Samuel’s Puppet

Sometimes a puppet has a lot of good things to say!

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and I saw it happen at a church in Texas. I was scheduled to share a short testimony during the Sunday service, but before worship began my friend Megan wanted me to visit their special-needs Sunday School. And I was excited to meet a lot of the young students, her “friends,” as we say. I had such a good time greeting the small group of these young friends, most of them with autism. I shared a simple message to them all about my story and how, every day, God helps me in my wheelchair. I slowly explained that God helps me not to be sad about what I can’t do, but to be glad for what I can do, all because of Jesus. Now, as I spoke, I noticed a few rows back, a college-aged girl, a helper, relaying my testimony to a young boy, and she was using a puppet. She was conveying my story – kind of like translating it – even more slowly than I was doing. And when I saw it, I tried to help a bit by measuring my own pace with the puppet. Once in a while I’d glance, amazed at how fascinated this little guy – I guess he had autism – he was just fascinated with the puppet, but also the story the puppet was sharing. This puppet – of course hiding the skillful hand of the college girl – the puppet would turn toward me and nod, as if conveying, “There’s the lady I’m talking about. She’s okay. She’s safe.”

Well, after the class was over, and before I wheeled off toward the worship center for the service, I had a chance to meet this little boy. His name was Samuel and, yes, our eyes did meet, but mostly, he kept looking at the puppet for reassurance. This child was learning about Jesus in his own sweet, simple, elementary way. And my eyes got wet when I left the classroom. Because I kept thinking of how delighted God must be, not only in Megan, the teacher, but that precious volunteer with her puppet. Most of all, though, I was grateful for such a caring church. Oh, my goodness. A church that obviously thought nothing of going the extra mile and making the extra effort to make certain that Samuel, including his mom and dad, knew about Jesus and could experience his love there in that congregation.

You know, I wish every church were like this. But it’s not always the case. There are many churches that allow fear of the unknown to rule the day. Or they do not believe that the neediest are worth the time and effort. But I’m here to say, there are solutions. There are resources. I’m not asking your church to do behavior therapy; far from it. What I’m asking is, that your church take a few steps toward making the love of Christ accessible to all, just as it says in Romans 5:2. It doesn’t take much. Maybe just keeping the noise level down in the Sunday School classroom. Or setting firm boundaries and sticking to them. Working individually with parents to understand how best to communicate with their child. In Samuel’s case, puppets worked wonders. 

And we’ve got lots of tips and tools at Joni and Friends, and it’s why I want you to watch a brief video I’ve posted today at joniradio.org. My co-worker Ryan, who works on our Church Engagement team at Joni and Friends, offers some solid, basic advice and tips about reaching young people with disabilities with God’s Word and his love. Plus, we’ve got lots of resources you’ll want to explore. Let’s get more churches embracing those who desperately need help and hope. Reach out to our team at Joni and Friends. It’s all there for you at joniradio.org. And let’s get more churches caring for kids like Samuel. Thanks for joining me for Joni and Friends.

© Joni and Friends

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