Time for some serious stuff

In my time as a columnist, I have tried to be down-home, folksy and gently good-humored for the readers. I have worked hard to give you all a little smile — a smirk, perhaps — to take with you through your life’s travails.
Bu I am the editor of the paper, after all. It is incumbent upon me to use this column as a bullypulpit, to provide insight to those needing a new point of view, or to stand up for the little man.
So I will set Mark Twain aside for now, and step towards being Edward R. Murrow (kids, ask your grandparents who he is, they might know). It’s time to discuss the hard-hitting issues that grasp the good citizens who read our chronicled endeavor each week.
Time for some serious stuff, folks.
What are the issues? What deeply gripping quandaries do we as a society find ourselves grappling with?
Let’s start with the basics. Everyone fed? Clothed? Warm and dry? Staying someplace that will keep the rain off your head?
No, we are not all in that state. But nearly all of us are, and those that are not have agencies and opportunities to remedy that, at least for the short term.
OK, now what? How about the government? Is the government getting into your wallets and pocketbooks too much? Are you paying all kinds of taxes that go up and up?
Well, some taxes are a bit high. But in general, most of what the government gets, they put to some good use somewhere. We all need roads, schools, police departments, people who pick up our trash and send our sewer stuff away and bring good, clean water in. We have to look after our elderly, our sick, those who are without and those who are on hard times.
Need a job? According to statistics, only one in 20 working folks are not working in these parts. The papers are full of help wanted ads, and while some jobs are not ideal, it is not a difficult thing to find something to do and get a paycheck for in today’s economy. Jobs that require specific training are out there, too, but the college and technical schools nearby are offering classes every day to retrain folks who want a job like that.
Not happy with the war? Who is? Young men and women die every day in a foreign land. But no one out there is holding up signs that proclaim, “Yay, War!” No one likes seeing soldiers fight and die. And it is not as though we can bring them home tomorrow — not even President Bush can end the war in a snap of his fingers. So we keep on praying for their safe return and hope we can get our people out of harm’s way soon.
How about here in the state? There’s a lot to get riled up about within our own borders. Do you like the lottery? How about that Dan Black guy? What’s his deal? And who is running for governor next election? Can we grow any crop under the sun now that we don’t grow all that much tobacco? Since when did every farmer east of I-95 decide to start his own winery?
Why does this column now sound like a Jerry Seinfield stand-up act?
Schools — there’s a biggie. Someone, somewhere is always going on an on about getting something done about the schools. We need new buildings. We need new curriculum. We need new leadership.
OK, Let’s see. New buildings — Wayne County is finally working on it after trying to talk it to death for the last 10 years. Johnston County is brewing up another bond referendum — the fourth in about 10 years — and this one will get a Princeton Elementary School, with doors open for the 2008 school year, we are told.
New curriculum — both Johnston County and Wayne County are being innovative and trying to address their ABC’s of Education and No Child Left Behind issues. A lot of new programs are out there to increase graduation rate and make our kids better prepared for the world past school.
New leadership? Five guys ran for four seats on the Wayne County Board of Education during the last election, and the voters put in just one new one. If you wanted new leadership, more people would have challenged three incumbents who ran unopposed. In Johnston County, several people ran for three seats, and two of the three that won were incumbents.
Wayne County’s board has elected a chairman and vice-chairman who are African-American women — and eminently qualified to lead. And the Wayne County Board of Commissioners has a new chairman, another African-American. I’d say there is new leadership busting out all over —and if no one was run out of office, it appears folks wanted it that way.
In general, I think that there are thorny issues out there, but most folks are not letting it become a sore under their saddle blankets. Everyone is reasonably happy with the way things are going — Not everything, but most things.
And as we get into the annual Christmas holiday season — the season of good feeling and happiness — that is not a bad state of mind to be in.
I might as well hang out the washing on my bullypulpit for now. And maybe I can get back to writing about those Mark-Twain kinds of things again.

