Date: Dec 25 2000 00:44:30 EST From: "Songs of Praise" Subject: Songs of Praise - Merry Christmas! Christmas greetings everyone! I haven't written in a while, but rest assured... things are happening at "Songs of Praise". Before I tell you about them, let me take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. This is truly the most wonderful time of the year. It's a time when it is fashionable for people to talk about Jesus. Yes, some people try to muddy the waters with Santa, elves, trees and lights, but in the end... people still recognize Jesus as the reason for this holiday season. So, take advantage of the situation and say "God bless you" or "Praise the Lord" to some stranger you meet this week. At the beginning of 2000 we released our Easter play, "Resurrection Song". Then in the Summer we released our Christmas play, "The Perfect Gift". I had not had the opportunity to see either of these plays performed until last Saturday. The Indo-Pak Bible Church in Garland Texas performed our Christmas play and my family was able to attend. I have placed a picture from the play out on my site at: http://songsofpraise.org/image/indopak1.jpg The performance was done with great enthusiasm. This congregation is made up of Indian and Pakistani believers, so they substituted many of the songs with their own Christmas songs in Hindi. Some of the dialog was also peppered with Hindi phrases which brought great laughter from the audience. With Christmas passing, many people are starting to think about an Easter play. My friend Steve Israel has been very busy making new recordings for our Easter play, "Resurrection Song". He has just a couple more recordings to go to complete the project. You can hear his excellent work out on this mp3 station... http://mp3.com/stations/resurrectionsong In January we will re-release the Resurrection Song CD (CD#6) with all the new recordings. I can't thank Steve enough for his hard work in completing this project. The new recordings are inspired! If you haven't seen our Easter play, it is available online at: http://songsofpraise.org/easter.htm That is all for today. There are new songs, a new play, and several recordings in progress. So, stay tuned... and don't forget to tell all your friends about "Songs of Praise". Yours in Christ, Elton Smith http://songsofpraise.org (Songs of Praise) http://www.mp3.com/songsofpraise (Songs of Praise page at mp3.com)