Christmas in Reverse basically tells the story of how Christmas came to be. This musical starts off at the manger scene where the shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus are gathered. With the choir singing the story in the background, the narrators move on to tell the story of why Christ came to earth. Christmas in Reverse takes us back to the very beginning – the Garden of Eden. There we see how man first sinned and how they were separated from God at that moment. Next, the musical shows the time of Noah and the ark. During Noah’s time, there were many sinful people. God was not pleased with the evil and sinful people and only found Noah and his family worthy to be saved. God told Noah to build an ark and gather 2 of every species of animals. People around Noah and his family thought that he had gone crazy and did not believe him when he said a big flood was coming. Soon the flood came and it rain continuously for 40 days and 40 nights. When the flood was over, God sent the rainbow as His covenant towards the people and as a promise that He shall never again flood the earth. Many years later, Jesus was sent to earth by God through a virgin named Mary, who was betrothed to a carpenter named Joseph. She conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus was born in Bethlehem in a stable.
This production had been in planning since early 2011. When the practices began around early July we, the girls, were so excited and couldn’t wait for everything to come together. In the beginning, we only practiced on Saturdays. However, as the day drew closer, we started having practices on Sundays and even weekdays! We really wanted to put on a great show. As each practice went by, the excitement and intensity of practices grew too. We had a camp during the school holidays so we could really put our whole hearts to it. During that time, we memorized lyrics, sang and danced our hearts out and also bonded. We began to see the many different sides of all our friends and how they handle situations.
The weekend of the musical arrived. On the 3rd of December, it was a Saturday. It was THE day. Our hearts were all pumping with adrenalin. Many were nervous but excitement was definitely in the air. Everyone in the production, from the cast of around 15, to the choir of nearly 25 girls, to the crew, everyone was rushing back and forth making the final adjustments. We all arrived at 10 in the morning to start preparing. Soon, time flew by and it was 3pm. It was our first show for the day. This show was put for the benefit of the other Girls’ Brigade and Boys’ Brigade companies. Many companies came to support us. The first show flew by quickly and was a success. After a few hours of rest, it was yet again another Showtime for us at 8.30pm. This time the audience consisted of the supportive parents of the girls and church members. As the night drew to a close, we were all exhausted but looking forward to our last and final show the following day.
Sunday, 4th of December was the last day we were going to perform our entire musical. After practicing for many months, we were all determined to give it our best as part of the grand finale. That evening, the realization of performing this musical for the congregation came to us and we gave it our all. We all truly enjoyed ourselves. Through all the hardships and trials throughout the entire process, we overcame it and our 3 shows had been a success. We had our last round of fellowship with everyone involved in the production after our 8.30pm show and bade our goodbyes after that. We all went home exhausted and happy that it came to an end with a bang. Most of us did miss the practices and the songs in the beginning, but we have all learnt to cherish our memories from this production.
Overall, this would not have been a success without the guidance from the Almighty One. We all truly thanked God for His continuous blessings towards us. Indeed He has been nothing but a great and faithful God towards us. As Luke 1:37 “For nothing is impossible with God” what we thought was a near impossible feat was made possible.
Pr Sarah Cheong
-this report was published in Wesley Methodist Church KL's Wesley Tidings in the March 2012 issue
