July 12, 2012 meeting of the Atlanta Chapter of the FCM

The July 12, 2012 meeting of the Atlanta Chapter of the FCM was held at the home of 
John and Julia Jefferson.  Those in attendance were John and Julia Jefferson, Leland 
Davis, Randy Burt and Lynn Fox.
We enjoyed a video about sponge ball magic and routines and then went to the magic room 
where we shared our experiences of the past month and some really great gospel effects.
John and Julia and Leland will attend the FCM conference in a couple of weeks and at the 
same time, Randy and Tricky Ricky Henson will be in Oklahoma sharing the gospel with 
American Indians as they have done for many years.  We will look forward to our next 
meeting on September 13, to hear all about their trips.
Attached are the detailed minutes of the July meeting.
Until Then,
Keep the “SON” shining…
John

The July meeting of the Atlanta Chapter of the FCM was held on July 12, 2012 at the home of John and Julia Jefferson. Those in attendance were: John and Julia Jefferson, Leland Davis, Randy Burt and Lynn Fox.

After dinner we watched a sponge ball magic and routines video. Great lessons. Randy told us of his recent magic purchases! We will see one of them later.

Leland opened with prayer, remembering Rick who has been sick (and Angela, his caretaker) and Judy who has had foot surgery. Jim is helping a friend and could not attend.

Julia reported that Judy did the card trick that Jim showed us and then Rick made for us. She did the trick for her Sunday School class. We will let her tell her story when she returns in October as she will be on a mission trip in September!

John reminded the group that he and Julia and Leland will be attending the FCM Conference July 29—August 3. Also, Randy and Tricky Ricky Henson will be in Oklahoma sharing the gospel with the Indian tribes as they have done for many years.

Randy was up and ready to show his latest and very unusual die box effect. He said that God sent His Son, Jesus to die on a cross for our sins—took cube out of a shiny silver box (Hobby Lobby). After being crucified on the cross, Jesus was placed in the tomb (Randy’s beautiful, unusual die box). After three days and an earthquake which rolled back the stone, all that was left in the grave were His grave clothes (white silk). Randy then opened the die box completely!! No cube was to be found! He then showed us the unique effect. He said it is made by Mikama from Japan. Thanks, Randy, for the great effect!

Lynn then showed us his unique sponge ball routine!! With great dexterity, he changed red sponge balls to yellow and yellow ones to red explaining that we need to trust our spirit instead of our eyes, because our eyes can be deceived. After several excellent moves, he finally explained how the trick was done and that the balls were relatively new on the market. We may just see them at the FCM conference in a couple of weeks. Great job, Lynn.

John was next to share. He brought out 3 cards: praying hands, Bible, and a rabbit in a hat and asked the question, “Which one of these three would you say would be the best way to know God?” Leland pretended he would choose the rabbit in the hat—magic. John then turned over the rabbit card and it read, “The true answer is on the card in the envelope.” Of course, the card was a picture of Jesus. Leland then chose the Bible and John proceeded to show how the effect could work regardless of which card was initially picked. This was a great easy-to-do gospel effect that presents a strong gospel message.

John then did a mental effect that could be done easily with any two books. Leland randomly selected 2 books from John’s library. After a page number was selected from one of the books, John proceeded to “mentally” tell Leland the first word on that page of the book. John then showed how to do this very baffling effect!!! John explained that this is a great effect to use at someone’s house where you can actually use any two books they have and it requires no pre-setups!!!

John’s next trick was to show how a ring could magically climb up a rubber band! Everyone was given a rubber band and taught the effect. Super spur-of-the moment trick. During discussion of the trick, ideas such as the price of gold going up, using a double rubber band, etc. were suggested.

Another no preparation, spur-of-the moment effect done by John was the floating styrofoam cup. You just had to be there!!

For his last trick, John did 2 versions of “Three Card Monte”: one with the gospel application of the King of Hearts and one with the “Tree of Hearts”—three of hearts. He did the normal routine then showed how an added version of “sidewalk shuffle” could add to the effect.

For each of the five effects that John demonstrated, everyone was given a complete write up of the effect and some of the needed props.

WE WILL NOT HAVE A MEETING IN THE MONTH OF AUGUST as John and Julia will be out of town. The next meeting will be September 13.

John closed with prayer.

After the meeting, Leland stayed and we discussed preparations for his first FCM conference. We are really looking forward to it!!