UNKNOWN 0:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Welcome to another episode, the place where we talk about kids ministry and take a peek behind the scenes. We try to share a little bit of what we've learned that works for us and some of our failures so you can avoid them. We release a new episode every Friday, and this is your backstage pass to see the magic or disaster that happens behind the scenes of our kids ministry. I'm your host, Gabe Baker, and today I'm joined by Anisha and Shaylee. Hello. How are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

I'm good. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I'm doing good. This is exciting. I'm glad to have you guys on.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

This is exciting. This is so exciting.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

All right. So, Anisha, what are we talking about today?

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Okay. Today's topic is stuff that happens backstage.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Stuff that happens backstage. So, this is really appropriate for Kidman Backstage Podcast, right? So, in our Sunday school, we have been blessed to have a whole backstage area. I know a lot of churches don't have that. In fact, probably most don't. And so, in the past, we had a mobile Sunday school where we had to set up every Saturday night and then take down every Sunday after Sunday school. That was a long time ago. Then we had a more permanent space up here where we are now. And that was before the building was finished for a few years. So we didn't have sheetrock or carpet or anything. Now the building's finished and we have a backstage. We have men's and women's lockers. We have a wardrobe room. We even have a snack area. We got like a Keurig and a mini fridge in here. Today, we want to talk about some of the things that no one ever sees, the stuff that happens backstage. Here we are. And this is also our first podcast with three guests. So we have Anisha, which is my daughter, and Shaylee, Pastor's daughter. Glad to have you guys on

SPEAKER_01 1:48

yeah it's good to be here it is it's very good thank you for having

SPEAKER_00 1:52

us all right this is gonna be off the rails already i can tell right off the bat okay first of all let me kick this off with were you guys i'm trying to remember as far as with your age were you guys um were you guys staff at all when we were down in the fellowship hall when we were doing mobile sunday school setting up every week

SPEAKER_01 2:08

i was for a very short time oh you were very short time and i was not

SPEAKER_00 2:12

oh you weren't oh wow okay

SPEAKER_01 2:14

because i remember the first time like i ever did anything i started like you And I was like 11 and a

SPEAKER_00 2:19

half. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

And then I've been in Sunday school ever since. I was technically still in Sunday

SPEAKER_00 2:23

school. Yeah, you were still in. Yeah. Okay. That's like Adrian started playing drums when he was really young in Sunday school. Of course, that wasn't full time. He was, you know, like being a kid in Sunday school and then he would come up during praise. So what did you, were you an actor then, Shaylee?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Yeah. The very first Sunday school that I was ever in, I was jail in.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Jail. Yes. With a tent peg. Yes. Oh, wow. And

SPEAKER_01 2:45

I was so nervous. I was so nervous.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

How old were you? You had to be really

SPEAKER_01 2:49

young. Yeah, 12 or 13. Oh,

SPEAKER_00 2:51

that's crazy. Yeah, and it was

SPEAKER_01 2:52

in the downstairs. I don't remember seeing you act. I feel like that would have been a monumental moment for my life. Yeah, I was so nervous. And we were downstairs and running back and forth between that little Sunday school room, like in the back. It was super like cold.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

I remember that. Back then, that was our backstage.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Right, it was the, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Oh, yeah. So we had our Christian school, which is now downstairs in this building. building but it was in the fellowship hall and we had a computer room where they do like word building tests or whatever and that was our little costume oh and there was a storage back there storage

SPEAKER_01 3:28

the storage is what i'm remembering

SPEAKER_00 3:29

because it's dark and cold it was like this long like skinny skinny so now we have a hallway about that size and it's just just our just a hallway

SPEAKER_01 3:40

yeah and it was like crammed with like totes of stuff and we never knew where anything was we just had to open a tote and look for a costume in there I remember when I took over the Sunday school backstage. I started in there, but no one cared. So I would organize and they'd throw everything everywhere after every Sunday school. I was like, I quit. I'm not doing this anymore. And so here I am seven years later.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

So Anisha, that's one of the things we want to talk about on the bullet points, but you kind of run the backstage, like the costumes and more than that. I mean, you do a lot back here, but I remember Brother Booker, good friend of ours, Brother Philip Booker, he comes and I remember, I think it was on his podcast actually, I remember him talking about our backstage and he's like, and they have this backstage and I don't know if he knew your name at the time or not, but he was like, and Sister Anisha or this girl, you just throw your costumes on the floor and they hang them up.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

It

SPEAKER_00 4:40

just disappears. I just got a kick out of it because it was like, that is what happens. You're not supposed to necessarily throw them on the floor. Well,

SPEAKER_01 4:48

I mean, sometimes I ask, like, if we're done with the big Bible story and there's 100 characters because it's Joseph and his however many brothers, 11 brothers. Is it 11 brothers? Why did you look at me like that? Cut all that out.

