Halloween Trunk or Treat

Halloween is one of those holidays that some Christians have nothing to do with. However, we do something on Halloween that shares the Love of Christ with those present. We do a Trunk or Treat with Heaven's Handful at their church. A lot of kids come through.
The children go through registration and are then brought into the sanctuary where they get to watch us perform at least 2 songs. All of the songs we perform are Christian. Actually, with our Halloween show we do something special. Every song we perform is done in Blacklight. As I said in previous posts, a lot of people really like blacklight songs. This is actually the only time that we do the entire show in blacklight, though. We also do some songs with other special lights such as lasers for Halloween. Some years, we also have a rapper that does a song after we do 2. 
After seeing the puppets, the kids are taken outside where they are able to go around to the different cars and get candy. So, instead of only giving them candy and sending them on their way, they get to hear the Gospel as well.  

Matthew 5:16 ESV 

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.(http://www.openbible.info/topics/witnessing_to_others)

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Hispanic Festivals

Each year, we perform at one or two different Hispanic festivals in Missouri. This is fun because no one of the team, Adventureland or Heaven's Handful, fluently knows Spanish. We may be able to come up with a couple of words, but we definitely couldn't carry on a conversation in Spanish. However, thankfully, our puppets are still able to perform in Spanish, as well as any other language we may one day need. This is due to the fact that we use prerecorded music. I suppose the prerecorded music thing is good for multiple reasons. One is the language barrier and the other is that the songs are sung nicely as opposed to our lovely singing voices. 

The Hispanic festivals are fun to perform at because it is something different than we are used to. We are outside (which at times can be a disaster if there is any wind at all or if it is raining) and are in the children's pavilion/area. The Hispanic festivals themselves are not actually Christian events, however, we are thankful and blessed to be able to perform Christian songs and share the Love of God with the people there. 

Galatians 3:28 ESV 

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (http://www.openbible.info/topics/culture)

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Honduras Training

Each year we get to train a group of college students to do puppetry. This is not just for fun. The group we are training is actually preparing to go to Honduras on a mission trip. 
The students we are training do not get a whole lot of training, but we show them the basics as well as some of the more different or elaborate things that can be done with puppetry. We show them the basics, but we don't stop there. We give them opportunities to actually put a puppet on and practice the things we showed them. They also have the chance to ask any questions that they may have about puppetry. 
As I previously said, we do show them some songs that are a bit more in-depth than the songs they will be doing while in Honduras. This allows them to see what is possible with puppetry and it may possibly inspire them to stick with puppetry even after returning home from their trip. 

Share the talents that God gave you. If someone is interested in learning how to do something that you know how to do, teach them. They may be able to go places and share the Love of God places that you may not be able to go.  

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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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Building Relationships

Puppeteering is more than just sticking your hand up a puppet, sticking the puppet above the stage, and lip syncing to a song. Puppeteering is also something that you do as a team. You have to be able to work with the other people on your team in order to make the songs you perform look the way you want them to. While a puppet ministry isn't strictly about the entertainment factor, it is still nice if the songs look put together well because the more an audience gets into a song, the more likely they will hear the message that the song is portraying. Anyways, if you can't work with the other members of the team, what kind of a team is it really? If you do teamwork right, you can get to know some great people and you can build relationships with them. 

 1 Peter 3:8 “Finally, all of you should be of one mind.  Sympathize with each other.  Love each other as brothers and sisters.  Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude.” (http://christianbiblelife.com/verses/13-bible-verses-to-restore-and-strengthen-relationships)
When you are working with a team, you should all have the same goal in mind. For a ministry, a reasonable and expected goal would be to share God's Love and Word with the world. However, if someone in the group has a different goal in mind, it will effect the success of that ultimate goal, especially if the other person's goal works against sharing God's Love and Word with the world. I Peter 3:8 also says to sympathize with each other and to love each other as brothers and sisters. In order to really succeed as a team, the members need to be able to care for and respect each other. You don't want to seclude anyone because if they do not feel like they are part of the team, then they may not put in all of their effort in order to help the team succeed. The last things this particular verse says to do is to be tenderhearted and to keep a humble attitude. This goes along with caring for and respecting the members of the team. If a team is going to be a team, everyone needs to see everyone's strengths. If everyone thinks they are better than everyone else, there is sure to be some issues in the area of working as a team. 

Within a team, while working with different people, you are able to build meaningful relationships. You get to really know people. Yes, you get to know the other members as puppeteers (or whatever kind of team member it would be in your case), but you also get to know them as people. So, I am going to tell you about just one of the people I have gotten to build a relationship with through puppets (with a couple other people mentioned as well). There were other people I got to meet and know as well, but I don't want to make this just a list of people (which is why this post got put off to begin with). I just want to make sure to tell about one person just because he really does show how great puppeteering can be for building relationships .  Plus, this is what I had eluded to in a previous post so I did kind of need to include it.

 Andrew is my honorary big brother. We got along well and it sort of just clicked. Anyways, I met him when my parents and I started working with Heaven's Handful. His family had been involved with puppets for years, and he had officially started puppeteering when he was in the 7th grade. As he got better and as time we on, he moved into leadership of the team. 
After we worked with Heaven's Handful for awhile, Andrew even started doing most of Adventureland's shows with us. So, with how often we did shows, we saw quite a bit of Andrew. Especially since he came to our practices and shows, and we went to Heaven's Handful's practices and shows. However, since his parents, Steve and Kerry, were also involved with Heaven's Handful, we also got to meet and know them. So, we get together from time to time for things even outside of puppet events. It is just nice to know that God let my family and I meet Andrew and his family through working together with puppetry. 

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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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