Tennessee

We have performed at a few different churches in Tennessee and have went there the last couple years. 

Whenever we go to Tennessee, we have a church that allows us to stay there. This is nice because it saves us the money of having to pay for a hotel for the time that we are there. We typically take air mattresses and it works out nicely. So, if anyone from that church happens to read this, thanks for letting us stay there! 

The first year or two of going to Tennessee Andrew went with us. We then took a Heaven's Handful puppeteer named Ceyona with us when Andrew was unable to go. This past year, we did something different and Heaven's Handful actually went there with us. This was the first bigger mission trip type thing that we did with them. 

Ephesians 4:11-13 ESV 

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (http://www.openbible.info/topics/ministry)

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Heaven's Handful

Today's post is going to continue the theme of collaborating with other ministries, this time directly stemming from the seminar that I talked about in yesterday's post. 

Back in 2010, our puppeteering world grew. We had been in a slow point of having shows at the time. We went to the seminar that year and at first it seemed like just any other seminar we have been to. However, it was definitely more than past seminars, in a great way. 

While there, my dad mentioned to my mom that he felt that God wanted us to talk to someone. That someone was the current director of the host puppet team of the seminar. We did not really know what would come of it, but she agreed to talk to him. We talked to the leader, Ron, and decided that we would try coming to one of their practices. May 2nd, 2010 we attended our first Heaven's Handful practice. 

After our first practice there, we continued attending practices with them. We did shows with them. We were officially members of a second puppet team. It was a lot of fun and it gave us the opportunity to do puppets more than we had been doing which was great. The crazy thing was that whenever we joined their team, Adventureland started getting more shows scheduled as well. I guess that just goes to show the Glory of God whenever you do the things that God wants you to do. 

Anyways, as we worked with them, it worked out for them to even help us some. One of their members actually did most of our shows with us for awhile. I will talk a little more about the specific person I am referring to in tomorrow's post, as well as a few other people from Heaven's Handful. Shockingly there is actually somewhat a flow between these few posts. Just so you guys now, that won't always happen with me. Just thought I would give you a fair warning there.

 As time has went on, my parents have actually started co-directing Heaven's Handful. So, we do all the shows with them, and their entire team helps us out from time to time even. We have even gotten to perform at places Adventureland probably never would have gotten to because of our working with them. It is just great getting to work with them. It gives us even more opportunities to share the Gospel with others. And that is the best thing we can be sharing with people. 

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 1 Corinthians 12:12    
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (http://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/unity-bible-verses/)

Being a Christian means being a part of the Body of Christ. Therefore, everyone is a different and crucial part of the Body. However, the Body cannot function properly if the different parts are not working together. I mean, if your right and left feet were not working together and trying to go in different directions, you would just end up doing the splits, and not going anywhere. So, work with other ministries, other parts of the Body, so that the Body of Christ can live and thrive. 

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Seminars

In yesterday's post, I talked about collaborating with other ministries. Today, I am going to stick with a similar, yet slightly different, topic. Puppeteering is a team effort, within the team, as well as with other teams. 

A big part of seminars is to share ideas. Part of each seminar is two different competitions. One of the competitions is strictly puppeteering. The other competition is a creative ministries competition that includes things such as miming, clowning, and human videos. Teams have only 3 minutes to get set up and are then judged on a set of criteria that is specific for the type of performance. Each team is then rewarded a bronze, silver, gold, or in very rare cases, platinum awards. Which you get is based on number of points, so there could be more than one team getting each award level. Anyways, I digressed a bit here. What this paragraph was supposed to be focused on was sharing ideas. Whenever you watching the competitions, you get to see how different teams do different songs. You may see a team do a song that you have done before or that you would like to do. However, they may do a prop, special effect, or choreography that you would have never been able to think up on your own. However, seeing the song performed at the festival was able to serve as an inspiration for you in your ministry. 