UNKNOWN 4:59

Pause.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Restart. So if it's like Joseph and his 11 brothers and I would just have all of them throw their costumes down like on a pile right in front of the costume room, that way I don't have to like reach on the top of the lockers and find all the random wigs and belts and

SPEAKER_00 5:11

etc. Yeah, but it can get chaotic at times.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

So now we're up here and we have this whole costume room. I mean, we even got it painted. It looks cool. We got our spy theme poster hanging up and got a big, huge screen with the timers and prompts. So usually when we're running a theme, we're in transition right now. We're getting ready to start our new theme. We come into practice and then we label the lockers because we rotate our staff. And so we label the lockers. And then you, Anisha, you're basically looking at the script and getting those costumes ready and staging them in lockers or whatever, right? Yeah. And so one of the things that we have talked about what we haven't really done is so right now you'll stage those in the lockers and if our theme that we're doing is closely related to like Bible stuff meaning like we just did a medieval theme I don't know it's been about a year ago now but we did a medieval theme and so some of those costumes can look the same yeah they look like

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Bible story yeah

SPEAKER_00 6:07

and so one of the things we haven't really figured out yet is labeling hangers so like when an actor comes to their you know costumes they're like now what is which one is this Right. Yeah. You know, which sometimes they do still like, is this for the guard or?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah. Like blues for this. Yeah. That'd be cool to have like little labels. Like one is like theme, theme skit and

SPEAKER_00 6:28

one is like Bible skit. Yeah. And we were talking about, I think we saw some stuff online, but we were talking about something that was like just super quick that you could throw on. Maybe even be color coded. I don't know how much that would help me.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Maybe color coded. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

But maybe, yeah, I don't know, something where you could throw it, just throw it quickly on the hanger.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yeah. Like something that could just like fall over the hook would be

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah. The other thing, and I think I kind of have given up on this, but we just use a label maker for the locker labels and we just peel and stick them on and then take them off. You know, I mean, it doesn't take that long, but I was like, man, I got to do this every Sunday. Like, you know, 10 lockers. And so I was thinking like, is there a way to do like digital signs? Like, have you ever seen like a Macy's or somewhere where they have price tags and they're digital? Like they're on a shoe or something?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

But I don't know. That is probably not worth it i don't know how much that

SPEAKER_01 7:18

costs or like some kind of like whiteboard above like yeah like a little piece like just like a little strip of it yeah

SPEAKER_00 7:25

yeah that would be good

SPEAKER_01 7:25

that'd be smart

SPEAKER_00 7:26

that'd be kind of cool yeah but we've had times when somebody comes out and they are in the totally wrong costume like they'll come out and they're like you're like what are you wearing that for this is for offering

SPEAKER_01 7:37

yeah dressed as moses or whatever no you have to do that later

SPEAKER_00 7:41

today we had uh brother arthur and and he was going to do remember reverse as a character that he's done in the past. Brother P.T. Is it P.T.? I can't remember. Is it P.T.? Paisley. It's Brother Paisley. I think it's P.T. Paisley or something.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Brother P.T. Paisley.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Is it P.T.? Oh, man, I can't remember now. But anyway, I know he's from Buzzard Breath, Mississippi. Yes,

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I was about to say.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

I remember where he's from. Because we were talking on a podcast recently and said we don't know if there's a Buzzard Breath in Mississippi, but we have some listeners in Mississippi, so I'm hoping they'll reach out and let us know. If you're from

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Buzzard Breath.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

If you're from Buzzard Breath. Buzzard Breath. Please reach out. Yeah. We want to have you on the podcast. If we're being offensive to the

SPEAKER_01 8:25

people at Buzzard Breath Mississippi. Deepest apologies.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Deepest apologies. So anyway, he was supposed to do the memory verse. Well, he was like ready too early. And oh, we don't have the script hanging anymore, but he was ready too early. And so it was like, I was like. It was prayer request up next. Yeah, you're up for prayer requests. And normally prayer requests is rarely in costume. Yeah, it's more of a serious thing. vibe like it's a

SPEAKER_01 8:47

staff vibe

SPEAKER_00 8:48

right yeah exactly and so he just he just went out in his in his costume and did it as as brother paisley so brother paisley is like this uh southern um he's just he's messy he's sloppy his tie is always crooked yeah but he's really passionate

