"Pretty-lookin' People"

My daughter, who is "terrified" by thunder, other loud noises, and many other minor things in nature, has no fear of people. On the one hand, this is rather nice; on the other hand, it makes things difficult for me as a parent. The other day, we started on a walk and remembered we needed to go back up to the apartment for something. There was some activity going on at the banquet hall across from our apartment, and a group of men were standing by the trash cans immediately across from our door. My daughter wanted me to go back upstairs by myself and leave her down on the sidewalk, but I insisted she accompany me inside. This led to a bit of a tantrum and long debate over "What's wrong with PEOPLE!? They're not going to KILL me! And if they try to tie me up, I will just run away!" I never said anything about them killing her or tying her up, and I had to admit that probably they were fine people and would not want to do any of that. But I still did not feel it was particularly safe to leave an 8-year-old girl unattended on the curb where I couldn't see her when strange men were hanging about.

I was still wondering where I got MY sense that people were dangerous from, when a friend informed me that yesterday was the anniversary of the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde. Suddenly I was six years old, walking with my father through a portable exhibit which included the "Bonnie and Clyde Death Car," with 160 bullet holes and blood-stained upholstery. My Dad was an auto mechanic and car enthusiast, and the Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway film had been recently released, so Bonnie and Clyde were all over the pop-culture scene of the time. I knew that the couple were bad people ("the devil's children" in the words of the popular song), but I'm not sure I felt a whole lot better about the posse that had inflicted such a barrage of death, or about the people who made money off the exhibit. Overall, it certainly gave me a negative impression of "PEOPLE." But I wouldn't want to share that with my daughter.

So, how does one instill in one's child a balance of fear and trust of strangers? I'm still working on that one...

P.S. The "Death Car" apparently is still being exhibited in various casinos in Nevada.

The Colors of Suzy Q

I had to go clothes shopping again today for Suzy Q, and I think I'm getting her style down. She likes pinks, purples and greens; or, to be more exact, hot pink, fuchsia and chartreuse. Very vibrant colors for a very stylish lady.

Suzy Q is a puppet I created for our church's children's ministry in "The Village," a local housing project, which we first made contact with when we did a VBS in their Recreation Center last summer. My wife and I were not part of the original team planning to follow up this ministry, but when decisions were made to no longer offer a children's section to the Thursday Night Alpha Classes, we hooked up with this Tuesday night outreach up the hill. Scripts were already planned for a male and female team of puppets, but no one but me had any puppets. And, at that stage, the bulk of my human puppets were store-bought and (consequently) all white-skinned. There are, of course, some whites who live in The Village, but the kids we've had the most interaction with have largely been African-American or bi-racial, so it seemed a good time to create some darker-skinned puppets. I had started working on an African male puppet prior to this decision and assignment, who debuted as Pharaoh's charioteer in a Sunday School play about Moses. "Akil," as he was then called, was smart enough to tell Pharaoh he'd have to drive himself if he wanted to pursue the Israelites into the Red Sea. He took the role of "Sam Wow" in the six-week program we called "Winterfest." But he needed a partner, and so I created a slightly lighter skinned woman with long hair done up with beads, long eyelashes, brilliant pink lips (tinged with purple), dark pink fingernails and zebra-striped glasses. Suzy Q was written as a reporter, and I took that to mean a television reporter, so I went for a strong sense of style. I managed to find a trench coat for her (size 3T--too good to pass up!), but needed a top to go under it and peak through the V-neck. What I found was white, with a plaid pattern including some pink, purple and green. And that was her costume throughout "Winterfest."

When we started up again around Easter with "Springfest" we decided to adapt an existing curriculum, which had our duo traveling around the world exploring God's creation. The first week, they were in Antarctica, for which Suzy got a fur hat (looking like something out of Dr. Zhivago), a white fur trimmed vest and a purple coat. Last week she was back in her trenchcoat, working as an archaeologist in the Egyptian desert, but this week they were in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil. It occurred to me I had NO IDEA what people in Brazil wore when hiking through the rainforest, and several pages worth of Google Image results got me no closer than when I'd begun. But I headed off to the thrift store anyways, and one of the first things I saw was this bright green floppy sunhat. Next I found a scarf with the pink, purple and green kind of plaid pattern similar to her original top. I finished off the ensemble with a green tank top, covered by a blouse/jacket with a similar pattern to the scarf, but with pink being more dominant. I still have no idea what most people would wear on a trip up the Amazon, but I know what Suzy Q would wear.

