Author: Jesse
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Palm Sunday Lesson
Read More: Palm Sunday LessonHere is a brief activity you can use on Palm Sunday in your Children’s Church service. It is designed to be humorous and then lead into teaching the kids the real meaning of Palm Sunday. Title: “Palm Sunday” Scripture: John 12:12-15 NIV “The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard…
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Jerusalem IMAX Review
Read More: Jerusalem IMAX ReviewYesterday, I saw the IMAX film Jerusalem at the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta. Put out by National Geographic Entertainment, it shows both the bloody history as well as the beautiful peoples and cultures who live there today. I spent a semester living in the Old City of Jerusalem when I was in college for a…
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Where is the Google Flights Calendar Chart Graph?
Read More: Where is the Google Flights Calendar Chart Graph?I love using Google Flights. In my opinion, its the best flight search engine out there. One of my favorite features is the calendar chart that shows the lowest fares by departure date for any given set of itineraries (both cites and length of trip). The problem is that I cannot find the button for…
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Venice’s Bridge of Sighs
Read More: Venice’s Bridge of SighsThere is a famous bridge in Venice called The Bridge of Sighs. Sarah and I got our picture taken in front of it and then later on learned about the significance of the bridge. The bridge linked the palace of Venice’s ruler (Doge’s Palace) to the city prison. Convicted prisoners were allowed one last peek…
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The Value of an Internship
Read More: The Value of an InternshipA few years ago I started taking interns along for some of my summer camps. They assist me by teaching juggling workshops to campers, running my merchandise table, and sometimes even speaking and performing on the stage during gathering sessions. I love having these interns around. It takes a lot of weight off my shoulders…
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Unleashing Your Creative Potential
Read More: Unleashing Your Creative PotentialSarah and I recently got to visit Italy – home to some of the world’s greatest art, architecture, and historical sites. It is a very moving experience to stand in front of Rome’ Pantheon or Michaelangelo’s David statue in Florence and reflect on the human ability to create beautiful art. You could make the case…
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The Best of 2013
Read More: The Best of 2013One family tradition that we have recently started is a simple dinner time question: “What was your favorite part of the day?” Kezzie loves to both ask and answer this question. It makes for a fun time to recap the day’s events and talk about the things we value in life. I thought I would…
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Life as a Professional Juggler: FAQ’s
Read More: Life as a Professional Juggler: FAQ’sBy God’s grace, I am living a dream. I get to do what I love and I don’t even feel like I work. But what I do is serious “work” at the same time. I get a lot of questions from people about what I do, so I thought I would try to consolidate the…
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The Gifts of the Wise Men – Children’s Ministry Lesson
Read More: The Gifts of the Wise Men – Children’s Ministry LessonYesterday, I taught on the wise men from the Christmas story in Matthew 2. I always love teaching on this part of the Christmas story because there is so much more in the text than we usually learn from a simple nativity scene. Here are three things that might help as you assemble your lesson…
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The National Gallery of Art
Read More: The National Gallery of ArtIt’s a shame that we have lived in Richmond, VA for the past six years and it was only a few weeks ago that we took our first trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Just 110 miles away, this treasure of a museum has got to be one of the greatest…
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Historical Juggling Props Museum
Read More: Historical Juggling Props MuseumI have the privilege of being a personal friend of the curator of the historical props juggling museum, David Cain. That means that when I juggle in his area (like I did last week), I can pay him a visit and get a free tour of the holdings. Currently, the museum is in his house,…
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How to Build a Portable Puppet Theater
Read More: How to Build a Portable Puppet TheaterSeveral years ago I built a portable puppet theater out of PVC and black fabric. We have used it since then for puppet shows at our church. Our church has different locations, so this is perfect for moving the theater back and forth to different spots where we have children’s worship services and summer activities.…
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Children’s Ministry Lesson: The Ten Plagues
Read More: Children’s Ministry Lesson: The Ten PlaguesI have taught Children’s Church lessons for over a decade and I think yesterday’s lesson on the ten plagues was one of my favorite lessons to ever teach. Please don’t think that I love dark and dismal things like plagues. They really are pretty negative. Biblically speaking, they were real judgements carried out on lots…
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John Wesley in America
Read More: John Wesley in AmericaJohn Wesley, the founder of Methodism, made a missionary trip to the colony of Georgia in the 1730’s. I recently spoke at Epworth-by-the-Sea, a Methodist retreat center on St. Simon’s Island, GA. This is the place where the Wesleys (John and Charles) came, particularly Fort Frederica. There is a beautiful Celtic cross commemorating their time…
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Advanced Chinese Yo-Yo Trick: The Elevator
Read More: Advanced Chinese Yo-Yo Trick: The ElevatorYears ago, I learned a trick with the Chinese Yo-Yo (aka Diabolo) that is known as “the elevator” or “the climb.” Since I use it in my ministry show to illustrate the resurrection of Christ (thanks for the idea, David Cain), kids who see my show call it the “rise-from-the-dead” trick. Whatever you call it,…
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Circus 4 Ever
Read More: Circus 4 EverI’ve got some exciting news. I have partnered with some other jugglers from the Christian Jugglers Association and we are happy to introduce to you a non-profit called Circus 4 Ever. This is an organization that exists to make an eternal impact on lives around the globe using juggling and circus arts. Our primary objectives…
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Meet Fellow Christian Juggler Bob Cates
Read More: Meet Fellow Christian Juggler Bob CatesHere is a video introduction of a friend of mine who is also in the Christian Jugglers Association. I love his heart for God’s Word and his skill at quality entertainment. Bob Cates on Faith Family & Show from Bob Cates on Vimeo.
