Semailles & Creation

As part of the Year of the Bible 2004 campaign , the Bible Society, in collaboration with Fondation le Grain de Blé (Lebanon) hosted the French musical team Semailles & Création during the week of October 25-30, 2004.

 The 115-member French musical team performed seven times on the stage of President Emile Lahoud Cultural & Conference Center in Antelias. More than 5,000 school children and 1,000 adults enjoyed the musical and received a copy of the program specifically published for the event. Furthermore, the last performance held on Saturday evening, October 30^th, was broadcasted live on Tele-Lumière and Nour-Sat, allowing hundreds of thousands of viewers to encounter the acting, singing, choir music, and the message of the musical, Le Prix de la Vérité.

 It all began a few months ago, when the director of this French musical team, Semailles & Création, visited Lebanon to study the possibility of conducting several performances under the coverage of Bible Society and Grain de Blé. This was followed by months of technical and administrative preparation in order to host the 115-member team, ages starting at seven and up. After booking the theatre and all the necessary sound and light equipment, the work commenced on promoting the musical to the public. Several schools were contacted to attend the weekdays’ performances; sponsorships were sought to cover the extensive budget; Mike Bassous and Raja Achi, directors of Bible Society and Grain de Blé respectively, went for a live interview on the Christian television, Tele-Lumière, where excerpts of the musical Le Prix de la Vérité were shown. Tele-Lumière continued to promote the musical throughout the week; it also did a special report about the French team and hosted two members of the team on a talk-show.

 As a result of all the hard work, about 4,500 school children attended the five weekdays’ performances, coming from 25 different schools all over Lebanon. Each child received a program booklet and a Book of Hope (harmonized Gospels) as they headed back home. Le Prix de la Vérité is a contemporary story about an orphan girl who was left in an orphanage because her extended family could no longer support her. She got into all kinds of problems with the orphanage administrators. During one of her punishment in seclusion, she encounters a “talking” Bible who introduces her to Joseph’s story in Genesis 40. The parallelism continues until the end, when both Joseph and this young girl are honored for saying the truth. The Bible message was clear and uncompromising; so was the theatrical and musical performance of the team.

 The opportunity for the public to see this magnificent work was made possible over the weekend. Many school children brought their parents to see this superb musical; so did a lot of youth and church groups. Special thanks to World Vision International – Lebanon, who sponsored part of the program expenses.