Easter Tales
Luke Crawford, Andrew Hill, Elly Crawford, Susan Beard, Y Pham, Jannette Howell, & Amanda Lynn.
(Andrew begins playing, others enter, then Andrew sings his song…) (Music continues under for a bit then fades out…)
AMANDA: He was the worst pain in the whole camp.
SUSAN: …his third time as a camper and it seemed like he got worse every year.
JANETTE: Adam was 11 years old, full of mischief, with a mouth that never closed, and he was shaped sort of like a deflated beach ball.
ELLY: And the kid never shut up.
Y NHU: Counselors used to groan when they’d see him coming. When Adam was assigned to their prayer groups, they really prayed.
AMANDA: And they meant it.
JANETTE: He wanted attention and he got it. He was kicked out of the art group, he was confined to his own table at lunch, and when we bedded down for the night, nobody wanted to sleep near him.
ELLY: You couldn’t sleep near him! He made strange sounds all night long!
AMANDA: It was a five day camp and there were still two very long days to go. Should we send him home? Would Christ send somebody home? We searched the scriptures and the answer was obvious…
JANNETTE: …but not the one we wanted to hear.
ELLY: That’s when Jason, and older counselor, came up with a plan.
ANDREW: Let’s kidnap Adam!
LUKE: You said “kidnap?”
ANDREW: Yep!
LUKE: Does that mean we’ve got to bring him back?
ANDREW: And we did it. I’m not kidding. Two o’clock in the morning, two of our biggest male counselors snuck into the lounge at Green Pastures where the boys were sleeping. They carefully jumped on Adam, put a hand around his mouth so he couldn’t make a noise, struggled to put his pants on him and threw him into the boat.
JANNETTE: You won’t find this tactic is the Annual Report of Methodist Camping Procedures.
Y NHU: Adam was wide-eyed as we rowed him across the pond.
LUKE: Which actually didn’t do any good. We had him blindfolded too.
ELLY: The counselors didn’t say much to him. They just kept assuring him that everything was going to be alright.
SUSAN: But when you’ve been awakened from your sleep, gagged, blind folded, and had someone else put your pants on you then thrown into a row boat, it’s hard to …you know… be calm about the whole thing.
ELLY: Especially when it was dark and they had actually grabbed a bigger kid’s pants.
JANNETTE: When Adam felt the rowboat thud against the opposite shore, he assumed he was being traded into white slavery or dumped overboard. That’s when we took off his blindfold, removed his gag, and helped him out of the boat.
Y NHU: What Adam saw next was almost the entire counseling staff standing around a campfire. Two-thirty in the morning and they’d cooked his favorite meal for him.
ELLY: We’d called his mom. It was spaghetti-O’s and garlic bread with chocolate pie.
AMANDA: It was a Jesus thing. Because he’d been such a problem, he deserved the biggest chunk of forgiveness…and pie. Adam was smiling from ear to ear. Nobody had ever done anything this special just for him.
ELLY: It didn’t shut him up, but he did nothing but smile the rest of the week.
ANDREW: And as we sucked down our Spaghetti-O’s we sang…Sing along with me! (singing) Kum-ba-yah, my Lord! Kum-ba-yah!! Kum-ba-yah, my Lord! Kum-ba-yah!! Kum-ba-yah, my Lord! Kum-ba-yah!! Oh Lord…Kum-ba-yah!
Someone’s singing, Lord! Kum-ba-yah!! Someone’s singing, Lord! Kum-ba-yah!! Someone’s singing, Lord! Kum-ba-yah!! Oh Lord…Kum-ba-yah! (as music continues under) SUSAN: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”
JANNETTE: : “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”
Y NHU: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
ANDREW LEADING: Someone’s smiling, Lord! Kum-ba-yah!! Someone’s smiling, Lord! Kum-ba-yah!! Someone’s smiling, Lord! Kum-ba-yah!! Oh Lord, Kum-ba-yah!! (Music out) AMANDA: The year was 1912. A New Jersey pharmacist had given up his job in medicine to become a songwriter and church organist.
SUSAN: His name was C. Austin Miles….. A writer for Hallmark cards and he’d done some work for a hymn book publisher.
