Granny’s Love Ministries, a puppet ministry of the First Baptist Church of Abbeville, Mississippi, makes puppets and sends them to people all over the world.
The puppet ministry started about 15 years ago to spread the word of God and the plan of salvation to people. Vickie Darnell, one of the directors of the ministry, said her church has sent out at least 200,000 puppets to people around Mississippi, surrounding states and countries such as China, Russia, Portugal and Guatemala.
“We have a plan of salvation in each bag [where the puppets are packed],” Darnell said. “We try to get that into as many homes as we can. When we give them to children, it’s our hopes for them to read and share it with their parents.”
The ladies of the ministry include members of the church and area churches. They order their fabric and meet on the second Monday of the month to draw the puppets onto the fabric, pin them together and cut them out. Next, another group of ladies sew the puppets together.
“We have several ladies who take them home and paint their faces because the faces are so important,” Darnell said.
No two faces on these puppets look the same. There are lambs, lions, cats and dogs, to name a few. After the puppets are sewn together and their faces are painted, the ministry invites the members of the church to help paint the clothes on the puppets. Members of all ages ranging from children to teenagers to adults join in on the fun.
“Sometimes it ranges from five to 15 people painting the clothes on them,” Darnell said. “Then they dry over night. We make sure it’s non-toxic paint.”
Once they are dried, the puppets get bagged. They are bagged by the 50’s. Depending on where the puppets are going, Granny’s Love Ministries tries to translate the plan of salvation and the Word of God (John 3:16) into that nation’s language.
“We normally do them in Spanish or English, or when we know where they are going, we do the plan of salvation in that language,” Darnell said.
According to Darnell, the puppets have gone to at least 36 countries, and recently the ministry has shipped 200 puppets to Hawaii. Next, they are sending 100 puppets to Guatemala.
“We even get them to places like Romania and China,” Darnell said. “The way we get them to countries who ban the Word of God is by taking them to a special center in New Orleans to be handed out to the ship-men who are always in and out that are from those countries.”
The puppets are even used in Billy Graham’s Operation Christmas Child program. The program collects shoe boxes full of toys, hygiene and school supplies to send to children all across the world. Needless to say, it only takes one group of people to start something and God to grow it.
Granny’s Love Ministries:
Emily Newton is a staff writer for hottytoddy.com and the editor of Experience Oxford magazine. She is a recent graduate from the Meek School of Journalism and New Media of Ole Miss. Emily can be reached at emily.newton@hottytoddy.com.
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