Somewhere around fourteen years ago, Vicky made a chimp puppet. Actually she has made many of them over the years and even has some in the making now. But let’s back up fourteen years ago. A man named Frank fell in love with this chimp and bought it at a conference I was teaching at. Frank and his new found friend started to minister together. That was a long time ago and ministry is hard work and the chimp started to show the signs of ageing.

Frank called and talked with Vicky about maybe giving the chimp a face lift. She agreed and in just a few days the chimp found his way back to his maker. I only wish we had taken a picture of him when he arrived. What a mess. This poor guy had really been used and it showed. He needed more than a face lift. A total body makeover was in store. He had come to the right place and was in good hands.

Vicky did some pretty major surgery on this poor guy. It ended up being far more work than she had expected but the end results were fabulous. The chimp was born again. That which was once old was made new. The one who was dead was given new life. The old had passed away and he became new in the hands of his creator. He was born again.

I couldn’t help but think about all of the parallels when we place ourselves into the hands of our Creator asking Him for a total make over. No, a chimp can’t be born again in a spiritual way like we can but when you think about it; the process is pretty much the same.

We did take an “after” picture. Cute huh? (Vicky, not the chimp.)

We were on our way to do a program one Sunday morning taking a route that we have taken hundreds of times I’m sure. It had been raining for quite some time and there was lots of water on the road. As we turned off a main State highway onto a fairly major secondary road I remember seeing something that I hadn’t seen before. The road was covered with what looked like dishwashing soap. That is, there were bubbles along both sides of the road with smaller bubbles on the road.

At first I figured there was something on the road that we would soon be out of but the bubbly road continued. The speed limit is only around 40 on this road and there are a couple of small hills. This road connects two State highways and when you get to the second highway there is a stop. The road T’s there and we were to turn left.

This T is right at the bottom on one of the small hills AND there is a slight left curve as you go down the hill. As we approached the curve and the hill I applied the brakes like I usually would. However the bus did not slow down much at all. The curve was fast approaching and I knew I had to make the stop at the bottom of the hill or else we would be going right into the intersection of the other road which is well traveled. Oh and, if you don’t stop, the road ends at the T remember.

You can see the other road at the bottom of the picture.

There are a couple of road signs as you approach this intersection. One tells you about the stop ahead and the other is a small arrow pointing to the left telling you about the curve to the left. As you can see in the picture, there are also trees and a telaphone pole. The brakes were on but we were skidding. I was trying to make the curve but the bus keep going straight. That sign with the arrow was centered on the bus. All I could imagine was that sign coming right through the windshield. Keep in mind that the front of the bus is flat. There isn’t any hood or anything between what you are about to hit and the windshield.

Just to the right of the curve sign is a power line pole. I knew we sure didn’t want to hit that. We jumped over the curb, just missed the power pole and went right smack into the curve sign. The bus came to a stop and the first thing I noticed was that we still had a windshield. That sign was right in the middle of it and yet it wasn’t broken.

I got out of the bus to examine the damage. Everything looked fine with one exception, the sign. The sign was no where to be seen. I looked under the bus and sure enough there it was lying down on the ground. I was afraid that if I backed up, the sign would get caught on something and rip it out. The sign was already laying forward so it looked like the best thing to do would be to continue forward and turn left to get back on the road. As I pulled over the sign and it finally came out from under the bus it kind of popped back up slightly and bounced.

I really didn’t figure there was anything that I could do to get the sign to stand back up straight and this little incident had set us a bit behind schedule and we really needed to get to the church to do the program so we kept going.

Later that day when we were back home I figured I needed to take a closer look at the bus and see just how much damage we had received. The windshield didn’t have as much as a crack and even the front bumper didn’t have as much as a scratch. No matter how much I looked for damage I couldn’t find any proof that we had hit anything. I even had one of our board members come and check it out. There wasn’t a mark to be found anywhere.

