Alabama puppet crew brings gospel to life for kids

Lesha Campbell Everett and her diverse cast of lesson-teaching puppets dropped in on an Upwards soccer rally at Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover last fall. Rowdy at first, the crowd of 1,000 players, their parents and coaches fell silent as soon as the tiny brunette bounded on the stage with Dennis, a freckle-faced blonde on her right arm and Sally, his self-righteous counterpart on the other.   
   
Awed, the children stared wide-eyed as Everett threw her voice expertly mimicking Dennis’s country drawl and Sally’s snippy responses. By the end of the show, Lesha’s Loft of wise-cracking puppets had weaved together a subtle lesson on good sportsmanship and presented the plan of salvation. According to Kerry Jones, director of recreation at Hunter Street, 10 children made decisions that night. 
   
“Because so many of the kids who participate in Upward (a Christian-based sports program) are very young, we asked Lesha to gear her performance more toward seed planting,” said Jones, who manages the many recreation programs sponsored by the 6,500-member church. 
   
“She gave them a visual presentation of the gospel that they understood and that I think they’ll remember for a long time,” he added. “The thing we really like about her was that she related to everyone from the 4-year-olds to the adults.” 
   
Jones hopes to have Everett back in a few years when a new batch of kids enters the Upward program. 
   
Everett, who lives in New Market with her husband, Lavell, principal of New Hope Elementary School, and two sons Judson and Campbell, has been using puppets to reach kids like the ones at Hunter Street since she was a kid. When she was 5, her grandmother bought her a Charlie McCarthy puppet from the Sears catalog for Christmas. Soon she was turning the family room into a stage, performing with Charlie for friends and family. 
   
“I guess my family saw a talent in me,” she said. “And they really started fostering it. I never thought it would turn into something like this.” 
   
By the time she was a teen, local churches in her hometown of Crowder, Miss., were booking her on a regular basis.  
   
“I tried to get out of it (being a ventriloquist),” Everett joked. “I got a degree in public relations but found myself performing throughout college to support myself.” 
   
After graduation, she was in demand more than ever. 
   
“I figured I’d just ride it until it died off and then have a real career,” she said. 
   
But before she could contemplate anything else, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association invited her to bring her puppets on a three-month, trans-America campaign. 
   
She tweaked her Christian act so that she could perform in a public school setting, taking on issues such as drug abuse, self-esteem, school violence and health education.   
   
“Basically I based all of my performances on the Ten Commandments, but we just changed the name to character development so the schools would let us in,” she explained. “Then, at the end of the week we would invite the students to a huge rally off campus and share the gospel with them. 
   
“The more schools I visited, the more I realized that kids had lost their sense of character,” she said. “That they really didn’t know the difference between right and wrong anymore.” 
   
Everett traveled with the Billy Graham Association for six years, performing off the cuff. She seldom rehearsed, explaining, “I didn’t want to ‘humanize’ the performance. You need to feel your crowd and let the Spirit lead.” 
   
As they criss-crossed the country and visited schools in Canada and the Caribbean, Everett realized that her all-white crew wasn’t reaching her multiracial crowd. 
   
So she began to add characters like LeRoy (a black), Ledo (a Latin American) and most re­cently LeeLee Minchu, (a Japanese- American). Like her original puppet Dennis, Everett spent months developing the personalities of her new cast, gleaning their accents from people in the grocery store or on TV. 
   
“They act and talk very stereotypically but kids love that,” Everett explained. “They like to see puppets who are like them. It helps them open up and hear the message.” 
   
More than four years ago, Everett decided it was time to go out on her own. She started Way to Go Ministries with the sponsorship of her home church, New Market Baptist, and other faithful congregations such as Maxwell Baptist Church in Huntland, Tenn. She spends half the year on the road, dividing her time equally between church and school events. 
   
But she says her performances are short-lived and she doesn’t get to connect with the kids as she would like to. 
   
“I might be at a school for a week and then they never see me again,” Everett said. 
   
“I want more creative time to establish a connection with these kids that will last,” she added. “Plus I’d like to be home more for my family.” 
   
So, in yet another step of faith, Everett has decided to mass produce Lesha’s Loft.   
   
“That way,” she explained. “I don’t have to miss my kid’s plays or games or whatever, and I can make connections with the kids that will last beyond a night or a week.” 
   
The Faith Network in Florida started airing vignettes of Lesha’s Loft last summer, and Everett’s new production company Madison-based Harvest Moon Production hopes to sign on other stations by this spring. A video is in the works as well. Executive Director Gary Mussleman is confident that Everett and her puppets have all the makings of a successful TV show. 
   
“I have kids and I thought, this is something my kids would love,” Mussleman said. “Her stories capture your attention and she is an incredible teacher. 
   
“If we can get it into people’s hands they’ll buy it,” he added.