Star Trek had the Next Generation. The Pink Panther returned. Even “Saved by the Bell” had a new class, pathetic as it was. It was only a matter of time before the Armed and Dangerous Puppet Task Force would resurface. Years ago at LMCC we started a puppet team (help me with the date, Nathan). This week we’ve unveiled, Armed and Dangerous: NIV (New International Version, of course) There’s only two of us but we’ve already had an opening tour.
I hate to waste a good teenager, and Steven was coming with us to the orphanage every week, eager to help. He’s a born performer, 13 years old. There’s sawdust in his blood, as they say in the circus world. So I asked, “Have you ever done puppets before?” He hadn’t. So we had a little introduction to puppets course one Saturday afternoon at my apartment. Probably half of my old puppet team is on my email list, so you know the routine. The “treat puppets like babies” speech. Gooseneck and proper movement. Entrances and exits. Unfortunately I didn’t have the puppet aerobics tape here. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
I have a cast of six puppets to work with. Schmutz is the most well-traveled puppet, having already been to six foreign nations. But the stars of the show are Judah the Lion and Fergy the cat. The puppet series right now is called, “A Tale of Two Kitties.”
Most of the kids I work have no parents, or under-involved parents, and Fergy represents “the every kid” in these skits. Judah is the Big Cat who helps steer him through the challenges of life.
In the latest script, I’ve changed Fergy’s name to Myakiznak. It seems that Ukrainian kids don’t “understand what a Fergy is.” Sergey began translating him as “Fluffy,” and frankly that’ll never do for me. The word, “Myakiznak” is sort of a “letter” from the Russian alphabet. It means “soft sign.”
I can get plenty of mileage out of one puppet show. We did the skit for the orphanage on Tuesday and for the Street Kid Rehab Center on Wednesday. We showed the skit one more time for the missionary kids on Friday at Family Night. That’s a potential three performances per production. That could help us develop our skills fast.
The most amazing audience was the street kids. Understand that these are the toughest kids we work with. They’re street wise, restless survivors. The reason they’re at the center is because the police have picked them off the streets where they had been living. These guys loved the puppets. They were amazingly responsive and laughed out loud at the skits. At the end, I told Sergey it was the best ministry time I’ve had at the Rehab center. He said it was his best ministry time there too, which really surprised me. He’s been doing this a lot longer than I.
So it’s fun, pulling on some of these gifts I haven’t used for a while. You never know what’s going to come up next.

¶ 1:53 PM

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