PHOTOS '78 chapter 206

 There is no point in denying it. I loved Portrait Players and as a result remember way more about my time with them that other activities. The photos and stories prove that to be true.

PS: Posting may be sporadic until the new year. I am very busy through the holidays.

Write up on the play and team. Dave
Fowler hanging lights and Leon
Throness in make-up.

I loved this thank you note. I took most of the
day to shoot. The team are in various costumes
fro the different plays and skits for the year.
They are also the people in the audience. Wish
we could have gotten rid of the seam joining
the two halves.

This is the note left for Con and I when we were so very late in
Hamilton, ON. They should have taken their purse if they actually
got on a bus.

Shots from the auditorium where the stage phots was taken.

Tour outfits continued to be flowered. Guys had
the light green suits. Flowers were in - I guess.

Front of our promo handout.

The team - L-R: Garry Tollefson, Rose Nickel, Lorne Olichny as the devil,
Leon Throness, Lorne Olichney, Mariluyn Seutter, Conrad Hild, Dave Fowler,
Cheryl Olfert and Havey Matchullis

PHOTOS '78 chapter 205

I loved this poster so much I have it framed with the signatures of all the players.
This was also my largest team for Tombstones. The photos were all taken at
Boggie Creek, about the only place in Regina where we could fake a forest.

FIRST ATTACK chapter 204

I believe this was the year that an attack was directed at the Portrait Players program and me. None of the actors were blamed. In my opinion it was all rather silly, but very serious on the part of the one bringing charges. What I loved about these “more righteous than thou” Christian leaders was that none had the courage to talk to me. They went right over my head to the president of the college. I guess they did not know about or had ever read Matthew 18:15-16  “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Rest assured, they believed I had sinned.

We were invited during the school year to visit Milden, Saskatchewan to lead an area youth rally. As part of the program we hung out with the kids, played games and preformed several fun and entertaining skits. For people to see, we needed a stage and so were given permission to use the sanctuary platform. Apparently, one man believed the sanctuary of this small church was the holy of holies.

I suppose it is important that I clarify my own position on church sanctuaries. Simply put — they are just a room used for worship and in some cases, other activities. Some churches even had the sanctuary double as a gym. I believe that at Christ’s death the veil in the temple ripped from top to bottom to open the temple to all the people. We were not selling sacrificial animals, changing money or even collecting money for ourselves. We may have gotten some money for gas, I don’t remember. That is not why we went.

The issue was the result of a brief action on the stage that involved Cheryl with her back to the audience sitting on the back of Con who was on the floor on all fours. This was very quick. She sat down and swiveled to the front, got up and walked away. End of major problem for which some wanted me fired.

The offended man was an elder in the church. He had a son who was a pastor in another nearby church and joined his father in his horror at our performance. The son may have been on the school board or not. He did take the issue on behave of himself and his father to Dave Rambo and demanded that the college board of directors address the issue immediately and remove this blight on the reputation of their beloved institution. I was that blight.

It took a few days before I met with the president. I actually knew of the problem before we even left Milden, as the pastor was a supporter of Portrait Players and the father of Garry Tollefson. The pastor was also was in trouble. “How could he allow such action in the sanctuary?” He didn’t allow it as he didn’t know we were going to do it and I never warned him of our impending “sin” as I never thought of it as an issue, nor do I believe God did either.

Apparently, the president didn’t consider it an issue either. He met with me to talk about it and that was the end from the college’s point of view. However, it was not the end for the pastor son of the church elder. I dealt with his anger toward me for years. It was still there when I few to Canada to conduct my mother-in-law’s funeral some fifteen years later and he was the pastor of her church. It was always like I did something to him personally and he never even saw the skit. Such is life.

While writing about my times at CBC as a student, I found published in the yearbook this photo of a girl sitting on the back of another student in the college chapel during a meeting. Naturally, I was horrified. This sin had apparently been going on years before,

Yes, times were different than today. Sanctuaries were considered sacred. Keep your voices down — God might hear you and be offended. Don’t run in the church — God hates running in His house. I knew all of these things and did not set out to purposely offend anyone. I set out to give a large number of youth a night of good clean fun and opportunity to hang out with other Christians. From my eyes, we were a success and I am grateful Rev. Tollesfon invited us to this great night of ministry.

SUMMER OF '77 chapter 203

Portrait Players opened the summer tour in Calgary attending the Tri District Conference of the Canadian Christian and Missionary Alliance. The issue of Canada separating from the United States administratively had already been broached when at a General Council, then president Nathan Bailey speaking against separation said, “You cannot lay tracks and not expect a train to run on them.

This was the second gathering of the three Canadian Districts with the first being in Regina. Separation was sure to be on the agenda as the government was putting greater pressure on organizations whose headquarters was located out of country. Many Canadians appreciated the pressure as it was in the hearts of the leaders to separate.

We were not there because of that issue, but I believed separation was inevitable and I was glad to be there to listen to the debate. Faculty had no vote at council and is persona non grata within the denomination. The thing that bugged me the most was we were required yearly to sign an affirmation of doctrinal agreement while pastors and other leaders signed only when licensed at the beginning of their ministry. They were fearful that as faculty we would abandon the doctrine but had no fear about anyone else. Strange. They should have visited some of the churches from time to time.

But I digress. We were there to first present No Time For Tombstones during an optional afternoon slot. There was limited attendance but it sure brought in the requests for more performances. Second, I was directing the Sunday afternoon missions rally with Gordon Fowler and the Portrait Players had a major role. The theme was The Lord God Reigns.

