Lamplighter Guild highlights

We had such a profoundly impacting week at the Lamplighter Guild! 

The students I was working with started with enacted prayers of actual prayer requests. Then we used sociodrama to weave those real prayers into a fictional drama. I was so proud of how we worked together to create a new work tracking a young lady from Salvation to discipleship to presenting the Gospel to a lost soul, paralleling the theme of the week, Foundations to Fulfillment: Fear-less + Faith-full. 

There were many special guests, including Eric Ludy, who challenged us to parkour with joy over the obstacles of life.  Dr. Lew Sterrett broke a wild horse and was riding her in just over an hour, during which he was connecting insights from working with wild horses to raising and discipling teens. Profound! We were also blessed by recording artist Ginny Owens. 

This epiphany after Ginny's concert was the spiritual highlight of the week for me:

Posted by Rich Swingle on Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Here's the short film created by the Filmmaking Department, taught up by Aaron Burns (Washington's Armor, Overcomer, Beyond the Mask) and Paul Anderson (working full time for the Kendrick Brothers): 

This is a recap video:

Here's an interview I did for Lamplighter's podcast, Fastened Like Nails: 

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See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story in Beyond the Chariots. Watch it online and book a live performance. 

Lamplighter Guild 2020

It was such an incredible blessing to take part in this year's Lamplighter Guild for Creative Disciplines! It was all based on the theme "Facing Fear with Faith," and what an appropriate theme for this year marked by so many things we could be afraid of. 

I taught voice acting and directed the audio dramas and ads written by the writing department. 

The filmmaking department, headed by Aaron Burns (producer of Beyond the Mask, Overcomer, War Room), cast me as the father in their short film, inspired by The Screwtape Letters. The photo to the right captures how I taught the voice actors sociodrama over video conference, since there wasn't enough room on set to invite all the voice actors over. 

We had incredible guest speakers including a couple of heros of mine: Eric Ludy and Joni Eareckson Tada. Another favorite for me was the family featured in the film Free Burma Rangers, which we also watched. Talk about facing fear with faith! That family of five "runs toward the gunshots" in some of the most dangerous places on earth, including Myanmar and Iraq. 

You can watch all of the keynotes here!

Here's the short film:

Here's a video recap from the photography department:

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Sign up for announcements for future events where I'll be teaching: www.RichDrama.com/Updates.

The Word Guards

This morning I got to open the service at Westchester Chapel by praying over those affected by the shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Pastor Jim Warren preaches from Ps. 119: 9-16 on "The Word Guards" as part of The Word is Marching On series.   He explains how the Word helps guard our purity by helping us maintain consistency upon the path the Lord sets out for us.  Pastor Jim cites 2 Peter 2:12 and Galatians 5: 16-26 as examples of the wrong path and the Lord's path.  Following the message, Pastor Jim and Pastor Linda Warren lead the congregation in taking the Lord's Supper, using Luke 22: 14-20 as the text.



Pastor Linda prays over the message and later leads in prayer over the offering.  Rebekah W. explains this year's Operation Christmas Child initiative and Board Member Eva P. explains this year's missionary giving, which will be to the Jesus Film Project.



Click the arrow below, or if you're reading this in an email you can click this link, to play the service:







Here are the photos Pastor Jim mentions in his opening:







Here's a film Rich Swingle helped create with the students of the Lamplighter Guild for Creative Disciplines, which shows the two paths Pastor Jim mentions:







Pastor Jim mentioned how we really have to have God's Word living inside of us. We can't just pull it off a shelf when disaster strikes. It reminded me of a great story our friend Torry Martin tells in his book, Of Moose and Men...







Pastor Jim also mentioned Tony Loeffler's testimony which you can see here:

Tony was recently interviewed on The Gate Radio, and you can see when that will be aired by clicking here. There you can also listen to Rich Swingle's interview with Tony when they "happened" to be performing at the same church in Cuba on the same day!



This service is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.



If you want to more about starting a relationship with Jesus Christ visit www.WestchesterChapel.org/Salvation.

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I play a lead in Providence, which you can bring to your area.

Lamplighter Guild for Creative Disciplines

I've been praying for years that I could teach there, and recently that prayer was answered, and it was much more fulfilling than I'd imagined! Isn't that always the way with the Lord?



I guided almost forty students as they created four separate sketches through sociodrama.

After our final rehearsal I suggested that two or three of them should close us in prayer. Over an hour later they reluctantly went to bed. One of our students realized her headache was gone. We prayed and laughed and wept in the joy of the Lord. Revival! Sweet revival! Friday morning they announced that lunch would be delayed 15 minutes, so Mark Hamby, the director of the Guild invited students up to testify. Within seconds a student behind me said, "Your prayer was answered!" The night before I'd prayed that our students would get the chance to share! On the shuttle to the bus station Peter Fecteau, his son and I counted up 24 distinct miracles we'd observed this week. Moments later He made it an even 25! I was able to get the earlier bus, and the gentleman waived the change fee!



I just got a note from one of the students saying he and some others are going to collaborate on an audio drama! Praise the Lord!



Here's the film our students created:

I helped with casting and wrangling extras.



It was so great to work alongside longtime friends David Sanborn and John Fornof, and to get to know the rest of the wonderful faculty!



Here are some of the photos I took that week.



Visit www.LamplighterGuild.com for more photos and info.

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I'm happy to do workshops anywhere in the world: www.RichDrama.com/Workshops.

Miracle Story

I wrote this story up at www.RichDrama.com/LamplighterTheatre, but here is how Mark Hamby, executive director of Lamplighter Live tells it:







If you're getting this via email click here to watch.



Join us at the Lamplighter Guild this summer!

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See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story in Beyond the Chariots. Watch it online and book a live performance.

Tales of the Kingdom and Tales of the Resistance

When I was performing in the George Fox College Players, each member of our drama troupe, was given a copy of the book Tales of the Kingdom by David and Karen Mains. It was incredibly meaningful to us at the time, especially since David and Karen spoke in our chapel at what is now George Fox University. The Mains' trilogy has been compared to The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan and The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis.



So I was just thrilled to get to perform the intro, outro and several radio spots for a Lamplighter Ministries' relaunch of the audio books Tales of the Kingdom and Tales of the Resistance, both narrated by David Mains. Click here, and select "Listen to Previews Here" to hear my intros to both books.

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Registration is now open for the 2018 Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.