Welcome to Blessed is She!

Thank you for being here! We're delighted to share our work with you! This process started in December 2019 and we've been through the ups and downs of 2020. This show is in many ways the story of my quarantine.

Note from March 12 - It's hard to believe that we are two weeks away from performing this show. I'm still holding my breath and praying we get to perform. In every challenge, God has brought us through and it's becoming increasingly clear that He is the one supporting this show. I believe we will share this work with our roommates and friends.

Note from March 23rd - Tomorrow is our first performance! The Lord has single handily made this possible. If you want to know what a modern-day miracle looks like, ask me about the story of how this show came to be. After an unexpected turn of events yesterday, my advisor Dan Haase texted me this: May you see the frustration as yet another tangible way to enter into the stories of the women you are studying and portraying through this production. Because of the struggles we have faced, we can tell these stories more honestly. It's become very clear to me that the devil has tried to stop this show, the fact that you are here, reading this blog post, shows that he has not been victorious. The Word of God will be shared and we will not be overcome by evil.

This show is a compilation of miracles. Miracles in the stories of these women’s lives and miracles in that we are able to perform. I don’t typically put much stock in dreams, but this show is the result of a dream from December 2019. Who knew that an unconscious moment could lead to a bible study and this performance?

If you read through this blog, you will see how God showed up again and again through the making of this show. A number of things didn't end up on this blog, things that fell apart and went wrong. Moments when I nearly screamed from frustration when it felt impossible to push through. Yet, every time God turned that limitation into something beautiful. Masks started off as an annoyance but turned into haunting imagery of how these women's voices were silenced. Performing the show at six feet felt insurmountable, and yet dealing with abuse from six feet apart made it all the more powerful, yet safe to work through.

This show shouldn’t be possible, and yet every time I started doubting, God would show me how important the work was. This show has become a project, not for myself, but for women who don’t have voices. For Eve, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. For my friends and our future daughters. When these women's words were dismissed, they acted. Let us lean into that and do the same.

If you don’t know the stories of the women, I encourage you to learn about them. I hope you start to ask questions about the moments in scripture that are skimmed over. The women who go ignored or unnamed. I challenge you to wonder about them, their lives, their stories. This show is my way of inviting you to wonder. Wonder about the goodness of God. Wonder about your friends and family and strangers.

My hope for you is that you linger in wonder for the rest of your life.

Sarah