Is God still out there? Can God protect me? At a time of national uncertainty when America’s children are filled with concern and questions, a new faith-based organization, Children of Faith, is providing comfort and answers through the wacky cast of characters lovingly referred to as the Gnoo Zoo.

Born out of the nationwide Women of Faith movement, which has drawn more than 1.5 million women since 1996, Children of Faith takes center stage with the Gnoo Zoo Live Christmas Tour this holiday season.

The Broadway-style musical comedy will travel to 20 U.S. cities during the months of November and December, delivering an age-appropriate message of God’s unconditional love and presence, even in scary times, to children and their parents. It kicks off Nov. 24 in Nashville.

“During these uncertain times, children especially need to know that God loves and cares for them,” says Sheila Walsh, Women of Faith speaker and creator of the Gnoo Zoo. The best-selling author became passionate about developing a unique way to communicate God’s love to children after meeting an elderly woman at a Women of Faith conference who did not understand the depth of God’s love until the age of 70. “How different her life might have been, had she understood God’s unconditional love for her when she was a child,” says Walsh.

"I talk to hundreds of women at each conference every week,” Walsh told Crosswalk.com, “but there are always two or three people who leave a real thumbprint on your soul. You think about them afterwards. This one woman was about my grandmother’s age, and she said, ‘I’ve been going to church all my life and tonight is the first night I 'got it' ... that as I am right now and as I’ve been all along, God loves me completely.’”

Walsh says it wasn’t until later that evening that she began to wonder how the woman’s life and the direction she chose might have been different if she had comprehended the love of God at an earlier age. “So I thought about it, and my son Christian was just really little then, and I said, ‘I want to do something for children where the whole message would be the great grace and truth, that all that’s true about you is known, and yet the grace and love and mercy of God is constant."

She wanted Christian to understand that life is a journey, and that “God is as present with you in those dark places when you can’t see the sun, as He is in those places that you are free to fly,” Walsh explains. “And so that’s where the idea for the first book, ‘In Search of the Great White Tiger’ came from. And I wanted to do it with animals because kids love animals.”

Indeed, the Gnoo Zoo (pronounced “guh-noo zoo”) is populated by a courageous, loveable Panda; a fashion maven ostrich played by Walsh herself; a kooky couple of monkeys, and a bespectacled elephant that take children on an action packed, exciting journey in search of the Great White Tiger, who represents God in the Gnoo Zoo storyline.

The characters learn that no matter where they are, what they have done, or what is going on around them, God is with them. They are reminded of the Great White Tiger’s presence by the mark he has left on them – his paw print.

“I wanted to stress the idea of searching,” says Walsh, “of making bad choices and not listening to what you were told ... getting off the path and yet this idea of the imprint of the great white tiger being throughout the book in lots of little places. You know, the dark places, and the paw print in the clouds. I wanted kids to understand that He is with you all along."

Walsh says that as she was writing each book, she prayed with every word she typed: "God, when these parents sit down together with their children to read, (because we want to do a major literacy campaign pushing Children of Faith) that it will be a door to bringing parents back to Your heart again.”

And her prayers have been answered. Last summer, Walsh received an email from a woman who bought the first book at the Washington Conference, and gave it to her fiancé. It will be his second marriage, and he has a 5-year-old son. “She said the neatest thing happened – he would read a few pages and then stop and say, ‘You know, I’d forgotten that God loved me like this.’

“That is so huge,” Walsh continues, “because I think that is God’s heart to draw His children to Him. I mean, we’re all children at heart. I was 4 years old when my dad died, and part of me at that stage was very damaged and broken. There’s part of me that still longs for a father to tell me "You’re beautiful and lovely." So my prayer is for all those moms and dads out there ... as they sit together and read with their children, that those parts of their own hearts will be mended.”

Editor’s Note: The Gnoo Zoo Live Christmas Tour will be followed by another live nationwide tour in Spring 2002. For more information on the live stage production, tour schedule, or admission, call toll-free (866) 885-KIDS (5437) or visit www.childrenoffaith.com.