Jeff Smith of Salt & Light Ministries in Chiang Mai

Submitted by jennyol on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 20:47

Powerpack Thailand are honoured to have had the privilege of hosting
Jeff Smith of Salt & Light Ministries in Chiang Mai.

Jeff has developed many resources for creative arts and in particular the 'God Rod' dramas. We have used some of these dramas in Powerpack in Thailand and also in the UK. In order to have more impact on Thai audiences, we have translated several of the soundtracks into Thai language.

The dramas have been performed in children's conferences and celebrations as well as in outreaches to hospitals, schools, community events, children's homes and refugee camps.

We have been in touch with Jeff and Salt & Light ministries to explore the possibility of producing some of the resources in Thai. This eventually led to God opening up a door for Jeff to actually come to Chiang Mai as part of his annual mission trip.

Jeff is from the same home church in Richmond, Virginia, USA, as Bill and Lynette Sharp who are teachers at Grace International School.

Baan Saan Fan

Jeff arrived in Chiang Mai around mid-day on Tues 6th and that same evening came with us to visit the children at Baan Saan Fan. Jeff had a great time with the children and helped them to practice the dramas that they were due to share at the coming weekend conference.

Grace International School

Jeff spent the first three days of his trip taking classes in Grace International school including:

Middle School Grade 7, "The Write Stuff" - Disciplines of the Writing Life
Middle School Grade 8, "Creativity" - Getting it Right
Drama, "Just the F'Acts", The Fundamentals of Acting
Creative Writing, "Writing a Biblical Sketch"
Sports Leaders, "Sanctified Bait" - Creativity and Culture for Christ
US Lit, "A Drama of One" - Public speaking skills
Bible Study Methods, "Scripture as Script" - the Bible as Play Anthology

On Thursday morning Jeff took High School Chapel on the theme of Vision using illustrations from "Forest Gump".

On Thursday evening Jeff led a 'God Rods' workshop where he taught two pieces "God's Got an Army" and "Shine Jesus Shine".

All-Age Performing Arts Celebration

On Friday evening was a special all-age creative celebration at COC House of Praise.

Thai and International youngsters presented a variety of creative dramas including:

A Hip-Hop/Break-Dance to a praise song by the Haven boys.
"The Tale of the Three Trees" (Thai) 'God Rod' drama by Baan Saan Fan.
"Still Her Little Child" (Thai) 'God Rod' drama by Baan Saan Fan.
"The Champion" drama by COC youth.
"The Voice of Truth" 'God Rod' drama by COC youth.

Jeff presented:

"Jesus Loves Me" play on words.
"The Armour of God" Macerena scripture rep rap.
The tale of the Shiny Gold Coin.
The story of the Rich Young Ruler.
Sung prayer for the nations.

Performing Arts Training Event

On Saturday we had a training day for Thai and International leaders.
Jeff taught about:

"Get out of the Boat" - ways to be more creative in our approach to teaching and sharing God’s Word.
"Tableus" - How to stage basic Bible stories in a creative and highly effective way.
"God Rod's" - Use of God Rods (dowel rod sticks) to interpret lyrics to contemporary Christian music or scripture text.

Those who attended the training were excited to learn new skills and to go forward to put this into practice in their churches, children's groups and outreach settings.

Sunday Special Creative Service at CCF

On Sunday morning Jeff presented a dramatically illustrated sermon at CCF.

Full audience participation in the "I Can Can-Can" with the children leading the dancing!
A dramatic interpretation of "David & Goliath" involving one of the leaders as David, a small boy as a bag of wheat, a suit of armour and a smooth stone and the inimitable David Wood as Goliath!

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A solo performance of the God Rod drama "The Voice of Truth"