The rally opened with a choir and then a light came up behind a scrim with a man sitting at a desk writing letters home to his wife. The man was Mr. Cassidy who would have been the first missionary sent out by the newly formed Missionary Alliance. Unfortunately, he died en route to China.  L.L. King, then president of the C&MA spoke briefly

Three announcers immediately launched into a rapid fire reading of news reports as slides depicted chaos and catastrophe throughout the world. As the slides picked up speed so did the news readers as they gradually began to speak on top of one another until they suddenly ended, paused and together quoted “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed, Such things must happen, but the end is still to come, Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

Next we moved to a sketch called “Missionary in a Pot.” We had a very large caldron with one of our actors sitting in the pot with a fire going and steam pouring over the sides. In the background were four characters discussing why the missionary should be boiled. The one in the pot represented the stereotype of a missionary with pith helmet, safari shirt etc.  The speakers could see no reason to keep the missionary around.

The next set up was done interview style where the announcers asked three different missionaries questioned about their work.

A possible missions candidate walked across the stage and four individuals confront him with a better way to use his life. They try to persuade him not to go. He decided to accept the call.

Fade to lights coming up behind a scrim where Mrs. Cassidy standing at a podium announces that she will go to China to replace her husband who never made it. She ends with a plea, “Who will go with me.” At that, missionaries seated all over the auditorium rose and came to the platform with the young recruit in a very emotionally moving display.

The next morning the Portrait Players left to continue their tour presenting No Time for Tombstones. We were all shocked to see it was snowing and it was sticking. None of us had winter coats. It was May 16. That was the latest I had ever seen snow in the 15 years I lived in Canada. It also, was melted the next day.

I loved this comment from Garry Tollefson. “This was General Council in Calgary. There was a series of sketches including the missionary in the pot. It culminated in the young man being called to missions and all the missionaries getting up from their seats and joining him on stage. The most amazing part for me was for one scene we were sitting on the orchestra lift waiting to come up for our scene and LL King was preaching above us. It gave us goose bumps sitting there listening to him only a few feet away. Dave McIntyre wrote music for the event.”

MY THIRD YEAR chapter 202

Fred Wilson, myself with Rhonda
at a fall school picnic

I was pretty comfortable with the teaching role by my third year. There were no changes in my teaching load, which helped. Norma Bailey, Fred Wilson and I had added and expanded added our department offerings and Stan Wilson was an adjunct to our department because his office was in our pod. Stan was teaching classes in counseling and psychology. He fit in beautifully with our team and because an important part of our planning to take over the school (a little joke).

Jay Stanwood taught me how to play racquetball while I was in southern California and I was hooked. I loved the sport. It was the first exercise activity I had found that I could stick with. In my first year I played a few times at the local YMCA, but the courts were small. In my second year there was a brand new sports court facility that opened south on Pasqua. I had a look but it was unaffordable. Our Phys. Ed director negotiated a working relationship with the facility allowing students and staff to play at a greatly reduced rate. That worked for me. I began to play 2-3 times a week. Ken Badley and Charlie Cook was a couple of my regular partners. As students found out I played, I completed with several of them as well.

The theme for youth conference this year was OOK in the Book. No one knew what an OOK was but the team created the look. It was much like a giant yellow bowling ball with pants and short legs. A costume was made so we could have a character for who knows what. The thrust was teaching delegates to look in the Bible by teaching them how to get started, where to start and how to discover truths for you. The Bible has answers if you know how to find them.

This was our photo for the yearbook. It was taken in front of
the parliament building in 30-40 below weather and the group
was just trying to look warm and get the photo done as
fast as possible. We took several shots and Karen never did
look warm. L-R: Garry Tollefson, Cheryl Olfert, Mike Phillips,
Don Little, Karen Driedger, Dale Dyck,and Conrad Hild

Deciding what play I would do with Portrait Players was predetermined. Word got out about the success and impact of No Time For Tombstones and the requests to come to their church was stacking up in the president’s office. I was overwhelmed and humbled with the success of the play and excited about doing it another year, Audition numbers were small, but a good team came together and we went west the following summer.

We joined with the music group The Fathers Own for a Christmas production of short skits and music preformed at the Sportsman Center in Moose Jaw. We took two vans for the trip and had a great show and a lot of fun with Dale Dirksen and the other singers. It was late when we left to return to the college and we stopped at a service station at the rise just east of town. People bought snacks, used the restroom and ran around changing vans went off we went. Only when we got back to the college did we realize we had left one of the Portrait Players back at the service station restroom. He was rather shocked when he realized we had left without him. I was already exhausted and dreaded the return trip to get our lost sheep when Con Hild offered to make the trip. We had no way to contact our poor little sheep so just hoped he had stayed put. He did since he had no place to go either. He finally figured out we would return when we got back to Regina and realized he wasn’t in either van. It was a 40-minute trip each way.

I can’t remember why I was traveling to Nyack a couple times a year. I had not returned to serve on the International Christian Education committee and I was not yet serving on the LIFE summer conference committee, but I had been asked to help Gordon Fowler put together the Sunday afternoon Missionary Rally at the Tri District (for Canada) Conference in Calgary that summer. I was back in the historical library trying to find out whom the first Canadian Missionary was and if there was enough information to do a sketch about him or them. I found a fair amount and gathered all I could with the idea of putting some skits together. The ideas began to gel on the flight home. When I returned I met with Gordon Fowler, director of the missions rally, to tell him what I found and lay out my concept for that rally. I was excited and so was her.

TOURING EAST chapter 201

Having gone west in the summer of ’75, we went east for the next year. Besides the alternating directions as a reason, we hoped to connect with family and friends of Betty Olsen and Hank Blood along the way.

Early Tuesday morning we left for a performance at Morden, Manitoba and the next day crossed into the United States to perform the play at a Baptist church in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. It was a small little church seating about 120. They had contacted us about doing the play in their church. It worked out, as St. Paul Bible College really wanted the play. Betty Olsen was a grad of that college and this was a good stop along the way.

