The Four (Domestic) Horsemen :P...

Hey all!
Sorry for not updating more frequently! The YouthReach team has been insanely busy at the tail-end of this month with a flurry of changes and upheaval! Simon's in Pakistan at the moment on a business trip and the rest of us happen to be shoving everything we own into boxes and bags double-time.
Why, I see you asking? Uh because we're moving houses. Yep, that's right. We finally found a nice seven-bedroomed house in a decent location (Southall) which makes for drinks all around, wouldn't you say? Well...maybe at the housewarming party...which isn't gonna be for another week at least (groan). Oh well...it's worth it just to watch Death, Greed, War and Jesus packing kitchen stuff and cooking meals with plastic utensils..(check out the pic of Jesus getting down and floury with our in-house infant Collin...grin)
Oh well. God is good! It's pretty much an all-out miracle to find a house big enough for a team of our caliber, not to mention cheap enough for a team of our limited budget, hah!
Anyhow, on a different topic, the YouthReach theater team was requested to do a photo shoot in downtown Hemel on a bright and cheery Saturday afternoon. It was a fun and novel experience as we performed both the Four Horsemen and Everything skit quite a number of times (you know how picky photographers can be...'there's too much of a glare...do it again...quick while there's cloud cover...oh now it looks like rain, let's put the cameras away...' etc etc)
Just kidding :P. The camera guys were great! And so was the afternoon as we met with friends new and old (some of whom recognized us and some of whom didn't) in Hemel. And anyone who happened to miss our version of the Everything skit weren't let off the hook, since there was a church group down the walking street who were also performing their own rendition! Looks like Jesus really wanted to get the point across, lol!
Anyhow, when we have the photos, so will you - promise, cross our hearts! Till then, God bless ya all!

Kensborough and Reading

Back again, this time with photos from the performance at Kensbourough Family Church!
It was a very special morning, beginning at 10:00 sharp with an adult service, during which we performed the Everything play with usual gusto (one carpet burn and an elbow to the larynx were the extent of sustained injuries). The audience response was wonderful and everybody cheered as Jesus held the vices at bay!
Some of us then headed upstairs to participate in a lively repertoire of action songs for the children while the rest of our team was treated to a stirring sermon in the chapel.
At 1:00 we joined in on the youth group meeting Emerge and performed both the Four Horsemen and Everything skits, and received great reactions to both. Then Simon conducted an impromptu interview with our team on the subject of spreading the message of God's love your average person on the streets. The wonderful young people also had a number of questions for us and were very interested in our lifestyle! We hope to bale to work more with them to bring Jesus to England!
Yesterday we hit Reading YOC with the Everything skit and a simple, spontaneous repertoire of songs (even a duet with Heather and DeeJay, lol). The detainees expressed that the play was "moving and relatable" and were happy to talk about it's relevance afterwards as we split into cell discussion groups. Enjoy the pics and God bless!
(PS: For security reasons we're not allowed to take pics inside of Reading, so the group shot outside of the prison is as much!)

(Pics from the Kensborough Church performance!)

(Our group outside of Reading YOC!)

Upcoming venues....

Introducing...

Just a short note to announce that our team is going to performing both the Four Horsemen skit and the Everything play at a church event this Sunday... so stay tuned for an upcoming post heralding the great success of the venture, lol.

Also, we had the privilege of doing the Four Horsemen play for some of the inmates at Reading Young Offender's Center (sorry, no cameras allowed inside the prison, otherwise I'm sure there would have been some very classic shots). This month, God willing, we'll debut the Everything skit at Reading YOC, so fingers crossed on that one!

In the Merry Month of May...

Wow..it's already May. Where have we been?? Sorry for not updating regularly, people! A lot's been going on with the Four Horsemen team recently so where should we start?
At the beginning. Right...well, we've been doing the Everything skit in all of our usual spots (Watford, Uxbridge etc) and a couple of weekends ago we hit Staines with both plays. It was a bit of a gamble as we'd never been there before and weren't sure about the crowd etc. But it went amazingly well, ,and despite the fact that a large market was in swing, we managed to find a spot to claim as our own.
The young people in Staines were a lively bunch and a lot of them were very interested in the messages portrayed in the plays. We were able to talk with quite a few of them about all sorts of topics regarding life, its perils and of course...how Jesus is the answer!
It was a very moving day for us - in more ways then one, hah! Anyway enjoy the accompanying pictures!

The "Everything" Skit!

Last Saturday we hit Hemel Hampstead with our new play - we call it the "Everything Skit"! It's a mime performed to the Lifehouse song "Everything", and though it's somewhat different from our Four Horsemen play, it was still a raging success! We performed it five times and the crowd really loved it! (We hope to be recording our performance of it soon, but until then, see it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA) Below is the play in picture format! Enjoy!

Jesus creates Girl

Jesus teaches Girl to move

Jesus shows Girl water, flower, food etc

Dancing male spins Girl away from Jesus

Money teases Girl with cash

Drunk turns Girl into alcoholic

Fashion makes Girl Bulimic

Death makes Girl cut herself

Death tries to make Girl kill herself

Girl struggles to try to get back to Jesus

Girl gets beaten and thrown to the ground

Jesus holds all the spirits back while Girl prays

Jesus throws spirits off and rescues Girl

Everyone takes a bow!

The crowd

Josh discussing the play with some of the audience

Plymouth Trip Pics!

Just a post on the recent four day trip to Plymouth our team made this month…

Wow! It was so, so great to see you all again and we can’t wait for our next road trip back down!

It was good fun when we were there, reading the Bible and doing skits to act out the parables. We all enjoyed it, but the best thing was spending time with you people. It was really special!

Included are some pics of our stay there. Richard, Ash, Kate, Meghan, and everyone else we had the privilege of seeing again – you guys rock! We had so much fun and it was amazing seeing how much each of you have come along and hitting the streets of Plymouth with you all!

(By the way, to anyone who is wondering why Tina has a black eye in the pictures; she’d had a little football accident shortly before leaving for Plymouth, lol! All fine now, though, no worries!)

Dee Jay, Ash and Tina

Richard and Tina

Shannon and Ash

Kat and Josh

Ash talking with some young people

A group of guys who got posters

Sam, Meghan, Simon, Tina, Richard, Josh and Bon!

Trafalgar Square...

Here you can see us having a great time down in the heart of London ……..

We went down there with a lot of young people who will maybe want to do something similar…by the way, we’ve heard there are young people in Sweden and in Ukraine who may be copying what we do, having heard about it…neat huh Below (left) is Josh looking regal in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square….

We did the play about five times there and had a really good response! Then we went to Downing Street where instead of acting war-like and like they really wanted to get in there and take over, the Four Horsemen just acted like some American tourists taking cheesy photos (See below right)…… shame …it would have been great to see War and Death fighting through London policeman and challenging Gordon Brown for his kingdom!

Then we went past the horseguards and War, Greed and Death looked very keen to get on the horse - after all …what’s the use of four horsemen who don’t have a horse? They had a word with the gentleman in red about it but for some reason, he didn’t want to lend it to them. (Below Left)

The Horsemen then went to the Houses Of Parliament- the very seat of power and important people. Although we knocked politely on the door, they wouldn’t let us in! What’s the world coming to? (Below Right)

Anyway, we had a great day out and met lots of very interesting people from all sorts of different places… and the young guys had a great time too as you can see below.

Hope to be coming to a city near you soon!