Portland, Maine, is a small city of less than 70,000, but it is Maine's largest city, and has all the qualities of much larger metropolitan areas: great concerts, tech industries, a bustling waterfront, and, in some neighborhods, innercity poverty and all that goes with it: homelessness, addiction, crime and a general feel of hopelessness.  In one of those depressed Portland neighborhoods, though, there shines a light of hope by the name of the Lost Coin Cafe.  Friday night, Sue and I had the blessing of visiting there and having a meal with approximately 30 people from the neighborhood.  Pastor David Perkins runs the Lost Coin, and and prepares the food.  He knows what he's doing in the kitchen, as evidenced by the sliders, mac and cheese, salads and baked goods we shared.

When the meal was finished, Pastor David blessed the crowd with some amazing blues harmonica, then introduced me to perform a set of my routines.  Opening with Mahalia Jackson's "When the Saints Go Marching In" while doing my three ball routine was a perfect segue from blues harmonica to Gospel blues.  I also included "Crown Him With Many Crowns", which is my hat juggling routine.  This was the first time doing this one since getting all new juggling derbies this summer.  All in all, I did a 45 minute set of juggling and magic. After the show, we had plenty of time to interact with the neighbors who were present.  Some remembered my show from when we were there two years ago, and others from a how several years ago at a housing project in the city.

One lady told me that she needed what I shared that night.  Although she didn't elaborate, it encouraged me to hear this.  I always pray about what routines to do prior to a show, and when I hear this type of thing I believe it's worth continuing with this approach rather than always doing a set program.