We had preformed the play several times around Saskatchewan and developed our approach. We simply began by turning the lights off in the sanctuary and slowly bringing up the stage lights. Then immediately Betty, Hank and Mike with a Vietnamese boy were pushed onto the stage, Hank tripped and fell giving the boy a feeling that he might escape. He would then take off running down a side aisle and out the back. When the boy ran, the AK-46 sounded and it was very loud.

As soon as that happened, a young man ducked under the pew and covered his head. Both the pastor and I saw it and the poster when to the man immediately, helped him up and took him out. I went to see what happened and was very concerned about our opening. He was a Vietnam vet and when he saw the guns and heard the gunfire he automatically moved to protect himself,

We already knew to warn parents with small children to wait until after the opening. I never once thought about a US veteran being in the audience and how he might respond. To us, it was just a play. But that day we learned how real the rifles looked and the tension veterans faced. The soldier apologized and took it all well. I apologized for not warning him of what to expect and told him there would be no more gunfire. Regretfully, he did not return to the play, but we learned our lesson. We asked that every vet be identified before the play so I could warn him about the opening.

The possible contacts with Betty and Hank’s families did not materialize. None of them came. The story was too fresh for them. I understood completely. Apparently one family member of Hanks was in a performance in Indiana, but we never knew about it until after the tour.

After a few more stops, we returned to Canada for two performances and them dropped into Pennsylvania to my friend Floyd Meier’s church, When we returned to Canada we got hung up at the border for a couple of hours. The guard who met us did not know what to do about the stage lights we were carrying. They had been bought in the Canada but he was convinced we were smuggling them in. At least he acted like that was the problem. We had all the paper work but he still did not accept that. No explanation was working. We were going to have to wait for his supervisor to return. When the boss showed up, he immediately waved us through and I hope jumped all over the newby.

We kicked around Ontario and even went to Montreal for one performance before making our way back to Saskatchewan. With a couple of stops in Manitoba

LIFE ’75 chapter 200

B: Garry, Clyde F: Leon, Jeri-Lynn

In the summer of 1975 three Portrait Players came back later in the summer to go to St. Louis and represent Canadian Bible College at LIFE ’75. It was a unique opportunity. All Alliance colleges had historically sent music groups and we knew we would be different. I don’t believe we ever got onto the main stage like the music groups did, but each college was given their own room to “entertain” after the evening service. We packed the room out every time. Leon Throness, Garry Tollefson and Jeri-Lynn Hougstol teamed up to do all our short skits and rocked the place with Rinse the Blood of My Toga. Steve Town, CBC student, was at LIFE and filled in on many of the bit parts. It was good to have him. I felt sorry for Simpson College. They sent a choir with the boys in suits and the girls in formals. Good singers, but hey just did not relate.

LIFE ’75 was in a very large hotel in St. Louis. The contract had been signed 2-3 years earlier and they wanted more money after pricing information had been published. The C&MA Youth Director held them to the contract. The hotel got even by serving the worst food possible. Every meal was Swanson’s frozen TV dinners served along with some strange number three-dye thing in a plastic container that was called a drink. It was tolerable it you did not suck into the bottom third of the container. That tasted like pure plastic. Delegates mocked the company’s promotional tag line “Swanson’s makes it good.” By repeatedly chanting “Swanson’s makes it yuck.” It could not be stopped.

On the second day of the conference hotel management mentioned to conference leaders that while their pop machines were being empties several times a day, there were no empty pop cans anywhere. I think it was Steve Town who told the leaders that the cans were going to the rooms on the top floor with plans to dump them out the windows the last night all at the same time. I don’t know if this little stunt was the delegates getting even with the hotel, but it did sound like fun. However, the possible damage to people and property could be high and cleanup would be a challenge. Then there was also the possibility of legal action. Some personnel from college tour groups were asked to help empty those rooms of pop cans. Hotel personnel each took a few people with them and they checked every room dragging out huge bags of pop cans from every room. I ran the service elevator from top to bottom filling that large elevator to the ceiling on every trip. There were so many cans they had to have a crew in the basement to unload the elevator so I could get back to the top to reload as fast as possible. I made dozens of trips. I was counting trips for a while until I lost count.  Typically about four rooms worth of cans filled the elevator.

The workers were laughing because the number of cans was so enormous it was hard to believe they could collect that much in one day. On the other hand, there were over 4000 delegates and kids were passing it on to delegates on the top floor and kids on the top floor were regularly empting the recycle containers. You had to hand it to the group that organized the plan. It was well organized.

When the pop can clean out deed was done we all wished we could see the faces of the kids when they returned to their rooms and found all the cans gone, our team went to my room and laughed, and ate snacks until the wee hours of the morning. No one was concerned about making it to breakfast for “Swanson’s TV scrambled eggs and soggy hash browns.

At our first meeting of the conference, everyone was warned about walking in the park across the street from the hotel. It was not safe. That was the last trip to the center of the USA. No more St. Louis.

WRITING TOMBSTONES chapter 199

I wish I had kept all the rewrites we went through in putting No Time For Tombstones together. I have no doubt the cast hated me for giving them a new rewrite at almost every rehearsal. They never said it, but I’m sure they wondered when I would be satisfied. One night they have a few pages to memorize and then next meeting I would throw those all out and give them a new ones. Even worse, they were working on a script without an ending. I didn’t even really like the beginning, had no ending and we were working on the middle. I doubt that’s the best way to write a play.