The only explanation I was able to come up with is this. Just as we were about to hit that sign God must have had one of His angels lay the sign down so that the bus could go over top of it. The sign must have been down a fraction of a second before we got to it. Then once we were stopped the sign was allowed to spring back up under the bus. Ya, I know, that sounds like a story from the Twilight Zone but I don’t have any other explanation. So that’s my story and I’m sticking with it. You believe what you want to believe and I will believe what I saw with my own eyes.

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Psalms 91:11

My dear friend Rick Lenski gets my messages and sent me this little cartoon that he quickly put together. I think you will enjoy it.

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Now for today’s story.

Every magician needs a rabbit and I have mine. In fact, you can see him right here on our site. But what do I do when I travel? Well, if I’m driving, my rabbit goes with me. But if I need to fly, that is a different story. Thus was the case in this story.

Vicky and I were to be in California for meetings. At that time it cost $100 to put the rabbit on the plane each way. So for a total of $200 I can buy a rabbit when I get there and save some money. I always look up a pet store close to where I will be and call them a couple of weeks before I get there. I tell them the make and model of rabbit I’m looking for and ask them to have one ready for me when I get there. I have also learned that I need to call a day or two before I leave to make sure they have one.

When I got to California I rented a car and headed for the pet store that was to have my rabbit. Sure enough, they had one that would work just fine. I bought the rabbit and took off. Keep in mind that this rabbit is not used to being in a magic show. However, it doesn’t take a rabbit long to figure out what their job is and they do a great job.

All of the “experts” say to take a rabbit’s food and water away from them about 4 hours before you want to use them so that the rabbit doesn’t do a job different than a magic trick if you know what I mean. I had taken his food and water away in plenty of time but I guess this rabbit couldn’t tell time. He did the trick just fine but as I held him in my hands nice and close to my chest facing the audience I felt my hands get warm and wet. Then my chest felt warm and wet. I was afraid to look down and was in hopes that the audience couldn’t see what was going on.

I like to save the rabbit for the very last trick. Then I close in prayer. From there it is off to the back of the church to shake hands with everyone and let them pet the rabbit. It’s kind of hard to think about what you are praying holding a soggy rabbit. I didn’t think people would appreciate shaking my wet hands either. Oh, and who wants to pet a wet rabbit? By the time I finished praying and looked down I could see a puddle on the floor. Oops.

“Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ?  Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart.” Psalms 24:3-4

Remember Sally? That is Sandwich Sally. This is another one of her never to be forgotten sandwich treats.

Have you ever wondered why some things go through a kids mind? How do some kids come up with some of the things they do? I think some weird things at times but I’m not sure I would have ever come up with this.

Sally has received all kinds of interesting sandwiches over the years. Not long after we started using her we became aware that no matter how much Sally wanted to share her sandwiches with us, we really needed to open them up and investigate them before biting into them. You never know what you are going to find stuck between two slices of bread.

One day as we opened up a Sally surprise we found a chocolate chip cookie. Now a chocolate chip cookie sandwich might not be all that bad but this one didn’t look all that appetizing. Some kid had put one chocolate chip cookie right in the center of the bread but had put mustard on both halves. When was the last time you had a chocolate chip cookie and mustard sandwich? We couldn’t find any takers here either.

“Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.” Revelation 10:9

A child was told to write a book report on the entire Bible. This is amazing. I
wonder how often we take for granted that children understand what we are
teaching? Through the eyes of a child.

Children’s Bible in a Nutshell

In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God,
darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, ‘The Lord thy God is one, but I think He
must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, ‘Give me a light!’ and someone
did. Then God made the world.

He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren’t
embarrassed because mirrors hadn’t been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed God
by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure
what they were driven in though, because they didn’t have cars.

Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel.
Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived
to be like a million or something.

One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his
kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some
animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would
have to take a rain check.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his
brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot
roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat. Another
important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel
Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on
Pharaoh’s people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no
cable. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His
Top Ten Commandments. These include don’t lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet
your neighbor’s stuff. Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father
and thy mother.