Now, if I could just apply this new-found fashion sense to what to buy for my wife and daughter...

Teach Me to Dance

"Teach me to dance to the beat of your heart
Teach me to move to the power of your Spirit
Teach me walk in the light of your presence
Teach me to dance to the beat of your heart"

"Teach Me to Dance" lyrics by Greg Holland

As we did with Alpha last Spring, Beth and I started off our first !TNT! meeting this semester playing this song from a CD called Devotion by the African Children's Choir. We encourage the children to get up and dance and "get the wiggles out" before we get started. In the past, we have had few takers (other than our own daughter). This week, though, we had one new boy from our church and two new girls who first made connection with us via our VBS up in the Village.

I am no dancer, and in fact I grew up in one of those kinds of churches that viewed most dancing as sinful (unless, maybe, it was the Virginia Reel). It isn't easy for me to get up and move to music if anybody is watching me, even if they are young kids. But I needed to set the example, so I was up and moving to the music, and eventually they all got into it, sometimes even dancing with me.

I tend to approach life in a rather academic way, and I often confuse things of the spirit with things of the mind. I tend to think of discipleship as something that is taught, like algebra or history, but it is really a lot more like learning to dance, watching the Teacher and trying to move like he does.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

"Busy, busy, busy, busy as a bee/Martha was so busy, she did not have time to breathe."

That's the refrain from Bob Hartman's story of Martha and Mary, which we read at family devotions the other night. It is also very much in my mind as I work to finish sewing a Bee puppet for our !TNT! (Thursday Nights Together) meeting, beginning this week. As with last spring, Beth and I will be teaching the younger children (K-4th grade), and this semester our topic is the Beatitudes. Last Spring, we were doing the Alpha curriculum, which seeks to answer various questions about basic Christianity, and our mascot/recurring character was a young owl named Alphie, who had a lot of questions and wanted to be wise when he grew up ("Who ever heard of a DUMB old owl?"). So, as I thought of the Beatitudes, the pun "Bee-Attitudes" came to mind (though obviously I'm not the only one to think of it, as a casual search on Google will show!). Though, the more I thought of it, the more it seemed to me the stereotypical attitudes associated with bees (always being busy being the chief one), the more I saw that the "Bee-Attitudes" might differ markedly from the Beatitudes that Jesus taught. A "Busy Bee" might even be upset that Jesus "sat down" to teach!

And so, I created Benny as a rather high-strung (not "stung") honey bee. He is eager to help teach the kids, and assumes he knows what the Beatitudes are (because they sound like Bee Attitudes), but in fact he is in need of some gentle correcting from my wife, who works as the main teacher for each series. For the voice, all I had to do was speak rather excitedly and change all my s's to zz's, and stretch out any long e's.

For his first outing, Benny had only four legs, no wings, and no stinger, but I'm hoping to have him finished by next week.

Pirates, Saints, and Bees--Oh, My!

After a long stretch of little creative energy, I suddenly find I'm SWIMMING in writing projects! Some are work related, and others are "just for fun" (or profit, if any of them would sell!)

First off, we re-staged our "Pirates in Paradise" VBS program (originally written and performed in 2007) this summer. Because we opted to do the VBS in the evening, and wanted to keep the final night as the presentation to the parents, I had to rewrite it to fit the storyline into four episodes rather than five. Since I was rewriting, and had a couple other actors who wanted to be pirates, I created a few new roles, and I was able to polish parts (and write some parts which had originally been ad-libbed). At any rate, that inspired me to think more about these characters and about the sequel I had proposed writing for last year's VBS (which we pulled the plug on due to insufficient volunteers). The original Pirates VBS deals with teaching the pirates to claim the Royal Pardon, forsake piracy, and store up treasure in heaven; at the conclusion most of the pirates do so, rechristening their ship "The Heavenly Pearl" and setting off to tell others the good news. So, the sequel focuses on the converted pirates' missionary journeys (and the Pirate Captain's attempts to somehow get back his ship). I spent a good part of vacation jotting down notes and working out the plot and I feel like I'm ready to write it now.

