The Assembly of God churches have a girls' ministry known as Missionettes.  This is for girls of elementary and middle school grades.  The AG church in the near-by town of Windham had a retreat for girls from churches around the state this past weekend, and my middle school jugglers were part of the Friday night program.  Four or five of the girls on the team were participating in the retreat as well.

This was our second show of this school year with what is very much a rookie team.  We knew Alex would be out because of a prior commitment.  Then, as we were leaving our house to get to the gig, I got a phone call from Emily's mom: she would miss the show due to the flu!  As we drove to Windham, my daughter, Rose, who is an LOL officer, helped me brainstorm supstitutions for Emily in her various roles.  Em is one of only a few returning, experienced jugglers, so she is not easy to replace, but by the time we got to the church, we were confident we had a plan. 

Rose did an amazing job of not only telling kids about the changes we needed to make, but also rehearsing with them in their last minute roles while I set up the show.  But then, 15 minutes before show time, it became clear that three other students were not going to come.  I was fit to be tied.  These families knew about the show for weeks.  I had no communication from them.  They just didn't come.  Sure, shows that are not on school time are harder to get everyone out to, but that's why God send Alexander Graham Bell to earth.  LOL is not some cute little kids' thing.  It's a real, quality show that takes preparation and commitment! 

We scrambled to figure out replacements.  Thank God for my aide, Amanda, who helped me process it all, and literally we had figured it out 15 seconds before our scheduled start time!  Most of these last second changes were done so abruptly that the kids involved didn't get to practice.  But we prayed and trusted it to the Lord.

I'm not going to say the show was great, but it was good; way better than I anticipated.  Parents of LOLers who have seen many shows over the years agreed that it was a good, solid, average performance.  More than that, the team was amazing, stepping up and doing more than they knew they could.  They put their all into it as they did tricks they had only seen but never done, acted parts they had never rehearsed, and even, in a couple cases, juggled things they had never even practiced with before.  I have never been prouder of a class than I was of the 12 performers who showed up that evening. 

After it was done, and the props were packed, and the families were leaving the church so the girls and their chaperones could settle in for the evening, one father of a new performer shook my hand.  He told me the show was great; he laughed, he cried.  He was touched.  That's why we do what we do.

"(We) can do all things through Christ who gives (us) strength."  Phil. 4":13