Remembering What Counts at Christmas – Play 15 minutes

A 15 minute (or so) play about a good and faithful but worn-out pastor who needs to be reminded about what really matters at Christmas.

By Mark Harris

Characters

  • Pastor Tim – male, mid 40s
  • Cindy – female, late 30s, Pastor Tim’s wife
  • Michael – son of Pastor Tim, 12-13 yo
  • Candali – daughter of Pastor Tim, 9-10 yo
  • Rinna – daughter of Pastor Tim, 7-8 yo
  • Jenny – Church secretary, female, 50s to 60s
  • Jose – male, mid 30s
  • Mariana – female, late 20s
  • Joshua – infant

Setting – A Baptist church in Detley, South Virginia. Pastor Tim and Jenny the secretary are the only paid staff. Tim’s 4th grade daughter Candali and 2nd grade daughter Rinna are doing homeschool work in his office. The roof is leaking, with drops falling into a bucket on the floor.

Time – late Tuesday morning

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Life’s Biggest Blessings – A Large Family

Overpopulation is a myth – the world’s real problem now is not enough children. And children are worth more to a family and a nation than almost everything else. Enjoy one of life’s biggest blessings…a large family.

By Mark D. Harris

My in-laws had two children, one girl and one boy, but my father-in-law always wanted more. My parents had two sons, and sometimes said they wished they had also had a girl. I have often met people in the autumn of their lives who wished they had had more children, but never any who wanted less. Despite this, the fertility rate in America, the number of children per woman, is below the replacement level of 2.1, meaning parents are not having enough children to replace themselves. According to the 2013 CIA World Factbook, the US birth rate is 147th out of 224 countries worldwide. People chatter about how important family is to them, and then endlessly complain about children being too troublesome, too expensive, and too much of an interference with what they want to do. My goal today is to remind readers of a truth that for millennia was taken for granted; children are a gift from God and large families are a blessing.

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