Another part of seminars is getting to learn about different techniques to puppetry and other creative ministries. There are three different sessions over the weekend where you can choose a workshop to attend. Some of the workshops are on puppetry while some of the workshops are on other ministries. During the third session, there is even something known as the lip sync challenge. This is a puppetry challenge where one member of each team that wants to be represented (16 different puppeteers) compete. We get a number and then go behind the stage. We start off in groups of 4. Each group has to use their puppet to lip sync to a song. It is a song that you may or may not have ever heard before. I have competed in the lip sync challenge a few times and have actually made it to the top 3 twice. Once I got second place and the other time I got third. It is always something fun for me that I enjoy at the seminars. 

Another great thing about the seminars is getting to meet a lot of new people. There are professional puppeteers through Creative Ministries Solutions that are there running it. There are also just so many other puppet teams and ministries there that you can meet so many amazing people. I am going to leave this topic as is for now because tomorrow's post is going to talk about some of the amazing people I met because of the seminars that we go to. 

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Proverbs 1:5 New International Version (NIV)

⁵ let the wise listen and add to their learning,    and let the discerning get guidance—  (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%201:5)

Proverbs tells us that we should continue to learn. This means that even after we have been doing something for awhile, it is still important that we listen to what people say and to learn from it. And, if we are struggling with something, we should ask for guidance. If we are going to live for God, we need to make sure to always be growing in our Faith and knowledge of Christ and His teachings. 

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Anointed Hearts

Ministries collaborating with each other can be absolutely amazing, especially when it is something that God wants for us. Adventureland's collaborating with the Southern Gospel group Anointed Hearts is something that I feel to really be part of God's plan for us. 

My mom knew the father of the group when she was younger. Due to the fact that they were not local to where she lived, they only got to see each other for vacations. So, whenever the trips to where they lived ended, they lost touch. However, that is obviously not where this story ends. 

A few years ago, back when Myspace was still popular, my mom created a page for our ministry on MySpace. While messing around on there, she happened to come across the page for the family, as well as for their ministry, Anointed Hearts. My mom ended up contacting them, and telling them about our ministry. Therefore, we ended up taking our ministry their way. At that time, they were in Ohio. 

The Ohio trip was my first time meeting them. On that trip, we surprised them by performing one of their songs. We kept that hush hush up until the music started. The reaction was priceless! We actually had specific puppets chosen to match each of them. 

Anointed Hearts came our way as well. They knew that we had done a song of theirs before, so we wanted to think of something else we could do. So, we decided to really work with them. We had them sing a song standing out front of our puppet stage and we went up with their respective puppets and sang right along with them. That is something that is always fun to do. It really shows how great things can happen when we work with other ministries. 

Anointed Hearts eventually moved back to their hometown roots -- Kentucky. When they moved there, we started going to Kentucky to perform, but we would also go to West Virginia in the same trip. I don't want to say a whole lot about those trips here, though, because I plan to tell about them more in detail in future posts. 

Anointed Hearts has also been back to our area a few times since we started working together. Our collaborating was able to bring us to their area, but also open around us up to them. Working with them has been a real blessing! So, if you are part of a ministry, really consider working with other ministries. You never know what God has planned for both ministries! 

Romans 15:5-6 ESV 

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (http://www.openbible.info/topics/working_together)

Just a Little About Anointed Hearts
Since we do work with Anointed Hearts, I thought I would go ahead and share a bit about the group. For more specific information, check out their website by clicking the picture below.

I will now go ahead and tell you just a little bit about each of the members. 

Jamie is the father of the group. He plays the guitar as well as vocals. He does a lot of the introductions to songs and explains what the song means to him and the band.

Paula is the mother of the group. She sings vocals. She also does a lot of contacting the different venues that they perform at. She also helps out at the merchandise table after their shows.

 Courtney is the oldest daughter. She sings vocals, both leads and harmonies. Along with singing, she has also started writing some songs. Whenever she speaks, it is from the heart. The same for when she writes. She has a blog of her own (and she is actually the one that told me about the 31 day challenge that this series is a part of). If you would like to check her blog out, click the following: Eyes of Faith 

Alison is the middle daughter. She sings vocals, leads as well as harmonies. She is also the musician of the family and knows how to play multiple instruments. She has also added song writing to her list of talents. 

Emily is the youngest daughter. She sings vocals and has began to do harmony.

This is just a very very limited amount of information about them. If you would like to know more, please check out their website (click the group photo with the red background). 

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