Sunday evening in Willimantic, our team went two different directions. Fred Shapiro, the Pastor who hosted the LOL team last week, has a weekly Gospel radio show and asked if a couple of kids wanted o go with him to the studio. Brandon, who is interested in music production, was an obvious choice. I also selected Lucy, as she is an 8th grader, would present herself well on the air, and she has been in LOL for two consecutive years. One of chaperones, Bob, who is also Brandon’s father, went too.
The rest of the team did our regular program at Fred’s church for a meal ministry they host five times per week. There is a large homeless and low income population in this city, and they actually get more people to their meals that at their Sunday morning services. Because we were working while the others were on the radio, we didn’t get to hear the whole show, but we are told that Lucy and Pastor Fred had a lengthy debate on the air regarding which is better: American Idol or the Voice. We did get to hear most of Brandon’s air time as he and Fred discussed music production, and one of Brandon’s compositions was played on the air! He came back that night very inspired.
Meanwhile, back at the church, we were playing to a packed house. The fellowship hall was crowded, and the line between the stage area and the drinks and salad dressing table was a bit blurred at times, but the kids have become confident and capable enough this year that they were able to adjust as the show was going. The most extreme example of this is when we were performing a mime set to music skit called “I Want to Know What Love Is”. In this skit, set to the old Foreigner tune, Noah sits on a park bench with a heart shaped balloon. He offers it to girl after girl as they walk by, only to be rejected each time. At one point, Amanda accepts the offer of his heart only to have Erik confront them and pull Amanda away with him. Erik delivers a very convincing stage punch to Noah’s face at one point. After the mock blow to the head, a man in the crowd who was clearly high yelled at Erik and went on the stage to assist Noah. Several seconds passed before the head of the food ministry realized what happened and escorted the man off of the stage. But here’s the amazing part: Noah never broke character. Clearly he saw the man approaching. Clearly he knew the man was confused, even if he didn’t recognize him as under the influence. Clearly we had prepared them with the knowledge that street people were potentially dangerous. But Noah continued to play his part and stay in character. Now that’s a real pro.
After the program was finished, three of the clientele prayed with me to receive the grace and forgiveness of Jesus, which made it a perfect ending to a perfect, albeit lengthy, day.