A VERY FOUR HORSEMEN CHRISTMAS!

Here it is, ladies and gents! The official Four Horsemen team's MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!
Ring the bells, break out the mulled wine, and let the carols play!



(A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM HEATHER AND TINA!)



(Aaand, because we promised it...a VERY rough recording of the SET ME FREE skit --- introduced by Sam (Death)!)

ENJOY! MORE COMING SOON!

Some gifts don't fit under the tree....

Our caroling team spent some time over this last week paying special visits to some of our sponsors.


(Our local Honda Branch sponsored 50 GBPs worth of Christmas CDs for the residents of the Care Homes we performed at)

A lot of these very special people have only recently met us but helped our volunteer work regardless.


(Mrs Khan donates battered chicken from her store regularly)

Seeing how appreciative our associates were for our taking the time to sing a few songs for them and drop off some small tokens of our thanks made me think.
Christmas is supposed to be about giving. But how often do so many of us keep what we have in the form of our time, love, patience, and resources for someone who's a relative stranger?


(Drinks and Co. contributed soft drinks for our monthly gatherings, as well as wine and beer for our volunteer Christmas party!)

Jesus came to Earth at Christmas to give us his entire life, and what did He ask in return? That we love Him and others. A lot of people claim to love God, but Jesus says that our love for Him is measured by the love we show to everybody else.

Everyone who helped us, whether it was big or small, showed me that Jesus still loves and cares for me. It was like a heads-up to say 'Hey, listen you; despite everything you feel you did or didn't do this year, I'm proud of you - and I think you're great.'

Christmas can be a lonely time for many people out there. I want to give Jesus the gift of 'me' this Christmas - by giving others my time and love, not just my friends but everybody who needs it.


(Tina and Cate with a Care Home resident who loved our show)

What gift would Jesus like from YOU this Christmas? :D

For Your Info....

I completely forgot to mention this before (my bad) but in case you hadn't noticed, the chat box feature has been removed from the blog for various reasons. (It was ugly :P).
Good news, however: the blog settings have been changed to allow for comments from EVERYBODY (not just other bloggers), so you can comment on any article you want with a simple click of your mouse on the link at the bottom of the post. IT'S EASY AND LOTS OF FUN :D!
That's all for now!

Not So Silent Nights ...

Wow - it's been too long since an update on this thing. But December has been horrendously busy, sooo...where to start?
Okay, so for one, our caroling team (consisting of Tina, Liz (the mature voice of the choir :P), myself and Cate) have been hitting the Care Homes with our half-hour repertoire of carols. It's great fun but a lot of work...we go out, we sing them songs, we come home, then we go out again to carol door-to-door.
On the weekends, our troupe hits the London pubs - and that is a whole other experience in itself!



I have a few pics of our shows but none of us singing in the bars (sorry...but the cameras would likely be obscured with all the beer flying around lol).



So for now, enjoy these and oh yes, almost forgot...

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE OFFICIAL FOUR HORSEMEN CHRISTMAS POST!

There'll be lots of eye candy in the form of personal vids, songs, and a pre-release edition of the new play SET ME FREE. Yes you read that right, but I'll repeat it: a pre-release edition of the new play SET ME FREE.

In the meantime, enjoy your Christmas preparations, and don't forget the Birthday Boy (Jesus) in all your hustle and bustle!

Of rain and snow and mistletoe!

(Tina and Heather)

Alright, so I lied. There's no mistletoe...not yet at any rate. But London has had both rain AND snow over November. And the Four Horsemen team has been brainstorming for Christmas action...because we get restless :(
Okay so that explains the picture at the beginning of this post. Yes, it's myself (Heather) and Tina. And yes - we're wearing Santa hats...and cloaks. SO?
Christmas starts early for our team, this year especially since some of us will be braving all possible mishaps to take the world's favorite carols to the houses, pubs and even care homes of London this Christmas!
Contrary to popular belief, Caroling is a dying art nowadays. Last year we did it and we had rough English pubcrawlers with misty eyes and comments to the tune of 'nobody does this anymore'.
SO THERE :p.

