Each school year, my middle school students at Windham Christian learn to juggle and perform illusions, and each year our first performance as a team is at the Barron Center nursing home in Portland.  Today was that first performance for the 2014 - 2015 school year, and we're off to an encouraging start.

To fully understand today's event I need to explain that this year's class is a rookie team.  Out of 17 seventh and eighth graders, only five were in LOL last year.  Only two could juggle on the first day of this school year.  Eleven are seventh graders.  They are truly a group of beginners.  Add to that the fact that school started 23 days ago, and we can only fit in a couple of practices a week, and I had plenty of reason to think we might not be ready for today's show.  But it turns out we were.

My daughter, Rose is an eighth grader in my class, and, of course, she has grown up with these types of shows.  She was heavily relied upon for today as she juggled machetes, acted as the "Prodigal Juggler", danced and more.  Molly, another eighth grader was invaluable as the stage manager.  Silently and discreetly she prompted the cast to be ready for their cues.  We ran a very tight show thanks to her leadership.

But it wasn't just the veterans who carried the show.  In just over three weeks, every kid has learned how to juggle, if only silks, balls or spinning plates.  Abby and Jaclyn set a perfect pace as the narrators.  Bryce did a terrific job acting in "I Want to Know What Love Is".  This year's class is especially gifted in gymnastics, dance and singing, and many contributed in these areas.  Grace and Jaclyn's simultaneous one handed cart wheels were a first in LOL. 

Best of all, after the show, the kids were excellent about visiting the residents.  Almost every student prayed with people.  The gave out cards and bracelets, and explained the Gospel clearly and concisely.  The one weakness in the event was that the show was only 35 minutes long.  This will increase as our rookies develop their skills more and more.    We all returned to school feeling very confident in the rest of this year's ministry.