Talk to the Hand

Chip Colquhoun

After founding One Way UK, a leading resource bank for puppet ministry, Harry Barrett felt God's calling to visit orphanages in Romania. Early in his first visit, he was shown a group of emotionally damaged children. They rarely saw the light of day - mainly because out of fear they refused to go out and play in it. So Harry instructed his team to suit up with some puppets and see what would happen.

Harry vividly recounted to me how one little boy hid behind the legs of a care worker, petrified by the strangers in his home. Harry put on a white glove and topped it with a pair of googly eyes – the most rudimentary form of puppetry. From the moment Harry's hand opened wide, with Harry vocalising a character voice, the boy's eyes were transfixed on the puppet. And, after a few moments of statuesque wonderment, the boy threw his arms wide and shot forward to embrace the puppet - much to the amazement of his suddenly tearful care worker.

The power of puppets to engage younger children is uncanny and hard to explain. Sometimes it can even be too intense. Very occasionally KS1 children are liable to burst into frightened tears, especially if the puppet in question is either (a) quite a lifelike animal or (b) a child puppet. The first rule is that the more fantastical (for example, dragons) or toy-like (for example, teddies) the puppet, the safer its use with the very young. In my experience, this is a rule you should break only if you're confident of the puppet's cuteness. Pythagoras, my cat puppet, has often been mistaken for a real feline, yet was a delight for children at my church's baby and toddler group.

Perhaps the magic lies in the fact that children are more in tune with their imaginations than most adults, and puppetry therefore provides them with a strong link between the world of pure creativity and the world of adults. To this end, puppets can be allowed to say anything and even mess up big time. Children can go on the defensive if rules are just told to them. But if a puppet has already broken a rule, the adult can gently correct the puppet, and the children have the opportunity to learn lessons about good behaviour without being told they were in the wrong.

The same principle makes puppetry a great tool for beginning discussions, especially on massive themes such as 'Who is my neighbour?', which is one of the themes covered on a Barnabas RE Day in schools. Children feel happy laughing at the puppet, as they won't get in trouble for doing so. And as the puppet is shown to grasp the concept, the children will be grasping it too. If you've played your cards right and used audience suggestions to explain the concept to the puppet, the children may even feel that they've had a hand in the puppet's learning. Such ownership in a lesson or workshop is the key to any good teacher or facilitator's success.

Aside from being a great teaching tool, puppets are highly entertaining for pretty much every age group (just look at the success of puppeteers such as Jeff Dunham). For a virtually guaranteed moment of comic relief, combined with (if not, because of) some surprisingly strong emotional connections, puppetry is a skill well worth looking into.

If you are thinking of starting a puppet ministry, then visit www.onewayuk.com, where you will find a wide range of puppets, props, training DVDs and sample scripts. But, as One Way founder Harry's story shows, even a glove will make way for a miracle.

In our own Ideas section on this website you can find two puppet-related pieces written by Lucy Moore:

• A simple outline for making your own hand glove puppet
• A simple outline for making your own sock and mouth puppets

Chip Colquhoun is a member of the Barnabas Freelance team and works with Snail Tales, which aims to bring alive colourful stories from around the world for all ages and occasions. Chip works in churches, at festivals and in schools. For more information go to the Snail Tales website.