The Right Connection

It doesn’t take long to figure out that the coach, Joanie, has become a believer since they were all together. The most popular girl, Lindsay, who was the one with the most potential, has arrived a bit battered by an abusive new husband. Most of the girls are hoping that Lexi (“The freak”) doesn’t show up, but when she does, all are stunned by her undeniably drastic change. She is now a radiant, beautiful Christian. Sara, the team champion, gets saved after hearing Lexi’s dramatic testimony, and Lindsay follows her in making the same decision. A very strong salvation message with some tie-ins to Christmas along with some carol singing by the girls. The title is taken from a line in the play where Sara, who wants to go pro, can’t seem to make the right connections. She learns that Jesus is the only connection she really needs. There is a shorter version of this play (15-20 mins) with fewer characters called, “A Weekend Before Christmas”.

Cast of 12 females and one male (small part) about 50-55 mins.

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

JOANIE: The coach. She is older than the other girls, and since the last time they saw her, she has become a Christian and got married. She is growing, spiritual and sensible.

CHRISTINA: A Christian. Her folks own the cabin, so she is acting as the hostess. She has the ability to make friends and is very likable.

LINDSAY: The most popular girl from H.S. and very talented. She has married and is being battered by her husband. She is in an emotional state, and is open to the gospel, and undergoes a change at the end.

BRITNEY: The other popular girl, and the “bad” girl. She ridicules others, makes jokes, and is clearly a strong personality that carries all the way through the play.

LEXI: A new believer, glowing and radiant and ready to share her faith. She used to be this dark and creepy girl that everyone disliked. The radical change is a shock to all.

SARA: The team champion. She has been trying unsuccessfully to become a pro basketball player. She gets saved half way through because of Lexi’s testimony.

FAITH: A strong Christian who wants to be a missionary. Attending a bible college.

ALLY: Working in a dress shop, not motivated to move forward. Follows Britney.

JULIE ANN: A quiet and reserved Christian. Her shyness is obvious. She wants to stay close to the other Christians.

BECCA: Small part

STEPHANIE: Small part.

MONICA: Small part

BRAD: Small part. Only male.

Excerpt:

FAITH: Are you staying in here, too, Joanie?

JOANIE: Yeah, I thought I would. I know there is probably room some
place else, but it seems right to be in here, in the living room.

FAITH: Well, I dub this spot right here for me, (And throws down her
sleeping bag and then tosses her pillow which hits Joanie as she is
just getting up… this will have to be choreographed.)

JOANIE: Hey!

FAITH: Oops! Sorry!

JOANIE: Yeah, right. You really look sorry… (While Faith has her
back turned, Joanie grabs her pillow and plows right across her back)

CHRISTINA: Oooh that’s mean! (She grabs her pillow and nails Joanie,
and by this time Faith is back with her pillow and both are
clobbering Joanie. Lindsay and Lexi are laughing as Lexi runs to her
gear and grabs her pillow and comes back swinging at Christina, and
Sara keeps watching and finally she looks around and finds Julie
Ann’s pillow and joins the fight. The girls are all laughing and
obviously having a great time.)

JULIE ANN: (Offstage) Hey everybody! There’s a pillow fight
upstairs….(As she runs in and sees the action and stops) you too?
(Then she stands there and smiles enjoying the fight when suddenly…)
Hey! That’s my pillow! (She runs in to join, grabs a sleeping and
bag and tosses it at Sara. Lindsay finally joins in the fun tossing
bedding and whatever she can find. They all collapse onto the floor
and couch and laugh and breathe heavy.) Boy! I leave the room for
just a minute and you all go crazy! The same thing was going on
upstairs.

FAITH: I thought you were going to brush your teeth. That was fast.

JULIE ANN: No available bathrooms. Both of them occupado!

JOANIE: Just to brush your teeth? Use the kitchen sink.

JULIE ANN: Oh, I didn’t think of that. (She exits again)

LEXI: You don’t know how great that felt to be one of you just now.
(The girls begin to straighten up all the stuff and lay it out good
again.)

SARA: The reason I hung around was to talk to you Lexi. I am simply
amazed. I have never seen anything like this. You are totally
transformed! I cannot believe you are the same person.

LEXI: Well, I’m not really. The only thing the same is my name and
my body. That’s about it.

SARA: And your body looks totally different! I can’t get over it!

JOANIE: It is quite amazing, Lexi.

SARA: It is your countenance. You never smiled before… and now you
are beaming! You used to wear drab colors and your hair was well….

LEXI: I know. There is a verse in the bible that says… “I am a new
creation in Christ, old things have passed away and all things have
been made new.” You see, He took my old self, and that is buried on
the cross with Him, and now I am a new creature.

SARA: I don’t understand that. You are saying, that God or Jesus
or whoever did this to you, that you did not change yourself?

LEXI: Well, something like that. You see, God has brought so much
love into my life, that I no longer want any of that type of darkness
that just filled my whole being. My life was being controlled by
Satan himself. I was serving him and not God. I had so much sin in
my life, and when I realized that Jesus died on the cross taking
all my sins upon Himself, and offered to us eternal life, I could
not turn down that gift.

SARA: I still don’t understand how God changed you. Forgive me,
but it isn’t that clear to me.

