My Muppet puppet show in church

[Zack the Dog]

Hey guys! How are ya? Loving the snow huh?

Well I never got around to posting about this before but for about the past month and a half i've been working on a Muppet Puppet show for a Christian church which I performed at today Sunday Dec 14th. Let me give some back ground first, this is something i wanted to post a while ago.

Well back in early November right after I got my drivers license i was invited to go to a church retreat called Footsteps for teens, Now i'm 20 years old so i was the oldest canident there besides for the other college students that were actually running the program with adults too. My friend Kitty for the pizza place I work at invited me saying that i'd have a lot of fun, i'd never even done a retreat before so my parents thought it would be a nice idea to, It was at a Christian church but it was nondoman....I don't know how to spell it yet alone say it, but (I'm Roman Catholic BTW) the retreat was on Dec 7th 8th and 9th Fri-Sun. I wasn't sure what i'd be doing but my friend told me a few of the activities that we would be doing, but to keep it secrete because "i'm not suppose to know about them yet" I weaseled a few things outta her;-)

ok i'm getting to the point now...LOL so i deiced i'd bring my Muppet puppets (full body Kermit and then the Terry Angus frog Puppet I have named Sebastian. But i didn't tell anyone I did. well anyways i was having so much fun with the kids telling them about my muppet-fanness and that i did some puppetry. also in our small groups we had to make posters about reading we heard and then share them to all the other groups in which my group always had a muppet character or two on them, they loved my drawings...I could talk forever and go into more detail but i'm trying to get to the point...LOL~

So on the second day of the retreat all the groups had to put together a short skit, and THIS is where my puppets came in! oh my group was soooo amazed and kept calling me there "secrete weapon" I used the puppets and we did a skit based on a story called "Warm and fuzzy" were you pass along these warm and fuzzy (muppephone-like) creatures to people representing Gods love but you have to share it and shouldn't keep it to yourself. There was a man there that saw our skit and he asked me to come to his own church and do a Puppet show. i said sure but that i'd never done puppet shows for a church before.

Well anyways I worked with the youth group and performed a short skit right at the altar in front of everyone. they called up the children and i was also mic'd so the whole congregation could hear me. I actually did two shows today (one at 9:15 and the other at 11:00) same show. it was so great! I'll talk about it more in this post, my message is a little too long now, lol!!

I'll break some more info up soon as well as post a script of what i did too! Take care and Happy Hoildays!

 

[froggiegirl18]

that's great!!

That is great that you got to share your joy and talent. I actually started puppetry at church and have been doing it for 6 years going on 7. It is great to be able to share something that you are a fan about..also it seems you did some advertising for the muppets..maybe others smaller fans and some older will catch on to the God given dream of the muppets once more.Anyways keep doing what you love and never give up when no one seems to believe in you and when others only see puppetry only for kids. This Sunday I was suppose to do a sign language song for my church but they only gave me two weeks to do it. With finals and being a music ed major(well changing that next fall to theater), I was super busy with 18.5 credits..which is insane. So I then suggested doing the same song but with my puppet. The person in charge said that it was not the worship they were looking for and that it would change the meaning of the song. This broke my heart because puppetry comes from my heart..it was like they were saying what you do does not add up when it comes to singing and dancing. It always seems that my ministry is put aside and hidden in the back with children. Even though I love making kids happy, I just wish that they would see that puppetry can minister to all ages..This past week has been my only challenge, but I am going to continue to do what I love no matter what others may think. I have already had so much opposition from doing puppetry that it is unreal. I started puppetry when I was 12(now 18 soon to be 19)
and have been my own director ever since. God has been my only strength to keep on performing. So just stay available, keep practicing, and who knows where God will lead you with doing puppets.

sincerly,
Sandee

 

[Don'tLiveonMoon]

Wow, that's really cool. We used to do puppets at our church, though mainly it would just be songs on tape with the puppets singing. I wrote a few skits for the puppets to do a while ago. That was pretty fun. Can't wait to read your script!
Erin

 

[dwayne1115]

Well i just need to say thank you. you have truly liffted my spirts to do my puppet shows at church. I am supost to do one every sunday mornig and somtimes i just get bummed out and dont really want to do it well whenever i get there it is just like i come alive and do my puppets with such energy and love. i am begining to love kids, and if you knew me for the past 18 years i really didnt like kids i could not stand them, but now they just can tell that there is some kind of magic or carring or love that is there not only with the puppets but with me as well. i deep down am so glad for my puppets that i just dont know what to say. but thanks agin for the encouragment you have already giving me thank you so much.

 

[Luke]

Great to hear Zack. BTW did you know Raccoons are out on DVD in Canada ? Wheeee !

 

[Zack the Dog]

Great to hear Zack. BTW did you know Raccoons are out on DVD in Canada ? Wheeee !

LOL! Yes Luke they are in region 1 too (in Cananda) so i might pick them up over Christmas Break. There are like two or three volumes with three eps on each.

And thanks to all of you guys! It was great to volenteer doing this and yes in some ways i was advertings the Muppets (in which i'm a little worried about copyright rights) LOL! but it wasn't for money or anything and it was a small church so i don't think i did anything wrong.lol

 

[Phantom]

Cool. I've found that the adults in our church enjoy our puppets as much, if not more than the children (I think this is due to growing up with Sesame Street and the Muppet Show). Our team is rehearsing for a 30 minute show for this coming Sunday (12/21). To say the least we are running around like headless chickens as we finish the final details.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Beauregard]

Bah. Not fair...I mean yes! Great.

Ok, I'll explain the Bah, not fair. Last year I got to do a largish Christian Puppet Panto/Nativity Play with dozens of Puppets and big productions numbers (Or something) but then we had to move churches and so this yearI havn't got a Puppet Group and can only do a tiny winny itsy bitsy Puppet Show on Sunday with the help of my older sister.

Oh well. Great stuff Zack

Beau

 

[Phantom]

Sounds like you may have an opportunity to start a new group. Or maybe you can find like minded persons from area churches and do a community puppet group.

My group (Pogo-Puppeteers obeying God's orders) have been asked by a church in a neighboring town to do a one-day introductory seminar on starting a group, basic techniques and everything. I haven't set a date, but we are looking at the end of January.

We've worked hard to show that puppets can be an effective ministry. I just hope we are bringing glory where it belongs and no to ourselves.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Hey, Zack!

Sounds like a ton of fun!

My full-body Kermit (the old 1970's puppet, and I made legs for it) sang Rainbow Connection for a lesson dealing with Noah's Ark. I tried to get them to let Count sing 'Count Your Many Blessings,' but vampires are 'evil.'