On December 22, 2018, my daughter, Rose, and I drove to His Place teen center in Oxford , Maine in order to do a show for their Friday night youth group. It was a horribly foggy winter evening, and when we arrived, there was a lady in the parking lot greeting everybody to tell us the center was closed. Barry Lowe, the director, had been in a serious car accident on his way to the same event. We found out the next day that Barry did not survive. Although Barry and I weren't close friends, we had a lot of respect for each other's work. Besides his work with teens, he was the lead singer of the Blacksmiths, one of the few Contemporary Christian bands from Maine who experienced so national success, having played, among other venues, the Grand Ol' Opry.
His Place closed and a lot of time passed before it reopened. Then this summer I was contacted by the new director. They were having a public, community enevt and needed a juggler. I jumped on the chance.
It was a hot summer Saturday when I returned to the Rock House / His Place teen center. While the initial plan was to do 'walk around' , once I saw the set up, I asked if I could get a 30 minute set on the outdoor stage, and their leadership graciously agreed. Stage shows are really my forte, not walk arounds. The first part of the program was a husband and wife leading worship. The husband called out to me, "Hi Rick." I apologized for not recognizing him, and he went on to explain that he had seen my show at Friendship House, an alcohol recovery program where he had been a resident for two years. Now he's a worship leader at a church in the nearby town of Rumford.
After some beautiful worship, a local pastor came on and did a ventriloquist act. While definitely geared toward the youngest of kids present, there is no denying his talent. I came on next. Not having planned for a stage show, I had some different props than I might have brought otherwise. I used my brain wave antenna gag, and I performed my herringbone balance, one of my oldest Christian routines, going back to 1985!
When the set was over, the new director and I spoke about my coming for a Friday evening sometime this fall and doing a full program. Since then, we have already scheduled just that for a Friday in October.