Edinburgh Project |  | Our fifth year in Edinburgh!
On the Polish/Ukraine border in 2002, I heard God's response to my grumbling about why is it that Christians never get a market place platform to influence the public arena with the truths of God. The response was; "Get up and go". So, off I went - and, am still going. If we, as Christians, hope to reclaim the cultural mountain of theatre arts for the Kingdom of God, someone (acutally, hundreds of us) needs to be out in the front lines of the battle fighting for the territory. This year, I have an incredible group of 43 praying partners standing by my spirital side. What a difference that has made for me. This exciting group of connected prayers is becoming a single praying body for the project, but praying also for each other. If you wish to be a part of this prayer project, you still have 10 briefs (one a week) to feed into and receive. Just click here to make a request:
Edinburgh Project
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U.S. Tour
In October, Belleherst will make a third tour of the U.S. with performances of:
Candles in the Window.
See Me! Hear Me!
God Laughed:
No Joke
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See Me! Hear Me!
See Me! Hear Me! Is engaging from beginning to end. It is a creative and high quality story that informs and inspires one to compassion and action. Ashley Byrd Veritas Forum Regional Director
Belleherst is supporting the nation-wide campaigns against global slavery and human trafficking. A multi-media piece to create an awareness of this heinous crime: its global economic profile, its devastating consequences,and its defining inhumane brutality. Globally, 27 million victims are invisible. Their silent cries await The Truth, A Defense, Rescue. Robbed of their dignity, their suffering should not be hidden from us. 
Candles in the Window
The audience was riveted! Everyone I spoke with was profoundly affected.
Callan White-Hinman
Fine Arts Chair/
Montreat College
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famed German theologian was executed for plotting to assassinate Hitler. In Candles... he speaks from the grave to two women whose lives are bankrupt. A British officer's widow can't forget! An exiled Jewish housemaid refuses to remember. Betrayal and denial paralyze disclosure. 
God Laughed: No Joke!
Civil strife,economic collapse,republican corruption and loss of faith beset Rome in 60AD, whose emperor is no other than that son of Jupiter, Nero. Two newly baptized Greek slaves, Cornelius and Titus, serving as pantomime servants in the house of Flavius Nerva, plot and scheme how to pacify their angry Roman master by romping through the Bible trying to find the place where a God (not in the Roman Pantheon) laughed. |
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| Along the Trail that God Marked |
-Dear ,
May 13th, in an idyllic retreat center near Warsaw, a most incredible and stimulating gaggle of geese formed. I call them geese because of their identifying characteristics of long-flying endurance, power, beauty and migratory instincts.
The event was the 20th anniversary of our Polish School for Movement Theatre. Our students, who were in their 20s when we began, are old enough now to have their own gaggle of little goslings. We gathered together to look at the trail made by a journey of 20 years and hear what all those migratory geese had done with their training. Of this one thing, we were all inspired by: God was marking our trail. Read the story below*
And the trail goes on--Croatia, Latvia, U.K., U.S.A. Its all below to read, and God is still dropping those bread crumbs.
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Happy Birthday to Us  
In 1991 on a remote train platform in the countryside of Poland,
a very naive missionary stepped off the train expecting her Polish contact to be there to carry herself and her luggage off to a youth camp in Wang, Poland. The train station was empty - almost deserted. The two people who exited the train with the missionary were quickly gone, leaving her standing alone with an abandoned look and 2 large suitcases. The promised contact who had invited her to teach for the first time in Poland was not there. A moment of truth and decision presented itself. This was before cell phones and all those other electronic communicators. That missionary was myself and I found myself needing to make an immediate decision which was going to change my life forever. I could get on the next train going back into Austria and count the whole experience as just one more 'stood up' event in my life, OR I could ask that broken down taxi sitting in front of the delapidated station if he could take me to Wang. Now, I'm not known for my safe and comfortable choices, so you can imagine that I jumped for the taxi. He quoted me 100 DM and I knew I had just exactly that amount with me. After a two and half hour taxi ride, I climbed out in Wang and shook the hand of my contact,a very surprised Wacek Bylok (youth director of Life and Mission) ....thus began our adventure together in the summer of 1991.