SPEAKER_01 9:06

crazy hair massive clothes like the suspenders like the pants are like all scrunched up in the back massive suit jacket balls in the front right yeah right here and then like crazy Crazy hair sticking out. That's like the mad scientist. Like Einstein. Mad scientist wig. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Yeah. So it was pretty funny. So he just went out. I was like, oh, okay. Didn't have time. So he went out and did that. So the kids kind of got a little precursor. And then there was, I think, praise. And then he came back out for memory bears. Yeah. That's pretty good. Okay. So that's some of what the backstage manager does. You get the costumes ready, Anisha. And Shaylee, you've done it before, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yeah, I'm moral. Yeah, like whenever I'm out of town, Shaylee covers for me and it's great because she knows how I like things and where everything goes. Yes. Yeah. All the specific ways she folds everything. And tie the knots. And ties, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

I still can't get the tie thing right. I love how you do it. Yeah, it's amazing. So you tie these belts that we use and you can just pull each end and they come apart. And then every time I try to put it back together, it's just a knot. So, but yeah, so you get the costumes ready. And then most of the head stuff, I mean, depending on unless it's real, specific, but head stuff, glasses, props, like hand props, handheld props or accessories are not in the lockers usually. We used to do them

SPEAKER_01 10:25

in the lockers, but I think mostly since we have the lockers we have now, the shelving is kind of high for me because I'm very short. I'm not like midget short, guys. I'm just regular short. But I just think it's easier for people to just hand them to me and then I hand them back. I give it to them and they give it back. Instead of them putting like a bow tie or sunglasses on the top shelf of their locker and I'll never find it.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah. Yeah. So that's a, we, we all have to fix that on the next, on the next built custom built locker. I

SPEAKER_01 10:54

mean, I have a step stool, but I just, it's, I just don't bring it in there that often.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

On the next renovation. Yes. We'll fix them. We're two times larger.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

So, okay. So let's talk a little bit about the backstage scramble. And so.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

There definitely is a scramble.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah. So when we are like, you know, way back in the day, and this is probably kind of before your guys' time, but we used to, I think we kind of ran a smaller staff or something, but we used to do a lot of back-to-back, almost layering costumes. I mean, it was like you did Offering and you were coming right back out for Memoryverse, no segment in between. And we don't ever have, for the booker, they call it dead air, and we don't ever have that. I mean, we have our tracks going, but basically how we try to operate is where if, like, let's say that I'm doing Memoryverse and Shaylee, you're next up for Offering, then the idea, and it doesn't always work, but But the idea is that Shaylee would interrupt me, you know, like I'm wrapping up offering. And so she knows that I'm done. And then she comes crashing in and it's usually a team of people, but she comes crashing in with the next segment.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah. And that's where the timers are really helpful, like, especially for me to see and like push people out the door.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yeah. Yes. So let's talk about that really quick, just as a resource for people. What we use is it's a program called ProPresenter. And so ProPresenter, we use it in our church and ProPresenter is pretty expensive, but in Sunday school, we're using it. a free version. And so again, it's called ProPresenter. If you just Google that, it's ProPresenter 7 at the time of this podcast anyway. And so we're using the free version for our stage display, meaning like backstage. Now, we have displayed and we won't be this theme, but we will be our next theme displaying on the screen for kids to see. And so we have to either buy the full version or use a different program. And we've used in the Passive View is Keynote, PowerPoint, those kind of things. But ProPresenter, we download the free version. And if you use that for your audience, then it has a watermark that pops up every few seconds. But as far as the backstage, the stage display, it doesn't. And so we have on our, we have a big screen. What is that like a 50 inch or something? So we have a big screen in the backstage area and it has, let's see, it has the current segment, the next up segment, and then it has a place for a message where where the AV person can type a message in. And then it has the time of day. How

SPEAKER_01 13:20

long we've been going

SPEAKER_00 13:21

for. How long we've been going for since the start of Sunday school. And then the big thing is it has the countdown timer for the segment, which is usually two or three minutes. And so when people are up front, we have that. We have that on a screen up front that they can see so they can see the countdown timer. And then backstage on the big screen, we actually, on the big screen, I forgot to mention this, we have it split in half. And so half of it is the script and it's on the page of wherever we're at currently. And then the other half is the timers and everything. And so, and if, if somebody is technically challenged and would like help with that, I'm glad to help. Just email me info at Kidman backstage.com. It's not very complex, but if you need a hand, it's I'm glad to help. Okay. So that's what we have backstage for our screen. And that's just a resource per presenter. It's really helpful and you can use a free version. So we have that. And then Anisha has the, has an iPad with that in the wardrobe room. So she She's watching that and yelling at people to go, go,

