Dearest friends,
Amazing God !
I confess to you that I never imagined that I would be sending these kind of reports from France. We are seeing God do amazing things! Everyone told me how dark France is and it is a hard place for the Gospel, but I forgot that nothing is impossible for God.
When we arrived in Dunkirk, we met with out team there. How all of these teams in France began is a wonderful story. I have never been to France until this trip, but we have 2 teams here. How is this possible? Sam Shaw, our Irish puppet Director, came to France and trained Anna. She began a team in Chartres and then in April 2005 she travelled to Dunkirk and began a work there. These teams represent our spiritual grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
One dear lady, Delphine, began to cry when she saw what we had brought for them. She told us that she had seen puppets used to share Christ and was very excited by what she had seen. For one and a half years, she prayed for God to make a way for her to do puppets. Then Anna, our French puppet director, came and trained them. They had so little in the way of equipment, but they began to work. None of them expected to receive so much equipment today. They were so overwhelmed that they could not stop thanking us.
My heart’s desire was to be an encouragement to them and God truly answered this prayer. One man said, "I am rich for having met you". The truth is, I am the one who is blessed by the desire of these people to share with French children. Another said, "I am so challenged". Anna and I had shared with so many stories about the children we serve around the world. So many wept as they listened and some struggled to listened because they were so broken by what they heard.
It has been a very busy day that began with us leaving the house at 7.30 AM. Then we drove for almost 5 hours to reach Dunkirk. Immediately, we started to work, sharing over lunch and then training until dinner time. At 8 pm, the church gathered for us to give a mission report.
Now, it is almost past midnight and so we must say goodnight, but praise God, we are so happy. It has been an awesome day!
Prayer Requests
Tomorrow morning at 8, we set out again to go back down south to Paris, where we will spend the afternoon telling stories on the streets with a group from a local church. It should take us about 4 hours to drive there. Please pray for the weather to be just right for street work, that many people would stop and listen to us with open minds and hearts, and that God would draw many to Himself.
Thank you for your support in prayer, without you, we could not work.
In Jesus,
Linda for
Anna and
The 2 French teams