Judgment House behind the scenes

For the past several years, one of the local events of the fall for many of us is Judgment House. Every fall, the First Pentecostal Holiness Church of Goldsboro put on the production, and it has become a staple of fall events for the folks all over Wayne County and the surrounding area.
This year, it got a newcomer to the staff. I dusted off my creaky old acting credentials and took part in the production, which actually began in the late summer.
The play, for those of you who have never been to Judgment House, is a play in nine brief acts. Instead of the traditional version of plays where an audience sits and the play is brought to them, this play requires the audience to move from scene to scene. The crowd, usually in groups of 50 to 70, moves through the scenes and learns the plot of the play, which changes from year to year. It usually follows the story of a person or persons living a challenged life, and how their decisions affect their lives after their earthly existence is over.
The preparations began with the actors getting their lines for each scene. We got our lines and our roles early on, but in some cases did not get scripts for the last few scenes until very late in the process — in one case, mere days before the play opened. The most massive undertaking was the sets and construction. The crew, all volunteer church members, built a five-scene complex inside the church’s Ministerial Training Center, complete with air conditioning, lighting, doors and all the special effects necessary.
What was involved? These folks had to build an airplane that would crash on command and break apart — literally — over and over again; they had to create three different hospital scenes, one of which portrayed a scene of Rapture; a “party” scene with smoke, lights, music and sound effects; a hospital scene that actually gave the crowd the sensation of ‘feeling” a train wreck and its effects; and a dramatic ledge scene in which the actors were 15 feet off the floor.
That was not all. The two biggest construction challenges were building an elaborate “Heaven” scene in the church balcony, and the play’s most legendary scene — the “Hell” scene. That scene features flames, smoke, rumbling thunder, loud explosions, a pit of fire, and of course, the Devil himself.
It is a nightmare of engineering — just taking it down took nearly a week.
The acting crew was massive. Because groups go through the scenes quickly — sometimes a group would have to wait to go into a scene to allow another group to leave — each character had three to six actors trained to play the role. Four others, as well as myself, portrayed my character. Many times we performed scenes with many different actors in the other parts.
I got to laugh a lot. Each actor brings to the role they do a little different flavor and spice, and with the rapid-fire approach we got to scripts, we tended to lean on ad-libs. As the play went on from days to weeks, the ad-libbing became the norm, as long as we got the gist of the line out. Eventually we would throw in a line to try and get a smile from a fellow actor, and if we could get a grin that didn’t disrupt the scene, we considered it mission accomplished. Then we would go back to the actor’s waiting room and swap stories of who tried to trip up whom.
The support crew’s undertaking was equally daunting. From the “door openers” who shepherded groups into and out of the scenes in the dark, to the organizers who arranged booking times and set groups up to go through, to the folks who prepared food for the cast and crew members, to the folks who built the sets and took them down again, to the people who arranged for the loan of props and equipment we needed, to the folks in the prayer rooms who counseled those affected by the play, the effort was monumental.
I found myself becoming closer to the others involved in the play, and gaining a greater degree of friendship and camaraderie with them. At times, we would stay well into the evening as the crowds got bigger and the groups more numerous. On Saturday nights we had to stay long after the last group had gone through to clean up the church for services on Sunday — sometimes well past 1 a.m.
I was struck by the singleness of purpose for all those involved in the production. Much effort was put into this from many different angles — time, money, effort, and sweat equity. Many people put their own lives on hold to put their focus on the efforts they were putting into Judgment House. And their reward for this effort was a production that would honor God and create a tool for His service. Judgment House was a mission, and everyone involved in it gave all the credit and glory back to God.
The results? Well, over 15,000 people went through Judgment House. And a surprising percentage of those people — some of them completely unchurched — either discovered Jesus Christ or rededicated themselves to Christ after going through the play.
Personally, the experience affected me, as well. I saw some powerful reactions to the scenes — tears, sobs, gasps of surprise, and applause when a character accepted Christ. You could tell what you were doing was having an impact on the audience. A person seldom gets a personal glimpse into how powerfully he is being used in God’s plan.
It was a blessing — tiring, time-consuming, and a little nerve-wracking, to be sure, but a blessing in my life. When I had first heard of Judgment House many years ago, I looked down my nose at it. I had misjudged its purpose badly back then, and I was very glad to get the chance to support this mission, and to help make a positive impact on the Christian lives of others.