Mime4Jesus - MWFC09

Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set the example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. I Timothy 4:12

Sep. 11, 2009

MWFC09 - Day 1

Dead tired. We’re all dead tired. That seems to be the best way to describe the feelings of the Branson team – not to mention the HQ team, the Clinton team, and the TN team, undoubtedly – after three days of training, Bible studies, and good food. Central Family Camp 2009 is over, and a smashing success!

Although I think last year was better.

For Jo and I, family camp started at 10:00 AM on Friday morning, when we arrived at the church to help with any last-minute things that needed doing. Kristi let us in at the side door and immediately put us to work laminating pictures of the fruit of the Spirit. AIM’s theme this year is the Spirit (not sure what specifically; so far here at HQ we’ve studied the spiritual disciplines, leading by the Spirit – leadership camp – and the fruits of the Spirit). Every morning Amber would hide 75 “fruits” around the church, and the team that got the most at the end of Family Camp got a prize. There was something about challenging for other peoples’ fruit too, but we never did that.

So Jo and I spent the first hour laminating and then I realized that Tess had told me I was going to teach a flags elective and that was tomorrow and I knew a grand total of three flag routines. Hmmm. After some discussion and attempts to get someone I knew to teach me, I grabbed Katelyn from the Granby team (she was the only one from her team there) and asked her to teach me some flags. She successfully taught me Seraphim but I couldn’t get Day and Night and she didn’t know Hallelujah right. I ended up outside by myself practicing during registration. I asked Emily Voth for help with Hallelujah and the way she was doing it made sense but I still haven’t figured out how to replicate it.

While Jo and I were laminating half of the Clinton team plus Courtney, Emily B, Maria, and various males were out in the fellowship hall painting four six-foot trees – one for each team and two for Dixon – for us to tape the fruit on that we found. They were painted on butcher paper affixed to huge pieces of cardboard. Very impressive.

Jorge did orientation – Tess or Amber explained about the fruit, I can’t remember – 5/6 of the TN team was there but the Wuertz family didn’t arrive till the next day – we did AIM praise reports and our teams’ went WAY too long – then we split for our first Bible study. Haha, I can call them Bible studies this year ‘cause we didn’t have any “restricted” words.

Three teams, three fruits to a team. Our team had joy, goodness, and self-control. We had five-and-a-half hours to do what we had to do last year – study about each topic, compile points to share based on what we’d learned, and come up with a way to share it to the rest of the teams. Some of you may recall that we were incredibly pressed for time last Family Camp, and those same some of you may also recall that we only had TWO things to study last year, as opposed to three this year. Hmmm.

We started by splitting people up to cover the fruits. The guys covered self-control; Amber, Melissa, Andrew, Rachel and EmD took goodness, and Courtney, Emily, Maria, Hannah and I did joy (the Duncans were there for the first Bible study time and that was it). We had thirty minutes to study what we were studying and then come back together, explain what we’d learned about our fruit to the rest of everyone and decide what to do with it. Of course, we went overtime on everything, but we all got to share something. The guys didn’t have a clear understanding of what was going on – this and other communication issues would haunt our Bible studies – and so had only done half of their study for self-control. There wasn’t much to say about goodness. There was a LOT to say about joy, though, and I learned a lot there (which made me glad ‘cause I was kinda afraid of not learning anything).

So after Bible study Amber and I led technique. Tess had called me the day before Family Camp and asked me to write up a list of technique to be taught in beginning and advanced tech, respectively. So I consulted Lori Ann, Josiah and my memory and came up with these two lists:

Beginning Tech.

