Puppet Space

God has really blessed us this year with puppets! One year ago at this time we had Princess Annie, and a couple of small old puppets and a few that we doctored up to make useful. And today we have so many that we don't even have adequate storage for them all! Just the other day we received a policeman puppet, mother, cheerleader, baby, grandpa, a snail, some birds and small animals along with the trunk to transport them in ... all for free! WOW! We were soooo excited! I can't wait to post some pictures and videos (coming soon) of our puppets. These are the style of puppets that were given to us.

We performed a small skit for our church's annual "Hanging of the Green" and a woman visiting from another church asked us to come to her church and perform for them so we said, "Sure!" Our kids were very excited about the idea. Wait, we use a castle puppet set up for children's church, we used the baptistry for the puppets in the sanctuary... we need a portable puppet stage NOW! We looked at One Way Street and their stage was $550!!!! WithOUT curtains!!! No offense, I love those guys but we have ummmm $0 budget left over. Never fear PVC pipe is here! We headed to our local Lowe's and bought the goods (now I have to interject here and say I made one of these years ago but it, ahem, dissapeared during some church construction, ah well). Came home and within an hour, we had a stage (thanks B & L!!!), the next day we sewed some curtains out of FREE black fabric someone had donated to us and viola! We had an awesome mobile puppet stage if I do say ...

I have that song stuck in my head! We went to a Puppet Festival sponsored by OneWayStreet over the weekend and a very talented 17 yo girl ventriloquist's puppet, Jodie, sang that song for us. She did a great job! Here are the lyrics in case you, like me, wonder what they are! I am the very model of a modern Major-General I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotepotenuse I'm very good at integral and differential calculus I know the scientific names of...

This month we traveled to Africa and learned about the Mandinka people. http://www.mandinkapeople.com/ The children were fascinated by it all. We even got on our knees and they prayed for the children there to get a chance to hear about Jesus. I hope it opened their eyes to a world without God. Living in the US and especially in the Bible belt, we just take for granted that everyone believes the way we do. Here are some of the slides that I used for our lessons this month. I used information from Helpmeet in the Making my dil's blog. Her sister is a member of the IMB and is a missionary to the Mandinka. Please pray for her and the work that is being done there. I know I will and so will the children I teach.

Today's puppet skit with Princess Annie really convicted *me*. I'm not sure how much the kids got out of it but the Lord really spoke to my heart during the skit. Princess Annie was bemoaning the really bad day she was having. I gently reminded her to praise God. Praise God??? For all this bad stuff that is happening in my life??? Yes, because if we give in to the things around us, it will steal our joy, but if we praise the Lord for who He is and for His son, then we will be able to rejoice. Aha! That's what's been missing! Praise! I will praise Him while I have my being.

One part of my life that I absolutely love is teaching children's church each week. I am so blessed to be a part of this ministry. I am also loving our churches updated technology that allows me to use an overhead projector each week. I LOVE making powerpoints to go with my lessons! Here are some snapshots of the powerpoint slides I made for last week. This month we are taking a plane ride to introduce our world travels this year.