For many years I had the privilege of facilitating live drama productions at New Life Christian Fellowship, in Jacksonville, FL. New Life often showed these dramas at a later time on their cable and satellite television programs, so there was a great desire by our production teams to produce every drama with excellence and expertise. Staging, costuming, make up and hair were my primary concerns. Each live event brought out new levels of creativity and ingenuity amidst the exhaustive demands of stress and physical endurance. One particular drama challenged my limits. The script called for a massive angel to appear and the story was based upon the life and miracles of a famous evangelist and African missionary named John G. Lake. The yuletide season had brought about this time of visitation. Our heavenly Messenger had been cast and a very tall actor named Evan Spenneberg was selected to play this part.
The scene took place at night so that meant that the stage lighting would be very low. Evan’s appearance would take place very quickly; however, his few lines were the heart of the entire production. How could we get Evan costumed so that he would ‘light up’ with an angelic glow? I studied this problem for numerous weeks and elected canvas to be the garment material. I found some miniature battery powered Christmas lights that would serve the need well. After I sewed together the massive canvas garment, I began the painstakingly slow process of sewing 700 tiny Christmas lights into the full length garment and hood. Then I sewed the tiny lights into the sleeve hem. Since the wiring was so thin and easily stressed, all this sewing was done by hand. Once the lights were in the garment, then our main producer, Jeff Alford, wired the lights to a belt supported battery pack that utilized 4 D size batteries.
To give the garment an ethereal appearance, I sewed an outer garment to lay on top of the canvas garment. It was made out of sheets of ‘Christmas snow’ material. The fine, gauze like fibers had been sprayed with a glitter that made it sparkle like real snow. The outer garment was very fragile.
We elected during dress rehearsal to not light up the costume since we wanted to protect the fragile material and since we had tested it out beforehand, we were confident it would ‘work’ as designed during the live production. 
Our Sunday morning production day finally arrived and the cast and crew took our places. We carefully hoisted the heavy canvas garment over Evan’s big shoulders. It fit well. I placed the big D batteries in the wiring unit and got them ready in the belt pack. Then we gently placed the fragile snow fabric garment over the canvas. I cautiously placed many straight pins in the snow gown to hold it in place and we stood back stage, awaiting Evan’s cue.
Nervous and anxious, Evan wanted me to go ahead and turn on the lights so that he could have a few minutes to get into character. I did so and pinned the snow fabric back down. We were three minutes from cue. Suddenly the lights flickered and went out! Our batteries were dead! In a panic I raced back to the control room for extra batteries. The stage hand helping me could not move fast enough for my emergency. I tried to be sweet in this pressing moment. Patience lessons have a funny way of sneaking up on you when you don’t expect them. Finally the needed batteries were in hand and I raced for Evan backstage. We scrambled to get the garments opened back up and the battery pack reloaded. 1 minute to cue the stage director called out to us. Hurry, Amy, hurry and get the garment back together!
At last the battery pack was fitted and the garments back together and Evan was glowing again! He made his entrance:
The low lit stage gave Evan’s light just the setting it needed. Carefully placed spotlights added the peripheral lighting needed to make the snow fabric glitter. Even was angelic! A soft ‘ah’ arose from the audience. Evan spoke his two lines of Heavenly wonder and then the stage went black for the ending of the scene. As Evan joined me back behind stage, he was yelping from anxiety, nervous joy and HEAT from the very hot battery pack. Fortunately there was not enough battery juice to cause a real burn but Evan could feel the heat of the costume and the energy flowing through his lights.
It was a spectacular moment and as I helped him out of the heavy garment, I thought about all the work it took to make that 2 minute scene so special. Hours of sewing by hand all the 700 lights; hours of handling the fragile and aggravating snow fabric that only wanted to tear when I tried to sew it; and then finally the panic of the exhausted batteries minutes before our cue.
The John G. Lake Christmas angel was spectacular and I really enjoyed helping with that production. However, one other New Life drama stands out as truly amazing and it was the 2009 Kids Clubhouse Christmas play. The lead cast member was our Pastor’s grand-daughter, Hannah. The play setting was centered around youth group activities, with one event scheduled at a children’s hospital. The kids were all on stage and the setting called for Christmas snow.
Now, Northeast Florida does not get Christmas snow. In the 14 years we lived in Jacksonville, we never saw a single snow flake. Some locals remembered a freak snow event in the mid 1980s but snow was not an available commodity in Florida, even for Christmas. Our director had obtained a snow machine and it was placed in the lighting catwalk.
My secondary job, besides play facilitation was to photograph as much of the drama activity as possible and create an online photo album for the cast and family members to enjoy. Once everyone was on stage, I took a quick break and got my camera ready for low light and motion. Then I took my place at the edge of the stairs leading up to the platform. I took many pictures, with a special focus on the snow scene. I knew the kids would enjoy seeing the fake snow for themselves after the play.
Once the dress rehearsal was finished, I went back to my area and cleaned up the mess. I knew I would be back at church at 7:00 a.m to get everything ready for the 8:00 a.m. arrival of the cast needing to be costumed and made up for the play. I went home and after supper, downloaded the many pictures I had taken of the rehearsal. When I got to the snow scene, I was overcome with emotion at what my natural eyes had missed. Here are a series of pictures from that stressful, long day but look what happened with the snow. Click on each one separately to see them in full size. The Amplified Bible, Hebrews 1:14 says this: “Are not the angels all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the service (of God for the assistance) of those who are to inherit salvation?”
“Glory to God in the highest (heaven), and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests…Luke 2:14.”
Not A Matter of Talk 