The Light of Your Love (because it's video mania season :P...and because Jesus is awesome)

This is a music video a friend of ours put together that is WELL WORTH YOUR TIME! The song is written on the theme of Mary Magdalene (who was an ex-prostitute that later became one Jesus' closest friends and followers). The clips are taken from the 1999 film 'Jesus'. The point of my posting this vid is that I think it gets the point of just how amazing and genuine...well REAL...Jesus' love was and is! :D Enjoy!

The Christmas Shoes - an adorable video about the real meaning of cmas...

Hereford - The Bloopers/Deleted Scenes :P

Because it's healthy to laugh at ourselves..:D


(Gosh..women..always going on about nothing...Can I get a coffee over here?!)


(Uh Josh? I know you're into Sam's gloves but it's a bit late for a role change, mate...)


(What? WHAT? You said I was meant to get into my role!)


(Man, when Faye did that funky flip over Josh's back last night...I didn't want to say anything but...)


(Life's just so unfair...)

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

The wheels on the van go round and round...

(Faye with Sean in Hereford)


The Hereford road trip was amazing and lots of fun! Our team of six (consisting of Josh, Simon, Sam, Heather, Faye, Mari and Sean...Sam's younger brother and up and coming stagestorm :P)spent Friday at Simon's rehearsing the new play as well as brushing up on Everything and Four Horsemen. Mari once again graciously donned the robes of Death while Sam embraced a new role as Money!


(Sam as Money...yes I know, he looks like Pete Doherty, but hey, the audience loved it!)

We arrived in Hereford on a grey but sun-shiny Saturday morning and drove to the small campground where the church members had rented us a lot for our caravan....
YES WE WENT CAMPING, PEOPLE!
I tragically don't have any pics of the trailer or the antics that squishing six people into a relatively small space would produce, but it was crazy and fun lol.
The event turned out to be a combination of three different churches in England and was being held that evening in a big, old fashioned Marquee on the grounds of the Herefordshire Food Fair! Check it out.


(Me (Heather) and the awesome tent behind!)

Inside the marquee, we got set up (they had a terrific stage going on, complete with dry ice and disco lights) and spent some time rehearsing on stage (I won't say how that went because I don't want to get dead :P). The event didn't start till 8 PM so we meandered through the food fair and took in some of the local sights (and tastes :D).


(Faye lounging in the grass...)

At 8, the gig kicked off. About 200 young people turned up for the event, including a very special Christian band from Bracknel called Ethos. Their members are all from the ages of 15 to 20 and they were the winners of the Battle of Bands competition last year. Their stuff rocked! They had the whole room moshing to their music in no time, and we traded off with them every few songs to perform one of our dramas.
Amazingly, all three plays went off without a hitch. The crowds loved it! We got cheers and hoots every time Jesus spoke and all the other Horsemen got loud boos when they gave their speeches, lol. The Everything skit wasn't foreign to some of the people there, but the ones we spoke with afterward said that ours was the best they'd ever seen (I think that might've been due to the fact that I was literally getting thrown around for real which they oohed and ahhed at, lol).


(A rather blurry shot of Four Horsemen being performed)

What really crunched was when it came time to perform the Set Me Free skit (that's now the official name of the Who Pulls the Strings skit). We were very nervous about doing it, but all the frantic prayers (God please help us do it right and I promise I'll stop yanking Sammy's chains so hard for fun)paid off and it was a roaring success! Well, by that I mean the crowd loved it and everyone oohed and ahhed again, especially at the very phsycial and risky fight scene at the end (which involves Josh versus just about everyone else in a battle for Sam's life...and there's no weapons in the picture ppl).


(Some of the audience watching our plays at the event)

Just about everyone got hit (right hook to the jaw, kick in the chest, elbow in the neck, a hazardous flip over Josh's back which wasn;t controlled and had the crowd gasping as Faye went soaring head over heels and landed smack on her back...the crowd went WOW and Faye went Ow...very quietly of course lol).
Sadly since we were all performing the skit, there aren't any pics, but you can watch the original on youtube here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=alleRy70rAM
(Warning: it's not for the faint of heart!! But it's worth it if you're brave enough!)

