Jesus is King!
Meet The Cast of
Ponderings Pond
Snake Jake
Of all the characters of Ponderings Pond, Snake Jake was one of the original set of puppets. He was the main character of the "snake stories" I would tell our three sons prior to them going to bed.
Though mischievous and naughty at times as well as tad low on intelligence, I envisioned him as a creature sensitive to what the right thing to do was. Being somewhat more reachable than his friend, Joe, I desired that he have a white do on the tip on his nose.
From time to time you will meet his "mum" in the stories, but not his dad. This was done to engender in the minds of some that though their earthly dad might be gone, abusive, neglectful parent, or somehow otherwise absent, there is the heavenly Father that waits for us to come to Him. Jake's snake dad was last seen by mum crawling across a road and was struck by a passing car, landing in a field. That does not mean he is dead, and leaves room for a surprise return home or some type of discovery by Jake or his mum.
In the original bedtime stories and puppet shows, Jake often did not pronounce the "th" blend correctly. Thus, for "that" he'd say "dat." Since currently this is an international Christian education outreach, he now speaks correctly in most of the stories. However, there will be a few stories of Jake in his younger days when he did not speak correctly.
A black snake was selected in my mind due to the fact they were prominent in our first pastorate in North Carolina, non-poisonous, and helpful to agriculture.
The remainder of the cast will be presented in alphabetical order.
Coppers, The
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Every community seems to need law enforcement and Ponderings Pond is no exception. Aiming for a bit of humor, I decided what better way to staff the Ponderings Pond Police Department (PPPD) than to have copperheads, so I can call them coppers! Since these guys were made for a child evangelism event and copper colored material was not around, we chose orange. Most often the coppers have to deal with Jake and Joe. |
Delilah Duck | | Delilah Duck is a busy gal, who works as a waitress at Snake Joe's Restaurant and serves as a volunteer Emergency Medical Critter of the Ponderings Pond Volunteer Emergency Services. |
Detective Dan | Detective Dan is, of course, is also part of the PPPD. I found it advantageous to give one of the "coppers" an actual name for use in a child evangelism out reach session. He's an encouragement for young minds to investigate the things of God. |
Donkey Don | Though a little clumsy, Donkey Don desires to be helpful and has been very helpful in many stories. |
Freddy Frog | There is much good to Freddy the Frog, and he often is used to enlighten the conscience of mischievous snakes and other critters. |
Jake's Mum | Meet Jake's mother, whom he calls "mum." She acts as an additional check against the naughty side of Jake. |
Keeper of the PondThe face of the Keeper of the Pond is never shown, and he is mainly an unseen character. | The Keeper of the Pond is sometimes mentioned in the stories, but he is never visible. This is in part to support the truth in a child's mind that "God is a spirit" (John 4:24). While that is "make believe" to adults, each day we adults believe - commit to - things we do not see: electricity, enclosed combustion, oxygen and more. The Keeper of the Pond is the supreme ruler of Ponderings Pond, and its main caretaker. He has written the Law of the Pond which all creatures of Ponderings Pond must agree to. There is also "The Agreement of the Pond," which all resident creatures should sign, promising not to inflict harm upon the other creatures. Many of the area rodents have not signed the agreement. |
Mr. Walrus | There's something about that Pond. Water creatures from near and far like to visit Ponderings Pond and venture onto land at times. Mr. Walrus is one of those visiting creatures. |
Pedro Persistence | Pedro Persistence lives up to his name. He lives in a cottage at Ponderings Pond and enjoys gardening. |
Sammy Shark | Yes, Ponderings Pond can even handle a shark. I cannot remember why we opted for a shark for a puppet, but nevertheless he is part of the crew. By the way, he is a friendly creature and has signed the Agreement of the Pond. Therefore, any of the Ponderings Pond creatures that venture into the Pond are safe. |
Seymour The Giraffe | Seymour the Giraffe is one of the tallest creatures of Ponderings Pond and can see great distances. He is a good and helpful creature, and serves as the judge for Ponderings Pond. |
Snake Clara | At some point I figured it would be nice to add a female serpent to the bunch, hence, Snake Clara (short for Clarabelle) came along. I got tired of black and orange, so light blue was selected. |
Snake Joe | Snake Joe is a restaurant owner at Ponderings Pond. He is naughty at times, and less reachable than his friend, Jake. Joe has a tendency to influence Jake to do the wrong thing. |
Shnertz | I forget when it happened, but some years ago we acquired this bright blue puppet. He was never named until I began writing stories for the Internet.
Looking at him, I saw that he had a long nose. Then I thought I could determine him to be a shnozzlelaramus. With that came his name -- Shnertz (rhymes with shirts). In fact, since I am originally from NJ and always enjoyed visiting Paramus, to me Shnertz is the shnozzlelaramus from Paramus.
Jake and Joe were rude to him at first, but they soon became friends. He currently lives under a shed at Ponderings Pond.
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