Our good friends the Marshalls invited us to do a show on New Year's Eve at their church in Gorham, Maine, where Jonathan Marshall is the pastor.  Theirs is a little country church, but one with a strong, committed congregation.  We have known Jonathan and Ruth for years, and we know any congregation in their care is getting excellent Bible teaching.

There was a pretty good turn out for this event for a cold winter night, and the audience spanned a wide age range.  While the group was mainly adults, there were, I would guess, nine or ten children, too.  Some were very young, but they had no problem sitting still and listening for the hour that we performed.  They obviously were used to being attentive in the sanctuary.

Rose joined me on stage a few times, and Jo, being home from college, ran the our music.  It was nice to have her involved while she's been home.  She also shared briefly about God's calling on her life to missions work.

Speaking of missions, the congregation was very generous as they gave a free will offering toward our upcoming trip to Paraguay.  Slowly but surely, the funds are coming in.

I did one brand new illusion, the freely suspended water glass.  This was a birthday gift just a few weeks ago, and I had never performed it before.  I used this trick to teach a verse from Lamentations where Jeremiah spoke of pouring out  ones' hearts like water, and raising  hands in praise toward heaven for the children at that time who were dying in the streets.   I used this to speak briefly about the Connecticut massacres that happened last month, pointing out that, apart from Christ, there is really no guarantee of security in our world.  Furthermore, if true security is found only in Jesus, then when we are called to do something that we might see as risky, the reality is, there's nothing more secure  than take that risk and obey in faith.

After the show we had brownie sundaes in the church basement and visited with the congregation.  One little boy was fascinated by the use of the 'burning Bible' in our Elijah and the Prophets of Baal story.  In fact he was so fixated on this prop that I had to show him how it worked and that it wasn't even a Bible at all, assuring him that I would never light a real Bible on fire.  He seemed relieved.