Every school year, I bring my middle school juggling team, LOL, on an end of the year four or five day trip out of state to perform and present the Gospel and serve each other. I just got home from this year’s trip to Willimantic, CT. We did six shows in four days. The next several blogs will share some of our stories from the road.
Willimantic is an old mill city where the mills have shut down. Consequently, there is a lot of poverty, homelessness and drugs. Although it is a city of 18,000 people, it feels much more like the inner city, especially the downtown area where we were staying. In fact, a 60 Minutes piece about Willimantic aired in 2009 started this way:
“This is a story about a small town in New England that has a problem you’d never expect.
Heroin. It’s a problem that has existed for decades.
It’s been so bad for so long that some people call the place “Heroin Town.” See entire transcript here: http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500164_162-557978.html
This year’s trip was special for me right from the start in that my wife Sue was able to free up her schedule to be one of the chaperones. Since we were both going to be gone, we also freed up our sixth grade daughter, Rose. LOL is made up of 7th and 8th graders only, so Rose was not performing (she gets plenty of stage time with me throughout the year, so this was no big deal for her.) She did enjoy hanging with the team and getting to know some of the kids she’ll be in LOL with next year.
I always organize our team into student led work groups. These groups do the loading, unloading, cleaning and cooking for the four days. There is also an adult chaperone assigned to each work group, but the goal is to make the adults do as little as possible: they’re there to solve problems that arise and assure safety, especially in the kitchen. As always, the kids rose to the challenge and worked very hard.
I had a total of six chaperones: myself, Sue, my classroom aide Amanda, Angie who is the mom of a student, and two dads: Bob who is our school’s maintenance guy, and Duane, a state trooper. Each one was vital to the team.
Our contact in Willimantic was Pastor Fred Shapiro of First Baptist Church. He is a long time friend and co-laborer in ministry. We have worked together throughout New England since 1991. Fred is also a tremendous blues singer and pianist. His song “Jesus is Victor” is a staple in both my class’s show and my own. It is the perfect high energy juggling tune.
We arrived at First Baptist at about 2:00, and moved into the church basement: boys in fellowship hall, girls in Sunday school room. Our first show was that evening, and upon returning to the church we had a class chapel service. I had prayed extensively about what to speak on, and I ended up doing a message about risk taking. I had no idea what a perfect topic this would be throughout our stay there. The following days were to challenge the students in many unexpected and growth producing ways. As a 7th grade girl has already posted on Facebook, “The Connecticut trip was life changing.” You if read future blogs, you’ll see what she means.