A few years ago, I was reflecting on how to reach people. I mean, sometimes when you speak, you see their eyes glaze over and heads nod. It’s really distracting, not to mention that you just feel like you’re wasting your time.

There had to be a way to get their interest.

That’s when I started to look for a puppet. It couldn’t be just any puppet. It had to be a sassy little boy puppet, one who could hold his own and carry a tune. After much looking, I found Phileo.

I named him Phileo for the Greek word for brotherly love. We built a puppet screen out of PVC pipe and added a colorful fabric screen to the frame and we had our puppet show. Now if we only knew what we were doing.

We had our debut as we guested at a church in a neighboring town. I became the puppeteer behind the screen and Jim played the straight man, Mario, and played guitar. I wrote scripts and chose songs that were easy to sing and easy to teach. We ended up playing for carry-in banquets, Christmas shows, conferences, children’s church and special services.

Behind the screen, I wore a headset mic to leave my hands free to control the puppet, and provided the voice for Phileo. In front, Jim, as Mario, carried a guitar and played the music and sang with his usual excellence. I chose light-hearted music, not necessarily overt Christian music, but always with a lesson attached. It was entertaining, funny and the lessons stuck!

In the next few posts, I will share some of the skits and music. Since I cannot publish the music, I will simply give you the reference so that you can find it yourself, or even better, choose your own music. You can adapt these for your own skits, and use them as a springboard to develop that creativity that God placed into you to make new skits.

Blessings Your Way

Chandra Lynne