world

world

Monday, December 27, 2010

Believers' Chapel

LWB performed our Christmas repertoire for Believer’s Chapel Children’s Sunday School on December 5th, as well as leading the adult service in “Healing Hands”. Healing Hands, by Christy Knockels, is a song that has spoken greatly to LWB and to our audiences around the world. Ashley put arm motions to the music, and we invite our audiences to join in as we worship the Lord through music and dance. We have seen people from different places around the globe be touched by the song in various ways. On this particular Sunday morning, the sanctuary was full of people, many of which were willing to step out of their comfort zone join us in “Healing Hands”. It was a blessing to watch from the stage as people worshiped the Lord in unified movement.
Our performance for the Sunday School kids went well. We were in the Believer’s Chapel gym, which meant that we had unlimited space for flooring and high jumps. In this particular ballet, there are three dancers—myself and two others—who must share costumes during the course of the five songs in the ballet. Because this performance was in a large room with limited access to changing areas, the three of us had to make do with changing behind a stage curtain! But those adventures are what make performances unique and memorable. Many of the children were very receptive to us as we got to know them after the performance; it’s wonderful to be able to talk to kids in the audience about their different lives, and we usually get to pray with a number of the children about their families, studies, etc. It’s a special time that I always look forward to at every children’s performance. This performance was probably just as uplifting as encouraging to us as it was to the audience!

Have a blessed Christmas season and a Happy New Year! Sarah

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The West Side Learning Center

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to perform our Christmas dances for a class of refugees at the West Side Learning Center. All of the students are there to learn English. It was so neat to be able to perform for people from all over the world! It felt like a missions trip except without the long plane ride :-) After performing Christmas, we led them in arm movements to "Healing is in His Hands." Many of them easily joined in and it was a beautiful sight to see so many of them moving to this powerful song! I pray that many of them are really able to understand how very much God loves them and desires a relationship with them.

After performing, we proceeded into a classroom and spent time talking to the students and helping them with their English. I was very impressed with the amount of English that many of them already knew! It was neat to be able to listen as they excitedly shared about their countries and traditions.

I so enjoyed this morning of ministering to the refugees. You can join me in praying that God would really reveal Himself to them in an awesome way. I know that He loves them more than I could ever comprehend, and I just hope that they know that too.

~Breanne

Believers' Chapel

On December 4th we were able to worship with Believers Chapel’s Saturday night service and lead them in “Healing Hands.” It was a blessing to see people step out of their comfort zone and join in the arm movements with us.

We also performed “Christmas” for the children’s Sunday school. Ashley was able to involve them in the performance as she danced in the audience for part of her solo “Give Me Jesus.”

We ended with “Healing Hands” and prayed for each one of the kids. We were able to talk with a few of them afterwards. Later we found out that one little boy had a sore throat but, after doing “Healing Hands” with us, felt better!

~Krystalan

HIM

We performed for HIM (Home Instruction Ministries) on Friday December 3rd. HIM Ministries is a large home-school group that meets together monthly. They were very welcoming and cheered as we each were introduced. We presented our Christmas pieces and reminded the kids of the true reason for celebrating at this joyous time of year.

We did “Healing Hands” with them after Cayla shared her testimony. One lady, whose family has been struggling with sickness for quite a while, was in tears as she participated in the arm movements. We prayed for each child and parent individually at the end of the performance. One young girl asked Cayla what she should do next, since she'd already asked Jesus to live in her heart. We had many wonderful conversations with the other children there as well.

Later, we divided the boys and girls into two groups. The girls followed “Sugar Plum” Amy and her assistants from the “Land of Sweets.” Ashley had shown us some interesting costumes earlier in the week, and we thought it would be fun to dress up for the kids. I (Elisa) was “Princess Peach,” and Alyssa and Cayla were “twin” angels (even though the two of them look nothing like each other). Together the four of us danced with the girls to the music of the “Sugar Plum Fairy” from the Nutcracker.

The boys, meanwhile, followed “Sergeant” Ashley into the gym where they had a mini “Boot Camp.” They did push-ups, and also learned the army crawl and various marching routines. Ashley, Breanne, Gwen, and Krystalan dressed in black uniforms and carried large sticks as they commanded their “troops.” Sarah was also in the gym with the boys, but was not dressed in black. We thought the boys would enjoy having someone dressed in a cool costume as well, so Sarah volunteered to be a tomato --she did a great job!

The children and parents alike were very thankful that we came. As they celebrate Christmas this year with their families, our desire is that they will remember the message we shared through our performance and keep Jesus the center of their celebration.

Elisa

Baldwinsville Christian Academy

Saturday morning we got to perform at the craft fair at Baldwinsville Christian Academy, where Sarah's brother attends school. We did Christmas stuff as well as "Alive" and "Digee Dime" (from Basic Instructions choreography). It went well overall, especially considering the slightly small space. I accidentally kicked Sarah in the face when we did Digee Dime...but luckily she was okay! We also led the audience in Healing Hands, which at first was a little awkward, but after some encouragement from Mrs. Taddeo, was really well received at this venue. There was one little boy in particular who had the cutest look on his face as he did the arm movements! Afterward, Sarah told us that she got to talk to this lady who had a very poor opinion of ballet prior to seeing us, and after seeing this performance was more open to dance - especially dancing for the Lord! It was a good start to our long day that had another performance later!

~Gwen

Believer's Chapel

Friday, December 10th

On Friday night Light Of The World Ballet performed God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen at Believer's Chapel to open their Christmas production No Room. There wasn't much space left on the stage for us to dance so we briefly marked through it before performing and changed a lot of the spacing! It was very interesting using a third of the stage, the front slightly lower section of the stage with an extension cord coming down the center, and the floor in front. It was challenging but went well! After dancing we went out and watched the Christmas production. The kids were really cute! The story was focused toward people who may have accepted Jesus in their heart but have fallen away from Him as they have gotten busy with life and other things have taken top priority. The salvation message was given after and a former student of mine from the school I teach at was there and rededicated her life to Jesus! So exciting! It was a blessing to be a part of!

Amy