Dearest
Friends,
We are on our way to Taiwan,
please pray. We are very excited because we will have a chance to share
Christ with many Buddhist children. We are especially excited because we
will be going into the mountains to share Christ with children there. This
is a first…. and a big answer to prayer.
Please forgive me for not
having written to you sooner. The last few months have been very difficult
as I’ve tried to sort things out without Mike. I miss him terribly.
I want you to know that within minutes after receiving the phone call in Moldova
that Mike had been killed in the truck accident, we gathered together and
thanked God. It was very difficult to hear how Mike died in such a
terrible fire and then I remembered, in an instant, in a twinkling of an eye
Mike was with his Lord and all pain and all suffering was forgotten. We
don’t understand but we trust. I know God has a plan. As I sought to
organize this trip, I felt like I was a tight rope walker, walking without a
safety net under me. There were so many things that Mike did and his loss
is huge. But right now the blessing is great. Hundreds and hundreds
of people came to Mike’s funeral. They flew in from all over the United
States and several continents. His sons, his partners in puppet ministry,
came to give their testimonies to a life well lived.
Our sons, Josh and Matt, and
their wives, Jill and Teresa, and I are all so grateful for Mike and for his
life. Please pray for our family as we deal with this loss. Please
ask God to help us to remember so many wonderful blessings. I do feel very
blessed even at this time. Please pray for us while we are in
Taiwan. Ask God that many children will come to faith in
Christ.
Thank you so much for
everything you’ve said and done in the last few months. Thank you so much
for all the cards and letters, they have really helped. Thank you for the
phone calls. I listened to all the messages. I just have not been able to
respond to them as I should have. We did stay busy this
fall. We kept all our promises that Mike and I made. The team and I
spoke at many churches, did many puppet shows, in churches, on the streets, for
English as a second language classes. We did the normal fall outreach that
Mike and I always did. Had a 150 people at our house for the chili
cook-off, hay ride and bonfire in October. At Christmas we once again
welcomed almost 500 children in our house. As they toured the house
they heard stories about the real meaning of Christmas. I simply haven’t
had the energy to do more than the ministry. Please continue to
pray. And if you don’t hear from me, don’t be alarmed just pray harder and
thank you again for everything all of you have done to make this time
easier.
Love in Jesus,
Linda
for
Sam Shaw, assistant
director, Heather and Mykayla Kelley, Hanna Sager, and Jonathan
Bova