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How Would You React?
Read More: How Would You React?My first job was as a waiter at a retirement home. I was 14 years old and waited on 90-100 year-olds for the dinner hour after my school day was over. I earned $4.25 an hour and no tips. There was no tipping since it was an all-inclusive retirement community. But I did gain a…
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Joyn the Journey
Read More: Joyn the JourneyThis is a shameless plug for my wife’s blog (Sarah Joyner). She just updated the blog with some summer pics and a list of Kezzie’s favorite things. Enjoy! http://joynerjourney.blogspot.com/2013/09/here-it-is-month-our-family-waits-for.html
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A Retreat for the Whole Church
Read More: A Retreat for the Whole ChurchThis past weekend, I had the privilege of speaking and entertaining at a church-wide retreat at a camp in the middle of Nebraska. What I witnessed in the dynamics of this retreat was one of the most powerful forms of the church being the church I’ve seen before. And I’m not talking about how they…
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Developing a 45-minute Show
Read More: Developing a 45-minute ShowFor many variety performers out there, one of the challenges is filling a 45-minute window of time with engaging content for hundreds or thousands of people. Since I work mostly with audiences that include lots of kids, I have found 45 minutes tends to be a good length of time for family audiences to enjoy…
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Visiting Israel with a Toddler
Read More: Visiting Israel with a ToddlerMy wife and I celebrated our 10 years of marriage this past May by visiting Israel and the West Bank. It was a two and a half week trip and we have a daughter who is two. We decided that we did not want to be away from her for that long of a trip,…
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Juggling-Themed Comic Clippings
Read More: Juggling-Themed Comic ClippingsThanks to juggler Jonathan Root for collecting and documenting this treasure trove of juggling-related comic strips (and even some editorial cartoons). To view the album of over 200 clippings, visit the facebook album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.171943646300156.1073741829.161343814026806&type=1&comment_id=597513&offset=0&total_comments=5
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A Preteen Who Finally Heard
Read More: A Preteen Who Finally HeardI just got this note from a young lady who attended PreTeen Camp at Highland Lakes a few weeks ago. At first it sounds like a criticism, but when I kept reading it I saw it was a testimony. It is very encouraging, reminding me to just keep pressing on in proclaiming God’s Word, because…
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“Holy Fools”: Exploring the Journey of Calling for Christian Variety Performers
I am happy to announce that my PhD dissertation has been published to ProQuest, an academic database for published research. I have made the dissertation open source, which means anyone anywhere can access the full content free of charge. Here is the full dissertation: https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/holy-fools-exploring-journey-calling-christian/docview/2622316783/se-2 Please share far and wide. I am very much excited…
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The Easiest Large Group Game Ever
This is probably the easiest large group game ever invented. If you can think of an easier one, please let me know in the comments. Heads or Tails! This game of heads or tails involves EVERYONE in your large group. It is actually better the larger the group gets. There is an elimination factor to…
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Merry Christmas from the Joyners!
Greetings from our family in Richmond, Virginia! We are thankful for you, our friends and family. We are also thankful to the Lord for His gift of the love to us all this season. This past year has been a roller coaster of experiences and emotions, specifically regarding our spunky little Annie, who is now…
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Book Release! Incredibly Bad Dad Jokes
I have been writing down my original Dad jokes for several years now, but recently they dramatically increased. While the past five months of my life have been the toughest for me as a Dad (with Annie’s medical crisis), the Dad jokes actually came out in full force during this season. You see, in my…
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A Children’s Ministry Poem
From the mouths of children come questions galore about heaven and angels and Satan and more. They speak what their hearts say without holding back, so the wonder of God is something they never lack. Oh God, who are you? Who inspires the minds of little ones many, so that they may find this Jesus…