Abby & Colton

During the 3^rd week of July I went with a group from my church on a “missions trip” to Morehead, Kentucky. There we spent 5 evenings helping a small church in a nearby town named Farmers, with their Vacation Bible School.

I taught the kids the words and motions to the special VBS songs. I also performed for a few minutes each night with a couple of my ventriloquist puppets. It was a very successful week.

But what I’ll remember most about my time in Morehead are two special children: Abby & Colton.

I met Abby, a mentally and physically challenged young girl, during VBS at Slaty Point Baptist church. Abby is very sweet and happy young lady who was always smiling. In addition she really really liked Cecil, my turtle puppet.

On the first evening of VBS while Abby and her parents were the only people left in the sanctuary of the church I gave Abby an exclusive visit with Cecil. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how much she liked the special attention.  

On the next to the last night of VBS Abby’s mom asked if she could get a picture of Cecil with Abby. I readily agreed. Here is a shot of my turtle friend with his special admirer. 

New Friends: Abby & Cecil

As I wrote on my Facebook page seeing just a few seconds of the interaction between my puppets and children, like Abby, who love them as much as I do is worth every bit of effort I put into my ventriloquism ministry. It blesses me more than anyone. 

I met Colton, a 7 year old boy, when we checked into our hotel in Morehead. He was there because his mother works at the front desk. She brings him to work with her each day. After just a few minutes of seeing him in action I could tell that Colton considered the hotel lobby area “his world” and everyone else, including the guests, were just temporarily occupying in it. He "held court" with everyone who entered "his realm."

My 7 year old Buddy: Colton

My Pastor described Colton the best. He said he was “Opie gone wild." Referring to the character played by Ron Howard on The Andy Griffith show

I found this boy to be a slightly mischievous but charming young man. From the moment I met him I knew Colton needed to know that Jesus loves him. 

He quickly became friends with many of our church group. He joined us in the hotel swimming pool and even attended our VBS each night.

He preferred Leopold, my lion puppet, rather than Cecil the turtle. His reason for this was that he liked puppets of animals that you could hunt in real life. Who knows how the mind of a 7 year old works? But to him it made sense.

Ministering to Colton and his mother was clearly one of the unexpected purposes of our trip to Morehead.  I felt badly about saying “Good-bye” to him. I did leave him a picture of Leopold, Cecil and me signed by all of us. It reminded him that Jesus loves him and so do we.

One of the ladies who was on our missions team named Judy, became friends with Colton’s mom. She is now in contact with her through Facebook.

I don’t know if, when, or how I will ever have the opportunity to minister to Abby or Colton again but I am thankful that I met them both. They have made an indelible mark on my heart.

In the future, if I ever question the purpose of my ventriloquism ministry because I’m dissatisfied with the direction of level of “success”; that question can be answered with just the recollection of two special children named: Abby & Colton.