Introduction:
It should be understood completely and up front that I am using Balloon Bending (making) to lift up Christ and help other Christian organizations to lift up Christ and share His Word. This is not about being paid or lifting myself up or showing off. As a volunteer Christian balloon bender, there are lots of church events and opportunities to volunteer your skills to many Christian organizations. This sheet is a complete description of how to do it and not go broke or crazy. If you’re doing Christian events you should be a Christian with some real knowledge of Christianity and Christian beliefs. Rule #1, Always operate in LOVE. You should know some verses, what they mean, and how to use them. You should know the Christian organizations that you are working with and their beliefs. To be open and honest: I do occasionally volunteer to help non-Christian not-for-profit organizations.

How Balloon Benders dress and act:
The Balloon Benders should dress clean and neat, do not dress like the neighborhood ax murderer, use very little makeup, I don't use any. Be polite, friendly, open, informative, and fun. Read a very family friendly joke book before you get started. If they ask you what you’re doing, tell them, "I'm making balloons for this organization and there are more free activities over here" straight up, do not lie. Do not be pushy, grabby, intimidating, or scary, and remember that even good looking clowns can be scary to some people (it’s true).

Ballooning Skills:
Must be interested in serving Christ and His children. Must be at least well skilled at making simple things with balloons. It is helpful to be retired, but not mandatory.

When I work for Christian events I am a volunteer, and I am not being paid. There are benefits in being a volunteer. Everyone has a personal life, family, relatives, etc. and things happen without notice or warning. When you make a commitment to work for someone you should make every effort to be there, or find a substitute! But lets be real, there are times when you simple have to call someone and say that you cannot make it, and that is why being part of a team is helpful. A team, a group of like minded/hearted people. Teams need to developed and some times you need to train your team.
I currently help about 6 different Christian organizations on a first come, first served basis. I am like all of the other volunteers that are at the event. I am not stealing jobs from people who make their living doing balloons because the organizations that I work for cannot afford to pay for my skills. This is not about me, it is all about lifting up Christ to the world. I will bend every effort to do the best job I can do for Christ. I will go the extra miles needed to lift up the cause of Christ with love, honor and respect for Christ and every one that I meet. I will always be helpful, patient, respectful and pleasant. I am a child of God and everything I do reflects on Him.

Training for beginners:
NEVER NEVER NEVER try to train balloon people during an event!!!!!!! Why? because the trainer and the trainee will both be training, all day! And now you are very short handed, by at least two people!!!! Always train before the event!!!!!. There is NOTHING good about training balloon people during an event!!!!! The team looses, the event looses, the people loose, and God looses!!!!!

What kinds of balloons do I make:

• There is an almost unlimited number of types of balloons you can make. Do you want to make a lot of simple, fast, easy things for lots of people? Or, do you want to make large complicated things that take a long time to make each thing for a few people? In my opinion, In large crowds you need to make small things that are fast and easy. Take the time to point that person to a good christian booth for information or activity.
• A Stick and Circle, It's a type of little kids game where you use one straight balloon "The Stick" and the second balloon is "the Circle" and you spin the circle on the stick.
• Dog
• Various simple hats
• Ray Gun (or you can call it "a Bob Gun")
• Sword
• Flower
• etc. This is a good list to start with.

Basic Outline of duties:

• I will continually learn new things so that my skills and equipment will get better.
• I openly and freely share my skills with others as time permits.
• I openly draw people to me with free balloons, fun, talk and general messing around with the crowd. Then I direct them to the organization's booth.

For example: We have worked with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) in developing the following technique into a powerful witnessing tool.

Opening comments
I’m Phil Ebert and I’m here to share a new witnessing technique developed by Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) of Delaware. This technique has worked so well for us that we really felt that we needed to share it for free with the entire Christian community. Please feel free to share this information with others. This is a suggested witnessing method. We are not trying to pressure anyone into anything. We are giving this information away for free in the hope that Christ is lifted up in a more powerful and effective way.

All of the materials are available at Apple Sauce Kids
There is a large selection of free balloon artist training videos at Apple Sauce Kids, https://applesaucekids.com.
We make no guarantee as to results, this is simply working for us and we believe that it will work for you.