Y NHU: …. And he was an amateur photographer.
ELLY: His wife wasn’t crazy about his music so he had moved his organ into his dark room in the basement. One night he read the story of the resurrection.
JANNETTE: In his words…
Y NHU: “I read…the story of the greatest morn in history:
SUSAN: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet very dark, unto the sepulcher.”
AMANDA: “Instantly, completely, there unfolded in my mind the scenes of the garden of Joseph….Out of the mists of the garden comes a form, halting, hesitating, tearful, seeking, turning from side to side in bewildering amazement. Falteringly, bearing grief in every accent, with tear-dimmed eyes, she whispers,
JANNETTE: “If thou hast borne him hence”…
ELLY: “He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing.”
Y NHU: Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
SUSAN: Just one word from his lips, and forgotten the heartaches, the long dreary hours….all the past blotted out in the presence of the Living Present and the Eternal Future.
G G7 LUKE: I come to the garden alone, C G While the dew is still on the roses; D G Em And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, A D The Son of God discloses. ………… Sing along with me….
G D And He walks with me, and He talks with me, D7 G And He tells me I am His own; G G7 C Am And the joy we share as we tarry there G D G None other has ever known.
ANDREW: He speaks, and the sound of His voice Is so sweet the birds hush their singing; And the melody that He gave to me Within my heart is ringing. ALL: G D And He walks with me, and He talks with me, D7 G And He tells me I am His own; G G7 C Am And the joy we share as we tarry there G D G None other has ever known.
LUKE: I'd stay in the garden with Him Tho the night around me be falling; But he bids me go-- thru the voice of woe, His voice to me is calling.
(Guitar continues under)
AMANDA: Near the end of his life, C. Austin Miles wrote…
Y NHU: A little more kindness and a little less greed; A little more giving and a little less need; ELLY: A little more smile and a little less frown; A little less kicking a man when he's down; JANNETTE: A little more "we" and a little less "I"; A little more laugh and a little less cry; Y NHU: A little more flowers on the pathway of life; And fewer on graves at the end of the strife.
SUSAN: In the Garden was introduced to the nation by Homer Roadheaver, the song leader for the Billy Sunday Crusades….at about the time of the Jacksonville Crusade. Morgan County may have been the first group to actually hear the song.
LUKE LEADS: G D And He walks with me, and He talks with me, D7 G And He tells me I am His own; G G7 C Am And the joy we share as we tarry there G D G None other has ever known. (Guitar ends…)
AMANDA: Who knows if this one’s true. Erma Bombeck swears it actually happened.
JANNETTE: My neighbor had the two cutest little girls in the world…maybe about six and seven years old, and one Easter they wanted a bunny…not a chocolate bunny, but a real live rabbit.
SUSAN: I told her this was a bad idea. Chocolate bunnies you can eat. Real bunnies tend to die which causes little girls to cry.
ELLY: But..the girls begged enough to finally get their way, and about a week before Easter I could see their daddy out behind their house hammering together a rabbit cage.
ANDREW: The rabbit was white…pure white…and just old enough to be away from its mother. Every morning I’d see the girls in the back yard before school, feeding the bunny, hugging the bunny, playing with the bunny…then as soon as the bus would bring them home they’d run around the house to start it all over again.
LUKE: Did I mention I had a cat? Her name was Felix. Tell you the truth, I never trusted Felix. I mean, how can you ever trust a cat? That’s why it didn’t surprise me…
Y NHU: …..It didn’t surprise me one bit…
AMANDA: …..not one bit when on the day before Easter Felix walked into my kitchen holding the white bunny in it’s mouth…
ANDREW: Dead. Very, very dead. I mean, this was one dead bunny.
JANNETTE: I was horrified. How could I tell my little neighbor girls that my cat had crucified their bunny? Desperate to somehow make things better, I snatched the bunny from Felix’s evil jaws. It was a mass of mud. Felix must have had to wrestle it into submission before she delivered the death chomp.
SUSAN: I put the dead bunny under the sink and started washing off the grime, hoping that no one would walk in the door.
