I am grateful this Thanksgiving season for many things. One of those things is the opportunities I've had to do multiple chapel services at Windham Christian Academy, where I teach.  I love doing chapels because I like going deeper with spiritual truths with the students at our school. I enjoy it even more this year because I've had so many fewer shows than normal.  Chapel allows me to use Supreme Court Jesters  routines at school.

So this week I was the middle school (5th - 8th grades) chapel. The timing was sweet, too, as it was the last chapel service before Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday.  After warming up the audience with my devil stick routine and a mind reading trick, I performed "Around the World", a routine originally written about world hunger, now about lack of clean water.  From there I spoke in parable form about all we have to be grateful for, and how easy it is to not appreciate it (This parable would actually make a good blog now that I think of it.  Stay tuned!) This led into a couple illusioons about the life of Solomon, and his final words in Ecclesiastes: 

"Now all has been heard;
    here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
    for this is the duty of all mankind.
¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment,
    including every hidden thing,
    whether it is good or evil."

Finally I read the story in which Jesus heals 10 lepers, but only one comes back to thank Him.  I retold the story with 10 students going to the school nurse in the course of a school day to get band aids, and the excuses nine had for not going back to thank the nurse. 

Here's the best part of it all; I seen a difference in students from all of these grades since the service.  Thank yous are more common, calling out classmates who complain about not having the best possessions (sometimes gently, sometimes not) has occurred, and even a parent has heard from thier child about the effect of the message.  

And thats something to be thankful for.