"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop." - The King, Alice in Wonderland

This summer, I set my sites high. No more checking tickets and distributing playbills on the fringes of the theatre world for me. Ah, no! This summer I was determined to find a theatre opportunity that I could sink my teeth into – somewhere behind the scenes where I could design and create and assist someone in bringing to life those fantastical tales of the stage!

Fast forward to April; reality had set in. There I was grasping at straws trying to find something, no almost anything to do in the realm of theatre. My list of options was shrinking by the day. Noah the Musical with The Sight and Sound Theatre in Branson only took on local theatre students. I had filled out applications for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, The Muny, The Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, and The Guthrie, but my small pool of recommendation letter writers had been quite busy with mid semester projects, and so those three ideas slid off the list. So finally, there were the Egypt, England, and Los Angeles options, each brimming over with adventure and fantastic possibilities. I kid you not, none, no not even one of these responded to my scores of emails and phone calls.

Resignation set in. I would simply have to continue working at my regular job in St. Louis and content myself with volunteering with a few theatres here and there. But of course, you know that’s not the end of the story. About a week before spring break, I was clearing out my messenger bag when I came across a business card. It was from Pastor Rockwell Taylor of Abundant Life Community Church in Cleveland, Ohio. I remembered that my church had partnered with them on their VBS camps, and that they had a theatre ministry. I wondered… An idea was forming in my head of maybe going out there to Ohio for a couple of weeks during the summer to possibly help with an upcoming production and in the process learn how their theatre outreach worked. Yeah. Why not? My curiosity got the best of me, and I had nothing to lose.

I put in a call to Pastor Taylor and by the end of the conversation he had invited me out to come out to Cleveland for the whole summer.

Fast forward eight weeks and here I am in Cleveland in the midst of planning and coordinating for theatre and sports camps, theatre workshops, and ministry outreach. Already I’ve contributed in (very) small part to Abundant Life’s 82^nd Street Theatre performances of “Pride and Prejudice” which took place the first weekend I and my partner in crime, Allison, arrived in town.

Each day the little ins and outs of the 82^nd Street Theatre are coming into focus, and I’ve been inspired by the stories of how it has impacted lives for the better. Anyone would have to be in denial to miss what God has done through 82^nd Street Theatre, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to learn as much as I can and poor myself into the good work that has been set before me. I could have ended up doing something completely different this summer, but God knew where he wanted me. He even used my goofy little curious and inquiring quirk to get me here.

“I'm in charge of all this - I run this universe!” – Job 41:11

“ I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Yep He’s definitely got it under control. Thank goodness!