LOL is the name of my student (grades 7 and 8) Gospel juggling troupe.  Last Sunday they did the morning service at the North Baldwin (Maine) Baptist Church.  Between North Baldwin's regular attenders and the families of performers, the church was packed, and the kids rose to the occaision.  From the opening routine, with Eli coming down the church aisle on a ripstick waving a flag, to Shaylee closing out "Beautiful, Scandalous Night" as the last juggler on stage, the kids did great, and the audience was enthralled.

The best part of the show for me was seeing the reactions of parents of LOL members who were seeing the show for the first time.  They never expect it to be as big or as meaningful as it inevitably is, and this ws true that morning as well.  New seventh grader Jacob was so smooth on the balance board and filled in for Andrew as David in David and Goliath as if he was the regular actor in that role.  Eva, also a new 7th grader, juggled flawlessly in both "April Fool's" and "Beautiful, Scandalous Night". 

But it was the returning eighth graders who stole the show.  Liam (whose dad is the pastor of NBBC) brought the house down with his apple eating juggling.  His facial expressions as his mouth got fuller and fuller, were hysterical.  And Avery, as the Prodigal Juggler was equally funny as he lost all his juggling props to a group of flirtacious girls.  And speaking of flirting, Alex keeps getting better at her part in "I Want to Know What Love Is".  Dare I say she's a natural in the role?

As well as everyone did that morning, the most memorable part will be how both doves got loose after Laim and Bebe produced them from a pan of fire.  They buzzed around the heads of the congregation for a while while Liam quickly ran to close the outside doors (The crowd had made the small church rather hot and stuffy even though it was November in Maine).  Both birds were caught and returned, and we were able to go on from there with no more mishaps.

PS:  The offering was so generous that if we do a spring trip to Vermont to perform over Memorial Day (as we usually do) we already have all the funds we need.