We set things up for tomorrow's performance at l'Eglise Evangélique Baptiste Vie Nouvelle, and we were so excited by all they're doing to prepare! You can watch our report and hear an interview (in French) with the visionary behind tomorrow night's performance: www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/the-night-before-noisy

If you watched Chariots of Fire, you know Eric Liddell refused to run the 100m because one of the heats would be run on a Sunday. Instead he preached in the Scots Kirk Paris, where I performed my one-man play about him 100 years later. 

What you may not know is that there were other races he wouldn't run because a heat would be run on a Sunday: www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/another-100th-anniversary.

There's more to report, but I didn't want to miss getting this one out on the day! 

I'm posting this a bit out of order, but today, as I was making my way through Paris, I heard one of our pastors at Westchester Chapel preach on Jonah. It reminded me that I hadn't posted my report about my performance of my play about Jonah in Frankfurt on Independence Day. You can watch a video we filmed right after the performance at www.RichDrama.com/blog (7/8).

Next stop: Edinburgh, starting on the 100th anniversary of Eric Liddell breaking the world record in the 400m during the 1924 Paris Olympics. We'll share it in the church where he taught Sunday school and preached while a student at the University of Edinburgh. Full itinerary at www.BeyondTheChariots.com.

We created an album from my performance at The Sots Kirk Paris on July 6, exactly 100 years after Eric Liddell preached there instead of running a heat of his best race at the 1924 Paris Olympics. It has photos of the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Rt Rev. Shaw Paterson, and Miranda McIntosh, Head of the Scottish Government Office in France, who both spoke eloquently before the play about Liddell putting Christ over career. After the play the three of us unveiled a new plaque commemorating the 100th anniversary of Eric Liddell's preaching in the Scots Kirk Paris on July 6, 1924.

Thanks again for helping make this extraordinary trip happen!

Today was definitely a once in a lifetime event you helped make happen! We got to share Beyond the Chariots at The Scots Kirk Paris, where Eric Liddell preached one hundred years ago today, instead of running the 100m heat at the 1924 Paris Olympics. We added a once only scene to the play: www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/the-scots-kirk-paris

Beloved supporters,

We've already reached people from at least 11 nations, and the Olympics are almost 24 days away! We'll send out a proper report from Summer Madness, but in a sentence: There were 1500 young people gathered in a circus big top tent in the middle of a sheep field in Northern Ireland, and close to 300 committed their lives to the Lord, and more than 100 committed to full-time Christian ministry of some kind! The youth in the photo are those who went up the third time Salvation was offered. That was a move of the Lord, because the speaker had a different plan to close. I interviewed him talking about what shifted, and I can't wait to share that, but for now we need to pack for Frankfurt: www.BeyondTheChariots.com. 

In the meantime, I wanted to share this note from the director of our church's prayer team for this trip:

Dear Praying Team,

Please see this praise-worthy message below from Rich:

I was so blessed by this voice mail:

"Hi, Rich, my name is Claudia. I'm calling with the prayer team at Give Send Go. I just came across your campaign page with us and I wanted to reach out to pray with you today. Father God, I just lift up Rich and Joyce to you Lord Jesus and all that they are working towards, Lord God, to be able to go to Paris, Lord Jesus, for the Olympics and all that they will be doing there. Lord God, to be able to put on this play, Lord Jesus, and to be able to come alongside of the people there, Lord God, that you would just use them as disciples of yours, Lord Jesus, and that your hand and safety would be over them, Lord God. Through the process of this all I pray, Lord Jesus, for financial peace over them, Lord, that they would financially be able to make it there, Lord God, without hindering any other financial needs that they have. Thank You for the support team that they have, Lord Jesus, from family, friends, and those within their community.

[Insert from Rich and Joyce: a hearty AMEN to that!]

I pray that Rich and Joyce, Lord God, would just continue to lean on you. Let them be reminded, Lord God, of your faithfulness, that You're a God Who provides every need that we have, and that You know, the next steps ahead for them. Lord Jesus, thank you for all that you blessed us with and provide, and it's in Your name we pray. Amen.

Rich, we will continue to be praying for you and Joyce. If you ever have other prayer requests, you can also email us. I hope that you have a blessed day. Thank you.

###

“I believe we picked the right fundraising platform!”

AMEN!! We agree with this beautiful prayer! Lord, we praise You for the magnificent way You show us Your omnipotent care and sovereign design! We bless Your name and we praise You for the beauty of being a part of the universal Body of Christ. We bless Give Send Go and pray Your blessing would return more and greater rewards upon them for their faith and commitment to prayer for those using their platform. What a beautiful testimony in action for the Kingdom of God!! All glory to You Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Amen and amen!

