Recently Sue and I were blessed to be part of the Lost Coin Cafe, an inner city outreach of Living Hope Church in Portland, Maine.  The pastor at Living Hope is someone who booked our show 32 years ago, and we haven't worked with since.  The event was their weekly coffee house venue held in the same building where their church meets on Sundays.

Sue and I got there early, and we found ourselves in a neighborhood of Maine' largest city that we had never been in before. We've spent a lot of time in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood, which is a low income area, too, but is made up mostly of immigrants and refugees.  We have always found Munjoy Hill to be a vibrant, joyful area in spite of the economic challenges.  Living Hope is in a low income neighborhood, but it felt much more sad.  We got the feel that the neighbors were mostly multigenerational poor.  There was a group of guys sitting on the sidewalk outside the church singing and drinking.  We couldn't help but notice the ongoing police presence.

We were lt in by Pastor Perkins a few minutes later.  The church building looks like an old cafe, complete with a full kitchen.  While I knew we would be having supper before the show, I assumed it would be pot luck.  Instead, it was all prepare by Pastor and Mrs. Perkins, and there was a lot: pasta, friend chicken, salsds, rolls, and so much more.  Then it was time to juggle.

It was a great evening of ministry, aone of those times when I knew it was more than my efforts making it happen.  The Holy Spirit led me to a different set than I usually do, I performed my revised version of the herring bone balance which set up sharing reflections on the past two years of the covid-19 pandemic.  I knew God used this gig to encourage many.  Then I closed with my story/illusion about the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and hair, hoping it was a clear message of grace for anyone who might be searching for faith.

Several of the people there recognized us from when we did a show at Lincoln Towers, the tallest building (excepting some church steeples) in the state of Maine.  It always blesses us when people remember us from previous shows.  And now I looked forward to hearing from Pastor Perkins again, hopefully in a little less that 32 years this time!