As part of Bridgton Alliance Church's SPARK week events (see previous blog) a family has been hosting a "Backyard Bible club" after school for neighborhood kids.  Due to a week long rainy weather pattern, the turn out has been limited, but always a few kids at least.  Our oldest girls, Naomi and Jo, are home from college and are leading games for the kids.  Rose, our sixth grader, is doing child care for Xavier, the 18 month old boy who's family is providing their yard.  Today, I had the privilege  of doing a 45 minute juggling show.  After my show, the church held a cookout for the kids and their parents.

Again, it was a dark, chilly day today, but the rain stopped for the games, show and cookout.  However, the weather was unpleasant enough that attendance was low again.  However, when the show was in progress, a neighbor brought her two grandchildren to watch.  The boy, age 8, was in a wheelchair recovering from corrective surgery.  Both he and his six year old sister said excitedly that they will come back to the club the rest of the week.  Another mom from the neighborhood brought her toddler for a while, too.  While this is a small thing, it was nice to be part of a positive, neighborhood event.

The cookout was wonderful.  The highlight for me was that the two neighbor kids stayed and played with the other kids who had been part of the BYBC all week.  Kids are so good at accepting other kids simply because they are all, well, kids.  I look forward to Friday, when I will be doing a second show for the closing program.