The cast: Jeri-Lynn Hougestal and Liz Cameron were the two girls. I had decided to use a narrator to move the story along. There was just too much needed to set the stage. One would take that role; the other would play a Viet Cong. The four guys I had were Garry Tollefson, Con Hild, Dale Dyck and Harvey Thiessen. Gary Brohmer made the mistake of mentioning to me that he was interested. I kept on him until he relented and joined the team. These poor people were ever so patient, understanding and willing to do anything. They were writing the play with me. Everyone had input and the play rightly belongs to the entire first team. They rewrote lines, changed movements and batted around ideas, discussed movement, placement and various actions. While a lot happened on their march, it was a challenge to communicate the trauma.

Our problem was how to grab attention immediately and then hold on to it. We needed a hook. We finally decided to open with a bang. Literally. Their captors pushed the three captives on the stage with a young Vietnamese boy. The boy made a break for it and immediately the sound of and AK-47 was heard. It was so loud we got everyone’s attention. The sad part is that a young boy had been taken with the three main characters and he was shot trying to escape.

While writing the play Garth Hunt came to campus to speak. What a gift he was. This missionary had just escaped from Vietnam on one of the last planes out Saigon (Hanoi) before it fell to the Communists. I had several talks with him while he was at CBC. I needed to know what things looked like and felt like. He told me the officers wore uniforms, but the Viet Cong wore dark gray to black pajama like clothes. They wore sandals that were made out of old rubber tires. The guns were AK-47’s. He offered to send me photos copies of the guns so we could replicate them in the workshop.

 I talked with the men in maintenance and they agreed to help. They secured some old tires and cut the sandals. They then attached straps made from inner tubes to hold them on. They looked much like thongs and took some time to get used to them on your feet. The also carved the general shape of the AK-47 and put metal barrels into the stock so they would hold up on tour. The guys were terrific and this play needed their expertise. I could not have done them. I did the final shaping of the guns and painted them. They looked terrific.

I had another dream that I pitched to president Dave Rambo. I felt we needed a small set of lights so we could control the mood and help with the transformation from day to night. I did some research and some how he pushed it through and we got our lights. It was fun to play with a new toy. We had a great number of lights already hanging in the gym for the school presentation, but used only eight for tour.

Rehearsal photos taken at the gym stage.
This series dealing with the forced marches

Eventually the play came together and we premiered it to the school and community before youth conference and again during youth conference. I blew it. We never contacted the media. I have regrets about that. On the other hand, we had no idea how it was going to be received. Talk about nervous. We all had the jitters. To me, this was a much more significant story and one out audience cared about hearing. We presented the play two nights to give each cast a change for the lead roles. It was a grand opening. We were thrilled and relieved.

My family sat in the first row for both shows. Rhonda tells me she felt proud and special. They were in the makeup room before the shows and got their reserved seats just before curtain. You only imagine our relief when the play ended with thunderous applause.

More rehearsal photos of beatings
and Hank's death

1985-76 Portrait Players. top: Gary Brohmer, Liz Cameron. Her-Lynn Hougstol
L-R: Harvey Thiessen, Con Hild, Dale Dyck, Garry Tollefson

Official poster

More flowers in shirts. On the
poster the guys are wearing
white turtle necks and blue
blazers. Loved the look.  

We traveled with a 15 passenger van towing a trailer with
out luggage, props, make=up and lights, Rest stop
most likely in Saskatchewan.

NO TIME FOR TOMBSTONES BEGINS chapter 198

I contacted my friend John Sawin, the curator of the C&MA historical library in Nyack, New York to ask him if there were any good missionary books that might be turned into dramas. His immediate response was No Time for Tombstone by James and Marti Hefley. This description of the story is taken from the flyleaf of their book.

During the Vietnamese New Year celebration of 1968, citizens of the free world were indignant to learn of an attack made by North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong upon South Vietnamese cities and towns — an attack in which several Protestant missionaries were murdered and others kidnapped.

In this book James and Marti Helfey tells the story of the assault on Banmethuot in the Central Highlands. They focus their report on the capture of Hank Blood and Betty Olsen, two American missionaries, and Mike Benge, a USAID agricultural advisor.

Falsely identified as U.S. military collaborators, the three were chained together and force-marched through the jungle for many months. The most relentless enemy proved to be malnutrition, as the captives were denied basic food necessities and medical care. Debilitation took its toll as first Hank, then Betty died an agonizing death on the trail — but before their unwavering courage and forgiving love for their persecutors touched Mike Benge’s heart, and he found faith in God.

Eventually released from a Hanoi prison camp, this is Benge’s story as told to the authors.

The book was published in 1974 and the story was still very much alive and of interest to people in Alliance church in particular. Vietnam was about to fall to Communist China and in fact did fall as I was writing the story. Garth Hunt and other Missionaries who had to escape from Vietnam in a rush were home and telling their story in as many places as possible. The timing was right the story was of interest to our churches. God seemed to lay His stamp of approval so I began to pray for his wisdom.

The first problem was the story took place in the jungle and they kept moving. There was no single location. My experience had been with single stage sets in one location.

Problem two was we had no money to create anything elaborate and no way to transport it anyway. Would just using the people imagination work?

Problem three was the story was so large that I did not know where to start and what parts to tell. I needed a primary antagonist, not the entire Vietnamese army. I needed focus. The hero’s were obvious.

Problem four was that it was a story about all men and one woman. More women audition for the theater than men. Would I even get the cast that I needed? I did not want to tour with one woman. The plan from the previous year of rotating the cast would require two women — what would I do with the other one during performances. No one would want to sit around for am entire evening just watching. Then how many men would I need? The whole cast had to fit into one 15-passenger van. How few would work? I needed that information to begin casting and casting needed to be early in the year before everyone had already made their commitments. I knew that only Garry and Jeri-Lynn would be returning. They had no idea what we would be doing.