One of Moses’ best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies.
Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town. After
Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had
a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says
he was wise, but that doesn’t sound very wise to me. After Solomon there were a
bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a
big whale and then barfed upon the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don’t have to worry about them.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New
Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a
barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, ‘Close the door! Were you
born in a barn?’ It would be nice to say, ‘As a matter of fact, I was.’)

During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and
the Republicans. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas
Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.

Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans
on the Mount. But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before
Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn’t stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands
instead.

Any way’s, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to
Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution..

One of our favorite puppets was a gal we called Sandwich Sally. She didn’t have a very long or complicated part in the program but it was a very important one. Sally loved sandwiches and if she didn’t get a sandwich during the program she would squirt everyone with water. That was always good for a laugh. But the kicker was when she told everyone what would happen if they didn’t learn their Bible verses. With that she would come up with a fire hose. That really got a laugh.

Well, after you are at a church for a couple of programs, everyone looks forward to Sally coming. She was always there and always had the same thing to say. Talk about predictable. It only takes a couple of times before kids get the idea to actually give her a sandwich. This was a good thing for us because Sally loved to share her sandwiches with the backstage crew. It helped with the food expense while on the road.

I have stories that I will be sharing about some of the sandwiches Sally received. You won’t believe what some kids come up with. Ya, we got a lot of peanut butter and jelly. However, one day she really got a huge surprise. When she asked if anyone brought her a sandwich a couple of people came up to her with a six foot Subway sandwich. Now how in the World is a one handed puppet supposed to manage a six foot long sandwich? Well, she called for help from the back stage crew and we were able to get it inside the puppet stage. Now that was a meal for the entire crew. God provided manna for the children of Israel. God provided bread for Elijah and God provided one huge sandwich for us.

“The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.” Exodus 16:31

“The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.” 1 Kings 17:6

Arizona is a beautiful state. If you are ever out that way you really need to make sure you see the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. There are lots of places for you to stop and walk the trails and take lots of pictures.

We had stopped the bus and were taking one of these trails looking for places to take pictures of our 4 kids. We found what looked like a perfect spot. The kids were all lined up and I was getting ready to snap that perfect shot. However I really needed to be just a bit further away. As I backed up I backed right into one of those gigantic cactuses. Can you say ouch? Needless to say, the kids got a good laugh out of it if you get my point. Sorry, I guess I was the one that got the point. Smile.

“To him who led his people through the desert, His love endures forever.” Psalms 136:16

This would have been the fall of 1981. Vicky was expecting our twins at the time. We were doing meetings in a little town about 50 miles north of Grand Rapids, MI. We had gone up Saturday night to get things set up for Sunday morning. After getting to the church, getting everything all set up it was finally time to get some rest. The pastor had given us the key to the church so that we could use the church’s restroom instead of the makeshift one in the bus.

It really was cold that night and no matter what we did, we just couldn’t stay warm enough to get a good night’s sleep. I’m not sure, but I think it was Vicky’s idea to go into the church and sleep in there. In any case, that’s exactly what we did. There’s nothing wrong with sleeping in church. People do it all the time. In fact, do you know that if you took all the people who sleep during church and laid them end to end they would be a lot more comfortable?

There really wasn’t any place to comfortably lie down in this church so we went camping in our tent. Our puppet stage was kind of like a tent. And that is exactly where we slept. We had some ½” closed cell foam pads that we used to kneel on while doing the puppets. We rolled them out on the floor and that was our bed. We were able to stay warm and there is a lot to say about that however, I didn’t feel like a very good provider having my pregnant wife sleeping on the hard floor of a church inside a puppet stage. I think I had a glimpse as to how Joseph must have felt when his wife had to spend a night in a stable. I am so blessed to have a wife who would be willing to do stuff like this with out complaining as a part of ministry to children.

“She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7