Dearest Friends,
THE DEVIL’S FRIENDS
More than 20 years ago, Jennie Salinas lived and worked in this area where we are working called El Coloso. At that time, there was a lady in this area who always called her the devil. Unbelievably, the same woman came to a show we did at a school today. She was up to her old tricks. She still thought of Jennie as the devil, and saw us as the devil’s friends. It broke my heart when I saw her drag children out of the program. I watched one little boy beg her not to take him. She would be quick to tell you that she knows God, but she has no love for Him. She particularly objects to the name of Jesus.
After we finished today, the lady came to speak to me. Though at that time I did not know the whole story, I knew she was someone who had tried to keep the children from hearing about Jesus. I’m not really sure why she came to talk to me except to try and make me look foolish. I asked God to fill my face with light. The strangest thing happened. She could not seem to stand in front of me and left quickly. She found the Gospel very offensive. I beg you to pray for this lady. She appears to be older than me and has spent her entire life in darkness. I beg you to pray for the hundreds of children and their parents who heard the story of Jesus at our afternoon show. Please ask God to stop her from getting in the way of children hearing about His rescue plan for them. She is a very determined, ungodly woman who you can touch with your prayers.
YOU HAVE MY RESPECT
This morning’s program was at a kindergarten. These children were very young, ages three through six. I remember when I asked Jesus to be my Savior when I was a little five-year-old girl. So I was very excited to do this show, even though I was concerned about the ages. We made many changes so it would work well for the children. The pastor was so happy at the end of the program. The children had listened really well, and so had their teachers.
Their principal came to me after the show. She said, “You have my respect! A woman of your age with such energy!” I was afraid to ask her how old she thought I was. I thought it might depress me. Please pray for these children and their teachers.
OUR NEW PUPPET TEAM
This is one of the most eager groups of people I have trained. They have been praying for a way to evangelize their community and consider this an answer to prayer. We have already been using some of them in our puppet shows. For those of us who know little Spanish, communicating with them can lead to funny situations.
During this morning’s show, Kelsey asked Isaac from the new team to hold a trick for her. The trick was meant for Billy’s testimony, but when Kelsey handed the trick to him with little explanation, he thought she wanted him to do the testimony. Isaac had not been trained to do this trick yet, but he had watched it before. Without a single complaint, he went before the crowd of children and performed the trick perfectly. We were all amazed at how much he had observed!
Each day, we have been training the new team. Please continue to hold them in your prayers. Tomorrow they are demonstrating for us an entire show for us. Our last program will be for the children with cancer and AIDS. We thought it would be today, but it moved to tomorrow.
ANSWERED PRAYER
I’m very happy to tell you that all our extra expenses have been covered. There were some things that I had forgotten to include, but God graciously remembered and covered them as well. Thank you for praying for us. It remains very hot and difficult to do the work in this place. Every day we walk through so much garbage. So many children live in this place and spend their lives surrounded by garbage. Pray for this place.
In Jesus,
Linda, Jennie, Billy, Leslie, Drake, and Kelsey