Letter from Randy Friesen

I joined the HIS Puppets and Creative Ministries team right after their successful trip to the One Way Street Regional Puppet Festival in 2001. I was invited to join the team by my brother, who was already a member. I was a little hesitant, but I ended up joining the team to take care of the sound and special effects. I was told by the Director, John Grondin, that to be a part of the team, I had to at least learn how to do puppets. So I put a puppet on my hand for the first time and caught puppet fever. It was nothing like I had thought it would be.

Since I've been a part of the team, a good majority of our shows have been for Olathe Christian Church. We would always do a winter show, spring show, and we usually also did VBS for our church. Occasionally, we would take our shows out on the road to other churches or nursing homes or City Union Mission.

The shows that I have always enjoyed, were the ones at the One Way Street Regional Puppet Festival Competitions. I always enjoyed going to these because we got to see many other teams perform. It is a great place to see what other teams are doing and get ideas on new things you can do. Also, One Way Street puts on several classes on many different topics related to puppetry. It really is a great place to practice your puppetry skills and learn how to better spread the good news of Jesus through puppets.

It was actually at one of these puppet festivals, in 2003, where I made the decision to make puppets my ministry. I knew that God wanted me to direct a puppet team one day in the future. I shared this with the then director John Grondin, and he started to give me more and more leadership roles. He helped mold me into the leader that I am today.

Because of my decision to go into the puppet ministry, I decided to go the IFest in the summer. IFest is another puppet festival put on by One Way Street. This one differs from the Regional Festivals in that it is all week long. Also, there are many International Puppet Ministries that attend. I had the time of my life there, and was cemented in the fact that I was meant for the puppet ministry.

Upon my return, I was told that it was time for me to start directing. I was given the responsibility of directing our next competition song. I used a lot of the things that I had learned at IFest, like using Bunraku puppetry. Bunraku are puppets that are controlled by puppeteers in front of the stage. The puppeteers are dressed all in black. Most bunraku puppets take 3 puppeteers to manipulate.

Unfortunately, It was time for me to head off to college. I tried to keep returning for puppets, but sometimes it just couldn't be managed due to my class load. When I finally had time to come back, there were many new puppeteers. It was a lot of fun getting to know all of them. I was finally able to get back regularly again so I continued on in a leadership role on the puppet team. I didn't have any time to do any directing though.

In December of 2007, I received a big shock. John came to me and told me that he felt it was time for him to retire. I didn't know what to do. I knew that I was meant to take over when John retired, but I was expecting to do that many years down the road. I still had 2 years of college left. I didn't have the time to commit to Directing.

I wasn't going to do it originally. The time wasn't right for me. But then several puppeteers approached me, all at different times, and asked me if I was going to take over. We all knew that the team would dissolve if I didn't step up. So I did the only thing I could do, I prayed about it. It is amazing how you can hear God speaking to you when you actually take the time to sit down and listen. Every excuse that I came up with to not take over full leadership of the team, He batted away. My biggest worry was the time commitment. I couldn't see any way around this problem. But several of the Adult helpers on the team came to me and promised me that they would do all in their power to help me out. I thought enough was enough, and I accepted the Director position on the Hands in Service Puppets and Creative Ministries Team.

Your brother in Christ,
Randy Friesen