It was a normal September day in 1976. Though school was back in session, the days were still long, so there was time for 14 year-old sophomore Richard Hagerstrom to gather together some neighborhood friends for a quick game of Whiffle ball before it was time to do homework. It was a day that would normally have been long forgotten these four decades later, except for the three plastic baseballs from Hagerstrom’s cellar that, upon returning home, he neglected to put back downstairs. Like a typical 14 year-old boy, he tossed them on the living room couch and promptly forgot them.
Later that evening, while watching M-A-S-H, Richard watched as Alan Alda briefly juggled three pieces of fruit. Suddenly he remembered those three balls on the other side of the living room. With all the arrogance of a high school guy, he decided that he could juggle too, and his life was changed forever. Within days, he could keep three balls going in a basic pattern, and within weeks he was showing off at school and in his neighborhood.
Hagerstrom did a handful of shows throughout high school, including winning his high school talent show his senior year. At college, the demand for performances grew rapidly. His dorm had a day care center on the first floor, and one day he was juggling for the kids. Accidentally, lighting up a set of fire torches for his finale, he accidentlly triggered the building’s smoke alarm, and all of his dormmates had to be evacuated! “There was a bar in town,” remembers Hagerstrom. “It was called Bauer’s Back Room. Every April Fool’s Day they had a talent contest. Hardly Vegas, but when I won in my junior year at University of Maine Farmington, I thought I had made the big time! Mostly I did shows at schools, granges, parties and around campus.”
Swept Off His Feet
Fast forward to graduation: Richard found himself living in rural South Carolina. It was there, he says, that Jesus “swept me off of my feet into a relationship of grace that changed me forever.” One change was what God had in store for his performances. His show quickly turned into a means to share God’s Word, and demand for his program grew rapidly. In 1986, ten years after that fateful day with the Whiffle balls, he moved backed to Maine and married Susan Legros, now his wife of 30 years. Together they continued using juggling, and the more newly-acquired skill of illusion, to share the Gospel in a wide range of settings. Hagerstrom remembers, “We enjoy doing shows in churches, but early on we knew that would not be our primary venue. God opened doors for us to do our ministry in jails, youth corrections, hospitals, colleges… a wide variety of settings. We learned a lot in those early years, and it was exciting to work hand in hand literally as husband and wife.”
Richard and Sue have three daughters, all of whom have come through the family ministry. Jona-Lynn, now of Austin, Texas, incorporated juggling into a dance competition piece in high school, and it won her a gold medal. Naomi, now residing in New York, once entered a local talent show and won the $100 first prize as she demonstrated her skills with fire torches, machetes, fireballs and sickles. Their youngest, Rose, is 14, and can go into a full split while juggling three machetes.
Preaching the Gospel Near and Far
The Hagerstroms, known as the Supreme Court Jesters, have performed in 18 states and five foreign countries, including missions trips to Mexico, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Paraguay. “These trips have allowed us to share our program in a wide variety of unique settings: a women’s prison high in the Andes, a city dump where families actually lived and raised their families, the holding pen for a slaughterhouse that doubled as the meeting place for a local AWANA club, even at the opening of Operation Christmas Child boxes.
We did a trip one time to the Crow reservation in Montana. We were part of a conference on missions work on reservations throughout the US. We were there to do children’s ministry, but then, on the second morning, the leader of the conference told me he would be leaving early. He was on his way back to the Navajo reservation in Arizona for his grandson’s birthday. He wanted me to close out the conference!
Rich continues: “At first, I was stunned. What experience did I have with evangelizing on reservations? Then I figured, ’Why not me?’ I’d seen every episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman ever made. Seriously, though, it stretched our whole family quite a bit, but we saw the Lord work on that trip. He is so faithful.”
This marks the 40th year since Richard Hagerstrom picked up those old Whiffle balls and began juggling. The Lord continues to use the Supreme Court Jesters to share the gospel in a range of settings. “Another 40 years will put us at 2056. I’ll be 94. Then I might start to think about retiring from juggling, but I don’t want to rush into it!”
To book the Supreme Court Jesters, call Richard Hagerstrom at (207) 647-3693 or e-mail to rhjugglesh@yahoo.com.