Fellowship of Christian Magicians (UK)
Revd. Ted Landon
Location: Dartford available for shows and outreach

Activities
‘Harry and Friends Puppet Ministry’ is an evangelistic puppet ministry reaching out to children up to 11 years of age and their families. Other aspects of the Ministry include clowning, Gospel illusions, and ventriloquism. These elements are usually mixed with puppetry, but the puppetry and clowning can and does stand alone.

Our ministry has been running for about nine years, but full time for three years. We engage with approximately 30 schools on a regular basis and a number of churches for puppet led midweek outreach family services called ‘Family Times’. At one school this has been incorporated into the curriculum and is conducted during school hours. We also engage in special events where a Christian message is acceptable e.g. Ambulance Service puppet led carol service, church parties, Sunday services, parade services, etc.

Our puppet ministry involves interplay between puppets and Auntie Barbara (human). Auntie Barbara and her friends (Harry - boy, Charlie – monkey, Rosy – girl, Leroy – granddad figure, James – teddy bear) have become quite well known in the areas in which we work. Auntie Barbara is often stopped in the street by children who have seen her in their school or church and we often get requests for specific characters. Success has come through using characters that children and families can get to know. Our puppets (and clown) each has their own developed character which people can relate too. We have found success with schools because we are a Christian ministry which always provides a Christian/Bible message but not in a full-on or over heavily way. Our message is presented as far as possible in a story-telling mode through human/puppet interplay which seems to be attractive and attention-grabbing to a wide range of ages (including adults). We use carefully selected songs which our audiences can sing along with and get to know. Our ministry is simple, simple enough that we have run an after school puppetry club teaching older primary school children puppetry to the point of their being able to present a production to the whole school and their families.

Baggly the clown and our ventriloquism are recent additions to our ministry. The name Baggly stands for “Boys And Girls God Loves You.” Like our puppets, Baggly and our ventriloquism puppet (Fred Green Thing) have their own developed characters and are usually (but not exclusively) used in conjunction with our puppetry. They have been added to give variety to our ministry.

Over a typical three year period our bookings have been running at about 270 per year. In the first full time year this equated to about 20,000 people. We are a husband and wife team and often reach saturation point as far as bookings are concerned. We would dearly love to pass on the techniques of this ministry to others and we are therefore available to train those who feel they might have a calling to this kind of outreach ministry. We are fully sponsored by the URC Southern Synod and do not have to charge fees. Where churches are involved, we are required only to charge mileage for the return journey.

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Revised: March 16, 2010 .