Of course, that is far from pressing. On September 23rd, we will be re-launching !TNT! (Thursday Nights Together), a family based program for which my wife and I will be leading the youngest component (K-4th grade) through a study of the Beatitudes. Last Spring we did a child's version of Alpha, and the featured character (puppet) was a young owl named Alphie who had a LOT of questions he wanted answered. This session, since we're doing the Beatitudes, I thought the featured character should be a Bee. Though as I'm thinking about it, the "Bee Attitudes" are probably very different from the Beatitudes. The Bee character that is developing is someone who stays very busy, always working to make more honey, and not too good about sharing it. So he will prove to be more of a foil to my wife, who will have to correct him and teach him to be more humble and relaxed about things.

At the same time, we are revamping our "Church School" to become "Children's Worship," following more closely the pattern of what is going on in the "adult" service upstairs. The storytelling time (serving as the sermon) will be surveying what our Bishop has recommended as the 100 Essential Bible passages, and we are hoping to do so creatively, with Godly-Play style interaction and some puppet shows. I have offered to write a puppet show for the Joseph story. We also hope to have the children present a puppet show for the adults on All Saints Day (observed). Speaking with our rector this morning, he would like us to focus on the heavenly worship as described in Revelation... which I did a couple years ago for the closing semester of KidzLife. So I'll be dusting off (or adapting) some of my "Visions of Patmos" material, and figuring out how to do that with little children as the puppeteers.

What I LEAST need to work on (and am having the most fun with) is actually a writing project of my wife's. She has been kicking around an idea for a "mid-grade mystery series" (think Nancy Drew, or better, Trixie Belden), set in 1976. I started helping her with researching (and remembering) the time period, and I've gotten very into it.

Then there is the adult play dealing with Simon the Pharisee/Leper and the Woman with the Alabaster Flask who anointed Jesus at Simon's feast. I began that last spring, and haven't done much with it lately, but it feels important and like something I really need to do.

The question is, WHEN?

Camels and Pigs

In addition to the Pirate storyline in VBS, we had a "Story time" built into the curriculum. When we did it in 2007, this was one of several stations that the children would rotate through, and I designed it as more of an interactive teaching station. This year, because of space constrictions, we were not able to break into groups and had to do everything as a big group in the same space, which inhibited the "interactive" piece of it. We decided to use a version of "Godly Play" to tell the story three of the nights, and do puppet shows the other two.

The two stories we decided should be done with puppets were The Rich Young Ruler and The Prodigal Son. Trying to think in terms of how best to tell these stories using puppets, I keyed in on the animals in the stories; in the case of the Rich Young Ruler, I decided to tell the story from the perspective of a camel, as if ANYONE knows how impossible it is to get a camel through the eye of the needle, it would be a CAMEL. With the Prodigal, the obvious animal choice was to tell the story from the point of view of the pigs that the Prodigal was hired to feed at his lowest point.

Having neither a camel nor pig puppet, having no budget, and running out of time to make anything from scratch, I ran down to my favorite thrift store (Red White and Blue) in hopes of finding some second-hand stuffed animals I could use. The pigs were easy to find, but, as you might guess, there were no camels to be seen. I ended up piecing together the head and neck of a snake, the mouth of a donkey, and the body of a leopard (all pinned together and covered with a tan cloth) to create the camel.

Driving home from the thrift store, I was given the voice and character of the camel, as well as the name, "Canticle, the Cantankerous Camel." It was a low voice with a southern twang (something in the neighborhood of Foghorn Leghorn, without the constant repetition), and as a beast of burden, he had a lot of complaints about people with "lots of STUFF!" The voice and character came so strong, I ended up writing the piece as a monologue, with Canticle talking about Camels' place in New Testament society and in Jesus' teaching, and then recounting the story of the "this Rich Kid with all this STUFF which BLINDED him to th' fact that he GOD ALMIGHTY was standin' there RIGHT in FRONT'v'HIM! WHADDIDHE DO? He TURNED AROUND and walked AWAY! 'TseNUFF to makye wanna SPIT!!"

