Project 365 Ends...And Yet Begins

Tonight a bunch of the adult cast members of Project 365 went out for Mexican food and enjoyed a little unwinding after this past whirlwind weekend. Things are moving forward, and there's no looking back, but a few awesome things I do want to share about Project 365 before I officially say goodbye to it!

1) Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, both audience and performers. It was definitely a blessed production.

2) In some aspects, it seems to be spreading like wildfire. We have booking requests up the yazoo, and I am praying that the Lord will give me good discernment with choosing our touring dates and locations.

3) I love that I've already heard about people doing a real life Project 365. I've seen people wearing the ribbons Sarah made, a few of the dancers have reached out to others in Christ's love already, and I've received anonymous letters and emails from strangers thanking the ministry for what they did the past two weeks.

It is crazy humbling, and such a huge blessing to be part of a ministry that is a not-so-common way to honor our Lord.

We had a fantastic final show. Great energy, packed theatre....God just was with us the whole way through and everyone walked away from it feeling really good about the run.

Here's some videos of my favorite dances from the show, for those of you who didn't get to see it:

This is probably one of my favorite dances I've gotten to choreograph, even though I felt like we needed paramedics on hand whenever we did it. We were all so tired! I think we're taking this one to Trinidad, so good luck to us dancing it in extreme humidity.


Ami choreographed this, and it took some of us FOREVER to learn. It felt like a huge geometry exam sometimes...but I love the way it turned out and I'm so proud of her and everyone who was in it.


Alisha is an amazing hip hop dancer, and everyone who got to be in her dance had an absolute blast:


I choreographed this one, and tried to use as many of the girls as possible. I didn't get everyone, but probably 75% and I was so proud of them:


Amber's dance - it followed Elizabeth's death scene, so if you saw the show, it was actually really sad. Lots of the beginner girls were totally victorious in this one:


Jasmine's dance was my favorite one i got to dance in. This is probably going to be the final evidence of my long hair for awhile - I'm sick of it! :)

"Slow Me Down" from Project 365 from Frank Warta on Vimeo.

Dancers, all photos can be found here
Jesus, thanks for being so nice ;)

When we tuck in Sam at night, we are pretty much guaranteed these days that he will not be in the same position in the morning. Sometimes we find him on his tummy, holding onto the crib bars and peering through, waiting for someone to come find him. Other times, he has rotated a complete 180 degrees in the crib. Here are a few photos from this morning:

I feel terrible for his future wife, who may have to deal with his spinning, turning and tenting while unconscious. Hope they get a really big bed.

This past weekend, we did the March of Dimes March for Babies walk. Sam earned almost $1000 to be pushed in his stroller for 6 miles, while the rest of us sucked it up and walked. It was a beautiful day at the Capitol, and it made for a few fun photo ops.

Sam was all smiles at the start of the walk. He loves to people watch and be outside.

Sam's cousin Kayla had a lot of fun pushing the stroller through downtown. They adore each other, and she can always get him to smile.

He tuckered out by mile 3.

Okay guys, I'm done. Let's go get burgers.

Woweee!

Sometimes God uses us to bless others at exactly the right time!

I was having a week....not a good or bad week, but just a week. Ping ponging between confidence in what I do, and total despair that I am not the right woman for the job.

Today I received an envelope with just my first name on it, and inside was another envelope and two notes. The first note was addressed to the cast of Project 365, commending them on a job well done. The second note was addressed specifically to me, thanking me for the ministry and instructing me to do with the envelope what I felt was best for Turning Point.

Inside the envelope was $250.

Since the person wanted to be anonymous, I have no clue who to thank. I'll be sending a thank you note back through the person you sent the gift through, but until then, THANK YOU! You completely blessed me and made my day!!!! I will be photocopying the note to the dancers and handing it out so they can see it, read it, and smile :)

Thank you <3

Well, it finally happened! Project 365 opened on Saturday evening. It was a crazy long day, because we had a final run through that morning, then a giant move over to the theatre, then dress rehearsal, and THEN the first performance!A huge THANK YOU to the Laursens, aka Mountain Mike's Pizza royalty, that gave us free pizza for our cast and crew before the show! They pulled out all the stops, we even got dessert pizza, yum :)

Then the show began! It turned out in the end, that the audience and the performers had a very different experience. The audience has reported that it was a good show, with just a couple of missed lines here and there. What was ACTUALLY happening backstage was that our tech crew missed a lot of cues, and it made things a bit messy. It was a total bummer, since we were using the theatre’s professional sound & lighting company (there’s $50 an hour we’ll never see again!), but was also a blessing because Mr. Mistake Maker was actually a really nice guy and as far as I could tell, everyone got along really great with him :)

One of our cast members is battling cancer, and this has been no secret. Some of us have prayed ferociously for him, and the performance turned out to just be too much for him. Especially when you take into account the 15 hour day we had from start to finish. During Act 2, things went a little nuts, and he ended up having to leave before the performance was over. Fortunately, some of the younger actors in the show turned out to be total ad libbing rockstars and covered up the absence better than I could have ever hoped or expected. Everyone pulled together, and we really experienced a ministry moment that taught us a ton!

Sunday (yesterday’s matinee) was FLAWLESS. Okay not really, but it was pretty darn spectacular! We had more people than seats, and the dancers and actors were AMAZING! God totally anointed it all! I was super happy that Bekie came and brought a friend, and Sharlotte (one of Sam’s primary nurses), came with her husband. Alan, Amy, my whole family and Frank’s whole family came to opening night too, so it was a pretty sweet weekend :)

One of the people who received one of our free outreach tickets now wants to get her daughter involved in our dance program (woo hoo!) and some of our opening night audience came back for the Sunday show to see it again.