Foot positions
Hand positions
- Classical hand
- Identification hand
- Jazz hand
- Michaelangelo hand
- Hand that gives
- Hand that takes
- Oriental hand
Double zero
Toc
How a mime relates to objects (BIG)
5 Elements of a Gesture
- 1) Focus
- 2) Reach
- 3) Take
- 4) Accent
- 5) Release
Resistance
Basic illusions
- Flower
- Balloon
- Wall
Walks
- Pressure walk
- Mime run
- Comic run
Characterization (put it all together)

Intermediate/Advanced Tech

Characters
- Angels
- Demons
- Ladies in HH
- Cowboys
Violence?
- Punches
- Sword fighting?
- Safe falls?
Cross technique
Stairs
Doors
Atmospheres?
- Peanut butter (slow w/ resistance)
- In space – no gravity (slow w/o resistance)
- Ninja (fast w/ resistance)
- Rag doll (fast w/o resistance)
Mime twister
(Tess later added stroll miming stuff, more walks, and other stuff I can’t remember)

Amber and I went into this knowing well that we would be teaching forty mimes, the majority of whom had already gone through technique at least once, and probably half had been through it three or more times. This in mind, we wanted to really make technique interesting: we HAD to go through it, but we were allowed to have fun while we did it. Some of the things we did to make basic technique interesting:

We asked for volunteers (we did this a lot) and had a double zero contest, with everyone else trying to break them.
We had everyone practice the mime walk with Bibles on their heads.
We had a comic run race.
We had everyone practice mannequin by making up skits and then showing them to everyone else.

It was fun to teach and Courtney said it was fun to watch, so that’s good.

After technique was the team showcase. It was kinda a bust because most of the Clinton team hadn’t arrived yet and there were awkward gaps between songs, not like last year where it felt more like a big Branson show. Oh, well. We went first and presented In God We Still Trust and All I Really Want for Christmas. They went mostly good but hard to put any emotion into either of those songs and I like my songs emotional. 

The TN team went next because the Clinton team wasn’t there yet. They presented Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) by Chris Tomlin and Hurt by Thousand Foot Krutch. The songs were simple but profound. Obviously we didn’t learn Hurt.

After the TN team the Clinton team STILL wasn’t there so we got up onstage and each team explained their songs until the Clinton team arrived. They presented God Bless the USA and I Surrender All. It was really cool to see them have a team ‘cause last year it was just the Voths and this year they had eleven presenting members (even though only one of them is a boy).

Next was dinner which the Branson team cleaned up. We always seem to get the first cleanup, no matter what it is. Kinda statistical odds or something. We had fun, got wet, sang songs, and all that jazz. And of course didn’t get to do verse time. Oh, well.

Jim Brawner. Of course, never heard of him, but Jory and Tess had a lot of good things to say about him. They tried to get people outside of Family Camp to come but as far as I know the Lillys are the only ones who showed. He talked about personality types and about how we can relative with and assist people of all personality types. I enjoyed it a lot and he thought I was a beaver when I asked for the answers to the remaining blanks on the page. For the record, I tied 45-45 lion-otter. ;-) you can guess on some of the other people at FC. I went up and talked with him afterwards. He seems like a really nice guy.

We were going to have team time but they cancelled it which was really sad. We didn’t have any team time the entire time which was super super sad. Oh, well. Then we came home, ate cookies, and I went to bed. I hear Jo and the guys stayed up playing ping-pong and talking.

I had made a point with God to spend time with Him during Family Camp so I got up at six, walked and prayed, and then showered. Was very happy. Took some notes for the joy study, read my Bible, printed technique notes, sneaked a sausage biscuit (protein). I gotta say it’s much better to stay at one’s own house. Just hide from the boys.

When we got there it was breakfast – toast and fruit – and then verse time. I got section one crossed off ‘cause Jo had helped me practice in the car on the way home the night before. It was satisfying. Learned that Amanda is the one to say verses to. Amber’s mean. =) Then we had Bible study. We were working on what we wanted to share and what order we wanted to share it in but Jorge peeked in halfway through and said something about application, so some of us worked on that instead. *coughourgroupdidn’tcough* I guess we should have, but it ended up working really well to have a solid “this is what we want to say” thing.

We had (in this order):
What: Joy is inward happiness given by God that you can choose to use.
Why: Numbers 11:1-35: the Israelites griping and Philippians 2:14-15 (do everything without grumbling or aruging… so you can shine like stars in the universe)
When: I Thessalonians 5:16 – be joyful always. Paul and Silas are an example of this: Acts 16. James 1:2-3 (joy in trials).
How: we get joy from God’s presence (Psalm 16:8-11) and joy from salvation (I Peter 1:8-9)

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