Fellowship!

There are about 10 of us who have been going to church together and meeting for little bible studies/devotionals. I have become especially close with a girl named Victoria. She is 26 and dedicated her like to Jesus about a year ago. Although we are 6 years apart in age, spiritually, we are on the same level. We started going to a bible study of other believers in their 20's up here in Toronto. I really like that this particular group calls themselves disciples rather than Christians because we are constantly growing and learning from Christ. Victoria and I have developed some really great friendships with some of the people in the group. It's really fun hanging out with them because they know the city so well!

Last weekend we volunteered with some of the people from the bible study at a homeless shelter called the Scott Mission where we served about 45 homeless men! The Scott Mission is a Christian-based organization that serves the homeless community here in Toronto. They open the doors for 45-50 men around 7:30pm and offer them a meal, a sleeping mat and blanket, showers and bathrooms for the night. They have breakfast for them in the morning as well, but they must be out of the building by 7:00am. After helping prepare and handout the meals, we were able to go around and chat with some of the men. I wasn't fully comfortable just walking up and talking to them on my own, but I listened in on a couple of the conversations.

These men are deprived of daily conversation and really just want to talk and be listened to. And that's exactly what we had to offer them: our ears. Some of the men were so interesting. A lot of them were from other countries who had traveled to Canada, lost all of their money, and couldn't get in touch with their family back home. Some of the men were extremely intelligent. One man in particular has a hoarding problem. He collects books and magazines and is paying over $1000 a month for the 4 storage units filled with his collection. He has money to pay for storage, but he doesn't have an apartment! He seems to be emotionally connected to purchasing and saving these items because it started right after his wife passed away. The woman who was having this conversation with him works in finance. She was discussing with him how much money he could save if he stopped buying the books(he purchases them daily) and he was adding the sums in his head faster than she could write them down. It's sad to think that this man could live a fairly comfortable and secure life financially in a decent apartment if he didn't bear the burden of his collection.

Our night at the Scott Mission truly opened my eyes to a new view of the homeless. I feel like I better understand where they are coming from when I pass them on the street. It may not be in God's plan for me to play a huge role in the homeless ministry, but He definitely wanted me to witness these interactions!

I've developed a new hobby: painting mason jars!!! It's a great way to recycle old pasta sauce or pickle jars! Mason jars make for great drinking glasses because the cups that are in our apartment are really tiny! So these are some of the finished jars I've painted! I told my cast mates that if they brought me an empty jar I would decorate it for them! I just have them give me a theme or a color and then I paint it for them. I find it really relaxing! I think they make great gifts for people! There are tons of uses for jars!

Picking up the Pace...

Things are getting very busy up here in Toronto!!!! We have learned all of the character shows, re-doing one MainStage show and starting WAVS and FAVS (the welcome aboard and farewell MainStage shows)!!! We're waiting on the final cast list for the last mainstage show, Disney Dreams, but we had our costume fittings, so we pretty much know if we're in it or not!

I am dancing in all but 1 of the 5 MainStage shows!!!!!!! I am thrilled to have so many dance opportunities this contract! My costume fitting took 2 hours because I had to try on so many costumes! We have learned two of the dance numbers in WAVS already and they are so much fun to dance, but also very fast, precise and a lot more difficult than I anticipated! I always love learning new styles of dance. These numbers are very girly and rockette-ish!!!

A few days ago I interviewed for Character Line Captain. The Line Captain is basically a dance captain and needs to know all of the choreography and blocking for every character show!! It was announced today that I am the Line Captain for my character team! I am so excited and gracious that I was chosen!!!

One of my favorite things about Toronto is that there are so many theaters around the city. I am trying to take advantage of all of the live theater shows while we here. Last weekend a small group of us went and saw War Horse. We bought rush tickets just a few hours before the show so the 5 of us paid only $29 for front row seats!!! Amazing! I've seen the movie and loved it, but the stage show was breath-taking. The horse puppets were so realistic and truly embodied the mannerisms and movements of a real horse. It was a long show, but never once did it feel that way. The way the story transitioned and progressed was just perfect and I was completely engaged in the show the entire time. Every aspect of the show was BRILLIANT.

Afterwards, we found the stage door and met the lead and got a picture with him!

Another show that is playing up here is Cirque du soleil's Amaluna. Now let me just tell you...this was my first time seeing a Cirque show!!! I was blown away at the things these people could do. We didn't have the best seats, but the staging allowed every seat in the house to see the show regardless of positioning!!! I couldn't stop verbalizing my incredulous thoughts about each act and performer. And do you want to know the coolest thing about the show....all of the performers live in our building!!!!!!!!  So there were people that we recognized from seeing in the gym and the elevator...no big deal...

I feel so blessed to be surrounded not only by a cast of talented and beautiful cast members, but a whole city of performers!!!! I am falling even deeper in love with Toronto this time around!!!

Is it October already?!

The past 4 or 5 rehearsal days have been extremely light for me! The mainstage cast is working on their first big production called Twice Charmed. The rest of us have had rehearsal for maybe two or three hours and then we have the rest of the day off! For example, today I don't have to go into work until 4pm!!! I am fully taking advantage of all of this time off while I have it!!!!

Yesterday, almost half of our cast woke up with flu-like symptoms. It was very eerie in the way it all happened at once to a large handful of people. I was lucky enough to be untouched even though my roommate suffered from the late night/early morning chills, fever, short breath, and achey muscles. Some of the Wonder cast was also affected by the illness. We still haven't figured out the source of this day long sickness...

Last night, I got together with one of my close girlfriends who is very strong in her faith. We went out to dinner and ended up just talking for about 3 hours! After dinner, we went back and I gave her the Jesus Burgers book to borrow and we watched worship videos and testimonies from Isla Vista. Finally, we prayed for the casts health and protection from the virus and for the long rehearsals for the following day. It was so nice to join in fellowship with someone and know that God has our backs and is watching out for us on this journey!

I am happy to know that I am right where I am supposed to be. God has been revealing His purposes to me and I am excited to see His movement throughout this contract!

Happy October!!!