Seminary Drama Day

New seminarians at the "STT" go through three weeks of English instruction prior to actually beginning their theological studies. This is a time of bonding for the new students, some of whom don't know very much about English. Others are fluent or close to it. At the end of the three weeks there is a "drama" day where the students are organized into groups and each assigned a parable of Bible study to act out with English as the only spoken language. Since we were leaving town, the dramas were moved up a day. Thanks for the flexibility in planning. We were responsible for coming up with a song, and Nancy and Jacob worked long and hard on "HKBP" which are the initials of the church synod. They wrote some funny lyrics to be sung to "YMCA", and of course we all did the letter formations. Ester was quite entertained by the creativity (at least she smiled and didn't seem too embarrassed by us.) 

Nancy and Jacob are quite the enthusiastic, creative duo.

The seminarians had a little rehearsal time. And here comes Jesus!

These guys absolutely loved to sing, so at the end of their Zacchaeus skit they sang the same song that we all did in Sunday School, only it was in Indonesian (thus violating the rules for the day, but nobody objected).

This is the story of Jesus healing the blind man by mixing spit and dirt and rubbing it in his eyes. Thank goodness the dramatic effect did not go so far as to include the spitting.

This group acted out the story of David and Goliath. That's Goliath on stage, looking BAD in his black leather jacket and sunglasses. The umbrella is actually a big sword...use your imagination!

Poor Goliath didn't fare very well. And yes, the students did their best to include the chopping off his head part.

More violence! This is the story of the Good Samaritan. Our poor traveler was pummeled by the thieves, who didn't pull any punches. Of course it was done with such exaggeration that the audience was howling.  

More songs! The girl in the center wearing the blue shirt serves as the choir director of the group and does a great job. 

It's time for "HKBP" and the crowd goes wild! Someday they will actually hear the "YMCA" song and they'll think "I've heard that one somewhere before...."

Jesus is teaching while the crippled man is lowered through the ceiling. We were afraid they'd drop him, but somehow he made it to the group without injury.

More singing!

Jesus makes a triumphal entry down the chapel aisle.  

Time for a song / dance combo, this is one that Jacob knew from Lutheridge, "thumbs in, elbows out..." 

Jesus tells Zacchaeus to get out of the tree.

Afterwards we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the home of Thomas and Regina. We were joined by our Australian friends, who we joined as English language instructors. And yes, we confirmed that there is a reasonable difference between Australian and American English.