Bobby Darin, eat your heart out.
Dancing Mona Lisa & Bubbles were among the high-art features of Panton’s Got Talent in Panton, Vermont’s town hall tonight. A boisterous and robust sitting room only crowd was on hand to witness routines that had been otherwise considered long-lost somewhere underneath Funk & Wagnall’s porch as Johnnie Carson as Carnac the Magnificent may have said.
Dessert has a way of doing that.
Witnesses say that no one ran from the show while it was in progress citing, no doubt, the availability of amazing desserts like apple crisp, toll house cookie pie, ice cream, and brownies.
Diapers, just a matter of time.
Bill-O’-Notes® was on hand to witness such acts as that of an “Enlarging Machine” that turned a small child’s shoe into one suited for that of a big farm guy. And, sadly, a small baby doll tossed into the machine was witnessed to convert into a completely mad middle-aged man donning a diaper (over his shorts) while running about the place muttering aloud. All for a good cause.
Nicaragua, in His service.
Tonight’s “show” was a fundraiser for a group of dedicated people from Panton Community Baptist Church aiming to serve God in a way that honors through service and sharing of the Gospel in Nicaragua. A missions trip of adults and students will head to Granada for a week of service. The “Open Doors” ministry focuses on Nicaragua, a country challenged by a history of war, natural disasters, resultant hopelessness. As the group who is heading there says,
“The needs are great in Nicaragua but the opportunities for ministry on this Adventure are even greater. One might think that we don’t have much to offer people with such crushing needs, but we remember, God does the healing, not us.”
The Gospel.
The ministry team is aiming to serve God through children’s ministry, open-air evangelism in the plaza and at the dump, perhaps some construction on a new orphanage complex, and rehabilitation center visitation, as well as assisting at a feeding program located at the dump, a place where many people go to to find food among the rubble.
Talent expressed out of gratitude.
If, indeed, it was talent on display this evening at the Panton Town Hall it was all for the sake of a higher purpose, that of offering support to people moving in the service of the kingdom of Jesus Christ in a way that is reflective of Matthew 25:14-30, that our talent is on loan from God.
What, then, is the hope for each of us as we exercise of our talents and gifts? May it be purely out of an overwhelming sense of sheer gratitude for Christ and His perfect and complete sacrifice upon the cross that we serve. Through prayer, Scriptural study and fellowship we can rest in the proper purposes and motivation for our actions. Ephesians 2:2-9 reminds us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Perhaps you could consider the group of fifteen in your prayers?
