In the fall of 2018 Michael Thomas and a family, all members of Forest Park Baptist Church, heard a devotional, read through a script, practiced the blocking of puppets and proceeded to shoot a video of a puppet play all within five hours. The video will be shared during a Church Service at Forest Park Baptist Church. The benefits of this kind of ministry are obvious.

The simple performance of puppetry is immersive. The puppet play "Faith of a Son" takes places during the Christmas Story. The settings and the clothing of the characters were all researched. Some of the lines of the play are taken directly from the King James bible account of the Birth of Christ. The family who performed the play had to think and react like the characters in the Christmas narrative. The experience of Christmas became immersive. The immersion in the performance of these play reflects the immersion of the Christian walk in Christ.

A puppetry ministry like this fits well in a family's busy schedule. As mentioned earlier, the performance and recording of this drama was accomplished within five hours. The realization of this drama dovetailed with the participant's demands of work and school. This integration with day to day life reflects the integration of the holy in the day to day life.

Finally the use of puppetry brings an immediacy to this Christian ministry. The performance demands a harmony between word and action. The puppets and backdrops bring immediate representations of the characters and locations of the Christmas Story. The Christmas narrative itself includes the immediacy of giving birth to a child, the search of the wise men for the king, and the revelation of God incarnate who is Jesus Christ. All this reflects the immediacy and self evidence of Christ in the Chrisian's  Life.

The video made during this ministry will be presented for the first time as part of the 10:45 Church Service at Forest Park Baptist Church on Sunday, December 9, 2018.

Michael Thomas

Forest Park resident