2 hours. That’s how long it took for me to be in the sky before it hit me. Seemingly out of nowhere, I was slammed with the realization that I was literally thousands of miles from all people I know, going thousands of miles to a place where I knew no one. It was intimidating, to say the least. If there ever was a point where I wanted to back out and turn around, it was then. Instead, I pulled out the journal that was given to me by the Missions office at WWU and wrote. I wrote about my fears, homesickness, and desire to quit. And then I slept for most of the remainder of the flight. When I got to Paris, all was well in that sense (I had an adventure there, but that’s another story).
I arrived in Billund a bit “dazed”. It wasn’t tangible. And that’s how I felt for the first week. It was surreal, like a dream. I was actually there and with that feeling was all the excitement and energy that I brought with me from camp. I was ready to do something! I just didn’t know what. These were complete strangers. I needed to establish myself first before I went about changing everything. And that’s what lead me down the slightly dismal path of my first 5 months here. Don’t get me wrong, they were good, but lacking in initiative. I didn’t interact with the students or organize events much. In this time, I lost my focus on God. I refocused to “how can I connect and do my job”. It’s this seemingly slight shift that derailed my original mission. But on the way, something beautiful began to form.
It was during these first few weeks that I was talking with another student missionary, Gabe, about my experience and love of theatre. He suggested that I do a skit here for the first Alt-Service (a special monthly church service done in the style of a late-night show). So I searched, found a skit, snagged some students, and directed a skit for this church service with Gabe’s help. And it was a hit. The students loved it and the change it brought from the normal service. For the next service, we went bigger and did three skits, building the entire service around them. This involved over 15 more students. We even wrote the third skit to bring our point home and meet our needs. Again, it was a success. There were some issues coordinating so many people and getting lines memorized, but nothing we couldn’t overcome. We took a break in November and then wrote a bigger skit for the biggest Alt-Service of the year, Embrace.
Embrace is an event where we invite students from all over Denmark to come spend a weekend at the school. Vespers was bigger, Alt-Service was bigger, and there was a third meeting added Saturday night, Julefrokost with Julehygge (Christmas dinner and party). For this weekend, I wrote a two-part skit on open-mindedness. The speaker was from Norway and had a background very relatable to many of the students. But this time more problems arose. The script took longer to write than planned and then some of the actors were slow to get their lines memorized. To make matters more complicated, I was given the task of setting up and running lights in the last few days. It was stressful, to say the least. But in the end, the script was pulled off and the speaker hammered home her point. The students got it. We could feel a shift in the room as she spoke. It was subtle, but we knew that the point was being made and the Holy Spirit was busy.
Skits. It’s been my biggest involvement here outside of my basic deaning duties. And that is where I want to see my role grow here in the next 7 months. Skits are a way of reaching people through more than just words. Actions, colors, expressions, and so many other factors come into play. With a skit, I can take people to another world and show them the results of the words. “Actions speak louder than words”, right? It’s a different context, but I think it still applies to theatre, at least a little bit. So I will continue to write and direct. As I refocus on God, He will continue to do great things here. I firmly believe this. I don’t know if I will see the effects now, or later, even at all. But as I’ve learned over the past year,
Focus on God, and the rest will fall into place.
THE SECRET LIFE OF KYLE LAMBERT 