2015 Reports

Youth Musical
“The Last King of Israel” was Dapto
Anglican Church’s 5 th musical.
I don’t think I’ve written an AGM report
for each one of those musicals but I know
I have written one for at least the last
three. The biggest struggle for me has
become finding something new to say.
The bragging rights are there, I suppose.
In many ways we outdid any of our
previous musicals. For most of the cast I
have never seen such a disciplined group
of youth who took such responsibility for
learning lines, showing up to practices and
persisting in improving their
performances. The live band was the best
we’ve had by far, even though we only
had one song with the mouth organ in it.
Our show stopping number “Mr
Cellophane” caused such a stir that some
ladies were escorted from the building.
Our overall production quality is amazing,
which you would hope for now that we
have the gift of experience under our
belts. I was encouraged to have people
unconnected to our church take to
Facebook to wholeheartedly endorse the
event, and, I had more conversations than
ever before with people who don’t love
Jesus about how incredible, and thoughtprovoking,
our story was.
I could go on and on (and believe me, I do)
but the best thing about the musical is the
thing that hasn’t changed in the 10 years I
have done it. It’s something that a spectator
of the final product misses and can never
understand. As the people who are involved
in the musical we know we don’t just walk
away with a final product. This is why we
have young adults who have been in every
single musical, and I’m sure would serve in
the next one too. It’s why we cry at the end
of the final performance, even though we saw
each other every day for the last two weeks
and we’ll see them at church again tomorrow.
It’s why the words “belonging” and “family”
get thrown around so much. We gather
together in God’s name and there He is with
us. The musical is one of the best
experiences of Christian community this side
of heaven. If you could understand the way
our young people serve each other,
encourage each other, pray together and spur
one another on you wouldn’t come to see the
final product either. You’d come to watch the
practices.
- Elise Semenchuk
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