The problem: People do not want things forced on them. Christians need to be friends "first"
When Christians try to reach out at local festivals we generally sit in our booths all day and few people talks to us. In the new CEF method it is important to understand that friendly, and fun volunteer balloon benders/artist are used to drawing people to the booth so that visitors can then be redirected to witnesses who use a variety of activities like the Wordless book, puzzle, bracelet, and more to share the Word. In this method everything is free to the public (Don’t panic, keep going). They move people from one fun activity, like free balloons, which are done by church volunteers and are easy to learn for free (go to Apple Sauce Kids), to another fun or interesting activity. They usually have 2-3 activities to pick from, some are just for fun and some have a Christian message like salvation. The idea is that all of the visitors will end up at a salvation message, but first you have to create a relationship and friendship with the balloon people before they are ready to receive the Word. From the beginning, the visitors learn that you are not there to pressure them into buying or signing up for something they do not want. Everyone is told that everything is free. In general, people are looking for fun things that are very cheap, easy and put no pressure on them. Compare the following results to what you normally see, and judge for yourself. We had a total crew of eight – nine people.

The crew:
Two people helped to set up and pack up. They were not there all day. We also had two (2) Balloon Benders who supplied all of their own supplies for free. The supplies will cost each balloon bender about $10-$15 per day (in 2016). Depending on the rules of the event, they will either work in the booth or in the street in front of the booth. They will prefer to work in the street where there is more room. Read a good clean family friendly joke book before you start. Four-Five people worked in the booth/tent area which was 10’x 20’. In the booth we had: (1) water gun duck race (these are toy ducks)
(1) person on the Wordless Puzzle (invented by Bob and Joan Brown of the Delaware CEF
(2) on the Wordless Bracelet. The Wordless Puzzle and Wordless Bracelet are new versions of the Wordless book.

The weather and focus:
On this day The weather was over cast, with off and on spotty rain and We were right next to the stage and we were really over whelmed by the stage PA system. This team witnessed to about 100 people in a calm well thought out manner. First, you become a friend, and then through a visual aid, like an activity, you deliver God's plan of salvation. We all understand that you cannot combine getting donations, with winning souls, and sitting in your church wishing people would come to church. The only way to get people into a church is to go get them with a single thought and purpose, winning souls, everything else happens on a different day. TODAY WE WIN SOULS! And, at the very least we will make friends and build relationships. And we will do it with a happy friendly spirit.

Balloons:
The balloons that you want to make depend on the rules of your religious organization and the people you want to draw to your organization. If you want to draw the unsaved, you can expect them to want worldly things like guns and swords. Some Christian organizations would consider guns and swords to be unacceptable, but remember they are unsaved. It is your job, over time, to take them from where they are now to where they can be in Christ. I recommend a small list of popular balloons. If you make every kind of balloon that the mind can imagine, you will spend the day playing “stump the balloon guy” and no one will get saved. The idea is to make something fast and turn them over to someone who will give them the Word in an interesting and sometimes fun way.
All of the information and training you need is available, for free, at Apple Sauce Kids, https://applesaucekids.com. They have all of the training videos on how to make and use the Wordless Puzzle and how to make things with balloons, and more for free. (Some of these materials may still be Under Construction)

Recommended balloon list:
Everything listed here is easy to learn and fast to make. Go to Apple Sauce Kids https://applesaucekids.com for totally free training videos.
Dog: why not a cat, because they are more difficult to learn.
Sword
Flowers
Ray Gun
The Flying Turtle/Lady Bug

• Can be made as a Flying Turtle or Lady bug or a bracelet.
• They are easy to carry or wear.

For more information and training: 1. CEF of Delaware Address: CEF of Delaware, P.O. Box 1002, Camden, DE 19901 E-mail: cefofdelaware@gmail.com Web: cefofdelaware.org 2. In support of CEF of Delaware and Christians everywhere, Apple Sauce Kids, has piles of free stuff, including this new CEF witnessing method. Apple Sauce Kids works with many different Christian organizations and it is our pleasure to post all of this important information on our site. Email: askaplsauce@gmail.com Web: https://applesaucekids.com Piles of free stuff at Apple Sauce Kids is a completely free website that contains piles of free Christian ministry materials for all ages, just copy, use and share. You can even put our materials on your website. Please pass them on for free. (English Only) https://applesaucekids.com May 3, 2017