Y NHU: Have you ever shampooed a dead bunny? It’s a strange experience and not for the feint of heart. I found myself trying to keep the soap out of the bunny’s eyes. Why?
JANNETTE: I was thinking… if I could at least fluff up the rabbit a little, then sneak over and put it back in the cage. I mean, let’s at least make the girls think it died a natural, peaceful death instead of being half-eaten by an atheist cat.
ELLY: So what do you do with a dead, wet bunny?
JANNETTE: You get out the hair dryer.. Oh, not mine, mind you..I used my husband’s. It was his idea to get a cat. I set the bunny up on the countertop and carefully blow-dried the fur, turning it gingerly sort of like a rabbit rotisserie. Then I combed out it’s beautiful fur.. ..using my husband’s comb….
LUKE: I didn’t see anything of the girls that night, so after I knew they’d gone to bed, I put the blow-dried bunny under my arm, climbed the fence between our yard and theirs, and carefully placed the bunny it its hutch.
SUSAN: It looked beautiful. I swear it even looked like it had died with a smile on its face…like maybe an overdose of lettuce.
Y NHU: The next morning I heard the shouts. The girls and their parents were all in the backyard, peering eagerly into the bunny hutch.
JANNETTE: Trying my best to look innocent, I threw on a housecoat and went out to ask what was happening. I never did much theatre in high school, but when I think I’m in trouble, I’m still a heck of an actress.
SUSAN: “What’s all the shouting?” I said. You should have seen me. I looked so innocent.
AMANDA: Mindy, the youngest, said,
ELLY: “Look, Erma! It’s a miracle! It’s an Easter miracle!”
AMANDA: I gave her mother a puzzled look, still trying to maintain my dumbness.
JANNETTE: “Huh?”
AMANDA: ….I said.
SUSAN: “Erma, you wouldn’t believe it! The girls’ bunny died yesterday and we buried it in the backyard back there in that muddy spot near the garden hose. This morning we got up and look! It’s risen from the grave! And it’s spotless!”
JANNETTE: I hoped she couldn’t smell the Miss Clairol.
AMANDA: Look, you can celebrate Easter how you like. All I know is that on that Easter there was no doubt in our mind.
LUKE: I've heard it said that a man would climb a mountain Just to be with the one he loves How many times has he broken that promise It has never been done. I've never climbed the highest mountain But I walked the hill of calvary Chorus: Just to be with you, I'd do anything There's no price I would not pay Just to be with you, I'd give everything I would give my life away. I've heard it said that a man would swim the ocean Just to be with the one he loves But all of those dreams are an empty emotion It can never be done I've never swam the deepest ocean But I walked upon the raging sea Repeat chorus (Bridge) I know that you don't understand the fullness of My love How I died upon the cross for your sins And I know that you don't realize how much that I gave you But I promise, I would do it all again. Just to be with you, I've done everything There's no price I did not pay Just to be with you, I gave everything Yes, I gave my life away.
AMANDA: She was about ten years old…
Y NHU: Not much bigger than that…
LUKE: They lived on a farm… She, her mom and her favorite person in the whole world…Her daddy. (instrumental music in under..Andrew) ELLY: She had all the toys and dolls that little girls have, but her favorite thing…
Y NHU: Her very favorite thing….
ELLY: …was simply being with her Daddy… taking long walks across their pasture. In fact, her daddy purposely kept the field right between the house and the timber in pasture. No corn or beans. They needed a place to walk.
AMANDA: And it was the day before Easter when they took their first walk of the spring. Their routine was always the same…Two cans of Mountain Dew, two peanut butter sandwiches
ELLY: ….and bag of Oreo cookies, all wrapped tightly in a Wal-Mart plastic bag,
AMANDA: ….then tied in a knot around her daddy’s belt. The cans would bang together as her father lifted her over the old wooden gate behind the house. Grandpa had built the gate so daddy said he’d never replace it.
JANNETTE: The first birds of spring greeted them…Daddy knew the sounds of all the birds and he’d teach them to her, one by one… the purple finches, the Northern Cardinals, and the first Northern Pintails were starting to migrate back up the river valley….
