“They get in another zone,” Ursin said, watching Hill. Ursin describes her as the teacher of the group today.Īs “Pressing Your Presents” blares across the empty gymnasium, the six teens line up behind Hill - whose face is as expressive as her hands, which press against the sky and spread wide to accompany the music’s lyrics. Members have been as young as 6 in the past.Īuzialai Hill, 14, joined the group when she was 10 years old. She said her current group of about 10 kids is one of the most enthusiastic she’s had.Īll are members of Union Baptist and students at Southeast High School, with the exception of one who attends Lincoln Land Community College. Ursin started the group in 2007 after seeing a national ministry, K&K Mime. It’s not interpretive dance, but a silent musical performance as the teens depart from miming and mouth the words as they perform. Favorites are “Amazing God,” “Pressing Your Presents” and “I Told The Storm.” The self-choreographed songs are full of passionate movement by each teen - who take turns taking “lead” in each song. “You don’t want anyone to see you, you just want them to see Christ.” “The purpose of the makeup is to diminish them,” Ursin said. They wear black pants, white shirts and white gloves to accompany their painted white faces. Usually the ministry performs at church events across Springfield.Īs the music builds and the lyrics emerge, the teens perform the words using their bodies. The ministry uses recorded popular gospel and Christian music as the soundtracks for their performances - which are no fewer than four per month. “I want them to have a relationship with God.” “If nothing else comes out of it,” ministry director Cecelia Ursin said. Three more wait their turns.įletcher Williams watches the girls next to him wipe the makeup across their eyelids, too.Īt 14, Williams is one of the youngest - and newest - members of Union Baptist Church’s Mime Ministry. Three separate conversations bleed into one Tuesday evening as four teenagers take their seats at a round table in the gymnasium of Union Baptist Church.įour dip their fingers into white face paint and cover their forehead, cheeks and nose.
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