SPEAKER_01 14:19

go. And changing the script when we're like ahead.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Yeah, change it to the next page or whatever. Yeah. So with some of the backstage scramble, there's a few things that happen. A lot of times we have a group that sings. So Shaylee, you're a part of that group. I've been praised. And if you guys are like, say you're in dynamic opening, which is our, when the kids are coming in, then I try to not do that because it often what happens is pastor will dismiss the kids because before Vibrant Praise Sings. Right. And then Vibrant Praise Sings. And so we have, we only have five minutes for our outside welcome where they do, where they do attendance and everything. So sometimes you guys are late and so then we're scrambling right from the get-go.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Right. Like trying to fill that spot, that position, that

SPEAKER_00 15:04

character. Yeah, exactly. We're trying to, yeah, get somebody else like, okay, you're going to have to fill in for that or whatever. Yeah. And so often, and then Brennan, he plays music for that so sometimes he's late and he is often scheduled early in stuff you know like dynamic opening or whatever and then i put a note here random props and costumes so i think that the probably the most random is the doctor

SPEAKER_01 15:25

yeah that's the first thing i think of yeah i agree most random i agree like sometimes i'll just throw things in a bucket and be like they have to use

SPEAKER_00 15:34

this like what are they gonna do hey you know what we're gonna start our training i think uh in february that would be a good like that would be good to do that would be good like what are

SPEAKER_01 15:43

you gonna use this for yeah just Here's your medical tools. What are you going to do with it? Incorporate this.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yeah. How are you going to do that? Because we have done so many. I've been a doctor a few times. The doctors rotate around a little bit. Brother Keech is probably most often the constant doctor. Yeah. Brother Aaron. I think the first ones were Aaron and Joey, I think. Yeah, I think so. But Brother Keech has been a doctor a lot. But he told me he wasn't one of the originals. But yeah, so we've used so many things. And we did actually buy some.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Yeah, I mean, there's been like something normal. Like there's been like... have these oversized syringes that i just fill up with like water and they kind of like spray the kids as they're running in and the alarms are going off yeah but then i've also thrown in like a fake banana or you know what are you gonna use hello hello my favorite out of all of the supplies i think of the giant scissors because it's the most terrifying as a child when they have these giant scissors

SPEAKER_00 16:35

yeah that's like we have we have the giant plastic ones but then we have the real ones they are those actually are kind of lethal they're huge they're We bought them for Heart of Christmas. And so we use them, I use them as the Englishmen. But somehow they made it to the Sunday school, which is scary for me because it's like these things are really sharp. They're ribbon cutting scissors is what they are for ceremonies. And yeah, they're, I don't know, they're probably two

SPEAKER_01 17:02

feet. Yeah, they are scary. We've used them for something. I don't know what we were doing. We used them today as the... No, me and you used them. Oh, me and you used

SPEAKER_00 17:09

them? They're sharp.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

What was it for? We were trying to get... Just recently? Yes, we were trying to get Joseph ready to go see the king. Oh, we were cutting his hair. and i had those scissors and we had just pulled off his wig and like yeah yeah but we were trying to get joseph ready and so we had just this massive array it's like the doctors but yeah different but it's still the same idea there were so many random things and we were just trying to get joseph presentable

SPEAKER_00 17:33

to go see pharaoh the idea was yeah it was a makeover kind of

SPEAKER_01 17:38

right right

SPEAKER_00 17:39

he's in prison right and pharaoh had these dreams so he called for joseph so we had to like yeah we had to make joseph

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Yes. You kind of look so pretty. Yeah. Get the big

SPEAKER_00 17:51

scissors. That was pretty funny. So today in Sunday school, it was funny because we were doing the story of the rich fool and it's where the rich fool decides to build bigger barns. And so then, you know, there's the whole story or whatever. But then at the end, the prophet comes and says, you know, God said, you know, you're going to die tonight or whatever. Well, that's the end of the story, basically. So I'm story wrap ups. So I'm listening. I'm at the door backstage and I'm listening. And he says, I think it's Brennan. He says that he's the prophet. And then Broder's like, I don't believe you.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Oh, and he was yelling at him. He was like, I don't believe you. I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

What is he doing? What is going on? That's not the story. Well, then he does the whole thing. He dies.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Yeah, he