ELLY: ..the Downy Woodpeckers…the red-bellies…
SUSAN: ..and the smell! You know what Spring smells like…It’s like…well, it’s like no other smell.. The Maples are the first to bud and you can smell ‘em, and the first wildflowers, and the ground stretching and yawning the frost up to the surface….
ELLY: …It’s spring! It’s spring and it was their first trip back to the timber..to their secret, secret spot, right in the crook of an old oak that had been lying there since when Daddy was a boy and used to take the trip with his Daddy.
JANNETTE: He’d just put her down on the far side of the gate and was about to climb over himself when it happened. She didn’t see it coming. Maybe she’d stepped on the bee. Maybe it was on a flower that Daddy had knocked with his leg… but she didn’t see it coming.
AMANDA: It went right down her shirt.
Y NHU: She screamed and began slapping at the shirt…she knew it was a bee…she even saw it coming!.. And now it was trapped inside her shirt and she couldn’t get it out! And it was silly, but she began to run!
SUSAN: …and run and run and run….
ELLY: ….and with the tears in her eyes she suddenly stopped to cry out to her Daddy.. and that’s when she saw the strangest thing…
Y NHU: …the strangest thing….
ELLY: …Her Daddy.. Her hero! The most important man in her whole life…was standing there laughing!
AMANDA: Laughing!
JANNETTE: She couldn’t believe it! The bee was still buzzing around inside her shirt and it was going to sting her any minute and her Daddy was laughing at her!
Y NHU: …and running toward her shouting…
LUKE: “Hold still! Just hold still a minute!”
ELLY: You ever try to hold still with a bee inside your shirt? Let me tell you, it’s really, really hard.
Y NHU: It’s impossible! She turned and twisted, she slapped at the bee and slapped at the shirt and finally she fell down…
AMANDA: …she fell down into a crying, sobbing, screaming mess on the ground…and that’s when the morning sun suddenly became shadowed by the form of her Daddy standing above her. Still…and she couldn’t believe it…still laughing.
JANNETTE: He reached down, picked her up in his big arms, raised up her shirt and let the bee fly away. Then he sat her down.
ELLY: “I can’t believe it, Daddy!”
SUSAN: …she cried…
ELLY: “It could of stung me! And you…! You just laughed!”
Y NHU: Her Daddy stopped laughing, but he couldn’t stop smiling.
LUKE: “Honey,”
SUSAN: …he said…
LUKE: “I’m sorry. I really am. You see, as soon as I began to climb the fence, the bee stung me. His stinger’s still right here in my hand…Wanna see?”
JANNETTE: And he bent down to show her the ugly black head of the bee’s stinger….
Y NHU: …right in the palm of his hand…
LUKE: “So when I saw that I had already taken the sting for you, but you were still fighting it…well…I just had to laugh. You forgive me?”
ANDREW: She did. And they walked toward the timber, big hand in little hand, the two cans of Mountain Dew clanking out something that sounded like an old hymn…
(Music… acapella first… , then the guitar accompaniment joining in..)
LUKE: Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound… That saved a wretch like me… I once was lost but now am found… Was blind, but now I see….
ANDREW: T'was Grace that taught... my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear... the hour I first believed.
ANDREW & LUKE: Through many dangers, toils and snares... we have already come. T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far... and Grace will lead us home. LUKE: Sing along with me! When we've been here ten thousand years... bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise... then when we've first begun. (guitar continues under) SUSAN: It was early on Sunday morning when Jesus rose from the dead, and the first person who saw Him was Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom He had cast out seven demons.
JANNETTE: She went and found the disciples, who were grieving and weeping. But when she told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen Him, they didn't believe her.
Y NHU: Afterward He appeared to two who were walking from Jerusalem into the country, but they didn't recognize Him at first because He had changed His appearance.
AMANDA: When they realized who He was, they rushed back to tell the others, but no one believed them. SUSAN: Still later He appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their unbelief - their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
ELLY: And then He told them, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. …”
All singing: "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me.... I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now, I see.
ELLIE: Let’s go eat breakfast! (guitar accompaniment as the cast exits)
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