It was a divine synthesis. Here were the ingredients: a man with vision, a missionary with a willing heart, a country with a hungry youth ...Voila! A school to systematically train young people in the arts of movement theatre was off and running. The school had three goals; to establish a safe place for young, post-communist youth to study theatre arts, to train young(especially Christian) people with professional skills in theatre, to encourage the establishing of theatre groups which provide a message of Light, Hope and Truth in Poland.
As I participated in the 20th year anniversary week end for our school, I had the distinct impression of myself as Gretle of Hansel and Gretle. I had been bent over for 20 years staring at the ground following the trail of crumbs, trying not to miss one, when God suddenly said on May 13th, 2011 " Stand up and look around behind you." So, after 700 students, 7500 hours of instruction, 19 summer evangelistic shows, 8 marriages( birthed in the school), 1600 meters of dance tape and 2 working resident theatres here are some perceptions about the trail left behind.
There are more beautiful grandchildren now (one, who has actually attended the school herself) than I conceived possible, two major theatres established-Drog in Poznan and Dar in Bydgodszdz, numerous artistic ministries - a clown ministry in Szczecin, a musical theatre group in Czech Republic, a writer and publisher in Poznan, a children's dance ministry, a children's dance school in Gliwice and many more young students trained and inspired in our school to contribute an ennobling effect in their countries.
When I looked back, I could see the proliferation of trails striking off in a dozen different directions, while dozens of little goslings were running down the trails after their mummies and papas. I hope I will be around for the next 20 year celebration and see the proliferation of even more new trails.   Kathleen looking back A future student *See the web album link for the 20th anniversary pictures. Picassso Web Albums |
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EU Workshop in Universal Body Communication and Mime
What a joy it was to teach this EU workshop in May in Poland. They came from Germany, Holland, the U.K., Czech Republic and Turkey. They came to study how the body communicates in a universal manner and learn some basic mime techniques. This cultural plurality was so enriching because of who God is. He is such a Creator- interested in variety, uniqueness, specialness, out-of-the-box designs, always beautiful, vision and so much more. He fills all this individualism with the constant of His Love and weaves a tapestry of unfathomable worth. As I sat around a bon fire on the final night and talked one-on-one with students and heard something of their own dreams and life goals and how this workshop was a piece of the big puzzle piece in their lives, I was enthralled. What a privilege to share in so many peoples lives. The EU workshop was a grant by the Grundwig foundation( a foundation established to grant educational opportunities to people of all ages and cultures). We hope to apply for more opportunities to offer this kind of education to people of varied cultures.
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Croatian Anniversary
 This year began with another anniversary celebration in my very first missionary country. In 1989 I first visited Zagreb and taught the Word of God and led young people in Jewish dances. My trips increased and my heart expanded as I bonded to the people there. Over the next 20 years the ministry morphed into theatre productions, theatre education, expressive worship seminars, evangelistic tours , chamber art and forums and on and on. Its hard to understand how it all happened, except to repeat what I said above. God was marking the trail and dropped the crumbs where they needed to be followed. It is His trail, my crumbs and the people's need that puts it all together.
In February it was so heart-filling to partner with the brothers of a Carmelite monastry( KarmelMladi) for an evening of theatre and conversation. I performed The Pieta -an interpretation of Michael Angleo's fabulous sculpture by the same name set to the gorgeous music of Arvo Part. My dear friends of many years gathered at a meeting of The Christian Peace Circle for my lecture on "Accreditation-Branded by the World or ....by God." This is a subject so present in my heart right now as I see people frantically attempting to acquire value and worth in the market place of this world. It has inspired a new drama to be a part of my repertoire next year. I want people to understood what drives us to be accredited and how God has so completely satisfied our deepest desires for worth and value.
A rich pearl in my life lays in the heart of Croatia and will always be there. |
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E Book available for purchase at:ebook -Keeper of the Gift
The gifts of God in each person are certain. For God, they are without repentance, in spite of how we, as individuals choose to either bury them, squander them or use them to ennoble man in their journey of reconciliation to God and the glory of their destiny. As long as Belleherst functions it will be devoted to keeping-in-faith the gifts of God in people. It is really the responsibility of all of us to be 'keepers of the gift'. Gifts which are buried, ignored and squandered end up in the hands of the enemy to be used against the work of the divine creator -the giver of those gifts. The ebook, Keeper of the Gift is an inspirational book about the role of a 'keeper of the gift'.
Richest Blessings,
Kathleen Thompson
Belleherst Productions
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