In recent years, the most common venue for our show has probably been Bridgton Health Care, a nursing home only three miles from our house. The activity department schedules us four times a year. This is convenient and allows us to get to know some of the residents a bit. In some cases they are people we've known since before they moved in to BHC.

One resident, Dot, has been one of our biggest fans for years. She has a remarkable memory for a nursing home resident, and always asks about our daughters, she remembers the name of not just our current rabbit, but the one we had a year and a half ago. She is always the most responsive member of the audience, and she has a real New England sense of humor. She is also an avid colorer in the new trend of adult coloring book.

It's easy to think of these shows as "just one more time" so on the way there, I prayed that this time would be special. That God would be glorified and move in a special way.

I was concerned when Dot wasn't there when it was time to start. I asked Linda, the activities director about her, and she said she was in treatment, but would be coming. Actually, she didn't arrive until the show was over, and we joked about my having to do it all over again just for her.

Then she asked me to come over to her chair. She clearly wasn't looking like herself. She told me about recent brain surgery and other health problems that are getting worse. She asked for prayer, and I prayed with her. I wonder if she'll be there when we go back in the fall. That's one of the sad parts of nursing home ministry.

Before I left, there was one more evidence that she wasn't doing well. She gave me one of her coloring pages.

In the past she always tried to sell them to me.