SPEAKER_00 18:39

does die. He does die. I was like, oh, okay. He did like part two. He did. The epilogue. I don't believe you. And then the servants are out there like, oh no, what happened? I'll add them because we didn't practice that. Yeah. So Steve, oh, and Steve wasn't in practice. That's why probably. Oh, that's probably why. So he went extra, which was great. Yeah, practice

SPEAKER_01 18:59

guys. Yeah. And then the guy said that he just dropped dead weight on them. Yeah. And then one of them comes back with a shredded robe. A shredded robe.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

That's what happened. That's how that got ripped. That's what happened. Yes. Yeah. He fell on him. He was getting, it was Christian. He was getting him back. And I'll tell you why we're getting off track. But so a couple of years ago in one of our transitions for, we did a mini theme on Esther. So sister Ashley was Esther. And so we did this mini theme on Esther and we did the part where she's coming, you know, the, the whole big thing, you know, if I perish, I perish. So she's coming to the King and brother Art was the King and Christian was one of the guards. There was a couple of guards and we had it planned out right when, so Christian is basically, we, we, practiced it but he's going to chop ester he's about to you know strike her with the sword and then steve jumps in the last minute with his staff and blocks it and then allows her in so it was probably not how it happened but it was it made it cool you know

SPEAKER_01 19:59

yeah there's a cool video of that i have i was about to say i have a video and doesn't he hit his hand

SPEAKER_00 20:04

yes he hit steve's thumb right with that sword steve just kept he acted right through it he was just like yeah

SPEAKER_01 20:11

that video yeah that video is super cool i would just like to say this is totally off topic but like we used um boxes those tons of boxes

SPEAKER_00 20:20

to create a castle yes

SPEAKER_01 20:22

like it was so cool

SPEAKER_00 20:23

it was cool yeah we had and that was

SPEAKER_01 20:24

just our mini theme like

SPEAKER_00 20:26

it was a mini theme yeah and so we

SPEAKER_01 20:28

uh didn't we have to take it down

SPEAKER_00 20:29

yeah it was a temporary setup

SPEAKER_01 20:30

yeah i remember that it was in july we had to take down for our freedom celebration we did every service right wasn't every service after school

SPEAKER_00 20:37

or no um i feel like we kept it up for a little bit it was before the school was in there i think well it

SPEAKER_01 20:42

was summertime

SPEAKER_00 20:42

oh yeah it was summertime yeah but we did have to take it down and pull Put it back up at least once. I remember doing that a couple times.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

600 boxes.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Yeah. So we had all these boxes and we used that in another theme right before that, but they were basically, I don't know, probably about five inches tall and 18 long by maybe a foot wide.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

I don't know measurements. Me neither. That's why I held my hands

SPEAKER_00 21:06

out. But so we got these, we had asked for a cardboard or for box donations. And so we had all kinds of different boxes and which we regret grateful for but Steve at his brother at his work they had a bunch of these boxes and they weren't even built they were just flat

SPEAKER_01 21:23

I remember because we built them yes and

SPEAKER_00 21:26

I mean he had pallets of them it was I want to say a thousand or something like that it was crazy how many so many so he brought them and we I mean these are flat boxes but literally flat like picture pieces of cardboard eighth inch thick stacked on top of each other and they were like I don't know three feet tall as tall as a table of just stacked flat So then building those into boxes.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah. And I remember like it was me and you and our brothers and I think a couple of other people and we were like had, we put ourselves into like groups.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Right. And we like raced. Yeah. We had like a full production line going. Yeah. We

SPEAKER_01 21:58

were building like what? 10, 15 boxes a minute. Yeah. It was crazy. I don't know how many it was, but it was, and then we like developed systems and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. We were like throwing them at each other. Somebody's stacking them. Yeah. And somebody's stacking them in the corner. Yeah. It was good.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

We had a box making party.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Yeah. It's like one person would assemble One person would tape it, one person would throw it, and one person would stack it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

It was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Yeah. Then somewhere in the middle of all that, I think it was my mom or somebody came up with a great idea like, hey, why don't you fold them backwards?

