Every time Robin and I have occasion to take a cross country trip in the car, we see church after church whose members have traveled to Ragtown. We are just amazed and grateful that such a thing could happen. It is so encouraging and so humbling to realize that people are driving from such distances…two hundred miles, three hundred miles, and even further to attend our productions. And it is even more encouraging when we hear reports that the whole group talked all the way home about the impact of the songs and the message of the play. The substance.
People who attend, then go back to tell their friends and family, are often just grieved about not being able to get people to come back with them to Ragtown. They always say, “They just don’t know what they’re missing! If they would just come one time…”
I agree. It grieves me for them, because they’re missing something so special. Early on, I had a very hard time talking about how wonderful it is. After all, I write the plays, I write a lot of the songs, and play the piano and sing most of them, my wife designed the theater, she and I paint the mural backgrounds and do a lot the set decoration.
It seems pretty astonishingly egotistical to then say, “The plays are wonderful! The concerts are great! The theater is breathtaking! The sets are stunning!”
I am very uncomfortable with the earlier paragraph, because I also want to list all the things that my brother does, that his wife does, and all that our unbelievably devoted family of volunteers do to make all of it happen.
And then, of course…there’s the Lord.
That is the whole point. It is not about all the stuff I can do. Or my wife, my brother, or the volunteers. It’s the fact that the Lord himself has woven all of those people, and all of their abilities into something very special. Something you just need to see one time. Then you’d never miss another one.
This would be a great one to see…”Sinai, the Mountain of God.” I am so proud of the play, and the remarkable job every one of the actors is doing, bringing Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Paul, and Stephen to life on the stage. It is a delight to see. Powerful, moving, funny, and profound.
I am also proud of the music we’re doing. There is one song we’re performing that a preacher’s wife told me their whole group talked about all the way home. She said it had completely changed the way they thought about the lost.
I wrote that song, but not in a million years could I manufacture an ability to do something like that with words and music. The Lord did that. He does amazes us all the time in this wonderful place.
Thank you for being so faithful to tell your friends, family, and churches. Don’t give up, because if they would just come one time…
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