Book excerpt: I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13) Think it takes a professional actor to have a puppet ministry? Think again. This book gives you a step-by-step plan and tons of tips on using puppets to tell children all about Jesus while entertaining them at the same time! Puppets are a wonderful teaching tool. They can be whatever you want them to be. Puppets can take on different personalities, exhibit various character traits, teach different lessons. Kids are drawn to puppets, opening doors and establishing instant trust. Tell a conventional story to kids and watch as their eyes glaze over. Their short attention spans cause them to squirm and by the end they've missed out on the whole point of the story. Use puppets to tell the story and suddenly every eye is on the stage. Your audience stays with you all the way through and weeks later you're still be hearing about the memorable things the puppets said and did--just like kids act when they're talking about their favorite videos or TV shows. Everything you need to start a new puppet ministry or breath new life into an existing one is in this book. The author, Susan Parsons, relates many firsthand experiences she has had during her substantial career as a playwright and puppeteer. Learn about creative ways of making puppets from all sorts of unconventional things. Find out how to build a nifty, professional-looking stage out of PVC pipe--lightweight, easy to work with and affordable. Get pointers on writing and presenting skits, on staging and lighting them, on recruiting people to help you! Also, the book contains puppet patterns and ready-to-present skits which you can use for practice or incorporate right into your ministry! After reading this book you won't just surviveas a puppeteer--you'll thrive! Product Update It has come to our attention that page 59 of The Official Puppet Ministry Survival Guide contains an error in the instructions for constructing the PVC stage. This error will be corrected when the book is next reprinted. Our apologies for the mistake. The correct numbers and dimensions of pieces appear below. 2.5 ft (8 pieces) 2 ft. 9 in. (8 pieces) 3.5 ft. (2 pieces) 4.5 ft. (6 pieces) 6 ft. (2 pieces) Also, page 60 incorrectly lists a 7 ft., 3 in. piece of pipe.