I didn’t use to like puppets, “los títeres”, much at all. They seemed kind of strange, very expensive, and I didn’t find them very effective ministry tools. But I have been “converted”. In the DR, I was working closely with a puppet team, translating skits and able to observe their effect first hand.
That week I was helping a group that went to several one-day VBS’s, and we did the puppets at each of them. Most of the kids hadn’t seen them before, so they were brand new and attracted –and held- attention. If I saw the kids again I would follow up with them and ask them about what happened, and they could tell me. Through a combination of skits both with and without words, we conveyed the gospel to the kids.
It was interesting to watch the puppeteers behind the curtain. At some places we had no poles and only a sheet and some wire, so the puppeteers would be stacked three deep in the back to make the show. I took a few very very short and very unprofessional video clips.
One time, the place available for us to use was a discotheque..I had to use an extra puppet sheet to cover the naked woman on the wall!
It was great to be able to use that space to do God’s work. Here all the kids praying together after the skits.
At the end of that week, we taught a “how-to-do-puppets” class to members of 13 different churches, and gave each of them a few puppets and some guidelines to work with. Hopefully this form of ministry is now spreading across the Dominican Republic! I can’t wait to be involved in it here in the U.S.
