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Wednesday, August 08, 2007
My Story : Leezibet Heinz Raiden Leezibet wears many hats - production manager, stage manager, dancer. She "specialises in working with Christian productions" - she managed the theatre side of Sonic Festival, GO Fest Asia 2006 and currently flies the friendly skies as an air stewardess with Emirates.Dawn : Let's start with your testimony on how you came to know Christ. Leezibet : At 18, a boy in my school, who was with Campus Crusade brought a few of us to church one Sunday. I cried during service and when they asked if I wanted to receive Christ, I responded and followed the sinner's prayer, thus I AM a Christian. Dawn : How did you enter arts management? Leezibet : The interest sparks from my involvement in my previous church musical which was held in Spore Indoor Stadium and directed by UK Drama Company. As I had been doing backstage jobs without any prior training on the required job, I felt frustrated not being able to contribute my maximum at that moment. On completion of the musical, I went searching the net for courses in relation to backstage and found a couple that were way too expensive and far in other parts of the world. I am 30 when this happened - God opened my eyes to an ad placed in the trains by Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). It said 'New Course in Performing Arts Management' and listed was the contacts of the school. I went down to check on the Diploma Course and also enquired on the application process. And so when my school started, I was the oldest intake in the whole faculty of the Performing Arts School - I did a 3 years full-time diploma (2002 - 2005) on Arts Management. I've done the following : 2002 - The Unseen Musical, Spore Indoor Stadium 2003 to 2005 - Crow Jane aka Jovien Ng, Production & Stage Manager 2004 - Vietnam Tour (Ricky Sim and Dancers), Stage Manager & Lighting Designer 2004 & 2005 - Sonic Festival, Theatre and Performing Arts Co-coordinator 2004 & 2005 - Church of Our Saviour Musicals, Stage Manager 2005 - Baker Road Methodist Church Musical, Stage Manager & Lighting Designer 2006 - GO Fest Asia (by YWAM), Show Producer 2004 to current - Professional Crew, Stage Production for Artistes Dawn : How did your Christian faith influence your work in the marketplace? Leezibet : Prayer! I am into praying before the shows started, and during the times we face a technical problem. The other thing that I am keen and well known for among other production specialist are my preference to work for and specialize in Christian musicals, events, festivals or even working with Christian artistes in stage management. I sense the lack of professionals in this area and thus, often, church musicals are left stranded with various volunteers without experiences or knowledge of the field. So my heart is drawn to this particular area and I am most happy to serve God in Christian productions with the skills and talent He had blessed me (by granting me the privilege to attend schooling for in NAFA). I believe Stage Management was a gift from God and I couldn't have made through school without His grace and financial providence for me. As it is, I am in debt to Him. Whenever, I get a project for a production in the commercial sector, I feel that it is God blessing me. And at any given time, when He needed my help to bless a Christian production with my skills, I would not hesitate. Dawn : How about an example? Leezibet : Last year, I had accepted a project that agreed to pay me $1,500 for 3 weeks of Stage Management work. A few days after I had said yes to the job, I received a phone call from a friend who told me that YWAM needed help as they were staging a Mega Festival in a couple of weeks. As I probed further, it turned out that the help needed was on a volunteer basis and it had to do with staging. I told her that I was keen to be involved but I had just accepted a paying project, and if she had called me earlier, I would have taken the job. Something happened that same night after the phone call. My heart was heavy and my thoughts were on YWAM and their festival. I knew I needed to pray for both the projects and seek Him for guidance but a worry came into my mind just before I began praying on the situation - I was worried about finances, as I needed the cash to pay rental and daily provisions. I sought God and asked Him to settle my heart on the project that pleased Him. The next morning, my mind was clear that I had to call the director to quit the project and then contact YWAM to offer my services. The director was disappointed with my decision and he offered me a higher fee to keep me on the project. I shared with him about my prayers and that God had called me to serve in the other project instead. I briefly mentioned to him too that it was not about the payment - it was a calling to help the Festival. At 2pm, here I am at YWAM Spore Base office waiting for the Base Director to see me and share his vision about the Festival. Joseph Chean, a brother I had heard so much, someone who relies 100% on God with a faith that can move mountains. Suddenly, my heart was pounding and I am nervous to finds out what God had in-store for me. Knowing that at the end of the month I won't have any cash to pay my rent and feed myself, doesn't bother me at all, as I am more curious on why HE had called me to serve in the Festival. Joseph started sharing the vision of GO Fest Asia, and I sat there not able to connect, until he came to the part what was missing from the team. He shared about praying for a Stage Manager to run the Festival as it been months and no one had responded to the position. The week before I contact him to offer my services, him and the team have had an intensive prayer meeting to specifically pray for God to send someone to fill the post. So, here I am, almost falling off my seat as I listen to Joseph. The Festival is 2 weeks away and it's huge! I may