Member clowns around with the Gospel

Nancy Quintin, right, clowns around at a children’s hospital.

Samaritan Ministries member Nancy Quintin likes to clown around when she shares the Gospel.

Which makes sense, since it’s her job.

Nancy first got the itch to put on a red nose several years ago when she took the puppetry team from her church to a conference that featured an evangelical clown.

“I found it amazing this person was using her clown skills to evangelize,” Nancy says.

But it wasn’t until a friend mentioned she might be interested in clown ministry as well that Nancy realized God was trying to nudge her in that direction. After making providential contact with a woman at a Plymouth, Massachusetts, costume shop who was a Christian clown, Nancy and her friend attended a clown convention. In almost no time, Nancy realized that this was what God wanted her to do and quickly sketched her costume. Her friend, on the other hand, decided it wasn’t for her.

Nancy adopted the name Gracie the Clown to “honor God with my clowning, for the grace He has offered me in my life.”

After learning under professional clowns, Nancy started a family entertainment business, which involves doing clown shows and gospel presentations in a variety of settings.

Then, about nine months after she started clowning around, an audition opportunity came up with the Big Apple Circus Clown Care program that brings circus acts into hospitals to cheer up patients. After a four-hour audition, she waited for a response. None came, leading to frustration.

Three months later, while ironing, Nancy says she had an “epiphany in the laundry room.” Maybe God didn’t want her there. Maybe it might not be the best thing for her.

“I said, ‘God, if You don’t want me there, I don’t want to be there,’” she recalls.

After all, she thought, she had less than a year’s experience as a clown while most of the others there had several years.

“I gave it to God,” she says.

Two weeks later, Big Apple Circus called to ask her if she wanted to join their hospital troupe.

“I realized God wanted to see how much I was willing to trust Him,” she says.

After an intense two-week training on hospital protocol, she started working for Big Apple in March 2004.

“It’s been a blessing being there,” Nancy says. “I cannot openly tell people I’m a Christian, but I truly believe people have seen a difference in me between myself and other clowns. I’ve actually had people come up to me and ask if I was a Christian. Certainly, through my actions, through my words, the Holy Spirit does flow through.”