“I will never get tired of how it feels to be a channel of the Holy Spirit to people, to be so directly involved in the movement of the Lord in people’s lives.  He doesn’t have to use us, but He chooses to do so.”  Joanna Saunders, originally from the tiny village of Garndiffaith in Wales, tells of her love of performing Charles M. Tanner’s plays. 

A 22 year veteran of Covenant Players, Joanna believes this is the right place for her.  “When I was little, there were 3 things I really wanted to do - perform, travel and serve the Lord.  I had a sense from when I was quite young that God had something for me to do, so when I saw CP, it was just - right.”

Joanna has certainly traveled with Covenant Players -  she has toured throughout the US, Canada, Australia, and several countries in Europe.  As for performing, she has learned and performed almost 700 roles and over 100 songs, in over 16,000 performances!  And there has been a wide variety of venues in which Joanna has had opportunity to serve the Lord.  Here are several examples:

In the United States  - “We performed AN EYE FOR AN EYE (a play that looks at the struggle of forgiveness)at a Christian school in Minnesota.  Afterwards a 14 year-old boy came to the staff room to tell us about a similar circumstance in his family - his cousin had been raped and murdered.  He said that the play had helped him see that he had to forgive the man who did it, and encourage his family to do the same."

In Australia  - “Performing at a women’s prison close to Brisbane, Queensland, we were confronted with some of the hardest expressions I had ever seen on the faces of any audience.  When the closing notes of THE DISC OF LIFE (a play in which a woman hears the reality of Christ in someone else’s life, and finds a reason for her own life) sounded, every single member of that same audience was in tears and hugged us when we left.  LOST AND FOUND (a play where family relationships are reconciled)in a residential rehabilitation center run by the Salvation Army in Canberra resulted in 15 men responding to the altar call at the end of the service. "

Back in the U.S.  -  “Then there was the time performing in a school in NYC, when we did THE CHANGEOVER (a play about communication within a military family) and an 8th grade boy completely opened up and talked about his home life being just like the play.  It started a chain reaction among the students and kept the counselors busy for quite a few days afterwards.  They said to us that getting the students to open up was the biggest battle, and the play had achieved that.”

One of the highlights of Joanna’s ministry was performing a play in French for the first time and realizing that people were impacted, even when she was speaking a language not her own.

Twenty-two years is a long time - what has kept Joanna here?  “As Covenant Players, we are a part of something greater than ourselves, something that will count for eternity.  This community is my family - there are people here who know me better than anyone.  It is a safe place to learn and grow; I know that I can get it wrong and still be loved and accepted, and that people will celebrate my victories with me.  More than all this, though, I have stayed because I have this sense, feeling, conviction I suppose, that it is where I belong, where I am meant to be.  That conviction is underneath everything else, all the highs and lows, victories and struggles - it’s just the right thing for me to do.”

We thank the Lord for Joanna and her conviction to serve Him by giving of herself in Covenant Players!

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01/13/2012