This week’s talent show was so awesome it renewed my feeling that what the leader-volunteers do is beyond measure. It also showed us that our students grow. With no rehearsal, just an announcement the week before, about twenty adults shared their talents. One young man who for ten years has frozen in front of a group faced the audience and sang clearly into the karioke mike. A shy, stuttering  young woman became tongue-tied facing the audience until a leader put her arm on the woman’s shoulder, turned her around  making her back to the audience to sing her song. Some told jokes, and others had jokes lined out to them by the master of ceremonies. A big, well-prepared guy  passed out copies of his song, gave an accompaniment disc to the master of ceremonies, sang four verses and asked the audience to join him on the last.    The most touching for me was a very shy person, who had obviously been at war with herself over participating, stood up at the very end after the group was asked if anyone else wanted to do something. She reluctantly got to the front, faced the audience, and, unaccompanied, in a beautiful soprano voice sang “Silent Night.”

To read how our students grow in many ways see stories of spiritual growth.