Ethos came back on stage and rocked on, and the Horsemen ditched their costumes with relief and joined in on the moshing as the night rolled on (sorry, don't have any pictures of that either, and it's too bad, cuz Josh and Sam leaping around is a funny sight any day). The event wrapped up around eleven PM and we happily headed back to the trailer, bearing the numbing winter cold with new smiles on our faces as we quickly drifted off to dreamland...
Our gig with the actual church was at around ten thirty the next morning, so we were buzzed awake at seven thirty by the cheery sound of our alarms. We ate and got ready then drove off to the church, only to come to a horrible realization...
(dramatic music..) THE CLOCKS HAD CHANGED!
That's right. Daylight Saving was activated the night before and we'd actually gotten at six thirty AM (oooh yes...heads were going to roll...well...wires actually, once we attacked our alarm clocks for the injustice lol). So our team ended up with quite a wait on our hands.
At least they were kind enough to let us inside the church and show us to a nice, warm room a ways off where we could wait it out. The boys went a little stir-crazy after a while and an impromptu game of tennis-ball hockey (yes we invented it) commenced.


(What do you mean, we didn't have hockey sticks? The weapons did just fine...)

Ethos were there again to grace us all with a softer but just as awesome batch of songs before we were called up to perform. Again, we alternated with their band, although this time we just did the Four Horsemen and Everything skits (everyone was still nursing their wounds from the Set Me Free skit the night before, lol).


(Four Horsemen hits the pulpit...actually amazingly enough, we didn't. The boys behaved themselves during the fight scene for once :P)


("I am the second horseman and my color is black..." - Sam on stage)

The congregation were very generous with their applause and their praise afterward when they approached us to talk. We were very privileged to have witnessed the sight of different christian groups in the UK coming together with a vision to offer their myriad of talents in aid of bettering the quality of life for their communities. We were especially impressed by Ethos and their youth group - a warm, lively bunch who made us feel at home with their welcoming and friendly antics (and their pizza :D) ...awww...


(Faye with the Ethos band and pals)

We bid everyone farewell around two PM and popped in on Frank (the wonderful man who made this all possible and invited us to the event - Frank, we love you and couldn't have done it without you!) who was still at the food fair before hitching up the trailer and heading home - tired, sore (in more then one place for some of us) and exhausted, but happy!

(Some post-trip pics when all the stage make-up comes off and the weapons are laid to rest :P I just thought these were too cute to leave out. Enjoy and God bless!)


(Jesus slept...)


(Sam catching a snooze...)


('Huh, what? Oh...' Heather caught unawares)


(And that's about all for now, peeps! Catch ya on the other side! -- The Four Horsemen team)

On the Road Again!

That's right - we're never satisfied...not even close...
In the words of D.B.Berg - "You've got to keep sacrificing, you've got to keep forsaking, you've got to keep fighting every day".

Our theatre team is back on the wheels this weekend, ready to take two days of performing at a christian venue by storm! Oh and did I mention that our repertoire has now been expanded to THREE PLAYS?

Yeah you read that right. The 'Who Pulls The Strings' play is just going to be undergoing some final tweaking and then it's ready to roll! There'll be pics and hopefully a clip coming next week so keep your head up for those, but until then, HERE'S SPOILERS FOR THE NEW SKIT:

Sam (Death) will ditch his scythe in favor of chains...

Heather (me, the blonde :P) is going to be a far cry from her role as distressed girl in the Everything skit as she will play a much darker part...

We'll see Josh (Jesus) performing a roundhouse kick among other stunts...

The new skit involves barcodes, chains, boxes, and beer bottles...

That's as much as you're getting out of me for now though, or the others will pummel me for being a snitch, lol. Stay tuned for those pics - Tuesday's the estimated day to be keeping your eyes open! Till then take care and God bless!

The Four Horsemen go Morris in Reading!

Back again with updates on the awesome weekend we had!

On Saturday, our theatre team went to Reading to perform the Four Horsemen and Everything plays on it's noble walking streets.

When we first got there, it seemed to be progressing like a normal day: we met and talked to some nice people and did the plays in-between.

(Talk about interactive fun!War (Dee Jay) captures a willing member of the audience!)

But after about 2 hours of being there, some Morris dancers came along and began performing near our spot. Well, we talked with them and decided on a kind of 'you go, we go thing', where they did a dance and then we did a play.