Blessings,
Elizabeth S. 

Joyce and I are both performing and teaching at Summer Madness, an annual Christian youth festival that has been running since 1987. Here's our report before the Madness begins: www.RichDrama.com/blog

The trip you helped make happen has begun!

We transferred planes in Amsterdam and send you this greeting and update: https://youtu.be/gO9XXo5B0Bs

In Christ alone,

Rich & Joyce

Thank you again for supporting our upcoming missions trip to Europe! With your generous help we've now raised 85% of our budget! We've been running into unexpected price increases, so we definitely want to make it across the finish line, but we've now purchased our transatlantic tickets, so the starter pistol has gone off! 

To give you a sense of how the Lord has been answering our prayers at every turn, I want to share how the Lord encouraged us most recently: Our church's board approved letting the whole congregation know of our remaining financial need, and their letter went out yesterday at 5:02 p.m. At 8:56 p.m. someone who doesn't get our church's updates gave generously! We've seen that again and again: The people pray and God moves! So please continue to pray for our trip! 

Tomorrow I'll be performing in a Korean church with Korean subtitles. One of our big prayers is for the door to open for a performance (or more) in an Athletes' Village/s. Tomorrow I'm going to ask the congregation to pray that the 13 North Koreans competing in the Olympics could see the play with Korean subtitles. Let's pray boldly for big prayers like that! 

Here are prayers from our hosts in Paris, the Plasters (yes, they're the Plasters of Paris): 

In 1924 Eric Liddell chose to forfeit the race — his best event — to preach a sermon. One hundred years later, the pulpit he preached from has been preserved. Unfortunately, the historic church building was crumbling. The congregation had no choice but to sell, and today their meeting hall is in the basement of the apartment building that stands on that historic plot. We are organizing an Eric Liddell Centenary to help raise funds for this church to stay in existence. And for that occasion, we are bringing in Rich Swingle to proclaim the message of salvation through grace through his theater piece on the life of Eric Liddell after his 1924 victory in Paris. It is our prayer that many develop a personal relationship with Jesus through the discipleship and follow up of the believers in this congregation. May God use Rich Swingle to attract seekers to find a spiritual family that they can call home. May God's faithfulness shower financial provision on this congregation; remind them that their future is secure. And Father we pray that you awaken your church and instill in them a zeal for reaching out. We pray that God would bestow a fresh new financial freedom that would trigger a tidal wave of generosity that attracts many into your fold, Lord.

Let's pray the play helps extend the reach of this historic church! 

In Christ alone,

Rich & Joyce

Beloved Support Team,

Thanks again for helping us receive 70% of our budget for our missions trip to Europe! 

The itinerary is filling up!

Here's the latest prayer update from the woman keeping folks in our church praying for our trip:

Dear Praying Team, Righteous Saints,

Praise to the Lord our God! Justice and righteousness are the foundations of His throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before Him. He is all powerful, mighty, and victorious!

Praise to our God who has guided these several months of prayer and petition. In obedience and trust we are anxious for nothing, rather we give praise and thanks as we make our requests known to God. Praise for the peace He promises as we anticipate His goodness and provision to the Swingles and Westchester Chapel. 

Praise! The time has arrived for the Swingles to book their tickets to Europe.

Pray for securing of favorable rates, flight departure and arrival times, seating, transit to and from airports, baggage handling, and flow of movement in the Spirit. 

Pray for excellence among flight, airline, and airport staff who are to assist and serve this couple on God’s mission. 

Pray for the Lord’s hand of protection over each and every plane and vehicle and their strength, stability, and accuracy. 

Praise! In the days that followed our in-person meeting and that followed Rich’s performance in Oregon, several donations were made to the funding platform. 

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! 

You are worthy of it all

You are worthy of it all, Jesus

For from You are all things

And to You are all things

You deserve the glory

Praise for God’s promise, “give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭38‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Pray for all who are called to give to trust in the Word of the Lord and be blessed accordingly. 

Pray for continued flow of provision to fullness and overflowing for every need associated with this Kingdom mission. 

Praise the King as the mission continues in holy preparation!

Pray for Rich as he plans translation slides and prepares for the performance in NYC on June 22 and other myriad production details. 

Soon the Swingles will advance in the spirit and power of Elijah, calling as a voice in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” May every heart be prepared to harken to the call of the Holy Spirit wooing them to Salvation in Jesus. 

