Picking a Puppet Pal, Part 2

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Linda Bonney Olin

My Personal Puppet Ministry saga continues! If you missed previous posts in this series, you can catch up here:
Puppet Grace
Picking a Puppet Pal

Click on the link below to listen to an MP3 audio recording of today’s post.
The transcript follows, with a few photos for illustration.
Audio: Picking a Puppet Pal-Part 2

Picking a puppet pal for personal puppet ministry, continued …

Thanks for joining me again on my personal puppet ministry journey. As I explained in a previous post in this series, personal puppet ministry is what I call a solo puppeteer and his/her puppet pal sharing God’s love by chatting back and forth in front of an audience, basically playing the “role” of themselves. Future posts will get into performance and ministry topics. Right now, I’m just getting started, and the first step is coming up with my puppet pal.

Little teddy bear and brown cow Collie dog stuffed animal toy

In my previous post, I narrowed down my search to the general category of hand puppet. Then the idea of converting a stuffed animal toy into a one-of-a-kind hand puppet really appealed to me. Luckily, a few good candidates were already sitting around the house, including the little teddy bear, brown cow, and collie dog pictured above.

A puppet pal to crow about

My favorite is the black crow. It has big googly eyes, dangly yellow feet, stubby wings, and a big yellow beak. Right away, great ideas rolled into my head for ministry skits and scripted conversations that could be custom-made for a black bird puppet pal. The possibilities are pretty exciting.

Black crow

But what about the construction? Could the stuffed crow toy be remodeled into a workable hand puppet?

Continue reading →

Who Doesn’t Love Books and Bargains?

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Linda Bonney Olin

Greetings from Faith Songs!

I almost feel as if I should introduce myself, after my two-month absence from Faith Songs. As many of you know, my parents’ health needs take me away from home (and away from my high-speed Internet) for weeks at a time, and that was the case for most of December and part of January. When I got home, my first priority (okay, second—after smooching my husband) was the farm bookkeeping. Besides the usual accounts payable/receivable and payroll, January is prime time for annual business reports, employer reports, tax reports, lender reports, Workers Comp audit reports—you get the idea. Squeezed in writing and submitting a few new hymns and devotions. No time for blogging.

New release: Transformed

When the bookkeeping finally hit a lull between deadlines, the Holy Spirit shifted me into high gear to get my latest drama book published. I polished the content, cover, and interior design to a high gloss with the help of my wonderful beta readers. The paperback edition of Transformed: 5 Resurrection Dramas rolled onto the cyber-shelves at Amazon and CreateSpace the last week of January, and the Kindle version went up on Amazon shortly afterwards. Stay tuned for information about a Book Launch Party (exclusive giveaways, discounts, fun trivia, and who knows what-all) on Facebook. Hopefully I can get that scheduled before the book and I both curl up and yellow with age.

But, first!

My Holy Ghostwriter poked me to share some thoughts about the Bible characters in Transformed. I say “characters” because that’s what you call people in a play, but these were real people, even though the premises of the dramas are fictional (at least, I’m pretty sure none of the apostles ever appeared on a TV talk show!). In fact, the five lead characters were among Jesus Christ’s closest family and friends: his mother, Mary, and his brother James; the apostles Simon Peter and John; and his devoted disciple Mary Magdalene.

The five dramas portray how they were transformed by Jesus’ resurrection. But what about the soul-wrenching days that led up to it? What was each of those individuals doing, and thinking, and feeling after Jesus died, before news came that he’d risen from the tomb, alive? We tend to treat Holy Saturday like a blank page between Good Friday and Easter. That page deserves to be examined more closely before we turn it. That will be the focus of an upcoming series of posts here at Faith Songs.

Book Resources for Lent

In the meantime, I invite you to check out Transformed: 5 Resurrection Dramas on Amazon or CreateSpace. It offers drama, comedy, music—and best of all, life-changing truth.

And don’t forget my other Lent resources: The Sacrifice Support Group: A Dramatic Comedy for Lent and Giving It Up for Lent: Bible Study, Drama, Discussion. ’Tis the season! Ash Wednesday is March 5, 2014.

Chances are, you’re not one of the few people who shop for church play scripts and Bible study materials for a church group. But my tribe (that’s you!) can pass the message to the people in your church who do buy them—pastors, worship leaders, drama teams, small group leaders, adult Sunday School teachers. Please do whatever you can to help me get the word to those folks. If you’re not a church person yourself, you probably know one or two you can mention it to.

Yes, the post title said “Bargains”

Trumpet fanfare! My Book Launch Party for Transformed will unveil a discount code of 50% on all my Christian drama books and Bible study workbooks. The code will be valid only on paperback editions, only at CreateSpace.com, and only on the Launch Party dates.