(The Four Horsemen performing for a captive audience... spot the dancers!)

The result of this mutually beneficial deal was...:) We got a HUGE crowd and we got to do both plays. Things were on a comfortable roll, when all of a sudden...(drum-roll)...

THE MORRIS DANCERS PULLED US IN! Lol, we did a dance with them even though we didn’t have a CLUE what was going on.

(War and Death getting in on the action!)

(Faye was literally swept off her feet!)

After our impromptu bout of dancing (during which we all got a turn), we continued on with our day. Reading is an awesome place: we got to meet some really nice people who saw the plays, and all in all, it turned out to be a really great Saturday!

WALES II

(The Four Horsemen in Cardiff Bay!)

Aaaannd....WE ARE BACK!
Two smashing days in Wales and we have lived to tell the tale! (No that wasn't meant to rhyme, but since it does...:D). Our team was downsized considerably this time due to mitigating circumstances (the main one being that our dearly beloved Sam wasn't able to come along). So we set out with only a van-full of 7 - that's right, just seven of us went...and only for two days!
They were an amazing two days, though! On Thursday evening, our team (Heather, Dee Jay, Josh, Simon, Mari, Tina and Sam's eleven year-old sister Amanda) arrived in Cardiff and were out the next day performing the Four Horsemen play downtown. And while we're on that note.... (drumroll)...

MARI HAS OFFICIALLY BECOME THE FIRST EVER FEMALE HORSEMAN!

That's right. Mari (who normally plays the Drunk in the Everything skit) took up Death's scythe for the two days we were in Wales. And she did wonderfully - with everything from the lines to the fight scene (although there were a few bashed knuckles and bruises, but hey, hazards of the job, right?).

Oh and who played the Drunk, you ask? NO-ONE! But Tina did win the audience's heart (and lots of applause) when she came staggering out as a peace-loving druggie with a splif!

(Yes, Tina was dressed like this the whole time...:D)

Saturday was Swansea day (woo hoo) and our black-and-white-painted team spent an awesome afternoon in the town center, where both the Four Horsemen and Everything skit made a comeback! Cate (who plays Vanity) wasn't able to come this time, so guess who took up the torch? Amanda! That's right, Amanda has officially become the youngest ever actor to perform in our street plays. And I'd just like to add that she did great - for those of you who've seen the Everything skit, you know Vanity is not the easiest role to play. But after only a couple of practice session, Amanda got up there and did the catwalk strut to perfection (complete with the pout, the sneer and the shoulder swivel lol).

So that's two records for us (First Female Horseman and Youngest Ever Actress). But the coolest part of the road trip was, of course, the awesome young people we got to meet! It was also great seeing a lot of you who we met last time in Swansea for a second time. You guys really made our day (BethAnn...I so did pronouce your name right this time around!) And also kudos to Bradley, Yoshi, Rorie and David (you guys are officially the first to have ever gotten down on your knees in the middle of the street to pray with me - I think I turned red and you guys got a great kick out of that one :P)

The only tragedy? WE DIDN'T BRING A CAMERA :((....sob sob. It was all a great big misunderstanding that resulted in our not being able to take anything but phone shots of all the amazing things that were packed into those two days. I'm working on getting those ones, but until I do, I'm afraid to say I don't have ANY pictures for you guys! But bear with me...

Until the next time... :D

The Second Coming ...

Good news all (well, we're excited anyway :P)! The Four Horsemen team will be returning to Wales for another round - woo hoo! We'll be arriving in Cardiff Thursday evening and will be staying until Saturday evening. SOO... if you met us during our last visit there (or you heard about us and want to)....

WE'LL BE IN WALES TONIGHT! COME AND SEE US!

Below is a number you can call to give us a buzz if you'd like to meet up with us during our stay in Wales! It would be awesome to see you!

Call Dee Jay on: 07939808420

Whispers of a September Play ....

Hey everyone!

I know there aren't much updates at the moment, but bear with us :D. We're working our creative muses on the development of a NEW and EXCITING PLAY! Things are on the roll now and we'll no doubt be flooding the blog with pics of the new play debuting in all our favorite spots so KEEP A LOOK OUT for the Four Horsemen in your area.