In His beautiful name, amen and amen.  

“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭24‬:‭7‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Blessings to you all,

Elizabeth S. 

P.S. The photo is from a performance of the play last week in Oregon.

If you're receiving this, then you've given toward our trip to Paris and Beyond this summer. 

Thanks again! 

We'd appreciate your prayer, as we just found out that there's an issue for people giving on www.GiveSendGo.com/ChariotsParisEdinburgh ! Not sure what's going on there, but it certainly needs prayer.

If you had a problem giving a second gift, feel free to give at www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/Donate , and in the memo put "Paris and Beyond." Also, put how you'd like for us to give you credit, and we'll update the goal page (www.GiveSendGo.com/ChariotsParisEdinburgh). 

There you'll notice our goal has gone down. We started at $10,000, but when we were invited to bring my play about Eric Liddell to the Scots Kirk of Paris on July 6 it made the trip too long to do the Edinburgh Fringe. That took $3000 off in housing, theatre rental, and over $300 just to be in the program. 

Joyce and I were both relieved! Not only does it mean raising less money, it opens time for us to perform anywhere in Europe, and we're casting our net broadly. 

Right now we have possible bookings in Northern Ireland, Germany, Scotland, and additional performances in Paris. More on those below. Paris will be our base, where we'll have free housing whenever we're there. Praise the Lord! I also have plans to reach out to folks in Spain, Switzerland, and Holland. Let us know if you have contacts across the Pond, and we'll send you something to share with them. 

Some of the venues are offering to put money toward the trip, so those will bring our goal down even more, whereas some don't have the funds to help, and that will make the goal rise a bit. We'll keep you updated as things fall into place. 

Here's a recent update (before the site stopped accepting credit cards) from the director of our prayer team:

May the Lord God be exalted and His name held high above all others! May we lay down ourselves, our thoughts, and our wills to be ready vessels for His will in all things overall. 

Please pray with the following updates in mind:

There is the hope of conversations via the Eric Liddell Center with churches connected to Liddell’s ministry in Edinburgh for performances of Beyond the Chariots. 

There are fruitful conversations with a Christian festival, Summer Madness (“Living Life with Purpose” is their theme this summer), outside of Belfast, Northern Ireland, for a performance of Chariots there, plus a potential speaking engagement for Joyce, and presentation of some of their new "singing play" Songs of Revival: Hungry After God Himself (www.SongsOfRevivalLive.com).

This connection may be able to offer a fee that would cover some costs in the budget, which would reduce our goal. There may be helpful coverage of housing also for days leading up to the Olympic engagements. 

Nichole in Paris continues to pursue venues and venue sponsorship. One possibility could open the door to a 3,000 seat venue! 

Also from Nichole:

“The best committee ever is designing a fundraising one-pager to put in the hands of a Catholic believer who owns the largest French sporting goods chain. And another for an evangelical friend who is the Europe director of Microsoft in Lyon."

Also, the continued prayer is to perform within the Athletes’ Village. Some leads have dried up, but others remain to be tested. 

The Scots Kirk church in Paris has welcomed the plans for two performances of Chariots on July 6 and for weekly Saturday performances through the Olympics. Between performances (July 6) they’re planning to give out an Eric Liddell Award and invite Princess Anne, Patron of The Eric Liddell 100 (an umbrella for all events celebrating Eric Liddell this year). Please pray for the Lord’s blessing on the church itself. May many renew or begin a living relationship with the Lord for any who don’t have one yet! May its boundaries and flock increase as a result of this spiritual hospitality. 

The Swingles had a video call with folks from a church in Frankfurt. They’d like for Rich to perform his Jonah play, which is only 20 minutes long, for English students. A Church from Phoenix, AZ, will be there teaching English, and they think this would be a nice addition to the program. It would be between the Summer Madness festival in Northern Ireland (if that is finalized) and Paris. Praying for the green light from the host and visiting churches, for the translation slides to be easily finished, for Salvations and re-dedications. 

Travel may encompass Belfast, Frankfurt, Paris, and Edinburgh all within July 1-9.

Rich has reached out in many directions within Europe for performances between the July 12th and the start of the Olympics on the 26th. Pray for bookings in that window.

Praise for such abundance! Our God is so generous and does more than we could ever think or imagine!

Blessings and love in Him,

Elizabeth

###

Thanks again for your prayers and generous gifts! 

In Christ alone,

Rich & Joyce