11 January 2009
Pathfinders Catch The Passion of Puppetry

Jan 11, Penang -- About fifty Pathfinders and their leaders from several Adventist churches in Penang caught the passion of puppetry as they completed a 4-hour training conducted by Sim Sew Moi, the Children’s Ministries director of SAUM, on Jan 11 Sunday afternoon.
To hook the interest of the congregation of the Penang English Church, a puppet show named “We’re Wonderfully Made” was presented just before the divine worship. Young and old in the church enjoyed the 7-minute play about a low-self esteemed worm who finally realized its self worth.
At the training on Sunday, the theory of puppetry was first presented before the participants gave a try on the creative use of their hands at the basic manipulation of the puppets. Later, they were divided into six groups to work on the given scripts and present the puppet shows. Finally, in three groups they spent the last hour writing own scripts. Each group was uniquely creative in their performances and were very much applauded.
To fulfill the requirements of the Pathfinders’ Puppet honour, the Pathfinders further spent the following Sunday making simple handpuppets and script writing. The puppets they made consisted of a variety of characters depending on the script written. While waiting for their turns to use the sewing machine, some wrote their own script. “The youth are very creative and they make lovely ones with just simple felt materials,” commented Cindy Kuan, the one who initiated this puppet honour training.
Before they can obtain the puppet honour, they need to give at least one church or public performance. At the moment, they are thriving to that. The success of this Pathfinder Puppet training was brought to Simon Siew’s attention and he wished to see the Pathfinders in Singapore have this training sometime this year.