Here's a little teaser :P - the title of the new play is ... (drumroll) ... WHO PULLS THE STRINGS (coming soon to a walking street near you)

Other then that, school's back in as I'm sure most of you know, which means that our dear Sam (Death) is now buckling down to a new term. BUT NEVER FEAR! The Grey Horsemen is still riding with us at the weekend, braving the winds and rain (yeah London is a bummer for September weather)!

Not much else to report for now. Keep the faith!

-- Your Four Horsemen team

Why Suffering - Part 2!

I promised it, so without further ado - here it is!

WHY SUFFERING? - PART 2...

At that point she was called away to attend to a customer, so that was the end of our conversation. But I was thinking later about how much of the World's suffering is not even caused by the DEVIL, and certainly not because GOD wants to be mean to people, but rather through MAN'S OWN FOOLISHNESS. Man is his own worst enemy!

Look at the suffering that Man has caused himself by continually fighting terrible wars in which millions have been killed or injured! Martin Luther (a Christian reformer who went loggerheads against the church of his day over ideas like salvation by grace, not needing to pay a bunch of useless fees, and sex not being a sin) called war "the greatest scourge that can afflict humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states and it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it!"

But is GOD to blame for Man's wars? The Bible says, "What causes wars and fightings among you? Don't they come from your OWN LUSTS that battle inside you?"--James 4:1. God isn’t to blame for the suffering caused by war, but rather Man's own selfishness, greed, pride and competitive spirit--the destruction of others for greed or selfish gain--THIS causes wars!

And War isn’t the only thing – there’s also car accidents, which are actually an even greater cause of deaths today then wars! Can you imagine that? More people die every year from the vehicles WE invented then the wars we fight!

Far too many of Man's inventions, such as weapons of war, too-rapid transportation, towering skyscrapers, pesticides, lethal chemicals, drugs etc., are death-dealing and destructive and cause all sorts of suffering.

Problems like these are caused by MAN'S own foolishness over a number of years, often centuries! -- Problems which have steadily grown over successive generations. Can we really blame GOD for all the crap in the world today?

If we were to try to cover ALL the causes of suffering in this World, it would probably take a book! But I hope I've at least given you SOME answers to one of the great eternal questions of this life: "Why does God allow suffering?"

Because WE'VE brought it on OURSELVES! Though we can understand MANY of the reasons through reading God's Word and through prayer, we probably won't know ALL the answers to that question until we get Up There, as there are some things we won't understand until we see things as God sees them.

A very fitting illustration of this is the story of Doctor Handley Moule, when he visited a coal mine immediately after a terrible underground explosion. At the pit's mouth was a large crowd, among whom were the relatives of the trapped and suffering miners.

"It’s very difficult," he said, "for us to understand why God should let such an awful tragedy happen. But I have at home an old bookmarker given me by my Mother. It’s woven in silk, and when I look at the wrong side of it, I see nothing but a tangled mass of threads. It looks like a big mistake! You’d think someone had made it who didn’t know what she was doing.

But when I turn it over and look at the right side, I see there, beautifully embroidered, the letters, 'GOD IS LOVE!'"

"We are looking at this today," he continued, "from the wrong side! Someday we’ll view it from another standpoint and we will understand."

God ALWAYS has a purpose and a plan in suffering, even though we can't always see it right away!

Sometimes, "His ways are past finding out" (Romans 11:33), and we just have to TRUST God, knowing that whatever He does, He does it in LOVE, and that if we don't understand NOW, we will LATER!

"Why Suffering?"

I came across this article the other day, written by an awesome guy named David Berg. It answered a major question I had and one I get asked like literally every time I talk with someone about Jesus. Just thought I'd post it up here for those of you who've always wondered...

WHY SUFFERING?

- By David Berg -

I was talking to a pretty young travel agent the other day, and during the course of our conversation we began to talk about God.

"Oh, I don't believe in God!" she said. "If there is a God, why is there so much suffering in the World today?

“Why do thousands die of starvation every day in Africa? What kind of God would allow a terrible disease like AIDS to run rampant? Why was my best friend just crippled in an automobile accident?"

"Well," I replied, "you can't blame GOD for all the suffering in the World! He's not some kind of monster that enjoys making people suffer. It's not GOD Who causes all these things.

