CYMmers Perform at Hogan High School

Justin wanted to bring one of our skits to The Art of Noise performing arts show for awhile now and on March 23, 2011 CYM had the opportunity to perform at The Art of Noise at Hogan High School.

Being that it was a non-faith based event, I was a little worried about how those involved with the skit would be feeling and those watching the skit would receive the skit. The original cast was gathered and was told about the opportunity to perform at The Art of Noise. Any one of them could have backed out but, they were all for it.

Fortunately for us, everyone remembered their choreography so we didn’t need to practice much. Even if everyone wasn’t there, we practiced for a little bit at Passion Play practice the day before just to refresh ourselves with choreography. However, we hit a roadblock when during one of the run throughs Justin sprained his ankle due to the speed of the fall and grip of his shoe working against each other. We were worried because he was one of the main characters in the skit.

The day of the performance Justin was able to walk but there was still pain in his ankle from the day before. The hours leading up to our meet up at Hogan I was praying for the kids, the skit, and the show every chance I got. We met up at Hogan and had to run through the order of the show. We waited for the run through to be over and we met in the band room to practice.

We gathered together in prayer and we ran through the skit about 3 to 4 times. However, during our practices our music would skip and the cast was getting a little banged up. I’m pretty sure it was little bit of the devil’s handy work and I’m sure he didn’t want us to perform this skit at this show. After our practices, we gathered together to center ourselves and to pray.

I told the kids about a group of performers who had performed the “My Everything” skit at a club in LA and that they were in the same boat as them. I also told them “They were given a great opportunity, an opportunity for evangelization. To the production staff, it was an expression of art but, to us it was much more than that. It was an expression of our Faith. Whatever fear we may have, our love for God drive it away.” We prayed and left the room to enjoy the show until our performances.

A few performances before theirs, Justin had introduced to me to sound man and I chilled at the sound booth until after the performance. I saw the cast leave their seats to get ready for their performance. One of the instructions I had given them was to pray before their performance and they did so. I set up the camera and started recording when Justin started giving a short introduction.

As you can tell in the video, I was giving the sound guy instructions when to play the song because usually I was the guy to press play and let the music go. After the introduction, I started to pray for them as I watched them do their thing. You can hear me singing in the video but, I don’t care because it was part of my prayer. Also, after the introduction the crowd went silent. Justin and Rachelle started doing their monologue and the music started to play.

The cast’s performance was leaps and bounds better than their performance at Praise Party one month ago. I could tell by their actions during the performance that they were much more into it. They showed up ready to do God’s work and God’s work they did. The cast had executed the skit wonderfully, awesomely, and epically, all the while giving glory to God.

When the skit was said and done, we were surprised by the audience’s reaction. People were applauding, cheering, and we even had several people giving us a standing ovation. We didn’t expect that big of a reaction. The reaction from the video on Tumblr and on Facebook was also surprising, people commented about how touched and inspired they were because of it.

Maybe that was the reason God brought us to Hogan, to awaken the bored in Spirit. Well whatever the reason, we did God’s work. God gave us the opportunity to evangelize and whatever we were feeling, may it be fear or doubt, we showed up. God gave us the strength to do what was needed.

Like Criscilla Crossland doing the “My Everything” skit at a Club in LA, we were given the opportunity to perform one of our skits at a non-faith based event. To them it was an expression of art but, to us it was an expression of faith. Even though the devil was trying to break us down, we knew that if God is for us, who could be against us. No matter how afraid or doubtful we were, our love for God drove it away. For what we do, we do for the glory of God. And the Glory of God shined that day through the cast to the audience at the show to be touched and inspired.

May God’s grace and mercy awaken the bored in Spirit.