Each winter, a Baptist church in Gorham has us in to do a show for their AWANA club. This is a club for elementary kids where there are games, crafts and Bible lessons; sort of a year round VBS. This year I went alone (my daughter, rose, had dance class, and my wife had to get her there.) Although the calendar says November, it definitely felt like January, which is the month they normally host us.

While the show went well, what I will remember most about the evening is how it seemed like Old Home Days. It seemed like every kid there I knew form somewhere else. This wouldn't be odd in a local show, but Gorham is a 45 minute drive from home.

One boy, Caleb, is the son of the woman our oldest daughter, Jo, visited her first time in Africa. At the time Caleb was three, and he and his mom were in Kenya hoping to adopt another child. Caleb himself was born in Kenya, though he doesn't remember it, or even his trip there with Jo, but he had heard enough stories of the trip that he knew what I was talking about.

Two other children were the nephews of a former student. Uncle Colby must have heard I was coming to AWANA that night, because his nephews sought me out before the show to ask if I remembered him. I remember Colby as a middle school student who I taught to juggle, among other things, machetes. He's now married and has children of his own. And boy, do his nephews look like him!

Another child knew a former student of mine, and one of the teenaged volunteers told me she remembered each of our performances other the years back to when she was a small girl. she said it was always the best night of AWANA of the year.

We'll definitely do it again sometime.