In 1974, while attending Grand Canyon College in Phoenix, I was called as the minister of music at Central Heights Baptist Church in Sunnyslope, AZ, just north of Phoenix. A few months later after the minister of youth left, I was named the minister of youth as well. Right after I arrived, a group of four young people came and presented a musical called “Jonah and the Fish”. One of those four was the person who wrote the musical, Ken Flowers. I was so blessed that I asked Ken for a copy of the script and permission to do it, which he willingly gave at no charge except that anytime it was done, it had to be done for the glory of our Lord, which I willingly agreed to. That was almost 51 years ago. WOW! That’s almost unbelievable. I don’t remember how many times over the years that I have produced this musical. Nor do I know how many others that we shared it with have performed it (with permission and with the same charge that was given to me). I have personally seen the effect it has had on so many lives and I know that there are others that I have not seen. I do know that God has seen and made an accounting of everything. Not only has He seen but He knows my heart as I do it. If my desire, my motives, MY HEART, is to glorify Him, to exalt Him and to please Him, then when it is refined by His refining fire, then it will be purified like gold. Then I will hear “Well done thou good and faithful servant,” I absolutely want to hear that from my Lord. After all these years, I was thinking that maybe I had lost the effectiveness and maybe is was outdated, even though I had revised the script, (with permission) and updated it over the years. I thought that maybe it was time to retire it. That was until my granddaughter, Destiny, came to me and asked “When are we going to do Jonah again? I chuckled and said “Oh, I don’t know. Less than a week later another granddaughter, Lily asked, “When are we going to do Jonah again?” I said “Ok Lord, you have my attention. At 72 years old, I had begun to think that I had lost my effectiveness as well. God showed me that just like this musical, He would say when it was done. That was not my choice, it is His. So, having said all that, I am so honored and blessed to announce that we will be doing the revised version of,  “JONAH AND THE FISH”. As soon as this was decided, God provided what we needed to make this our best effort ever for His glory. Our set director, Dennis Hopwood, our costume director, Dawn Hopwood, and our prop director (who is also our stage manager), Sean Romero, have done an excellent job of putting everything together. The Glorybound Gospel Group, the band, is preparing our songs and the cast are learning their lines and following direction. One of my greatest desires over all these years, was to be able to film it professionally because so many people wanted to share it with others. Until now, that has not been possible. We have a professional videographer, Jay Bailey, who will be producing our film “Jonah and the Fish”.

I am so excited, God’s not done with me yet. I still have a purpose!

CAST:
Narrator: Roy Bailey
Jonah: David Hopwood
Lead Protester: Destiny Catton
Protester #1: Kyli Miller
Protester #2: Lily Bailey
Protester #3: Megan Miller
Mom: Maryann Hopwood
Young Jonah: David Hopwood
Heavenly Operator: Nevaeh Hopwood
Assistant Camp Director: Sean Romero
Fish: Martha Vasquez