Hank Blood and Family

By the time school began I had a rough idea of the team I would need, but the play was far from written. But a casting call was given anyway. Four girls auditioned and I was only going to take one more. Jerl-Lynn was definitely in. Garry returned and there were only three other guys so I took them all and went looking for at least one more. Even with five guys I had no idea how we would look like an army marching through the jungle. The girls were going to also have to be Vietnamese soldiers.

If God was in this, and I was sure He was, we would figure it out.

Betty Olsen

Monument to missionaries
who died at Banmethuot,
Vuetnam

THE SECOND YEAR chapter 197

My second year was much easier. I was relieved of my hardest course and only picked up one new one. I promised myself I would never just repeat the previous year, updating is easier than starting from scratch.

I often sat on the classroom table when
it was sturdy enough to hold me.

I seem to remember that Rex Boda had been academic dean for both CBC and CTS but switched over to just CTS in 1975-76 and that Bob Rose became academic dean for CBC. The only problem with that is that Bob’s photo is not in the 1976 yearbook, so I am probably confused. If that change occurred in that year, I moved up to be department chairman and Fred Wilson joined our department moving into Bob’s old office. That part is correct. I was also more relaxed in class.

I loved working with a class to produce youth conference. It was a great group. It took a while to come up with the theme, but when it did, everything just rolled out. The Canadian Egg Board was running a series of commercials that year promoting eggs and using a series of several different characters to push buying eggs. We had students dress up as these characters and introduce various topics and themes throughout the weekend. These people would wander around the campus interacting with the delegates as well. The push was for each one to become grade A in their relationship with God.

The idea lead to that simple theme of  “Grade ‘A’ Large.” Jan Friesen created the poster concept and took the photo used on the poster. We knocked around several approaches and settled on the idea that in Christ we are grade A. the word “large” went along with the egg idea. Ever egg word possible that could be worked in combination with “egg” was used. It was eggcellent.

The poster was designed to have a luxurious feel. We draped the background in blue velvet. A lighter blue pillow was made and trimmed in gold braid and one of the class made the crown out of a gold ring with a puff of light blue silk. Of my years working with youth conference I considered the concept of grade A large the best and most exciting to develop.

Another class member went after the Canadian Egg Board to get permission to use the commercials and provide them for our use. It turned out to be a bigger deal than expected. The films could not just be copied and sent to us. Wrong format. Ultimately they converted them to 16 mm film so they could be shown to our group. It took some doing to convince them we had no intention of mocking or ridiculing them. They wanted to know everything about the theme, how it would be used, what we planned for the characters. They wanted every detail and they got it. In the end we were very pleased to receive and use them and they were happy with our plans. The commercials had run their course by the time youth conference came around and they were now being exposed to a whole new crowd for only the cost of converting the format to 16 mm. It worked out for both of us.

Della hit her stride this year. She was part of a group of faculty wives who were very concerned about the student wives and finding a way to minister to them. Some were students themselves but many of them had little connection to the school and often felt left out. Every second Thursday about 35 student wives met in a home or Martin Hall to learn more about the ministry dreams of their spouse and how they might be asked to fit in. They encouraged one another and even worked out babysitting needs. This was Della’s gift for service and she loved the women and everything about this ministry. She now had her own purpose and way to use her gifts. 

GO WEST TEAM chapter 196

I loved summer tours with the Portrait Players. Some of the reason was totally selfish. I had written the main play and wanted to see how audiences would respond. The College preferred that we split the tours with another professor so we are not away so long. That was a good thing, as I think my wife would have preferred that I didn’t go at all some years. My trade off college rep was Norma Bailey. She was always terrific and a great help. In the first year she took the first half of the four-week tour.

The team went to Western Canada. It was fundamentally the same tour I made with the college choir years before. We had already taken the play to a number of churches near the college so it actually began closer to Alberta.

I wanted to learn and so took some notes and made some observations along the way. First and foremost was that a play in the church was a strange thing. We were opening most of the churches to the concept of drama in the church. Many were not sure about how to respond to even the idea let along the presentation. Some congregations were a little hesitant, but seemed to warm up by the end of the show. Pastors were a little more reluctant. They were less concerned about how most of the congregation responded they worried about that one parishioner who might object.

We had a pretty simple presentation. We hauled the few props, but used whatever seating might be available at each stop. We had no lighting. So did not haul a trailer. There were some semi-pro groups making their way around the country with the same drama premise. They usually did a number of short pieces so could adjust the length of their presentation. We were doing a play and the time was set. The Maze ran just under an hour.

The response made me wonder if a play was the right approach. We did a play because I wanted to tell a story that called for a response. Most short skit presentation was open-ended simply causing the observer to think about a response.

The second thing I learned was that churches really wanted college tour groups to come Sunday mornings when they get the most people, but neither they nor us knew how to handle a “play” on a Sunday morning. It was perfect for a music group, but it was terrible for a play. No matter what we said, they always wanted to do what they normally did on Sunday morning: 20-30 minutes of singing, 10-15 minutes of announcements and offering and then turn it over to us for the next 40 minutes. We could not cut the play down to fit the remaining time. It was not unusual to see a few people leave before the play was over. I felt bad, but didn’t know what to do about that.

For most churches, the only “play” they had ever seen done was a Christmas pageant or choir cantata. I knew we were pushing boundaries. Every church was kind and very accepting of us with one exception. Morning services were always a problem. The pastor always said they didn’t know how long it would be. I kept my mouth shut and took their comments. We had sent written instructions and I verbally explained it again when I arrived and then again Sunday morning trying to make sure they understood.  They didn’t.

