A Night of Great Adventures!

You can always count on young people to reform and change the way things are done. It is this very unique quality of the young that drove the youth of St Ignatius Church to make the celebration for this Easter an unprecedented one.

May 29, 2014

By Chrishen Gomez
You can always count on young people to reform and change the way things are done. It is this very unique quality of the young that drove the youth of St Ignatius Church to make the celebration for this Easter an unprecedented one. On May 3, the SIC Youth Ministry put up an Easter Play! The main purpose of the Easter Play was to portray the story of Jesus as told in the Gospels, in a way that would relate to young people today.

The idea was simple: to shake-up the yearly Easter Party by holding a play instead. After several meetings however, the idea evolved from a simple drama to a full-fledged musical production which included a choir, several dances and a mime. To make matters even more exciting, the organisers decided to open this play to every youth in SIC regardless of whether they had undergone any prior experience or training in the ministry. By doingthis, the organisers effectively doubled their workload by turning a simple drama into a full Easter production!!

After the script was written by a team led by Roeshan Gomez, it was time to begin recruiting dancers, actors, singers and the back-stage crew. Practices began mid-March with planning and allocation of the various tasks to be carried out to pull off the production. Besides the script itself being an original of the ministry, a team from the performing arts ministry choreographed all the dances. Although the songs were not originals, the music scores to support the three-part harmonies in the choir were all self-written as acquiring these scores online was just too costly.

Roeshan Gomez, trained the cast of about 15. Jacqueline Yap, led a team of dancers. Tracey Ooi, who also acted as the choirmaster for the play, trained the choir of around 30. Last but not least, the entire logistics of the night was handled jointly by Andre Isaac Augustus and Theresa Soo, while Brandon Nunis, took charge of props and acted as backstage manager.

After just over a month of weekly practices, the day finally arrived. Admission was free for youth below 30 while adults were required to pay a minimal fee of RM 10. God graced the entire night with several pleasant surprises. For starters, the organizers were expecting a rather poor turnout as only 150 people had confirmed their attendance but, lo and behold, over 320 walked in as soon as the doors opened at 7.30pm. The idea of a play had certainly not just intrigued the young, the entire hall was full of adults, senior citizens and even toddlers!

The night began with MCs Roeshan Gomez and Carmen Choong taking to the stage with a huge arsenal of jokes that was just what was needed to set everyone in the right mood. Joel Antony and Lareina Anne led everyone in some simple ice-breakers to allow everyone to get acquainted. The ice-breakers were followed by dinner. As only 150 people had registered for the night, the organisers had safely ordered food for about 250 people. So obviously, there was a problem here. Once again, God came to the rescue in a most astounding way. The food was in excess! We had comfortably fed close to 400 people (including the working team) that night.

After dinner, it was only right that we all spend some time to praise and worship God. Felicia Leow, Tracey Ooi, and Chrishen Gomez led the Praise and Worship session. We were in for another surprise during the praise and worship session as the electronic drum set that we normally used failed to switch on. Though it seemed like a disaster at the time, the absence of the drums actually made for a much more intimate and gentle praise and worship session. It was clear yet again, that God had different plans for the night.

At around 9.20 pm, the play began. The script was written to showcase the huge contrast between the modern world’s understanding of Easter and the true meaning of Easter as told by the Gospels. The play was a beautiful mix of drama, song and dance as the choir sang beautiful songs to complement the mood at the various intervals of the plot. The play ended with a lively dance by all the cast members. The total working team comprised of over 70 people who all took to the stage at the very end to dance to the final song “Saved by Grace” by Israel Houghton

God had certainly made the night very interesting for not just the participants, but also for the working team. The night was a testament to everyone involved, that as long as Christ is at the centre of all we do, amazing things will come to fruition.

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