have the skills and knowledge to help them runs the technical team but I had never in my experience, work with a team I had not met for production meetings. Usually, team will meet often in advance of 3 - 6 months prior to the production. And when I asked Joseph about the team members, he said they are all volunteers and will be flying in from different parts of the world, 3 days before the Festival. My mind exploded with the word? WOW!!! I said YES and started working on the flow of the program for the festival before meeting the whole team the following week. Then the day came, half of the team members arrive for our 1st production meeting 3 working days before the launch of the Festival. And the other half, as I was told, is still making their way down and I should meet them at the Festival ground couple of hours before we launch. Everything that I had been taught in school and I had been preaching others NOT TO DO for Stage Management was torn down, as I am not in charge of this particular project but God is and I am to run it under HIS rules. I sincerely admit that it's the toughest project I was ever involved in and yet I learn Grace and Wisdom from this experience. Jesus had lifted my faith to the next level and HE had even provided me financially at the end of the month. All I recall doing was to Listen, Obey, Offer, Pray, Learn and Be Available!" Dawn : Tell us more about your current change of jobs and how you see your future in the arts. Leezibet : The previous ministries were never mine but God's and I were just facilitating them for Him. Sometime last year, I felt a shift of interest in my work and contributions towards the Arts Scene. I had become more and strongly aware of the spiritual warfare presence in a performance staged to please God. Also, I had been thru a really bad relationship which have had affected my faith and I went into the road of darkness for 2 weeks before emerging back with hope and promises from God. I am deeply thankful for the brothers and sisters in Christ that had not abandon me during my 2 weeks in darkness. The prayers support, scriptures of encouragement send to me and phone calls was possible because of my awareness of the trials and spiritual attacks that I am going thru, I know that defeats is not possible without the others. My experience of this trial was HIS love shown through others around me. I am blessed by a strong Spiritual Family that loves me no matter what have had taken place in my life. Upon returning back on track of my life, I started to question the purpose and my calling. I discovered the importance of reconciliations with the people in my past, in order to heal for my future. And the core of my hurts came from my own 'flesh and blood' family, in this case, is my mom. So going back home to talk and meet her opened the flood gate to my hurts in the past: beliefs, culture, heritage, mother tongue and many more related to my family! One Tuesday night at cell, I was in a small prayer group and I had requested for a prayer on going for a mission trip which I had not plan for, in December. My request was for the dates not to clash with my commitment for Celebrate Christmas in Singapore. And after the group split up, I went to the mission leader and asked him about the trip. God's Willing, the dates were perfect for me to come along and the leader was excited to have me on board the team. So West Kalimantan was the destination and little did I know my trials were not over. This trip God was going to put my past on the platform and use it to testify for HIS glory. I was appointed the translator for the team, had to share about my previous belief (which was Islam), and had to testify about HIS power in Healings as I had received them before the trip. My Bahasa wasn't used since I left school, that's like 15yrs ago, but with HIS help I had made it possible for the villagers to understand me. At the 10th day of our stay there, some of the youths came up to me to comment that my Bahasa had improved and they thanked me for the translations. I felt touched. Back in Singapore, God opened the doors for me to work in Dubai for 3 years! At the discovery of this opportunity, I had questions in my mind as to why I was to go UAE. Though I had prayed for a mission field in the marketplace and am open to where HE will take me, Dubai still didn't make sense to me. I went on to complete a spiritual course (by Church Resource Ministry) that was tailored to help me understand my past to God's calling in my life. The course consists of 3 books: Timeline (which takes you to your past to see where God is taking you in the future), Calling (to determine God's callings for you and answers through prayers) and Mentoring. After that, Dubai made sense to me. Dawn : Could you share about your past? Leezibet : I was a Muslim before, worked as a stewardess for SIA for 5 years, was in an abusive marriage, was involved in teaching dance and organising performances. Here's a brief of the UN-Written future which I am heading towards: a Muslim country, working with Emirates Airline, ministering to women with abusive partners, and possibly be part of organising activities for these women - Arabs women love dancing and private parties without their husbands. The exciting part is realizing that I am suitable and had matching experiences to impart and share with these women. Ultimately, I will bring my FAITH with me wherever I go and sharing about HIS love in my life with others would be a pleasure to me. In my prayers I said, "Father, USE me as you deem fit and I am AVAILABLE to be the salt and light of you Jesus". As for my future in the Arts Scene, I will be involved whenever HE gives me the opportunity to and will obey to serve HIM in this area again. Here's a verse for readers: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 You can contact Leezibet at professionalcrew@gmail.com. Tuhan Memberkatimu!
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