By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
MEET JEANETTE Bain, a 25-year-old member of the U.K.-based Innovista Theatre Company, an evangelistic ministry that has been targeting the former Soviet Union for Christian ministry.
Miss Bain, a graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI) where she studied French and Spanish, was for two years a field staff worker with the Students' Christian Fellowship and Scripture Union (SCF-SU). A product of the dance school, Praise Academy of Dance, she has just completed the first year of her two-year stint with Innovista.
Currently, she is doing a certificate course in dance at the University of London. Thereafter, she hopes to pursue a Master's in Community Development and then to return to Jamaica. At that time, she will be seeking to pass on her knowledge of the fine arts by doing community development work among young people.
She explained that Innovista, though it has done performances in many nations, has these days been focusing on the former Soviet Union largely because of what the group regards as a general openness and receptivity of the persons living in those states. She explained that the key to doing evangelism in Europe, is to build relationships, rather than to do gospel crusades such as often obtains in Jamaica. This she said is particularly crucial as much of Europe has been effectively living in a post-Christian culture and there has been a dramatic growth of Eastern religions and occultism.
The soul of the Eastern European, she said, is one which grapples with issues of trust. "The people living in Eastern Europe were under so much oppression (from Communism) that they lost that sense that they could trust the other person. I think they have kind of viewed God with that reality as well, that is, they have suspicions about the idea of placing their trust in God. This is in contrast with Western Europe where there is so much prosperity and materialism that the people living there believe they can get their happiness through things and so they don't think they need God," she said.
MINISTERING ON CAMPUSES
Innovista does most of its ministry on the campuses of universities. "Innovista Theatre is a discussion theatre company that uses physical theatre. We want people to talk to people and share from our perspective. We want them to process what they have seen," Miss Bain said.
One of Innovista's prime ways of doing its work is to convene what it calls, Theatre Cafés. This is an event in a café-like setting where a performance is given before people who are partaking of coffee, tea, cake and light pastries. After the performance, a discussion on the message of the performance will be conducted at each table with Innovista personnel guiding that activity. Their plays will feature both drama and dance and proclaims the gospel in a soft-sell way by exploring themes such as "In what do I place my hope"; "What 'masks' do I wear."
With head offices in Oxford, Innovista is comprised of 18 persons there and another four staffers in an outpost in Kiev, Ukraine. Jeanette does choreography and helps to write some of the drama performed by this theatre company.
It's hard, Jeanette acknowledged to measure the success of the company. But it draws encouragement, she said, from the reports received from the Christians they meet who testify that their performances and discussions encourage and or empower them to take the Christian gospel to others, especially to family members.
A member of the Christian Life Fellowship in Papine, Jeanette owes much of her early spiritual formation to the ministry of Mona Heights Chapel, Kingston, where her parents, worship. Her mother, Pauline Bain is a technocrat working with HEART/NTA. Her father, Dr. Brendon Bain is head of the Community Health and Psychiatry Department at the University of West Indies.
As a UWI student, Jeanette was at one time on the national board of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF). Also, she served the university's UCCF chapter as cultural arts co-ordinator.
She chose to be at Innovista and to be trained in the theatrical arts, she said, because "There is a code of human experiences that can only be expressed and understood through the arts... I also think it is important for sharing my Christian faith because it opens people up when they realise that they have something in common with me and other people who are Christians. They realise, 'Maybe people who are Christians have something to share, because, maybe they have experienced similar things to me'. I think the arts help people relate to the spiritual.
Her ultimate goal, she explained, "My ultimate goal is to use the arts to encourage young people and to help them to draw out their full potential as people. I want to extend my skills-base as much as possible so that I can give to young people something that is worthwhile."
