Clowning and Ballooning

Hoopee makes a come back! Just in case you didn’t know, Hoopee is Terence’s clown name. He explodes in animated gestures when the make up goes on and his costume is don. Hoopee plays pranks on Waddle his sidekick and Sunshine his partner in crime. I’d introduce Waddle and Sunshine some other time.

After many months of no-show, Hoopee got back into action twisting balloons, making funny faces and acting in silly skits. It was a lot of fun, a lot of laughter and a lot of memories recalled. Terence and I received a request to conduct a clowning and ballooning seminar in Subang AG church on Saturday. The church was having a missions carnival showcasing different cultures of the world and the work of God in those nations. The carnival was a buzz with a varied selection of traditional food, colourful costumes and traditional handicraft.

Adding colour to the carnival, we set up a face painting booth and attracted huge crowd. Thankfully Rachel was there to help! We had such fun painting different kinds of icons from butterflies to cars to penguins – oh I love the art of face painting and how they make children’s eyes dazzle at the sight of it (even adults for that matter!)

That's Caleb, the lil boy who had wanted nothing to do with painting, but later caved into my persuasion. I drew him a car:)

The clowning session was incredibly hilarious. Our students were adults, which also meant that breaking the ice was going to be more difficult. After the unmasking, everything just went haywire, they were goofing, talking and expressing in exaggerated action! Undoubtedly some had problems doing so, after all clowning is not an easy task. It takes a lot of humility to be another character.

Clowning and ballooning are highly effective tools for ministry. Especially with children and youth. We’ve gone to rural areas like Orang Asli villages, hill tribes in Chiangrai, Thailand, jungles in Sarawak and other parts of Malaysia bringing the gospel in simple forms of a clown skit or a balloon trick and they are dazzled by it. I’m itching to go on my next mission trip, hopefully in the near future.