LTC Night

Randy and I are novices. We are newbies. For the past several months we have been initiated into the world of LTC, and what an initiation it has been!

For those of you who aren't "in the know," (as we were not until a few short months ago), LTC stands for Leadership Training for Christ. I know I've mentioned it before but if any of you are as short of memory as I am (according to national news, I apparently suffer from "Momnesia"--I wonder if it's covered by our insurance?), then you need little reminders now and again.

Sign-ups for the many and various events in LTC had already begun when we arrived at Woodland West, so we relied on the recommendations of others when deciding what Tyler and Darcy should participate in. One of our worship leaders immediately suggested Puppets, Chorus and Video Bible Drama, and those three events are indeed (or so I've been told) a good way for participants to "get their feet wet," so to speak.

For about the last two months, the kids have met for two hours every Sunday afternoon to practice the three songs they will be singing in Chorus, and to rehearse their puppet skit. Video Bible Drama was done a bit differently; in that case they met on several Fridays and ran lines, and then L just flipped on her video camera and filmed it for real. (This may go without saying but in case one of my readers has never heard of Video Bible Drama, it's basically just like any regular Drama event but rather than acting it out in "real time" on LTC Weekend, a video of the drama is shot and sent in several weeks before, and the video itself is judged.)

Unbeknownst to me, being as out of the loop as I perpetually am, LTC is evidently this BIG THING to a lot of people, and THOUSANDS of kids converge on Downtown Dallas/Fort Worth to take part in such events as the aforementioned, as well as Song Leading, Bible Reading, Scripture Memory, Bulletin Board Preparation . . . and the list goes on. Oh, and it always takes place on Easter Weekend. Always. So Woodland West has a tradition of having LTC Night the Wednesday night before LTC Weekend, only there was a conflict with next week so LAST night was LTC Night. What a riot!

The events that were showcased by the WW kids last night were Chorus, Puppets, Video Bible Drama, Song Leading, Bible Reading and Drama. All of the kids were GREAT and had a lot of fun and worked really hard all at the same time. But my comments will be confined to the events that MY kids were in, since they are, after all, MY kids and I want to brag! It was actually pretty neat to see them perform EXACTLY as they are to perform on LTC Weekend, when previously we've seen a lot of cutting up in practice along with the singing or puppeteering or whatever. We were especially nervous about the puppet show because just prior to the performance for the church, the coach and some of us parents were still pleading with the kids to "Speak up!" and "Slow down!" But I am telling you right now, with the exception of one kid whose voice was just a little too faint to be heard clearly, those kids really kicked it up a notch! I was so proud of them all!

I have to give props to Tyler because he TOTALLY slowed down and enunciated all of his words--he thought his "practice" performances were funnier because he tried to ham it up, but what he didn't seem to grasp was that the hammier he tried to be, the faster he spoke and the harder it was to actually understand what he was saying!! (Having a palate expander doesn't help matters. I'm just sayin'.) So while he may have thought he wasn't as entertaining as he could have been (and by the way, his part didn't call for him to be "entertaining," Tyler just thought he'd punch up the script a bit. Ahem.), he was, in a word, GREAT! And people have told me repeatedly how wonderful Darcy's inflections are, and I can only agree. She's so funny because she's got this little Betty Boop voice that just makes me laugh every time she goes through her lines. She sounds like she just sucked down a balloon full of helium! (And I mean that in the nicest possible way!)

Video Bible Drama was the funniest part of all, though not intentionally! I had sat through multiple run-throughs and had seen the majority of the skit filmed but due to a technical glitch, part of the skit had to be re-filmed and I was not present for that so last night was my first chance (along with the rest of the church) to see the finished product. My sides hurt from laughing so much, and the kids got a huge kick out of seeing themselves up on the big screen. I think the biggest laugh of all came from this weird face that Darcy involuntarily made in the very last scene, but at the risk of having you accuse me of poking fun at my daughter, that's all I'll say about that! And now that I think about it, she DIDN'T get the biggest laugh of the night--that honor goes to the kids' friend named Blake who deserves an Academy Award for his portrayal of God in the skit. Sawyer goes around shouting, "SAMUEL! SAMUEL!" after being impacted so forcefully by Blake's performance!