Dearest Friends,
OUR LAST DAY
Thank you so much for praying for the orphanage that we visited today! Mentally and physically handicapped children filled the building. The first thing that we noticed was the smell as we entered. Through the years, I’ve been in many of these places, but I’m always broken by how difficult it is for the children. There was a teenage girl in the audience who had a hair-lip and a clef pallet, but she had never received surgery. She had lived all of her life unable to eat properly, with a very painful birth defect because there was simply no medical care available for her. Her mind was sharp, but she had never received any education.
There was another little girl on the front row in a wheelchair who never smiled, not once during the entire program. She was so small and I wanted so much to see her smile. Finally, when the big bear puppet came up in the stage, she began to smile.
Many of the children and young people were so much smarter than people believe them to be. When we asked the director if we could do the program, she told us to plan for only 20-30 minutes. She did not think that the children could listen but for a very short time. When they were still listening after 30 minutes, then 40 minutes, she agreed that we could go ahead and do all of the program that we had planned. They listened for an hour and they really payed attention. As soon as I mentioned the name of God, they began to shout out the name of Jesus. They smiled, and laughed, and were especially grateful for the animal balloons that we gave them at the end of the program.
Only God the Father knows what these children can really understand. I believe that they can understand much more than they are given credit for by their teachers. Please pray for these children. Ask God to grow the seeds of the Gospel that were planted in their hearts today.
HOME
We leave in just a couple of hours to begin the trip to the airport. As they say in Ireland, please pray us safe home.
Love in Jesus,
Linda for
Sam Shaw- Assistant Director
Silvana Shaw
Calah Sager
Billy Salinas