Dearest Friends,
We have so many blessings to share with you, but we also have had many challenges. Everything we cover with prayer, knowing that there is no problem that God cannot handle. First I will share with you the blessings. Each day we work with dear friends from a local church. As the band sings, we do puppets and I tell stories, people pass out free CDs and free Christian books to the children. The CDs have a Gospel message with them and the children’s books have a letter in them that explains how a child can know Jesus. Also, we have a new website for the children where they can see more puppet shows and watch more stories. It is www.thegreatstoryteller.com.
All of us have such hope that the Lord will call many of these that we have shared with to Himself. We want to see heaven full of people from the crowds who have watched the band and the puppets. Pray with us.
BLESSINGS
1. The rain at first seemed a problem, but it became a blessing as the band members took to the streets to share while we did a puppet show in the rain. Our equipment will dry, but the amount of water we had would have destroyed their equipment.
2. Outside a pub, 2 of the band members who could not sing due to the rain shared with Arthur. He said that he was nobody. They explained to him how God knows him and cares for him. They told him about Jesus. As Michelle shared the story with us, we all agreed with her that truly this was a God-ordained meeting. Please pray for Arthur to come to Jesus.
3. As soon as I said the name of Jesus, one family immediately left. They were from Germany and not very open, but listened long enough to hear a lot about Jesus. Pray for them.
4. One friend saw a man walk by and just asked him a question: “Have you ever heard the true Gospel?” We all laughed when he told the story because it was not a great way to start a discussion. Unbelievably, the man stopped and said, “no”.
Then he talked about Jesus for half an hour with our friend Padraig.
5. One man who stopped to talk was a scientist with many questions. He talked with Kathryn and Dana, two band members who were sharing on the street since they could not sing. He had opened the Bible for the first time in 25 years just recently. He told our friends that he thought it was interesting that they had showed up to talk to him. They talked all evening in the rain. Pray for him to trust Jesus.
6. Anna shared with two French tourists in their own language. They were classical musicians and atheists, but tonight they heard about Jesus. Anna is the Director of our lead French puppet team.
7. Tonight we saw a man who was reading a tract. He had heard us this afternoon and came looking for us to find a Russian speaker so that he could better understand. Lucia speaks beautiful Russian and they talked a very long time. He promised to come to church tomorrow. Pray for him.
8. A man wrote from Tralee and thanked the band for the CD that he had received 2 days ago at a street show. He told us that he could not stop playing it.
9. People from all over the world are on the streets of Galway. I spoke with an Italian couple, 2 ladies from Israel, and 2 German Christians who work with children, all in one night. Others talked with people from Poland.
10. A sweet man and his wife found us in the rain in the evening to thank us for what they had heard in the afternoon. One of them was not a believer, but enjoyed the program anyway. They were both so kind and encouraging. If we had paid attention to the rain, we would have stayed home and missed them.
11. Some people listened to our entire program from their third floor apartments, even taking photographs.
12. An English puppet team from Cambridge stopped to encourage us.
13. A Malaysian student prayed on the street today, asking Jesus to be his Savior. Praise God!
14. I had the joy of acting out the story of Zaccheus and the miracles of Jesus because it was raining too hard to draw. Amazingly people stopped to listen.
15. The town council allowed us to share in the park and waived the normal charge of $800. What a miracle!
CHALLENGES
The drunks in this city are aggressive. All of us have heard an ocean of cursing and threats. As I said the name of Jesus tonight, one lady said, “Jesus is xxxx xxxx.” Another man called me a witch. I do not understand how being drunk affects your eyesight, but it must. I am working with a team of lovely young ladies, and twice I have been kissed on the cheek by a drunk. A homeless man gave me an umbrella that he had stolen from a hotel to thank me for the story. His name is Patrick, and every year that we are in Galway, he dances with the puppets and the band as they sing. The weather is always a challenge, but God is always faithful!
It is very strange, but all of us agreed that doing a show in the rain last night was the biggest blessing. We were all so wet when we came back to the church where we are sleeping. There are puppets lying everywhere and we sent the curtains home with a friend to dry. For ourselves, we downed many mugs of hot tea and sat together for a very long time sharing stories of what our wonderful God had done. We have all joy!
In Jesus,
Linda
For
Sam
Silvana
Naomi
Joe
Alex
Anna
Reality