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Yeah, because they were bright

SPEAKER_00 22:27

yellow. Because they were yellow. Yeah, they were yellow and white. So we folded them backwards on the brown side. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01 22:33

that's smart.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

We used those. We even used them in our space theme for the backdrop. They had these little holes all over them and on the fronts and backs or something. And so we put light We

SPEAKER_01 22:46

painted

SPEAKER_00 22:48

them black, didn't we? Yeah, we did. And they were all different color change. Yeah. Colors. And that was really cool. Yeah. And so then, yeah, then we use it. We got a lot of use out of those boxes. We used them again

SPEAKER_01 23:24

for the

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Esther mini theme. And we had a bunch of Ivy that we kind of stuck in them and stuff. And then the stone spray paint. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Yeah. Okay. So anyway, all of that, Steve must've been getting Christian back, you know, after two years.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

He's been planning this.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

So yeah, that was pretty funny. So then when I went out there to do the Bible story wrap up, Steve's laying in the front, you know? So I was like, Oh no, what happened? I was like, do we need to call the doctors? And he jumped up so quick. He's like, Oh, I'm okay. No doctors.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

And that's a wrap.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Oh, that was so funny. He jumped up. He's like, no, no, I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah. It's always funny when like we end a Bible story and everyone's like dead from the battle or whatever. And then all the dead characters suddenly just get up and start walking. Like guys, don't look. I or like some of them will try to like scooch off like way on the ground

SPEAKER_00 24:19

like no one's gonna notice yeah and then there's a kid there's always that one kid hey

SPEAKER_01 24:25

he's moving okay you need to pay attention

SPEAKER_00 24:31

yeah so we that's i often would be like let's give our actors a good hand yeah yeah it's an ending yeah we and we have had you know way back and now i don't think they were oh yeah so years ago this was back when we were in fellowship hall brother Aaron we were doing it was a spy theme he was QRS so we did this it was a surgery and it was actually the doctors but Aaron wasn't one of them because he was QRS and we had to hide the word of God in his heart and so that was we did surgery so he was on a table like literally an eight foot you know table a wood table

SPEAKER_01 25:05

I feel like I remember this

SPEAKER_00 25:06

so okay so we did this surgery on him and so he had to lay there and we do the whole lesson he's just still laying there and it's off kind of to the side well then Sonny's school gets over, we realize he's sleeping.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Oh my goodness. Okay. I didn't know that. He was in Sunday school. He's on the wood

SPEAKER_00 25:22

table and he's sleeping. That is so funny. So what we did is I was like, I told everybody to shut up. We had to take down, but we were like, I think we waited or we just took down carefully or something, but we all left. I remember we all left. He was asleep on the table. I don't know if he came back or something. I can't remember, but that was hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

How did jarring would that be to fall asleep and the last thing you remember is like being in the middle of a skin you wake up everything's gone taken down it's dark

SPEAKER_00 25:52

it's dark so another time the first the first time ever that we did Narnia I think it was Narnia maybe it might have been something no I think it was Narnia so sister Rochelle who's in Sunday school back in Sunday school now which is awesome so she was in I think she was she played several parts but I think for this particular one she was Mrs. Beaver maybe I'm not sure anyway she was hiding in this uh like little cave thing we had made it was kind of small i remember that yeah so we made this little cave and she was hiding so the kids didn't know she was in there so we come in kids are all sitting down and we're talking you know as characters or whatever and so she had a cue and so we say the cue like you know i don't know whatever it was and so then the morning came and she's supposed to pop out on this cue you know and she didn't and so we're like and then the morning came you know i don't know what the key was but just you know and then we're like you know finally we We're like, what in the world? She fell asleep.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Oh, my goodness. That is hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Yeah. Sorry, Michelle. She's the

SPEAKER_01 26:53

most iconic Mrs. McCready, though. She was

SPEAKER_00 26:57

perfect. 100%. She was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Yeah. She was Mrs. McCready. So you guys were in Sunday school back then? I was in

SPEAKER_01 27:03

both Narnias. Oh. I was not in both Narnias. We've done three. We've done three. Okay, so I remember the one downstairs in the fellowship hall, which is that one. Right. I was in Sunday school for that one. As a kid,

SPEAKER_00 27:13

right? Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

And then I was in like on staff when we did the one up here and we had like a separate room. Was that the train?