“ A lot of it is the evil work of a powerful being called Satan, or the Devil, and being called Satan, or the Devil, and he just loves to hurt Man and see him suffer!-- In fact, that's one of his main tactics to try to turn Man away from God. He tries to give GOD the blame for his OWN dirty deeds!"

The young lady was quiet for a moment as she pondered this, and then she shot back with the atheists' trump card question which they always try to stump Christians with!

"Well then, if there is a God, and He's ALL-POWERFUL, why doesn't He STOP the Devil and not allow him to cause all this suffering? Why does He ALLOW evil in the World? For example, why didn't He stop Hitler?"

"Well, that's a very good question!" I answered. "But you see, if God had put a stop to Hitler, He also would have to put a stop to YOU!--Because YOU'RE a sinner too, aren't you?

"I'm sure you're not as bad as Hitler, but we've ALL been bad sometimes, haven't we? The Bible says, `ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.'--Romans 3:23.

"So He would have had to stop everybody in the whole World from doing ANYthing bad! Right at the very beginning God would have had to step in and use FORCE to stop Adam and Eve from eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.”

“He would have had to interfere with our FREE WILL and the majesty of PERSONAL CHOICE that He's given each of us to choose good or evil!"

"But wouldn't it have been BETTER if He had MADE us all to be good?" She challenged.

"If the Lord had wanted ROBOTS, yes He could have MADE everybody do good and love Him. But He made us with FREE choice and FREE will, so we could CHOOSE to love Him! You wouldn't enjoy YOUR children much if they were FORCED to love you, would you?” I questioned.

Puzzled, she replied, "Well no, but what does this have to do with suffering?"

I explained, "Because Man was put here to make a CHOICE between good and evil, between doing things GOD'S way or his OWN.”

Stay Tuned For More On 'Why'...

... Part 2 coming up ...

(PS: Okay so the pics were my idea - they're so cute though, aren't they? I couldn't resist, you guys!)

Tales From Wales - The Swansea Scoop

(The Four Horsemen with a few of the Swansea crowd)

Finally back with the story on Swansea - the city we hit on Saturday (and the last city our team went to in Wales). It was a brilliantly sunny day and lucky for us (with a lot of Divine intervention) it stayed that way for all the afternoon.
We really didn't know what to expect in Swansea and some of us were a little nervous, but also excited as we'd been repeatedly told to take our plays there by some of the Welsh young people we'd encountered. Well, after finding a spot at the far end of the walking street and striking up an act... we were in for an amazing afternoon!
There was a large gathering of young people just around the corner from where we were performing, and as the day progressed, more and more of them were drawn to the action. We were as happy to perform for them as they were to watch - the Swanseans (yes I know it's a made-up term...) were an awesome audience.
They were even better when it came to one-on-one and group discussions about the plays, their meanings and the message of Jesus' love. Our team spent the better part of the day in conversation with these very special people, exchanging hugs and email addresses (and taking lots and lots of pictures, hah).
All in all, we have to say that Swansea was an awesome experience for our team and well worth the time and effort! We prayed with lots of the young people there to receive Jesus into their hearts and we know He's going to do mind-blowing stuff in each of their lives now!
We ended our time up in Swansea with a trip to the beach, woofed down pizzas and coke (given complimentary by the local Pizza Hut - the manager was very kind! If you're ever in Swansea, go and eat there!) and those of us who were brave enough splashed around a bit! It was the perfect end to a perfect day! Enjoy the pics!

(Faye with two young men who were brave enough to give Jesus a chance - Jason and Danny, you guys rock!)

(Three beautiful people gathering to watch the 'Everything' play)

(The audience looks on as the 'Everything' play unfolds...)

(Even after the walking street was deserted, it was still going on!)

(Mari and Sam with three new friends)

(It's always great to have people we've just met join in on the plays, but Kyle's acting took us by storm!)

(The Four Horsemen took quite a knocking that day!)

(Faye and Heather showing some boys about some of the signs of the end (check out the 'Mathew 24' pictures on this blog if you're interested...))

(Two damsels in distress hugging a long-haired blonde boy with a sword...and it's not even Josh!)

(Fun at the beach after a long, busy day!)