Dearest Friends,
You will be encouraged by reading the following 3 reports! They are from Drake and Kelsey and Leslie and they are wonderful!!!
From Kelsey..
Wow! What a summer! If I had to describe this summer, it would be that God answers prayers. When we started the summer, we did not know if we could give out our new children’s tracts at every place. Thankfully, we were able to give them away at every show. Praise God! Keep praying for each child who received one. I pray that they will grow up to be great men and women of God.
Linda told you a story about the woman that was a bully to the children. I have to be honest, I struggled. I did not like how she treated the children. It truly broke my heart and I got really upset. However, God worked on my heart. I was actually in the middle of doing puppets and I just prayed for her that God would drastically change her heart. I prayed that she would be a different woman to those children and that she would love the children well . I kept praying and asked God to make it a different place, a place the children would love to come to every day.
Without Jesus, we would be just like her, broken. Please pray for this woman. My heart breaks for her. I want her to come to deep faith and be a different person, just how we were different people before we met Jesus.
Thank you so much for your prayers. As always, they are really appreciated and needed.
From Drake…
This summer was amazing! We have been on this trip so many times now that one would expect that it would get old eventually. The good news is that it doesn’t! God is continually moving on this trip. His mercies are new everyday!
On this trip , there were a few things that stuck out. One of those things was the loyalty of our supporters. We love to hear how you guys are praying, and we can see how God is using those prayers. We appreciate you all more than you know, Thank you!
Another thing is the miracle that God provided for us, which was that we were able to hand out material to the children so that they can remember what they heard. We weren’t able to hand tracts, or books out to some of the kids, but all of the kids! This is amazing because we do not necessarily always work in places that are open to this sort of thing. Please continue to pray with us that these materials and the good news that was shared with these children will impact their hearts and lead them to become mature believers in Christ!
One little girl will always stick out in my mind from this trip. We had just finished a show, and after the show is finished , it is sort of chaotic due to the confetti cannon that we shoot at the end and the children getting very excited.
So in this chaos, I was starting to pack, and a little girl came to me and said “Mr. Drake, you have confetti in your hair!” And I replied “Well that’s okay, it’ll come right out!” And she responded “It’s okay because you have Jesus in your heart!” And kind of taken aback, I said “ Of course, and do you have Jesus in your heart?” She exclaimed “Yes, of course!” Then, she hugged her new Bible and tract and scurried off with the other children to gather confetti. This was a very simple, and adorable reminder of the Gospel that I think we all need.
Thank you all for going with us in your prayers! You are appreciated and we hope to see you August 31st at the 30 th Anniversary Celebration!!!
From Leslie…
I hadn’t realized how much I missed the people and places we always see on the summer trip. This year, the changes really stood out to me. The children in Tennessee who were so eager to listen and desperate for us to stay touched my heart. Meeting the new leaders in Baltimore that love Jesus and we’re so excited we were there was such a blessing.
Our time in Philadelphia and Camden however really demonstrated the need for this work to me. Some shows were in places of darkness, places you would never think of as safe for children, and yet children live there. They see brokenness everywhere they go. Who better to give the message of hope to? Who better to tell about God’s rescue plan for them?
Other shows there were filled with light. Passionate believers live in these neighborhoods and pour into these kids every day. We get to see the love of Christ taking root in these kids and encourage the leaders who are able to stay and build those necessary relationships with them. Seeing the effect the Gospel has had on these places in such a concrete way is something I won’t forget.
In Jesus, Linda, Kelsey, Drake, and Leslie
