On being a wise man

My life in Russia really takes on interesting twists and turns. I'm a student, a teacher, a friend, an advisor, a shoulder, a builder, and even a wise man.

Yep, this week I spent 30 hours with Jim building a construction that is truly a marvel. The story actually begins on 12/25 this year:

The folks at our ch^rch decided to put on a really elaborate production of the Nativity Story. Not the recent movie, but the same plotlines. It was so well received that another ch^rch asked for a repeat performance.

Only one hitch. We couldn't attach the scenes to the walls of their building. And you see, we have some VERY talented artists. The scenes (5 of them) are huge. 3 meters by 5 meters to be exact. And they're gorgeous. So we needed to bring them with us. Vladimir (our interim pastor for November - December) had this great idea to build a free standing structure to hang the scenes on. So, we built it. And they did come. There were probably 150-200 people in the audience on January 7 when we put on our spektakl (play).

Oh, did you notice the we part of that? Yeah, when we put on our play. That's right, I was cast as wise man #2. Vladimir originally held this role, but he had already left for the states and I got to take over. The energy was really electric and (that's kind of a redundant statement isn't it?) and we had such a great time rehearsing and performing. I even wore a turban!

We had no lines to memorize as all of the voices and sounds were recorded onto a computer and mixed ahead of time. The music was perfect, the voices were characterized well AND Zhanna stole the show. There was a small scene with a gossipy woman and her husband when the wise men first arrive in Jerusalem. She was a hoot! Sergei did a marvelous job, both with the voicing and acting of Herod. A special highlight was Natasha singing Mary's song to the baby Jes^s.