It was July 1984. I just bought a new used car. A 1972 Pontiac Ventura that was green. For the past three summers I worked at Sunken Meadow State Park. My first 2 1/2 years I was a garbage man but midway through the summer I became a supervisor for the paint crew! It was an awesome summer job mainly because I got to work outdoors and get a great tan. Sunken Meadow is just that! A sunken meadow where, as you enter the park from the Sunken Meadow Parkway, you are heading north straight down a hill towards the beach. On a clear day, you can actually see Connecticut but again, it had to be a clear day! That particular State Park had a nickname "Sunken Ghetto" mainly because busloads of people from New York City would picnic there. It was like the United Nations. To be quite honest, I saw a lot of interesting "things" being barbecued!
On that particular day, after working an 8-hour shift, I was happy to be going home. It was just starting to get dark and in my rearview mirror you could see the Long Island Sound and lights flickering along the shores of Connecticut. It was a beautiful night. As I turned onto 25A heading east, I prayed a simple prayer. "Hey, God? What do you have in store for me in the future? What will I be doing when I'm in fulltime ministry? Where are you leading me, Lord?" I was all of 20 years old and still learning good ole "life lessons" as well as learning what the "School of Hard Knocks" was all about.
About a month and a half later, I headed back to my college, Northeastern Bible College in New Jersey anticipating my third year as a student. I was very happy to be driving my very own car back to school. No more having to borrow my various friend's car. I had my own set of wheels! Little did I know that God was doing a work in me, but my 20-year-old brain had no clue what it was. Life was good, but God was leading me into something I never ever thought of doing or truthfully ever wanted to do. Children's Ministry!
It was September 1984, and the semester was just beginning. Every student had a requirement to fulfill called "Christian Service." We had to choose an outside activity in ministry to volunteer in during the entire semester to get credit. It could either be teaching Sunday School, helping in a youth ministry, doing evangelism or even being an assistant pastor of a church. In the previous semesters, I helped assist an assistant pastor in North Caldwell, NJ at a church called "The Alliance Church." He helped me learn "Evangelism Explosion" for the entire year as well as do visitation of hurting and sick church members. My first year as a freshman I did door to door evangelism, but I was not too keen on knocking on stranger's doors. The Assistant Pastors name was Drew and as I returned to his church, I discovered the church hired a new Senior Pastor and Drew was looking elsewhere for a new position. He felt the Lord leading him to a new church and did not want to get in the way of the new pastor. So doing visitation with him was out for that semester. I didn't feel lead to work in a youth group and I certainly and most definitely did not want to work with children. I was running out of options. I even looked at working at a Rescue Mission but that fell through.
During one particular lunch break, I sat at a table with a friend of mine, Sandy Thomas who had graduated I believe in 1983 but was working at the school. I told her about my dilemma and my frustration with trying to find a "Christian Service Project." As we were eating, Sandy smiled at me and said, "I have a solution for you! We are starting a new Puppet Ministry Team. Why don't you sign up for that?" Puppets? Me. I had only known about puppets from watching Sesame Street as a kid with Oscar the Grouch, watching "Captain Kangaroo" as a kid and in later years watching "The Muppet Show" as well as (dare I admit it) watching "The Uncle Floyd Show" with my brother on UHF right before dinner on weekdays. I told Sandy flat out "But I really don't like kids." She said, "Well, you don't have many other options." Then she said the very words that echo in my mind to this day. "Just do it for one semester. You will never have to ever do it again!" I guess that one semester has been 40 plus years!
I eventually took Sandy's advice, I gave in and joined this newly formed puppet team. Afterall, it would only be for one semester. Sure Dave! In order to protect the brother in the Lord who was the director, I will not disclose his name. I did have a few friends on this puppet team. My friends Dean and Ron, this girl Lisa who I knew from Youth Group and Margy, who I found out passed away at a young age. If you are reading this and you were on this team and I forgot you, please remember, this was 40 years ago. I don't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning! I walked into the first practice we had with the attitude "Let's just do this and get it over with." the director taught us the basics of puppetry. "You don't flip your lid. You don't bite your words!" I would teach this concept years later! Apparently, the director was on a puppet team in his home church and wanted to bring this talent to our college. At the end of our second rehearsal the director approached me before I headed out and said to me, "Hey Dave! You are a very good puppeteer. I need an Assistant Director. Are you interested?" My initial reaction was "I'm a good puppeteer? Really?" I knew deep down I was very creative but me? Doing puppets? I told him, "Sure, I would love to be the Assistant Director." Little did I know what would be next and what was in store for me in the fall of 1984.
Everything we did was all on a cassette tape. I happened to be working security at the time for my college and the director was also a security guard. Our campus was very small and truthfully, their was not a whole lot to watch and secure! We worked an overnight shift one night and he brought his boombox to the front desk. He told me the songs we would be doing as well as two puppet skits all on cassette tape. There were no iPod's in 1984! It made sense since trying to give every puppeteer a microphone would be a challenge. Our Puppet team was called "The New Life Puppeteers" with our opening song being "New Life in Jesus" as well as 2 other songs called "Kid Talk" and "The Laughing Song." The 2 puppet skits we did were "Daniel in the Lion's Den" and "Saved in Silver City." Quite honestly there might have been others but that's what I do remember! I will admit that I did think it was cool how God could use this creative method to reach kids and families. I will also admit I was excited about going out to do this ministry. I did not once at that point in my life think it would be the ministry God was calling me to.
We did our first ever program on the Sunday before Columbus Day. Our college had a Fall break so instead of heading home that Saturday, we all loaded our college's van and did a program at a local church. The director would go out front of the church and introduce our team to them. When he said our name, we would stick our heads up and wave "hello." I can't say we were ready for "America's Got Talent", but we all did our best. After the program, I drove home and enjoyed a quick break from college. Even my own parents were shocked that I was on this new puppet team but like I told them, "It's only for one semester." Sure Dave.
What transpired in the next two months was not only a "shaking my head" moment for me as a college student, but it was God's way of telling me he had something big for me to do in the future. As a 20 year-old kid, I had no clue what was going on.
This blog is getting long, so I will write Part Two next and let you all know the rest of this crazy story. Same Bat Time! Same Bat Channel!
HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!!
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