SPEAKER_00 27:22

So we did two up here. We did one with the train, Prince Caspian, I think.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

It wasn't that. And then we did another Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Okay. It was

SPEAKER_01 27:28

the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the one that I was

SPEAKER_00 27:30

on staff for. That was the one where we had like the backdrop had the lights that were almost like a V kind of. I have a picture of you and Anisha playing music. That's what I remember. It was during that theme. So that was the house.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

I don't remember. I must have not been I feel like I don't remember the third one yet at all, but I remember the train. I don't remember the second one at all. The Prince Caspian one.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

I just remember the train. So the train was where you come up the stairs. When you came up the stairs, you came onto the train. It was all red. Oh, that's

SPEAKER_01 27:56

so cool. Yeah. And I remember the big sliding doors being wooden before they were painted and stuff. That is so cool. It must have been a while before. I must have not been in Sunday school for a little bit or something. Maybe. Not in that

SPEAKER_00 28:08

theme because I don't remember that. Maybe you had graduated, but you weren't staff yet or something. Right, but I wasn't staff

SPEAKER_01 28:13

or I was not in that theme or like skipped a

SPEAKER_00 28:17

couple months or something because we used to now we rotate every sunday i mean you know there's some people that are in more often than others but we rotate people we have like 30 staff back then it was like we had i don't know 13 staff or something it was like okay are you want to be in for this theme okay and so you were in for at that time we did like 13 weeks

SPEAKER_01 28:36

right i was in for all of narnia yeah for that third one

SPEAKER_00 28:39

yeah that was that was pretty cool the narnia and and uh some kids were asking today actually a And I said, it is on the schedule. I just remember that

SPEAKER_01 28:48

first Narnia being like shocking. Like it was so cool. Like I thought it was amazing. Do you remember the wardrobe? Yes. So what's funny is that I like just remembered this, but I remember being like that Sunday morning that I knew we were going to start Narnia. Like when I was a kid, I remember like running into my parents' room and just like busting open the door and being like, today's the first day of Narnia. And so I was like, oh, like freeze. I was freaking out, like so excited. It's the first thing I thought of when I woke up. Like, and it was amazing. Like I just, that was like the theme that's always like stuck in my mind.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Oh man, that's neat. That's really

SPEAKER_01 29:26

cool. Yeah, that thing was really amazing. And that fellowship hall felt so huge. It felt so big. And like, there was like, we just like, you could get lost in it. Like the mazes and stuff. Like,

SPEAKER_00 29:36

yeah. I have pictures of that. Just not very many, a couple of pictures of that Narnia theme. And like, I have a picture of just on the other side of the wardrobe. Cause we had- Now our Sunday school was smaller, you know, the amount of kids, but we had this like little L shape and the room was just, it was not very big. It was probably, oh, roughly, let's just say 30 by 30, but it was like had an L shape in it because there was a kitchen in there. So it was, it was just not very big. But anyway, we had the house or the home on one side and all the kids sat on the floor and the carpet. And then we had the wardrobe and you went through the wardrobe. And then on that side, we had like a ground fogger. So there's fog all laying low on the ground. We had the lamppost over

SPEAKER_01 30:15

there. Oh yeah. Yeah. I remember that. I remember like Mr. Tumnus's like little house and I remember him like, and it was Aaron and he like played the guitar or something and sang like he did play the guitar and sing. And it was just like, I was like, Oh my word. It's just like the story. And I also remember when the white witch came and John Keach was Edmund

SPEAKER_00 30:41

and

SPEAKER_01 30:42

he was supposed to be eating. Like it was, Turkish Delight. It was little donut holes.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

He ate a bunch of them. He was

SPEAKER_01 30:51

shoving them in his mouth because he thought he had to eat the whole box. It was supposed to be snack. He was shoving them in his mouth and she's like, that's enough. I remember them passing it out as snack and I was like, do not eat this to my friends. I was like, this is Turkish Delight. Do you not know the story? I

SPEAKER_00 31:12

even remember being

SPEAKER_01 31:13

in the house and Like I vividly remember all of, uh, who was it? Like Autumn,

SPEAKER_00 31:18

John Keach, Misha. Yeah. Autumn was Susan. Who

SPEAKER_01 31:22

was Peter?

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Brian. Brian was Peter. Oh wow. Brother Brian Kircher, evangelist extraordinaire.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

He was Peter. I

SPEAKER_01 31:30

remember them like just being in front of me. I'm like, wow, this is, this is like happening in front of me. Because I've listened to the story. Yeah. Like they were stars. I was like, wow. Yeah. I was in awe.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

That cave that, uh, That cave that Thomas, Thomas's cave was actually made out of PVC pipe because so we can take it apart

SPEAKER_01 31:50

and put it together. Wow. I don't remember any of that. I would never know.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Yeah. Well, that was by design, obviously. Yeah. That's so cool, man. That was also the first time we ever got like the big banner type scene setters, you know, the big heavy duty. Yeah. Oh,

