December 21, 2008

Covenant Journey! What is it, you ask? It is incredible, awesome, inspirational and very professionally done! It is a musical, performed by young people, called "remnants" by our church in Korea. Remnants, because the Bible refers to believers who have not yet gone to heaven and continue to be faithful to their Promise to be God's People on Earth until the Second Coming of Jesus the Christ! Especially thought of in this definition are the young people, but in a way all who are living in these days and are faithful to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ are remnants too.

These young Koreans can sing in English, dialogue in Korean with printed translation, and perform as dancers! The musical was performed on stage with incredible stage and lighting effects. The actors and actresses all were well rehearsed and it was apparent they where trying to achieve a professionally accurate performance with special detail to every syllable, every phrase, every movement, timing and precision was the order of the day. The message was unshakeable with the true Gospel expressed in terms anyone could understand. The setting was contemporary with "West Side Story" type of choreography in front of a backdrop of historical truth from the story of Joseph as found in the Bible. Young performers dance and sing almost flawlessly in front of scenes meticulously designed and manipulated by stage hands. The realism in both the ancient story and the contemporary drug-infested neighborhood of "any world city" was only surpassed by the irony of the parallels drawn between the modern protagonist and the character of the betrayed brother Joseph, Jacob's beloved son!

While there was no apparent attempt at comedy, there were scenes that creatively moved the audience from warm humorous identification with the some character to complete empathy with the plight of the characters who were obviously victims of the evil work of Satan. It accurately portrayed the ever popular theme of Good versus Evil, and showed not only that Good will prevail, but the plot gives a powerful apologetic argument with explanation for the reason Good will prevail today as it does in ancient times. The music from the actors combined with a very accomplished orchestra performing live add a sense of realism and professionalism to an otherwise very nice musical. One gets the feeling these student actors really believe what they are involved in, and they want everyone in the audience to know the Christ the same way they have learned about him in the Darak Bang Movement, and especially in the RUTC (Remnant Unity Training Center: or Church Youth Center) that they appropriately introduce to the audience.

Tickets were reasonably priced, and the drive across town was well worth the effort too. We were able to share the performance with our good friend Kari Bailey, a teacher at a Christian International school in China. As usual, we were treated with great respect and love by our church family, led by the Jangs and our Lead Pastor Chung. We were asked to pose in a picture after the show. I felt compelled to purchase a copy of the CD of the songs, and I look forward to inviting many others to future performances. I am so sure this musical is timely, and well-done, that if I could, I would certainly donate one million dollars to see this performed in America. Of course I cannot, but I believe there are people with these resources who would be able to do exactly that. This musical is so wonderful, I believe it can truly have a major impact on the audience of any major city that invites these young people to come.

I hope you are enjoying time to spend with your family and loved ones this Christmas. As for us, we miss ours, but we are thankful for the good friends we have around us here to soften the blow of missing our wonderful family. It is not a good time to be alone, as everyone needs the company of others to truly experience the awesomeness of Christmas, and specifically Christ's coming into our lives.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here we are together after the show...




 
Friedhelm & Susan Illian
A.k.a. Sung-Ho & Su-Ji
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us; to him be all glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen"