Puppet Ministry

Rehearsals are held at the church on Mondays at 7:30pm. For more information contact Brian on 01489 584317.

Who We Are & Why We Do It
We are a small group of people from URC church and others who meet together on a Monday evening to serve God.

Brian Reid had a vision from God to set up this group with our support to use it as a means to bring the Good News of Jesus to the people in our community.

We began with peepers in various colours (eyes which sit between your fingers to simulate a hand puppet) which gave us the basic idea of lip sync and actions, followed by a visit from Harry Barrett who joined with us for a days training. We learnt the basics and really enjoyed the day and the support we were given. He spent valuable time with us showing the basic start off positions and the best way to practise and hold the puppets for maximum effect and worked with us to perfect our techniques. He brought with him a variety of puppets for us to see and use and showed us a few sketches to enable us to see for ourselves the impact of believable puppetry.

We discussed the way we could use this in our evangelical work and agreed it could be a tangible and effective tool for our ministry.

After group discussions we purchased a number of puppets from One-Way Uk Ltd. and several music cd's as well as an assortment of material in the form of written sketches and audio sketches and we have also written and recorded various sketches too. We also purchased the staging and curtains as well as a portable PA unit which we can take with us to the homes we visit.

Brian keeps a record of all the equipment we have and its whereabouts and logs all the events we do with the personnel involved and the part they have to play.

The core group has been meeting together for approximately a year now. There are currently about 15 of us who meet together on a Monday evening with a variety of skills and abilities. We also have others who willingly give up their time to contribute to recording various sketches onto cd's for our use.

We regularly visit several care homes in the area to share with them some biblical sketches and songs, as well as taking Sunday services in our own church on occasion. When we visit the 5 care homes we take with us others from the church who willingly give up their time to support and encourage us as well as the old folk in the homes with singing and fellowship. The care homes greatly appreciate the events we provide and look forward to our return and we are building valuable relationships with the carers and old folks. We aim to visit them four times a year, at christmas, easter, summer and in the autumn.

We are all committed to to being involved in whatever way we can and many of us have taken a turn at co-ordinating a church service. We generally follow Brian's lead at the care homes as he provides the music.

"To say this is good fun, is an understatement! It is hard work and we need to be committed in sacrificing our time, but to see the end result of our efforts and the pleasure it gives to the recipients, and knowing that through the content God is being blessed and honoured makes it all so very worthwhile. I would recommend it to anyone willing to give it a go!"