SPEAKER_01 32:06

yeah. Like the snow.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

Yeah. The snow one. And then the first forest one. We got those from a place called Ecod Graphics out of California or out of New York. But yeah, that was super cool. I was just thinking of something. Oh, so you reminded me when you were saying about don't eat the Turkish delight, you guys. So I remember, I can't remember if I have a picture of it or if I just remember it in my head. But going back to Esther again, we did a long time ago in the fellowship hall, we did that story. And I remember Sister Autumn, Sister Autumn Critcher at the time was not married or anything, but you guys used to look up to her so much. I mean, I guess you probably still look up to her, but you guys I just look up to her so much. And so she was one of the bad or bad, I don't know, but in one of Esther's competition, you know, in the. Yes, I

SPEAKER_01 32:54

know exactly where this is going.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Yeah. So all the, all the girls in there that want all this stuff, like, oh, give me this, give me that, you know, from. I

SPEAKER_01 33:01

think she had like a mirror and she was just like looking at herself and she's like, I am gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Yeah. She was just going on. And I remember Anisha just looking at her like, like, like almost like she was just shocked.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

How could you? you do this that's why i hate being anyone like a bad character because then the kids will follow me around me like you killed your baby and lied like that wasn't me that wasn't the bible

SPEAKER_00 33:26

speaking

SPEAKER_01 33:29

of that scene though i remember because some of the girls like were chosen like from the some of the kids including me were chosen to

SPEAKER_00 33:36

like be a part of it joey was the king joey was the king i remember this i remember this

SPEAKER_01 33:42

now were you was wearing an all pink outfit here i come walkie and obviously he's gonna say no because i'm not esther and i'm

SPEAKER_00 33:49

also a child joey this is this is uh i mean this is years years later and

SPEAKER_01 33:57

rejection rejection no i walked in front of the throne he's like oh too much pink dismissed i was like i cannot believe i love this outfit i never wore that outfit again mom throw this way please the king didn't choose it the king didn't choose it what's your story do you remember i just don't not really i just remember like as soon i don't remember like really being a part of it as much like i'm sure i walked out and he was like nah yeah but i do remember like the the way that the cast like acts like if they really are trying like they're truly trying to make such like an impact yeah on the kids because i remember like him just like his jaw just drawn and like being like oh my word just like and i think that like that's a silly part but just in all of like all of the scenes and stuff like it matters like that you are really trying to stay true to like being the character not just like oh they're kids it doesn't matter they're not gonna know like it's still important

SPEAKER_00 35:04

that it makes an impact it does it makes

SPEAKER_01 35:06

a big difference and like there's in that same in downstairs i remember we did uh like a crucifixion one it must have been for Easter. Okay. And I remember just like sobbing. Oh,

SPEAKER_00 35:17

yeah. Because it was

SPEAKER_01 35:18

like, and I think that a lot of people sometimes like think that it doesn't matter because they're kids and they're not going to remember it or whatever. It doesn't matter until they get into like big church or whatever. But it made such an impact on me when I was a kid. Yeah. Because they took it so seriously and they were being like so sincere. Like they become that character.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Right. Yeah. And Brother Arter talked about that, like being, just totally being that character. Yeah. You know, I like to tell the story. In fact, it was during that episode um with the boxes uh brother carlos who is um he's not in sunday school now but uh he was in sunday school for a little while and i remember he came back and and was part of it and he was just shocked at what we do and he kept on saying this is all this for the kids it was just neat he liked it he loved it and he did great in sunday school

SPEAKER_01 36:05

i don't even remember him being

SPEAKER_00 36:06

he was in for a short time and he uh like just the script the the decor the microphones i remember just the headsets he's like you have these these are all this for the kids yeah and he was just like he said that like three or four times all this for the kids and it was neat to see like somebody get a revelation of how seriously we take it right we have a lot of fun we do a lot of goofy stuff and we talk about it on the podcast you know it's funny and we we do but you're right it makes a big impact

SPEAKER_01 36:34

yeah there are definitely a lot of like really funny scenes like in sunday school like i mean today we talked about him falling at nine like there's a lot of like comedy in sunday But I think it's really important to

SPEAKER_00 36:51

know when it's like supposed to be more serious. Right. Yeah. That sticks with them and they repeat that. And you see them playing later and they're doing that one thing you didn't notice you did, you know? Like Adrian, I mean, he remember when he was little, he would like ask me about like, why did they have that belt on? You know, that's, you know, so-and-so's belt. I'm like, uh, I don't know. Like they noticed that stuff. Yeah. All right. Well, we are running out of time on this. So I suppose that's

SPEAKER_01 38:11

a wrap. Wow. Well, that's a wrap. That's a wrap. Do you want to call all We'll be right back.