They team often talked about the play and continued to find new interpretations. Some people grasp the deeper spiritual meaning of The Maze, some found it funny, some saw both sides, some only one. It did not connect as deeply as I had hoped. When I got home and was evaluating the process with Rev, Rose told me how to open the drama door to drama in the churches. “Tell a missions story.” He said. I immediately began to look for a story to tell and ran into the book No Time for Tombstones.

PROMPTNESS chapter 195

We have to wonder at times from where some of our attitudes, habits, and perspectives come. At least I do. By the time I began my ministry in Saskatoon, I had a very low tolerance for lateness. I don’t remember that being an issue is my home, while I was in high school or college, but it was huge in me by the time I got to Saskatoon. When I said I was going to leave, I wanted to leave at that time. The problem for others was that I did leave when I said. I taught my group to be on time. Whether that was the right approach or not is debatable. Maybe they had a good reason for being late. If they did, I never knew about it.

I do remember being annoyed in high school when a buddy who was going to pick me up was late. But he had the car and I had nothing so I did a slow burn and accepted it.

I don’t recall the issue during my time in Vancouver or Long Beach. However, I didn’t have to wait for them as we never all pilled into the same vehicle(s) to go anywhere. But I did many a slow burn as a teacher. I could barely tolerate the students who regularly walked in late to class. Initially I always started the class after stalling for about five minutes while waiting that normal for the stragglers to grace us with their presence.

I had heard a number of stories as to how Dr. Cramer handled the latecomers with sarcasm. When he did so, he seemed to always get a positive response and laugher. I thought I could do that so tried it once and only once. No one laughed. That was stupid. The problem was so pervasive I realized I was going to develop an ulcer if I didn’t let go of the insane tension I was creating by holding on to that desire. It wasn’t life or death. It may have been rude or inconsiderate (it was) but making it so important was only hurting me.

One year the Portrait Players tried to teach me a lesson on the subject during a stop in Hamilton, Ontario. Yes, I was hard on them also. When I wanted to leave I just wanted to leave. In Hamilton, Ontario Con Hild and I were staying at the same home for the evening. We knew we were having trouble with a tire on the van so left our home early to get the tire checked or get a new one, whichever. We got held up having the tired checked and by the time we were ready to leave, we were an hour late. I had tried calling the church, but no one answered the phone. So we were late — very late. No one had ever been that late.

When we arrived at the church, we found everyone’s luggage just inside the front door with a note saying they had left without us because we were so late. Would we please bring their luggage? Of course the idea was absurd as we had the van and how would they get a ride for eight people to go anywhere. But the thought was good. They did make one big mistake. The girls also left their purses. It was very doubtful they would go on without those.

We looked around for a bit but could not find them in the building. They had to be hiding outside. Con and I decided we would load the luggage in the trailer then tried to take off as fast as we could. We were just about out of the driveway when they came running out from some trees waving their hand and screaming for us to stop. Of course we picked them up and Con and I tried to explain the situation but got no sympathy at all. They certainly drove home the point that there were extenuating circumstances at times. I never left anyone on tour. I knew they were all at the mercy of their hosts, and not all were not prompt.

I solved my emotional problem in the classroom, by giving the class all the assignment and exam information for future classes in the first five minutes of the class. It didn’t solve the problem, but it did calm me down and released my tension.

In the end, God gave me a family that I could not regularly urge to be on time. No my wife, she was terrific, but two children, neither of which was ever in a hurry. God has a way of correcting out bad habits if we listen.

THE “NEW” CAMPUS chapter 190

Chapter 190 was on my blog but still sitting as a draft (not published). It is very difficult to get things in order, so here is ti now. Thanks to my ancient, but still good friend for noticing. I didn't have a clue that it wasn't there.

When I was a CBC student the hallway from the administration basement to the girls dorm had an apartment on the left and offices on the right. Miss Johnston lived in the apartment. The apartment has been converted to offices and the faculty lounge. Actually the lounge was used for all kinds of meetings. I used to a meet with the Youth Conference Planning committee.

The rest of the space was offices related mostly to Christian education. There were four decent sized offices with space for a small secretarial pool in the front. I was surprised how big the offices were (12x12). Most of my offices in churches were smaller.

In the first year, Bob Rose was in the first office Norma Bailey was next, and then my office was third. I may be wrong, but I don’t believe anyone was in the fourth office. Bob was the chairman of the department. The parties were generally in Norma’s office or in the common area.

There was a new music classroom building and gymnasium. As I recall, the dining room was still under construction. Who knows, maybe the gym was still under construction as well, but it was completed before the year was out.

The old library was now a classroom. So was the old chapel. It was strange to see it tiered and turned sideways. It was the only space that would hold the freshmen. It just felt weird, but I came to love the space and the dynamic I experienced with freshmen. It also became the primary rehearsal space for the Portrait Players.

If it is true that the dining room was not completed, students were still eating in the pit with the “Tuck Shop” where it was when I left school. When the new dining room opened, the Tuck Shop was relocated to the old dish room and kitchen. Across from Tuck was a very nice bookstore. The rest of the space was turned over to a student lounge. Mailboxes had been moved downstairs to the new lounge,

The school had grown and the expanded space was appropriate. They wanted a chapel, but the money did not stretch that far at that time. Parts of the school were new other parts remodeled. To me it still seemed like the same ‘ole school. The old dorms were still there and they stunk even worse than when I lived in one. I have gone on line to look at the old campus from Google earth. It looks like they are still standing. How can that be? They were near death when I lived in one.

