Yesterday morning, we did two services at the Mapleton, Maine, Baptist Church.  This church has always been very good to us in terms of opening their doors to our ministry and supporting our missionary work with pray and finances.  It was a blessing to return.

Our first show was for the Sunday School hour, and the church was maybe half full.  While the show went pretty well technically, I could tell it was 9:30 in the morning after a full week pf camp.  I was not as precise with my routines as I like to be.  However, I taught about Zaccheus in through a relatively new illusion, and I think the point came across.  Also, I did the Jonah routine with rose assisting for the first time, and it was really funny.  She, too, likes to have an audience!  It was really good to see so many kids who I remember from years past at camp.  Mosr assured me that they'd be returning again this summer.

Then we did the sermon portion of the regular Sunday service.  My energy level was much better, thanks, in part, to the gentleman who brought me a cup of coffee from the local general store.  It seems that, by the time I got downstairs for the fellowship time between services, they had dumped out what coffee they had left so they could wash the coffee pot.  The gentleman who did the unexpected store run for me will never know how much I was blessed by his simple act of kindness. 

I built this service around a routine based on, "Unless the Lord builds the. house, those who build it labor in vain."  I was a little nervous because I was taking the message a little further than I ever had before, but God led my words, and I praise Him for working in that little country church that morning.