FCM Atlanta Chapter Minutes for February 13, 2020

 FCM Atlanta Chapter Minutes for February 13, 2020
The February 13, 2020 meeting for the Atlanta Chapter of the FCM was held at the home of 
John and Julia Jefferson.  Those in attendance were the following:  John and Julia 
Jefferson; Lynn Fox; Randy Burt; John Abbott; Bill Darby.  Bill brought two very special 
guests, Olivia and Wyatt.
Our next meeting will be Thursday, March 12, 2020 at the home of John and Julia 
Jefferson.  Dinner begins at 6:30 and the meeting starts at 7:15. Please feel free to 
come early!
We thank Judy for the delicious desserts she brought.  Unfortunately, she was not able to 
stay for the meeting.  Judy, you are one in a million!!!!
Several of our members had conflicts this month.  We pray for them and hope we can all 
return next month.  
The following is a summary of our meeting.
Keep the ìSONî ShiningÖ
Julia and John Jefferson
MINUTES:
Dear friends, I am sorry I have not written the minutes for the meetings that were held 
in October and January.  Due to unwanted, yet persistent pain and surgery, my right hand 
has not able to type.  I am just beginning to recover so hopefully will write the missing 
minutes in the near future.
Our guests, Olivia and Wyatt are members of Bill Darbyís church and are interested in 
magic.  They took time out of their busy school week to accompany Bill on his long trek 
from Athens, GA to come to our meeting.  Wyatt is a middle school wrestler and Olivia, an 
8th grader, dances with special needs children.  What a blessing these young people are 
to their family and to their community!!  We do hope they will be able to return.  Bill 
is such a wonderful friend and mentor to Wyatt and Olivia.  We have the best FCM members 
ever!
Before our meeting got underway, John J. shared gospel magic with our young guests, 
Olivia and Wyatt.  He showed them 3 effects, gave them the instructions and the gospel 
magic lesson and had them practice the tricks.  He also taught them the magic words: 
practice, practice, practice!  They were very receptive to learning and hopefully they 
will use the lessons they learned, to the glory of God.  
John J. opened our meeting with prayer and welcomed our young guests, Wyatt and Olivia.  
He then gave Magic Bobís lecture notes from the January meeting to those who were not 
able to attend.  John J. also showed the group John Abbottís new book entitled Experience 
Magic with Johnny Magik!!!  The book teaches over 50 tricks, gags and routines with items 
found around the house.  John A. includes tips for learning and performing magic and 
encouraging words for beginners of any age.  What a great gift for an up-and-coming 
magician!  Way to go, John A.!!  We are delighted and impressed.  The book can be bought 
online at www.JohnnyMagik.com or on Amazon.com.  Buy it and bring it to the next 
meetingóJohn will autograph it!  John A. gave each of us a booklet entitled Magic Tricks 
You Can Do.  It contains directions for several magic tricks, directions to a free video 
online which demonstrates the effects, as well as the information to access his website 
to schedule an event.  We are certainly proud of our newest member and his wonderful 
enthusiasm as he shares the gospel through magic!
Now for some more fun!  Bill Darby asked John J. and our young visitor, Wyatt, to stand 
back to back.  Bill gave John a small Bible and asked him to ask someone to give him a 
page number.  The number was 67.  Bill then asked John to whisper the word he saw in the 
top corner of the page so that he could ìmentallyî send the word to Wyatt.  OK, Bill, 
what did we say about practice?  After much ìshouting of chokeî and even more laughter, 
Bill made a discovery that had prevented the mental trick from working!!  What fun!!  
Whatís that about Gideon Bibles?
John Abbott was next.  He wound a rope around his neck and said that we often get tangled 
up in life and the more we try to do on our own to be set free, the worse things get!  
There is only one who can help usóthat is Jesus Christóat which point John pulled each 
end of the rope and it magically came through his neck and he was set free!  We need to 
call on God and trust Him to help us through our troubles.  Super trick, John. 
Randy brought out 2 coins called the Hopping Half effect.  He proceeded to manipulate the 
USA silver coin and the English copper penny, explaining that he really did have 2 coins! 
 Randy is an accomplished manipulator of coins and performed the trick beautifully.  He 
shared the ìsecretî with the group.  We know that the real secret is a very well- made 
effect and lots of practice!
So why do you have colored loops on your wrist, Randy?  Randy explained that it is a 
great way to share the gospel.  He asked Wyatt to pick 2 colors from the five loops.  
Wyatt picked brown and orange. Randy put the 2 loops on his fingers and was able to have 
them magically switch places.  He said the brown could make you think of the cross and 
the orange, well, ìorangeyouî  glad I showed you this trick?  The other colors could 
represent eternal life, the blood of Jesus, the golden streets of heaven, etc.  A short 
gospel message can easily be given using very simple props.  A large bag of loops can be 
bought at Hobby Lobby for a very small price.  Randy showed Wyatt and Olivia how to do 
the trick and he gave each one a packet of 5 loops.  Hopefully they will be able to share 
Jesus with their friends.
We were then pleased to hear of Lynn Foxís mission trip to a small city outside of the 
country of Panama.  His Sunday School class made the trip to help build a house that will 
also serve as a church, and to also teach a Vacation Bible School.  A local organization 
was impressed with the effort and said they will finish the building.  What a blessing 
this group was to the people in this small place so far from usóreal people, real 
difficulties, real faith.  Lynn performed many illusions for the residents.  We are sure 
they were blessed.
Lynn then showed us a ìflowerpotîóMasel Tube-- and asked us to provide the rain to help a 
flower grow, by slapping our legs.  The flower silk was produced, but it needed color.  
Lynn asked us to throw beautiful colors toward the flowerpot.  We did, but the silk was 
blotched.  We tried again and finally a silk with a beautiful flower on it was produced.  
God is so good.  He gives us a beautiful place to live and grow in His word.  Thanks, 
Lynn.  A great message and a cool trick!
Well, Magic Bob, if you are reading this, just know that we were still finding confetti 
from YOUR trick and now!...  John J. explained that when Magic Bob came in January he 
showed him a magic wand which ultimately made a loud noise and then proceeded to shower 
our house with confetti!  (we know, it wasnít loaded!).  Anyway, not to be outdone, John 
J. went to Walmart and bought 4 small tubes and 2 large ones!  He told the group that Bob 
had made the tube look like a magic wand with white and black duct tape so he could use 
it in a performance.  John J. then proceeded to shoot off a small one which caused all 
kinds of exclamations and much laughter and then he wondered how much better the longer 
one was, so off it went!!  OK, so we acted like kidsóeven had John A. put a video on 
Facebook!óall the more fun .  Everyone offered to help clean up but John J. and I said we 
were pretty much experts at picking up most of the confetti so they could just look for 
the ones we missed, next month!
Our number was small, but our heart for sharing and for laughter was great!!!  As always, 
we missed our friends who were not able to attend, but hope the above notes will bring 
back fond memories for those of us who were here, and a sense of belonging, to all.
We closed with prayer.
Our next meeting will be Thursday, March 12.  God willing, we will meet again.
Grace and peace to you, 
Julia