River View Hospital is in Maine's capital city of Augusta. In fact, it was built intentionally directly across the Androscoggin River from the capitol building so that the state law makers would never forget the people being treated there. It has changed a lot in the thirty years I've been performing there; no longer are there patients who are there for life.In fact, when Sue and I first started going there, there was at least one person living in the hospital,who had been born there. Mom gave birth in the hospital, and the child never learned to live in the outside world. It is a very different place now. Most of the patients are there short term, and even the patients who are there longer by court order, probably won't be there for life. 

One of May favorite reasons for visiting River View is that my good friend James Weathersbee is the chaplain there, an it's a chance, albeit a brief one, to catch up with each other. But this visit was special, too, because it wasn't me performing, but my 11middle school students. It is a great learning opportunity for these 12 and 13 year olds to spend time with the patients there: stigmas can't stand when you actually meet the people and see they are not their stereotypes.

The show was good, although Zech's change bag illusion wasn't set up properly, and there was no way to get out of the trick without exposing how it worked! Nonetheless, things went pretty well. Lillia did a backflip in the girls'gymnastics routine for the first time in a show. Jordan sang the closing song, Beautiful, Scandalous Night, for the first time; usually we use prerecorded music. But with her voice, we won't need that any more.  Meanwhile, Tanner is becoming more and more confident as an actor, Aidan is getting the Resurrection illusion right consistently, and Abbie is a natural on stage.

Im proud of my students, and I enjoyed seeing James.  He has experienced three losses in the past three months starting with his 103 year old grandmother, a major spiritual influence in his life. And so I share this as a prayer request even as the students pray for the patients there. That's what ministry is.