Continue reading →

Book Launch: Lenten Bible Studies and Drama

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Linda Bonney Olin

Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:16 (NIV)

Book cover of Giving It Up for Lent by Linda Bonney Olin That Bible verse serves as the epigram in the three books exploring Lenten sacrifice I launched this week:

Giving It Up for Lent—Leader Guide: Bible Study, Drama, Discussion

Giving It Up for Lent—Workbook: Bible Study, Drama, Discussion

The Sacrifice Support Group: A Dramatic Comedy for Lent

It might seem strange to talk about Lent in December. After all, Ash Wednesday won’t roll around again until March 5, 2014. But I hope my helpful readers will pass the information about my new books to whoever organizes Bible studies, dramas, and supper programs for their churches. They may be preparing next year’s programs now.

Speaking of preparation, today is the first Sunday of Advent, and Advent and Lent are sister seasons of spiritual preparation.

During the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day, Christians around the world remember the time when God’s people waited—not weeks, but centuries!—for the Savior God had promised. We traditionally read Bible passages from Old Testament prophets including Isaiah, Samuel, Jeremiah, and Micah, and gospel accounts, especially Luke, that shed light on that promise and its fulfillment in the coming (“advent”) of Jesus. His arrival as a baby in Bethlehem is a joyful occasion, so Advent meditations carry a hopeful note.

During the forty days of Lent, Christians prepare to mark the final fulfillment of the salvation promise, in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Although Lent ends with a victory celebration on Easter Sunday, the horrific circumstances of Jesus’s suffering and death give Lenten meditations a solemn tone. As we read the Bible accounts, we wonder, how can we make ourselves worthy of Jesus’ willing sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins? We can’t, of course. But we can reflect on it, with gratitude. And try, in our own small way, to emulate his spirit of self-sacrifice for the good of others and the glory of God.

Giving It Up for Lent and The Sacrifice Support Group might just help folks do that. So please, pass the word!

No matter what your faith, may you find peace, renewal, and true joy during this holiday season!

Linda

A New Twist of Fate ~ and Faith

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Linda Bonney Olin

Photo of Twist of Fate book featuring poem The Wind and The Spirit by Linda Bonney Olin

Today’s mail brought my paperback copies of Twist of Fate, a charity anthology produced by Indies in Action. If you have sharp eyes, you can sneak a peek at “The Wind and The Spirit” in the photo. I wrote this faith poem specifically for Twist of Fate, which was edited by Stephen L. Wilson and published by Navigator Books. All contributions were donated by the participants, and all proceeds will benefit the May Tornadoes Relief Fund, managed by the United Way. (Yes, that’s why I used tornado imagery in the theme and visual layout of “The Wind and The Spirit.”)

Indies in Action is a group of independent writers and artists who banded together to tangibly express our compassion for victims of tragedies. Our first anthology project, Angels Cried, benefits the survivors of the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Twist of Fate was released early in July, and quickly shot to the Number One spot on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list. Its success is well deserved. The Indies aren’t just caring people, they’re also good writers! I particularly liked W. F. Lantry’s poem “Storm,” Dave Fessenden’s poem “Holy Vine,” and Lori Dillon’s short story “Ruby Slippers.”

Even though Connecticut and Oklahoma are American locales, Indies from around the world pitched in on both anthologies. Dr. Kiriti Sengupta of India, for example, not only donated two pieces of writing to Twist of Fate but also delved further with interviews of several contributors. Check out his interview “Linda Bonney Olin, a God-Centered Writer from the U.S.” and jump from there to other fascinating entries on Kiriti’s blog.

Of course, Indies in Action can’t succeed in our charitable quest without folks who contribute by purchasing copies of the anthologies! To get in on that action, click on the links below. Don’t forget to leave a comment here and a review on Amazon. Thanks!

~ Linda

Twist of Fate paperback
Twist of Fate ebook
Angels Cried paperback
Angels Cried ebook

Eddie Jones ~ Author & Publisher

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Linda Bonney Olin

: Author/Publisher Eddie Jones

Today’s Faith Song is a duet with guest Eddie Jones. Eddie claims he can’t carry a tune, so we’ll settle for hand-clapping and foot-stomping in the “joyful noise” pew. 🙂

I met Eddie at the 2011 Montrose Christian Writers Conference. Couldn’t help but love the humor-filled, down-to-earth way he lives out his passion for the Lord and for the written word.

Eddie is the author of eleven books and over 100 articles. He also serves as Acquisition Editor for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. He is a three-time winner of the Delaware Christian Writers’ Conference, and his YA novel, The Curse of Captain LaFoote, won the 2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Award and 2011 Selah Award in Young Adult Fiction. He is also a writing instructor and cofounder of Christian Devotions Ministries. His “He Said, She Said” devotional column appears on ChristianDevotions.US (not “dot com”). His humorous romantic suspense, Bahama Breeze, remains a “blessed seller.” When he’s not writing or teaching at writers’ conferences, Eddie can be found surfing in Costa Rica or some other tropical locale.

Now, try to imagine Eddie answering the following questions with a grin and a charming slightly-southern accent: