The Windham Christian middle school neverthriving, LOL, performed their final show of the school year at Friendship House, a sobriety house in South Portland, Maine, a few weeks before the shcool year ended.  Friendship House, a home for men trying to get sober and off of drugs, is a faith based ministry where adult men live together, go to work at their various jobs each day, and return for supper, devotions and accountability.  Our shows for these men are always among our favorites of the year, and this year's was no exception.

We set up in their spacious parking lot and ate our bagged suppers in their yard as the men arrived back from work, had their own suppers and cleaned up.  Then they came out to where we were, pulled up lawn chairs and LOL began.  Actually, we had the luxury of starting fifteen minutes early, as both the team and the audience were ready on time.  

Whilr the show went well from beginning to end, there were two parts that made it uniquely memorable.  First, it was Toby's turn to do his eighth grade solo.  He did a routine with a variety of juggling props, enging with flaming torches.  Appropriately, he did his routine to Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire".  Honestly, even at his best, Toby was inconsistent with his fire juggling, but that evening, he nailed it perfectly, including a comedy bit at the end with him blowing them out and them relighting again.  The video of his fire portion of the routine is on my facebook page.

The other part that made the show especially memorable was when, after the show, the Friendship House men brought out their very large house dog.  They insisted he was gentle, which he quickly proved to be as all the LOL kids wanted to pet him.  Then the men suggested the dog meet Zeke, our magical rabbit.  I did NOT feel good about this, and kept a very tight hold on my bunny, but sure enough, they sniffed each others' noses and that was that.

Unfortunately, the evening ended with a bit of a damper.  Some LOL parents who came to see the show confronted me in the driveway as we were packing up to complain because of the 15 minute early start.  I tried to explain that we were there for the men, and if we could accomodate their request for an early start, that was the right thing to do.  Even though they were there in time for the start of the show, they thought otherwise.  I am proud that the students sometimes understand what serving others is about more than their parents.  Well done, kids!