JOANIE: You got it right when you said, “forgive me” just now.
Because that is what God has done. He forgives us. It’s a spiritual
thing, Sara. The work is supernatural. When Jesus comes into our
lives and forgives us, He does a cleaning of the house. He cleans
us up. (Some of them are looking at Joanie with some surprise)

LEXI: I think I was dirtier than most, so you really notice the
clean. There was a lot to forgive.

SARA: Okay… maybe I’m starting to get it. God comes and touches
your life and suddenly you start doing things differently, and you
want to act different and look different.

FAITH: That is sort of right. You just need to find the road to
get to that point.

LEXI: I had to realize that I was a sinner and that I was lost and
going to hell.

SARA: But how did you know that you were lost? How did you know
that you were going to hell? Somebody just told you?

LEXI: The bible told me. The bible is like God talking to us, so
in a sense, God told me. The bible says that all have sinned, that
the wages of sin is death, and so I knew that I was on my way to hell
because of my sin. Not just because I had bad sins… everybody in
the world is lost.

CHRISTINA: Sara, remember when you were telling us earlier how you
could not get into pro basketball? You tried and no one would give
you a break… because you didn’t have the right connections. You just
have not been able to get it done.

SARA: Yeah… so?

CHRISTINA: It’s kind of like that with Jesus and going to heaven.
No one can get us in. We can’t get a break. We don’t have the right
connections so we are just unable to get the job done. So, we are
on our way to hell. Well that is until we receive Jesus Christ. You
see, He is our connection, and when His blood takes our sin away,
then we are as “in” as anyone else.

JOANIE: That is a great analogy, Christina.

FAITH: Joanie, I want to know when you became a believer!

JOANIE: Oh that was part of the journey I was making with David.
Remember I said he affected a lot of areas in my life? Well,
spiritually was probably the biggest, and he was the one who led me
to Christ and I prayed with him and got saved. That happened early
on in our relationship.

SARA: So that is what they mean when they talk about being saved
or born again?

LEXI: That’s right. It is the moment you receive Christ into your
heart. How you go about doing that is really up to how God leads
you. But He loves you and He just might be calling you right now
to come into His eternal kingdom and have all your sins washed away.
And you too, will be a new creature.

SARA: It sounds so simple yet so complicated all at the same time.

FAITH: It is only the best thing in your life that you could ever do…
and it lasts for all eternity. Or you could stay on the road to
hell.

JULIE ANN: (Entering) What did you just say?

CHRISTINA: Julie Ann, Sara is asking questions about God and being
a Christian.

SARA: Yeah, and they are all trying to get me saved. Well, accept
maybe Lindsay. She isn’t saying anything.

LINDSAY: That’s because I don’t know anything about any of this.
But I must say it really sounds interesting. Three years ago, I
thought you girls were just weird. I would just hang out with
Britney and the others and we would talk about you. You all seemed
so dedicated to the Jesus thing… but now its three years later, and
some of you are going to foreign countries to be missionaries, and
you are still dedicated to Jesus, and now Lexi has become one of you!
If they had put in the yearbook, “The least likely to become a
Jesus person” it would have been Lexi Hamilton. I am sitting here
stunned at what is happening.

FAITH: What IS happening, Lindsay? Didn’t you put your stuff in
Britney’s room? Don’t get me wrong, you can stay here as long as
you like, and you can even sleep here, but you usually hang with
Britney.

LINDSAY: Britney was not making me feel very comfortable tonight.
She was actually starting to get on my nerves… just the things she
was saying.

FAITH: I felt bad for you, because I didn’t think you wanted to
talk about your marriage.

LINDSAY: Well, I didn’t. But it was a good thing I did. You were
all kinder to me. Joanie, you have changed, too. Now you are saying
that you have been saved, and Lexi has been…. Well, born again is
the term you guys use, but she’s had a total makeover and that
included her heart! I have been sitting here thinking, “If God can
really do something like that with someone like her… then what could
He do with someone like me, and with the mess I have gotten myself
into.”

LEXI: The same thing, Lindsay. The same thing He did for each one
of us here. I think Sara is ready to do it. (To Sara) I could tell
the moment you started asking me questions. You think that a
career in basketball is what you are searching for. Well, that
could be nice and fun, but that will not change your life. That
won’t save you and keep you out of hell. That won’t bring you inner
peace and inner joy and make you love Jesus and everyone around you.
Only Jesus can do that for you. He loves you and is waiting for
you. It says in the bible that God stretches out his arms to you…
He wants to pull you in and embrace you. Jesus stretched out his
arms and they nailed them to a cross and that was how much He loved
you.

CHRISTINA: What do you say, Sara? Come on.

JOANIE: We don’t want you to feel like we are ganging up on you.
For us, watching someone get saved is a very exciting thing. It’s
quite a thrill. But it has to be you. It can’t be us pressuring
you. God calls and you respond. We are only the spectators.

SARA: When I look at you Lexi, I really believe that God can work
miracles in people’s lives.

FAITH: Getting saved doesn’t mean that suddenly you will get picked
up on a pro basketball team. And for Lindsay, it doesn’t mean that
suddenly her marriage would be repaired. But it does mean salvation
and life everlasting… and that God will be at work in your lives…
for the better. In whatever it is he chooses for you to go through.

SARA: Okay… I’ll do it. If Lindsay will do it with me. Oh, I guess
you just said that it has to be between me and God. Okay. What do
I have to do? Can we do it right now?

LEXI AND FAITH AND JOANIE: Sure!