Dearest Friends,
WHAT CAN GOD DO IN A SINGLE EVENING OF SHOWS (3 HOURS) IN DUBLIN, IRELAND?
1. First, we met together and prayed for God to cover the evening with the power of His Spirit. I was especially blessed by John, a member of Reality, when he prayed. He thanked God that He had given Mike a vision for using the puppets to reach the children, teenagers and adults for Christ. He really encouraged my heart. It is always a great comfort when someone remembers. We literally covered every detail of the evening with prayer, knowing that only God could move in peoples lives. Our responsibility was to be obedient and faithful.
2. When everyone set out walking to town while one car drove pulled the trailer full of equipment. We saw God answer our first prayer when we arrived and found the perfect place to set up for the evening. Ireland has a tradition of street performers and so it is not always easy to get a good spot. You want to be centrally located where it is really easy for the people to walk past you and stop and listen.
The Lord blessed us with such enormous crowds when we began the program at about 9 at night. At many points during the evening, there were as many as 150 people standing and listening to the show. They were so responsive to every single thing they saw and heard. Can you imagine adults standing in the street for up to 1 hour, some stood for the entire program and watching puppets and listening to children’s Bible stories! They loved the music and clapped enthusiastically after every single song. Michelle, one of the band members finished the evening by telling them that if they wanted to know Jesus Christ as their Savior they could come and pray, and they still clapped. The band only sings songs that clearly present God’s love and how a person can know Jesus Christ as Savior.
At the end of the entire program when we finished for the evening, the crowd clapped and even cheered. Remember that most of these people are not church attenders and probably do not know Jesus Christ as Savior. They have been taught to believe that good works get them to heaven. This is a terrible lie that satan has taught people.
3. We had so many amazing conversations with people but there is only space to share a few with you. First, let me tell you about Joseph. Last night I told the story of Joseph and a young man named Joseph came up to me when I finished., He said, "What you said was the ******* truth. My story is like your story. My name is Joseph and today is my birthday. I think God sent me here tonight." We had a wonderful conversation as I explained to him that he needed a second birthday, he needed to be born again into faith in Jesus Christ. He was from France and he was not ready to ask Jesus Christ to be his Savior but he was very happy for me to pray with him and ask God to help his unbelief. Please pray for Joseph to come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you about a girl from the Czech Republic. While the band and the puppets sang together on their last song I drew a simple picture of two cliffs with God on one side and people on the other side. At the bottom the word Sin was written, separating man from God. Then I drew a big red cross that bridged the gap between the two and wrote Jesus name on it. After I finished this girl came up to me and said, "That picture I do not understand. Please I want. I buy. " Her English was very broken and so I asked her where she was from. Then I called for our friend Milica from Slovakia to come and translate for me. The girl believed that there was something, someone but she did not know his name and so we told her all about God and his son Jesus. She was not ready to believe but was very happy for us to pray for her. She is unemployed and so we asked God to give her a job and told her to remember that God had done this for her. Please pray for her to know God.
Last night a man talked with Catherine, another member of the band, and recommitted his life to Jesus Christ. He prayed with her. He said "Its like there is a water fall inside of me, washing me." I think it is a beautiful description of the work of the Holy Spirit.
4. When we share on the street we are often heckled. People walk by, hear the name of Jesus and began to mock us. You learn to always keep smiling or you will not be able to show them the love of Jesus. None of us took offence, not even when a drunk man came with his beer cans and sat right in front of me as I told the story. Randomly, he would sing, "Tell me baby, does he love me, I want to know." This certainly was a interesting song to be singing.
He finished the evening by trying to kick a coffee cup that would have covered many of us, but he missed. He ended up flat on his back in the street and I pulled him up. Sam thought that this was very funny as I was wearing a leg brace and I would have been covered in coffee if he had been successful. Then he decided that he needed a rest room and went over to the use the wall as a rest room as hundreds of people walked by. Oddly enough this was not an unusual sight for anyone to see. Then he came and kissed my hand twice, stared at Sam and I for the longest time and was still standing in the street as we left.
This morning ,he came and found us and said to me," Last night was beautiful. It really was." Sam talked with him and I will tell you the rest later.
5. There is a lot of other fun stuff that happened as we shared on the street. Two River Dance trucks were waiting to load their stuff and move it to another city. The truck drivers loved the program and even made their truck rock back and forward to some of the songs. More than 200 people last night alone received free CDs from the band that include their songs as well as a testimony of a lady in Dublin who came to understand that she could not be good enough to get herself to God, she needed Jesus Christ.
The Garda, the Irish Police, needed to drive through the crowd, but that only helped us, 100 people moved closer and then they stayed.
6. The crowd was made up from people for all over the world and they all heard about Jesus Christ. You have only heard a few of the stories. Praise God with us for his amazing work that He did in a single night in Dublin! Yesterday, we had two of these programs on the streets of Dublin but you only read about one, I’ll tell you the rest in a later e-mail. Please pray for us as we return to the streets again today, after we do a program at Grace Baptist Church.. This church is located in the inner city next to a drug and alcohol center.
In Jesus, Linda for the team.
REALITY
Sam & Silvana Shaw
Katie Humfleet
Calah Sager
Heather Kelley
Derek Ramsay
Milica Krizanova
Anna McIlwaine
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