My family all attended Bridgton Alliance Church for 23 years.  It was a time of a lot of growth, celebrations, and friendships.  In 2017 the Lord used a variety of ups and downs to lead us to another Alliance church in the little Maine town of Casco, but for the past several years, Beidgton has had me back to domy show on October 31 as part of their harvest party event.  This year's time in the Bridgton church was a special blessing to me, and I hope to them as well.

There were all the usual reunions with Pastor Mike, and old friends who still attend there.  But the best reunion was with Heather, her husband and their three children.  Heather was a student on mine about fifteen years ago, and, I confess, one of my all time favorites.  There was an honesty and vulnerability about her that is a unique combination, especially for a teen.  We often had conversations after school about whatever was on her heart and mind, and these conversations were sincere with nopretension whatsoever. When she left Windham Christian Academy to go to a high school in Portland, Sue and I often arrended the various productions she was in.  When our daughter, Naomi, went through a particularly difficult heartbreak, Heather was the first of her firends to reach out to her. Heather is now happily married and they have three adorable kids. They are not practicing Christians right now, so I was so blessed that they came to this event on Halloween night primarily to see my show. 

After a sweet reunion with Heather, the show itself was kind of secondary to me, but not, of course, to the audience.  I learned while setting upthe show that flash paper has an expiration time, as it had turned into a yellowish goo since the last time I used it.  That eliminated one routine I had planned, but I had still brought enough material to fill my portion of the evening easily.  I ended with my herring bone balance mime routine, which is my second oldest Gospel routine, and one I don't do much anymore, nut it just felt right.

As always, the folks at the Bridgton church were very generous, and it was a sweet evening all around.