Romans 13:7 tell us to give honor where honor is due. Last Friday I learned that someone who I truly honor and respect went home to be with our Lord....Ann DiSanza! I have a lot of respect for Ann for one simple reason. Ann was one of many people who were instrumental in getting my start in children's ministry. It makes me sad to realize the 4 people who were all instrumental for my start are all in heaven. Pastor Greco, Judy, Art and now Ann.
I first met Ann in December 1986. Pastor Sal Greco approached me because he heard through the grapevine that I had been involved with puppet ministry at my college. He introduced me to Ann who had just finished teaching a children's ministry class and had just started a puppet ministry in our church, Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle. We agreed to meet after the new year and Ann encouraged me to get involved with this new puppet ministry in our church. I went to the very first practice and 4 of us rehearsed a play for a program to be done at Children's Church on the last Sunday in January. The theme of the play was the Super Bowl and ironically it was the same Sunday the New York Giants, my favorite team would play in their very first Super Bowl. The other members of this puppet team were Mike (Ann's husband), Art and Frank. Mike had a very high voice and played the announcer who was interviewing "Broadway Bob." I played the part of "Broadway Bob." That's all I can remember from this play. The goal for our puppet team was to do a program once a month in our Children's Church, usually the final Sunday of the month. Ann invited me over to her home to discuss our strategy and think of new ideas to reach the kids in Children's Church and beyond. I was soon discovering because of her that this was my newfound calling in my life. One of the ideas Ann implemented was to do a skit every month called "Faithman." It was a comic strip found in a magazine put out by Gospel Bill, also known as Wille George ministries called "Honeycomb.". Ann had her husband Mike play the part of Faithman and her son Michael played the part of Billy, the little boy who always fell into temptation. A lady in our church Bernadette played "Negatron" who was actually the devil. When Billy resisted temptation, he would turn into Faithman! Mike was perfect for this part because he had A LOT of energy, and he didn't have a shy bone in his body. He went home to be with the Lord about 11 years ago. Ann and I tried to come up with scripts along with puppet scripts and we tried to stick with the lesson the children's church teachers were teaching that Sunday. Ann told me about a puppet that was hidden away in a closet up on the "Third Floor" of the church. I fixed him up, changed his appearance and called him "Barney Bagel" well before anyone knew of that purple dinosaur! I will say he was a God-awful looking puppet, but it was my start in ventriloquism. Well actually not really. My lips moved! I would eventually do ventriloquism years later.
Ann dropped a bombshell on me. It seemed as though this was my life's pattern when it came to ministry. She was asked by the church to be the new Sunday School Superintendent, and she asked me to take over the puppet ministry! Not again! This happened to me at Bible College, remember? I accepted and I was excited about the new challenge. Mike would no longer be involved, and Frank was busy with his job and family, so it was only Art and me. I called this ministry "The Good New Gospel Theater" and through the years we gained Jan, Jason, Dolores and Debbie. This ministry grew and within a year we were traveling to other churches doing programs.
It was now March 1987, and God was continuing to show me what His will was for my life. The church paid for Ann and I to attend a Willie George Ministries Christian education seminar in Port Jefferson, NY. I had never heard of Willie George or his ministry as "Gospel Bill." He had a Christian kids TV program he wrote and produced. As he taught various workshops, I hung on every single word he said I was getting very excited about the many potential things we could do at SGT and so was Ann. We both sat in a pew at the church that hosted the seminar at the conclusion and dreamed about what amazing things for the Lord we could do to reach kids. I have shared this before, but on my way home from that seminar, that is where God spoke to me about becoming a children's pastor. I remember where I was driving heading west on 347! Amazing!
As time marched on I continued to implement new ideas in our programs. Some worked and some were downright horrible, but I was learning. Ann asked me to play a character for the Children's Sunday School department called "Freddie the Farmer" and the theme was all about "Gowing in the Lord!" I came running into the sanctuary each week wearing a straw hat, a flannel shirt yelling "Hee Haww!" I shared with the kids all about the importance of how taking care of my crops by watering them was just like taking good care of my Christian life by reading the Bible and praying. It was my first time ever playing a costume character. Not bad for a shy kid who would blush all the time!
Ann & I always talked about doing something for the church for Halloween. That year it was on a Saturday, and we got a late start on planning this. We did decide we needed to form a committee so in the summer of 1988 we assembled a committee of people to help plan it. At our first meeting at Ann's house, I discovered I was the only male there! As we discussed possibilities for this Halloween event, it seemed as though my vision for this was much different than what the ladies wanted. These ladies believed we should make this a "Christian event" that targeted "Church Kids." My idea was to try to reach the community by way of fun activities, then at the very end present the gospel to them. Of course, I had nothing against reaching "Church kids" but I was outnumbered, and we settled on calling our event "Praise Fest '88." and we did this same event in 1989. Some of these ladies were even opposed to doing anything on Halloween at all. They didn't want that name mentioned at all. My idea would later become something we would call "Fall Fun Fest" which our church hosted for over 20 years when i was the Children's Pastor.
Ann's husband Mike was a New York City Police Officer, and I always enjoyed whenever he shared one of his testimonies in church on a Wednesday night. After Mike retired, he went into Full time ministry with Cops for Christ, and he wrote a book called "A Cop for Christ." As his ministry was taking off, he moved his family to Florida. The only time I really got to see Mike and Ann after they moved was whenever they attended our church Missions Convention in the spring. I always made it a point to sit with them during one of our luncheons. We always reminisced about the crazy ideas we had in the past but also thanked God for using us in spite of us. I would always tease Mike and ask him if he would squeeze back into his old Faithman costume one more time! One of my favorite quotes from Mike was always when he would talk about Christians who had no life to them. He would say "It's like they were baptized in lemon juice!" That was so Mike!
Mike and Ann fostered many children and also adopted some children. They ran a bible study in their home for many years and saw many come to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. In fact, I taught a bible study and discovered that one of the couples in our study group got saved because of Mike and Ann's ministry. I had not seen Ann since I left SGT, but we would message each other on occasion. She was always very encouraging to me and during some of my difficult times she told me I could call her anytime. That always meant a lot to me. Ann will be missed, and I know she touched a lot of lives for Jesus! We know she is now worshipping her savior in heaven!
HAVE A BLESSED WEEK EVERYONE!!
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