Keeping it alive...

So how does one keep a ministry alive? SHOULD one keep a ministry alive - or should we assume that God will keep alive what God wants to keep alive? Sometimes we look for people to step up into leadership, allowing us to back off leadership, but we don't see anyone stepping forward, so we don't step backward. Sometimes we sit tight and wait for signs of movement, expecting God to wave a sign at us from the sky.

We want you to meet two people who've become dear friends of ours, fellow ministers in His service, and up-coming leaders in ministry. We didn't sit back and wait for them to step forward, we tapped them on the shoulder and said, "How about taking over this puppet ministry?"

This is Laura (second from left) and Ian (between Laura and Doug) McCrone. Ian has been a puppeteer since the earliest memorable years of his life. Laura has been an encourager, organizer and fellow puppeteer since the day she met Ian in high school and they began their walk together in the Lord.

Laura has been taking more and more responsibility in leading the puppet ministry at Rutherford Bible Chapel, planning, writing and directing their Labor Day Fair efforts for the last several years. This year, Doug is completely out of the picture (helping simply as a puppeteer), and Laura is leading the ministry with her own style and God's guidance. It's a wonderful encouragement to see such interest and spiritual concern on the part of these young people as they seek to continue a ministry they feel is essential to the Kingdom.

Ian is the proverbial fruit tree whose fruit is beginning to blossom and ripen. After years of being a puppeteer with Laura and his brothers, Ian stepped forward this year to perform solo for the entire week of Summerama. If you don't think that's intimidating, think again. Sometimes the most intimidating audience is kids. Ian came forth with characters that were not only fun to the kids, but endearing - even garnering chants from the kids, calling for their appearance. That kind of character connection is incredibly valuable... just ask Kevin Clash (he's the puppeteer behind Sesame Street's "Elmo"). God is working in Ian to develop new characters, and we're praying that He uses this young man mightily.

These young people are our friends. We pray for them constantly, and ask you to do the same. Pray for God's faithful hand upon them, and their own spiritual growth and development - personally and as leaders. Pray that they will continue to Love the Lord Jesus more than anything - including the puppets - and that they'll love serving Him together.

Sometimes you just have to put down the puppets and check your perspective.

Thanks for your prayers.

Finally! A NEW word from us!

OK - so..... it's been how long, now... a week? We're well aware of how long it's been since we added any new items to the blog. And, since they say to NEVER start a speech with an apology, we profusely apologize for not posting any new information in over a week! (hey - this isn't a speech!)

Last week was the busiest week we can honestly remember in the history of mankind. Lee was busy teaching VBS (a.k.a. 'Summerama') in the mornings, and because last week was spent getting things ready for Lee's classroom, Doug spent the evenings getting ready for the closing program for Summerama last Friday night (Aug 3). Each night had us working almost up to midnight - which isn't something we've never done - it's just something we haven't done RECENTLY.

As we put together our program, we chose to have everyone sing along on a song called "I've Got the Joy". Now, that's not the old Sunday School song, "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart." It's a new one that requires kids to echo the singers on the CD and join them in other joyful shouting and flailing of hands. No one really remembers the right actions to go with the right words - but hey, they're joyfully shouting and flailing their hands!

We repeated the Max Lucado story, "You are Special", as we told last week at West Essex Baptist, using VBS teachers as characters in the story. Lee was the narrator, and Doug put words (and voices) in the volunteers' mouths. It was cute, fun and a wonderful story. That's us in the picture above, telling the story.

Then came the feature of the night - blacklight puppets! RBC hasn't seen much in the way of blacklight puppets other than a song we did at a dinner back in January. So, when the lights went out, the kids went crazy, and the puppets glowed like lightning bugs! There's a picture of them above. The main skit featured two fish - Halo (an angel fish) and Haha (a clown fish), who live in the Sea of Galilee, and commented on all the things Jesus had been doing all week up there on the shores of the sea. He chose them carefully (fortunately for Halo & Haha, many of the fishermen Jesus called dropped their nets and followed Him), He taught them (they traveled in "school" just like the fish do), He healed them, protected them (calmed the sea - much to the delight of a couple of fish) and provided for them (feeding 5000 men at once - until the two fish realized what was in that little boy's lunch: 5 loaves and TWO FISH!).

We closed by encouraging the kids to take what they learned and share it with a friend. This utilized the "Stretch-A-Bellies" puppets from One Way Street, which we've used before and which we'll use many times again in the future. The song, "Give It Away" is just a great song by the Gaither Vocal Band, and encourages the gift of giving in our Christian walk.

We are now in the middle of a two month nap!

Actually, we will shortly begin preparing for our new role in RBC's Sunday School this fall, but until then, we're taking a NAP! It just bears out Doug's favorite saying: There's nothing that can't be fixed by a good nap! (actually, the subject of rest, rebuilding and restoration has been a subject of consideration lately for us. Maybe we'll post a thought or two about that in the next day or two.)

Until we meet again, thank you for praying and stopping by. May the Lord bless & keep you!!