Incarnate 2018: English Cafe

These four lovelies are the three ladies from our theater track and our lone dancer, who were on placement together for one month in Montenegro. Those smiles say it all! Here's some of their stories from Grace. (You may want to backtrack to the previous blog post to hear her story.)

 

"English Café is a ministry of OM Montenegro’s team in Bar, held at their house church. People of all ages are invited to come and learn English. Since many Montenegrins speak a bit of English, the chance to practice and learn more is exciting for them. We were not allowed to openly talk about the Gospel; however, we were able to use our artistic gifts to start important conversations. 

"The first cafe we attended, Ali (our dancer) and I performed a piece we created based on Psalm 42; the topic of conversation that day was art and creativity. Questions like these were discussed: 'What is an artist? Do you consider yourself an artist? How would you define art? What does it mean to be creative?'

"My favorite question was asked by one of the locals, 'How does your faith influence your art?' With that wide open door, we were able to talk about our faith and share the Gospel.

"In addition to the English café, we also helped the Bar team as they hosted an All Christians Conference in Bar, inviting Christians from around Montenegro to gather for fellowship and to be filled with God’s word. 

"We did 2 creative projects: one for kids and one for adults. For the kids, the topic was Agents for Christ. We wrote a story based on the 12 spies that went into the Promised Land. It was translated into Serbian and read by Natja (OM Bar team) while we acted it out for the kids. It’s very hard to act out something that is read in another language! We really had to know what we were doing! 

"For the adult conference, the topic of conversation was relationships with others and the church. We did a skit called Facebook in Real Life where we made fun of the things people post of Facebook."

Arts Festival 

"The last major thing we did in Montenegro (literally the last: we flew out the next day!) was an arts festival, called Darkness into Light. The house church really wanted to do something outside of any existing ministries, to draw people into the church—and we did too. We were very excited when the church band agreed to play for us so we could have music in our festival. Abi (OM Bar team) said she would be willing to share a spoken word. And Santa (also OM Bar team) joined us in the 12 spies play; she never thought she could act and serve God at the same time. We were excited because one goal of our Placement was to encourage local Christian artists to use their talents for God."

Darkness into Light 

"When I visited the Orthodox church (Russian Orthodox is the main religion in Montenegro), I was inspired to write a monologue: God speaking to men, asking what happens when the candle light goes out. Is there no one to continue to pray? 

"We opened the festival with this monologue, followed by Darkness into Light. The theater team had originally this piece in Italy, but we sensed God calling us not to do it there, but in Montenegro. The piece consists of famous quotes about darkness and light and then ends with the scripture, 'In Him was life, and that life was the light to all mankind. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it.' It is performed by candle light which was very powerful because in the Orthodox church, candles are lit to represent prayers for yourself or the deceased. There is very little communication with God beyond that. 

"Ali then danced a piece called Hypocrisia. The dance transitioned into another piece the theater team created, based on the woman caught in adultery. This became part of Abi’s spoken word, her testimony essentially. 

"Finally, we ended the acting/dance section of the festival with another monologue I created based on Ephesians 3:20-21:

 “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to know how long and wide and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to measure of the fullness of God.” 

"I talked about the length, width, height, and depth of Christ’s love and what that looks like. The idea of this section was going from darkness and despair, being transformed and moving into the love of Christ and His marvelous light. 

"The band then played a couple of songs, one of which was a celebration song in Shona, the local language of Zimbabwe, sung by our team member Ruth who was from there. We closed with snacks, coffee, tea and conversation. 

"We performed the same show 2 nights in a row. The first night was open to the church and the second to the English café. We passed out flyers to other people we met in town. My favorite comment was from one of the ladies from English Café who said, 'I am going to have to go home and really think about what I just saw.'” Praise God for more seeds planted!!!!