I had the opportunity to walk the entire campus before students arrived. They were still installing desks in the rooms. I had to take another look. I walked over by the desk with the draws not yet inserted. There was an electrical outlet located at the standard height from the floor right where it appeared the drawer would open. I had the sense that once all the electrical gadgets were plugged into a plug expander, one would have to unplug everything just to open the drawer. Maybe that wasn’t a problem. I never heard anyone complain about it. With my limited background in architecture, I wondered why it wasn’t above the desk? That’s where I would have wanted it. Yes, I blame the architect.

Former students of mine were on staff: Ray Matheson was now dean of men, Mel Bowker was in the music department, Richard Reichert was director of athletics, Bob Rose was the chairman of our department, Dorothy Taylor was assistant to the president, Velma Warnock was an assistant cook. In addition were a number of staff and faculty still at the school or ones who have returned. It sort of felt like home.

COLLEGE AND QUIZZING chapter 194

I really thought that once I got back to Regina my connection to quizzing would end. We began attending a small church on the Westside that had no youth. You need youth to have Bible Quizzing. Even if there had been the people, I don’t know whether I would have had the time. My wife tells me I would not.

My life increased intensity as the year went on. It tricked me in December. It let me get comfortable and then just piled things on. First there was the Portrait Players. That program built to the Christmas program. There was a reprieve. The Christmas break came along just in time and we headed to Red Deer, Alberta to spend time with Della’s family. Back to driving in the snow, yuck!

Early in the break I got a call from Dan Rinker asking if I would be the quizmaster for Internationals. Bill Berry had quit a couple of year earlier, and his replacement, Ted Mock, was unable to do it in the summer of 1975. I said yes being unable to anticipate what was about to happen to me. The quizmaster writes all the questions for the meet. I knew how to do that. I had done it each year for the quiz practices. It takes time, but is not that hard. Just agreeing to be quizmaster did not mean I immediately jumped on the task of writing quwstions.

Immediately after the Christmas break, everything became a rush. Youth Conference suddenly seemed to take over my life. Rehearsals for the Portrait Players summer tour production of The Maze began in earnest as well as rehearsals for Youth Conference. Then there were still classes and I was a first year teacher still trying to get his sea legs. Della wondered at times if I even remembered I was married with children,

Writing quiz questions would have to wait. And wait it did — until after schools end and the tour was over, That meant my summer was rapidly disappearing making my wife less than thrilled.

But I made my way off to St. Paul Bible College and Bible quizzing to complete the circle from quizzer, to coach, to quizmaster. I expected I would know several of the coaches and maybe even a few quizzers. Here’s a piece of the report for Alliance Life about the 1975 International Quiz Competitions

The final competition to determine the number one team in the United States and Canada was keen. The suspense was exciting. The audience shouted loud and long. Clyde Walker frequently raised his hand. After two quizzes it was over. South Pacific had taken first place; West Central, second; and Northwestern, third.

 I tried to calm the audience for the last question of the final quiz so everyone could hear, but also to get control of my own nerves. In the finals were the South Pacific team and some of them I had coached the previous year. I could not mess this up and mostly I could not show favoritism. These were my quizzers. Bill and Faith were there once again to coach the team. We talked strategy before the meet began and we agreed not to talk about that again until after the meet.

The quiz was tense with the lead changing hands several times. It was another one of those quizzes coming down to the wire. The South Pacific was ahead by ten points going into question 20 (the last one). With each question worth 20 points, they had to get the question to hold onto their lead. John Keihl (SP) got the jump and came to the mic. He took so long I was sure he was going to miss it. I could see Bill and Faith dying in the front bench. Then finally, without hesitation he got it right and pandemonium reigned. South Pacific became the International champs for 1975. I nearly collapsed myself. Being quizmaster it the most tense job in the whole program.

Would I do it again? Yes! I did it the next year as well. In 1977 Bill Berry returned. He was absolutely the best quizmaster. The team from the Canadian Midwest had suffered a terrible tragedy and needed a coach to fill in. In the spring the Regina team was driving to Winnipeg for a meet, hit black ice and their coach, Jan Neufeld, was killed in the auto accident leaving behind her husband and small child. The team was devastated but still wanted to go to Internationals. Rev. Orthner asked if I would take them to Internationals I doubted they would be in any emotional state to compete, but believed the trip would be good for the team and bring some healing. It did just that.

My next return to the Bible quizzing program would come in the summer of 1981.

YOUTH CONFERENCE chapter 193

I found my teaching schedule for my first year this morning. I was able to count my time with Portrait Players and Youth Conference as teaching hours (I think). My actual classes were Discover in Christian Education right after chapel. Then for some reason I was always given the first hour after lunch. I think it was a test to see if I could keep the students awake. I mostly succeeded. Lots of questions, small group discussions and story telling works – at least for me. The after lunch class was CE of Children, which alternated with CE of Youth. I also had a class called contemporary Issues in Christian Education. I have no memory of that class. The children’s class was my least favorite. I only taught it for one year.

I have been digging around to find the posters and workbooks for each of the six Youth Conferences I directed. I can only find three. I know I have them, but where? The story of my life! Later I will be looking for something else and then I will find them I regret that I don’t remember the theme or the leadership team for 1975. That really bothers me. I remember the process as I used it throughout my life. I learned it from Miss A while working on youth conferences under her leadership. It fits with my philosophy. The goal was always to involve as many people as possible and give everyone as meaningful responsibility as possible, using both volunteers and those recruited. If you are going to work in a church, not everyone who is capable and talented will volunteer. Learn to recognize them and win them over.

I began with twelve volunteers. After the first year it became a class limited to twelve. We always started with understanding the philosophy while learning and discussing our own strengths and weaknesses. Each member was responsible to lead another team that may have sub teams all the way down to worker bees. Everyone is important. Everyone is critical to the success of the ministry. Everyone deserves encouragement. If the committee succeeds, the team will get plenty of encouragement, but our teams may only get that from us. That means working with and understanding team relationships.