I think the majority of the cast and crew felt victorious and blessed, and that is a great gift too! Next week after our final two shows, I will have actual pictures and video of it – but right now I don’t want to give anything away for those of you still coming!

Next week, recruiters from Rock the Block California will be coming to see the show and "audition" us for further opportunities, and a filmmaker will also be stopping by to do a piece for his TV show about the children we used for the production and the process of dance ministry in general.


Exciting stuff!

Me & Kelly backstage at Project 365 @ the NCDC theatre

Brandi & Diana overheating backstage after a dance

What do you do with Easter eggs after Easter? Here's what Nichole and Bailey came up with yesterday when Sam was hanging out at the church while I was in meetings:

And no, my BOY baby is not wearing pink....the drool situation has become so intense and horrific, that his little red baseball outfit actually had its colors run and stained his onesie pink. Gross.

So here we are, two days before Project 365 opens. This is a vision I've had since 2006, and it is a little insane feeling that I get to share it with 400+ people this weekend. Yesterday in my weekly meeting with Scott, he presented me with the quick math - if 25% of our audience/performers commit to the real life Project 365, then approximately 365,000 people will be reached with the message by this time next year.

Me = gobsmacked.

Things are pretty much the same as last year - there are victories, there are worries, people have come through with flying colors, and the same people I expected to drop the ball on their tasks completely have. Life is life. I am moving on and not holding any bitterness. MY huge blunder is I was unaware the theater needed to be added to the church insurance policy, so PLEASE pray if you read this, because if they don't receive it by tomorrow....it's curtains for the show before it even gets a chance to open.

Me = loser.

God prompted me to offer free tickets to those in the community who are unemployed and struggling financially. One craigslist ad later, and I was completely overwhelmed with responses. A woman whose sister was murdered and now she is helping to care for her 11 year old daughter. A couple who has been jobless for two years. A family dying to get their daughter involved in a positive activity. There were so many stories, and in the end, a dozen or so tickets were mailed out. I hope they come and that I have a chance to meet them.

God, I pray that you will just bring renewing strength and motivation to every person involved with Project 365, and that you will open up the eyes of our audience. We've been working since October - it's in YOUR hands now!

Me = nervous, and yet strangely confident in God's promises.

Well dear readers, we're going to Arkansas! There's a sentence I never thought I would write!

Our friends Matt & Emily live in Little Rock, and offered to train me on all things missionary, and so I asked the church if they would send us to Arkansas, and they said yes.

Thanks, church board! You are the nicest guys I know!

So now at the end of the month, the three of us are going on a jet plane to spend a long weekend in the South and will glean some great missions tips from some great friends.

Wahoo!

This week has been extremely stressful. I was so proud of myself for being so organized and planning ahead with this show, and was so determined to not have my yearly meltdown....but my efforts seem to be futile.

We've had such amazing scheduling issues and mix ups with dancers this spring, that today when one of the dancers called me to make her contribution to the "let's give Tammy a continual stress headache until April 25" fund, I just couldn't help but laugh at the sheer insanity of it all. And then I had a really good cry.

I hurt for everyone who is hurting right now for various reasons. I wish I could fix everyone's personal lives so they could just come, dance, and feel free from it all. But I can't. And I have to be a meanie and stick to my guns and insist people follow through on their commitments even when life tries to get in the way. Hence the tears. It just isn't in my nature to be unrelentlessly bossy, even though my family may say otherwise. ;)

I hope that God will honor the dancers' faithfulness. And I hope somehow He'll honor mine as well.

This week has been full of judgment. "You're making great choices, Tammy!" "I think you need to think this over more, sister." "Oh Tam, you should've known better than that..."

I know they say in ministry you need to have rhinoceros skin and a marshmallow heart, but my marshmallow is getting a little hard and crusty...it's hard to be criticized all of the time, and I am stupid scared that our audience won't respond well to the big show in a few weeks, even though I know it only really matters what God thinks.

Little emotional pressure points from authoritarians in my life swim in my mind all day long - make sure your dances don't all look the same, don't forget to give that actress her notes so that point comes across well, push to have 4 sold out shows, don't let your music cuts sound amateurish, check and double check and triple check every single little thing....and oh yeah, take care of your 8 month old son and finish your article deadlines. You still have a full time job, you know.

How is my head still on my body?

I often wonder if it's possible to run a creative arts ministry without bruising egos and enabling showboats. That fine line between Christ and creative license, love and limelight...is so very fragile with so many people, it's easy to forget Who you're doing it all for.

"Let us run the race set out before us..." Hebrews 11....

The Christian journey is no easy sprint. It feels like the world's longest marathon.

We must run with perseverence - without detractors, despite distractions, with patience, and in the mindset that we WILL meet the finish line.


And I am very sleepy.



Sam liked this horse at Babies R Us. Nichole & I liked the hat. Frank says it makes him look like a 70 year old woman playing tennis. I think Frank has no appreciation of cute baby fashion.

Sam's baby dedication was on Sunday, and it was a pretty fun and special day. Our pastor's wife asked me to find a picture for him from around the time he was born, and it was pretty amazing going back into those photo albums and seeing how tiny he was. He's come so far, my little Samasaurus...he is growing and changing so much every day now. Nurse Kathy, his day primary while he was in the hospital, came to the dedication. Nurse Sharlotte (his night primary) was at church that day too, as were frank's parents and my mom. Frank's grandma happened to be in town from Kansas that day, and my grandma came up too. To add to the fun and specialness, Elisa, Jonathan, Katie, Brad, Rawan and Sandy came too!

Of course, I was a lame-o and my camera completely died the night before, and I cannot for the life of me find the battery anywhere...so we didn't get any photos except a few unflattering dedication pictures and a few of Sam back at our house for his little after party :)