I couldn't tell how well the story went over on the other side of the puppet booth--there was a lot of chatter in the room at the time--but individual kids who saw the puppet before and after the performance really seemed to respond well to him.

The pigs' story failed to materialize, but I think that was just as well. I decided that needed to be more interactive, so I used a version of the Prodigal by Bob Hartman, which involved the audience in saying certain rhyming words and making certain gestures throughout the story. We did use puppets to act out the story, but that was more of a backdrop to the Hartman interactive storytelling piece.

The Heavenly Pearl Sails Off Again!

We just concluded the 2010 version of "Pirates in Paradise" VBS. The curriculum and original skits were written and first staged here at COTS in 2007, followed by "The Good Shepherd of the Outback" in 2008. Last year, we had planned to create a sequel to the "Pirates," but that didn't come off due to a shortage of volunteers in the morning. This year we made two strategic decisions; the first was to offer VBS in the evening (so as to get more volunteers), and the second was to stage the VBS in the Recreation Center of a couple housing projects on the north end of town. Although my personal preference continues to be for a morning VBS in our church building, it is hard to argue with the results--we had 20+ volunteers each night and a total of 60 kids who participated in the VBS this summer. What exactly this leads to remains to be seen, but I am hoping to see our church commit to some sort of follow-up, with the possibility of eventually planting a church in that neighborhood.

The biggest creative challenge in revising the script this year was in shortening the storyline from five to four days. Previously, in doing a morning VBS, we had the closing program for the parents the evening of the final day, and it was felt by the team that we needed to the keep the final evening as a summary of the story for the parents' sake, wrapping up the actual storyline on Thursday night. In retrospect, I think I would argue for returning to the five-day format, as there were very few parents who actually attended, and I think it best to send the kids off with an exciting conclusion to the story, rather than a recap in which nothing dramatic happens.

I also added two more pirates, because we had two individuals who were inexperienced actors but well-know to the kids in the village (or at least, better known than the rest of our team). It seemed worthwhile to get them up front for the dramas, but I will be dropping back to my original three pirates in the future (the Captain and two crew members. Amongst other things, the stage got very crowded with five pirates (ESPECIALLY in the cramped space of the Rec. Center), and there was no good way to work the additional characters into the climax of the show.

Personally, the biggest challenge was for me to assume the role of Milligan, the island host to the visiting children and Pirates. This character was originally written for a friend named Travis, who is extremely gifted as an actor, a teacher, and someone who has a natural gift of rapport with children. Travis also has a wonderfully peaceful demeanor, which is required for this character--he does not allow the pirates to ruffle or rile him up in any way. My own approach to acting is generally to throw myself into a character, generally very different from myself, and it helps if I can channel my own nervousness about being onstage into a nervous or angry character (which is why I originally cast myself as the Pirate Captain, Harry DuPillage). Breaking down the "fourth wall" to relate to the audience, remaining relaxed and trying to calm others, all while wearing shorts and beach shoes (which I would NEVER do offstage, except on the beach!) was QUITE a challenge to me as an actor. I think I succeeded, overall...

If nothing else, we certainly hammered the memory verses into the kids. A portion of each skit involves Milligan teaching the verse of the day to the the children and his pet parrot, Paolo. But Allie, who acted as M.C., would review the verse before the skit, and Pam, who led the music, would have the kids all SING the verses after the skit. Not that any of that was a bad idea (I was especially appreciative of the fact that Pam WROTE some original music to put to some of the verses), but these kids should CERTAINLY know by now that they should store up "treasure in heaven" rather than "treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves"--or Pirates!--"can break in and steal."

The story ends with the majority of the pirates abandoning piracy, claiming the King's Royal Pardon, and voting off the Captain and any others who want to remain pirates, rechristening their ship from "The Bloody Gem" to "The Heavenly Pearl" and sailing off as missionaries to spread the news of the Royal Pardon to pirates and other sinners they may encounter. Which prepares us for "The Continuing Adventures of the Heavenly Pearl" and a missions-themed VBS I have yet to write!