I came to believe that more spiritual grown may occur though serving God together than most preaching. Iron sharpens iron. Even the conflicts teach us a great deal.

From there we worked on a theme. That always took longer than any of us expected. Then we reevaluated the recommendations from the previous year and determine which of the previous committees we would need. Youth conference that was pretty well set from year to year. But once in a while we found another branch. The students carried the load. I acted as a coordinator. I wanted all of them to know everything I did so they would have the big picture.

We gradually selected all the committees: promotion, registration, housing, individual and group Bible study, programming, public services, set-up and take down, activities, entertainment and whatever else was needed.

We had the gym form large group meetings and sports. The biggest problem was it had to be set and taken down four times a day. The new dining room made coordination meals much easier.

The closer we would get to the YC more and more people would be drawn upon to help with all the details. The primary committee held training and information meetings for those working on their team. They often wrote and distributed directions and guidelines so everyone knew what was needed.

We began praying in September and when it was over we thanked God. We took several classes to celebrate, gather evaluations and put together a report for the next year’s committee. The program was the exam. I thing everyone always got an A. If they were not working hard enough, I pushed them until they did.

I remember for one entertainment section, the Portrait Players were performing Rinse the Blood of My Toga and got five or six laughs off one line with multiple double takes. Leon as a Greek toga-wearing detective said, “Lend me your ears.” Eric ran in appearing very humble with a paper bag and the laughs would started and came each time Leon and then Eric would look at the bag. Leon would finally say, “What’s in the bag.” Another laugh. Eric replied, “Ears.” And yet another laugh came. It was so anticipated it was hard to believe it was always so funny. It had a great deal to do with the actors. From then on their goal was to see how many laughs they could get out of that one line. I don’t remember the record, but I believe it was in double digits. The guys preformed it brilliantly.

Since I have no idea who reads this blog, if anyone happens to know the Youth Conference themes leaders from 1975-1980, would you drop me a line or comment in the comment section, I only remember what I remember because of the yearbook. If there are no photos, my mind goes blank.

INTRODUCTION TO PORTRAIT PLAYERS chapter 192

I definitely had an interest in working with the Portrait Players. I had no real background and no training or special skill. I just liked the idea. I considered myself a visual person. Plays and skits are visual things, right? That should work, shouldn’t it?

I wasn’t completely without experience. I wrote a mission’s play Columbia in Revolt while a student at CBC. I wrote Connie’s Choice in Saskatoon for a missions week show

I had preformed in skits while in high school and college. I had directed a couple of plays. I already knew I liked directing better than acting. I am terrible at remembering the lines. I want to ad-lib all the time. That does not help the other actors.

What I had never done was hold auditions. The thought of selecting some and rejecting others was depressing. I had not written a play for tour yet, but I knew what I was going to write. I knew I would need four women and four men. Now all I had to do was select them.

I have been trying to remember where auditions were held. I know it was a small out of the way room. There were only ten or eleven who showed up. I decided to pull out all the old Peanuts scripts I had used in Saskatoon. I wasn’t sure what I would learn, but I wanted both dramatic and comic actors. I had everyone do several skits and try various roles. I wanted to see if any could change characters and figured everyone was familiar with Charlie Brown, Lucy and the gang.

It was obvious that two girls were going to be terrific: Jeri-Lynne Hougestol and Norma Frentz were definitely in. Norma had a better sense of comic timing, but both could easily handle drama. Leon Throness was without doubt the comedian. These were the first three selected. Then I took Judy Linnen who could do anything and Christine O’Reilly. The girls seemed easy compared to the guys. I took Eric Greenway, Duane Patterson and a gentleman I did not know was on academic probation, He had to pull his grades up by the end of first semester or he would not be allowed to tour. I worried about my choice so approached Garry Tollefson with a strange proposal. I wanted him to begin practicing and if my first choice was removed from the group, he would be in. Even more strangely, he accepted.

I felt like I could not remove my first choice. I wanted him to have the challenge of tour to get his grades up. He did not succeed and Gary was in.

The previous years group did a great number of short skits and we worked on our own set. Our coming out party was Christmas. We did short open-ended skits. We may have done the program at the college, but we definitely performed at the Alliance Tabernacle.

While we were having a good time with short skits and getting ready for Christmas, I was writing The Maze. The play was based on a concept in Watchman Nees book The Calvary Road. He said no one comes to the cross except on his or her knees and that there are many normal, everyday things that block our freedom to communicate who Jesus is. My idea was a waiting room where people passed on their way to the normal things of life. A maid would be hostess to the room getting them coffee or tea and trying to make sure they were comfortable. We will help people, but not tell them about the Saviour.

The premise was set. Gwendolyn would wear a maid’s outfit and serve off a teacart at the front of the stage. The idea was that the cart had to be moved out of the way to see Jesus. Then characters wandered through with their problems. We did some reading, but casting was not set until second semester. The cast would rotate roles to give them a little variety and cover us in case of illness.

The team was finalized and Garry was in. Boy was in. Garry worked with the group all four years at CBC and one year at CTS. He became the go to guy who had the heart, patience and skill to be a guide to the rest. By year two he was my right hand man.

SOME PORTRAIT PLAYER PHOTOS APPEAR IN THE NEXT ENTRY

Portrait Player photos 1974-1975

A scene from our Christmas
program. Garry is on Santa's lap
sharing if greed for Christmas

There was no poster for tour. The floral
pattern is a piece off the tour shirts.
Wild!!!

"Rinse the Blood of My Toga" one
of the most popular skits the
group did. It reappeared often.

Norma and Leon as bickering spouces

Jeri-Lynne as Gwendolyn