Behind it, she's emboldened, able to do things she'd never do in her other life as Barbara MacPeek, certified public accountant. Life's challenges and tragedies, including the deaths of two granddaughters, fade away - even if her eyes well up as she paints on a smile. It allows her to perform before crowds, seek out smiles from grouchy strangers and speak words inspired by a higher power.

"If I want to share Jesus with someone, I'm kind of shy," says the 61-year-old member of Layton Hills Baptist Church. Face done up, "I can say anything. It takes me out of the picture. I just kind of pray when I put on my makeup that God will use me."

MacPeek, of Layton, is part of a national movement of like-minded, floppy-shoed performers who join organizations such as the Fellowship of Christian Clowns Int., receive The Cross and the Clown magazine and attend the Show Me Clowns for Jesus National Conference each year in Missouri.

It's a ministry that's sharing the gospel one red rubber nose at a time.

"It gets into places a preacher cannot get into," says MacPeek, who's been clowning since 1988, barring the years when she helped care for one of her granddaughters before she died. "You can reach someone who's not expecting it."

Take, for instance, a gaggle of unsuspecting kids.

On a recent morning, she and her sidekick, Puddles, work their way up a dirt path at Camp Red Cliffe in the Cache National Forest, on their way to the morning celebration. Passing campers wave, call out their names, maybe sidle up for a hug. For about two weeks each summer, the Utah Baptist Encampment, a consortium of all Southern Baptist churches in Utah, rents the property from the owners, Community of Christ, for Bible camps.

Her about 3-foot high foam iPhone - shaped, yes, as a large "I" - in tow, her bright red wig just so, and her pin "Jesus is coming, look busy" pin affixed, Gramma Cuddles is set to perform. But before she does, the more than 80 kids file into the open-walled, rustic hall to scream their praise.

"It's about to get loud in here," warns the Rev. Rob Parsons, pastor of the camp and Hyrum's Emmanuel Baptist Church, his baseball cap backwards as he tools with the sound system. Soon, music and MTV-style videos take over.

As the kids rock out, fists pumping, to DC Talk's "Jesus Freak," shouting lyrics - including, "Does it make me a stranger that my best friend was born in a manger," - MacPeek flaps her bent arms, doing a dance she likes to call "the Baptist bird."

Just looking at her and Puddles, the kids crack up. As they take center stage to perform their morning skit, the kids scooch up in their chairs, Bibles on their laps, eager to see the day's story. Not typical church behavior for this demographic.

"They make learning about God fun," says Nate Ray, 11, of Calvary Baptist Church in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

This week at camp is a pirate theme - "Where's your treasure?" So in this sketch, Gramma Cuddles and Puddles are searching, amid shenanigans, for a hidden treasure. They open up a chest to reveal and put on flashing eye glasses that make the kids giggle, and a "pearl" necklace that becomes the cornerstone of a magic trick. Gramma Cuddles tells a story about how the treasured necklace disappeared, as it does so before the kids' eyes, only to be bought back later at a pawn shop. Poof, it returns.

Wearing the necklace should serve as a reminder, she tells Puddles and the audience, "of the price Jesus paid when he died on the cross."

Sometimes, she peppers skits with scripture, she says, but time is tight this morning. A guest speaker, a missionary with the Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention, is on hand to encourage kids to reach out for Jesus at cafeteria tables and on playgrounds.

Gramma Cuddles will do an occasional birthday party and takes advice and learns tricks from "secular clowns," she says. But doing God's work in costume is what makes dressing up extra special. She prefers Bible camps, church outreach events, recurring visits to area services.

Clowns don't just speak to kids, she points out. With all the problems in the world, she says sometimes a mainstream preacher just can't touch people.

The 36-year-old camp pastor, Parsons, knows this as well as anyone. Formerly known as Pickelez D. Clown, he found Christ through clowning, he says. As a 22-year-old summer camp employee in western Kentucky, he says he swore like a sailor before he met a Christian magician (and clown, though he wasn't in makeup at the time) who'd paid a visit for a week of performances. Parsons was awestruck by the Rev. Ray Wilson, and kept begging the pastor to teach him the tricks.

The magician stayed mum, and as providence would have it, Parsons began to change. The weekend after Wilson left, Parsons says he was miserable.

"The Holy Spirit was just breaking me," he explains.

He ended up in church, Wilson's church, and the tears began to flow when he accepted Jesus into his heart. And Wilson responded, willing to teach Parsons the skills he used to share the gospel.

Parsons returned to college in Ohio that fall, promptly dropped out of the fraternity he was president of and helped form the Baptist Student Union. A clown troupe soon followed.

"I didn't know any way to be a Christian but to be a clown," he said.

Good thing, because it was through clowning that he met his wife, Renee. She, by the way, says she was afraid of clowns, until she became one.

MacPeek, who sits outside the camp kitchen, blames movies and Halloween for giving clowns a bad name. When done right, she says clowns can bring smiles and, when inspired by faith, represent the good name of the good book.

"What'd I do with my nose?" she says as she stands to leave and change.

Finding it in her pocket, Gramma Cuddles carefully puts one oversized shoe in front of the other and begins the walk to her other self.

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JESSICA RAVITZ can be reached at jravitz@sltrib.com or 801-257-8776. Send comments to the religion editor at religioneditor@sltrib.com.

Christians clowning around

2007 - year the Fellowship of Christian Clowns Int. was founded

700 - number of fellowship clowns

50 - number of fellowship clowns in region*, including Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico

5 - approximate number of fellowship clowns in Utah

23 - years the Show Me Clowns for Jesus National Conference has convened

300 - number of clowns who attended this year's conference

* Barbara MacPeek, or Gramma Cuddles, is the regional director for the Fellowship of Christian Clowns Int.

Sources: Tony Jones of the Fellowship of Christian Clowns Int.; Barbara MacPeek; Dana Abendschein, coordinator of the Show Me Clowns for Jesus National Conference