, Georgia! My parents, who live on the other side of the States, planned their flight schedule so that they'd arrive at the airport the same time we did.... It was the best reunion dinner ever!

PLAYBACK THEATRE is a style of improvised theatre that invites audience members to share their stories and as actors, we give a play back to them as a gift of theatre. I’d seen this form of theatre 2+ years ago and immediately envisioned ways it could be used in sharing the gospel. Late last year I taught an acting class for the existing team and asked them if in the new year I could join them for awhile to learn the playback traditions… The group spit into two groups in January and invited me and 2 other actors (who are Christians) to join them. All 6 of us now are believers, so we began praying as part of our rehearsal process, and before the showcase last night. Wanted God to be glorified and all that… WOW. It was an amazing night! Now, remember, this is not a church or Christian event. They advertise the theme (This time it was reunions and farewells) sell tickets, invite the community, friends. However, when we started inviting people up to share their stories, the first 3 of the 4 shared were also Christians and in some way were sharing an aspect of their faith in their reunion/farewell story. It wasn’t preachy, and we were sharing the gospel by playing back their stories. The audience LOVED it! People hung around for 2 hours afterward asking questions and just enjoying the “after glow” of interactive theatre. I’m jazzed! When I think of the applications for missions…emotional healing for tsunami victims, etc. etc. etc. it’s pretty exciting.

What's New?

I’ve been off to a great start for the new year… a bit overcommitted, and glad for our maid Loonni’s help! Kids are happy, and SOOO much fun. I really love my boys. Jim’s happy and really getting loads of affirmation for the work he's doing too.

My computer has been a headache since November, I feel like I’ve been training as a sprinter and now, that I’ve got the track meets on my schedule, I have to work-out with diseased legs, that then got amputated, and then now I’m learning how to walk with prosthetics! All the while I’m supposed to be training for the Olympics!!! We went shopping at the APPLE store after church today.

About the possible new home: The owners of the perfect-for-us penthouse are not at a place they want to lower their price and we’re not in any hurry to pay more than twice our current rent (or to move right away). So we wait to see if there is a SIGN FROM HEAVEN. Two more weekends have gone by and no one has rented it yet (I’m shameless, even though I can't offer what they’ve asked, I check in with the realtor every week! She must think I’m crazy). It’s Chinese New Year here this coming week, so things kind of come to a stand still for awhile. Jim’s mom is so sweet. She's going to her financial planner next week. She says she wants to find out how much she can help us out. She saw the pictures and wants us to have it. She’s all anxious about it. I don’t feel anxious. I’m excitedly curious how things will work out. On one hand it would be JUST FABULOUS to be able to live there, but still, ya know, MISSIONARIES living in the PENTHOUSE. Hmmm. What would people THINK?? Our hearts tell us if this isn’t our next home then God know the right one for us and will show us in His time.

I’m having a great time on the drama front too. Have been hired to direct a Willow Creek sketch for Church of Our Saviour's Easter services (called "The Bridge"). In that project, I’m also offering a director mentorship for people who just want to come alongside while we do the rehearsals and production meetings just to see and learn first hand what a director does. I advertised it on our Arts4Jesus egroup last week and within 24 hours had 12 people sign up! That’s pretty funny since there’s only 3 in the cast!

We have this great set designer already met with him twice. He showed us his sketches on Friday and after New Year he’ll have a model made. I love working with the creative arts people at this church. I’ve started doing a journey through Journey of Desire with 5 of their staff on Friday mornings. You can join us if you have time to process the book with us! Check out http://journeyofdesire.blogspot.com . One of my 5 star gals (joni) is getting married to her UBlues singing boyfriend on April 1st. Jim and I are pretty much the only non-family invited to their wedding in Perth Australia ON APRIL FOOLS DAY! What an honour. Jim’s going to do the wedding and I’ll sing. I’m really going to miss her. But it sure is great to be a part of this couple's launch into a marriage partenrship of two people who have given their hearts to following Jesus and now want to do it together!

A new movie starring JAMES and KIMBERLY!
(for about 15 seconds as token whites)