Dearest Friends,
HOME
We are home! It was not an easy journey as we actually arrived home a full day later than we had planned. The airline cancelled our first flight and then delayed us in Miami for three more flights. When we finally boarded a flight for Atlanta, it had been delayed for almost 3 hours. In between those flights, the airline had graciously put us in a hotel in Lima and given us meal vouchers. However, we all laughed when we found out that the breakfast voucher was only good at the pizza place in the airport. What a strange breakfast!
There were many other difficulties that I will not speak of, but as so many things began to go wrong, all of us leaned harder on Jesus. I told the boys that the Lord surely had a reason for delaying us. I urged them to pray so that we would see what we needed to do. God gave all of us a sweet spirit as we dealt with the airlines. Things were happening so fast that we had no time to send an email and ask for prayer. However, I know that many of you were praying because we responded to the problems with grace.
We arrived at the hotel the airline sent us to in Lima about 3 AM. We had spent more than 17 hours at the airport and watched many people screaming at the people that the airline sent to help us. We had spent what we believed to be our last night in Lima at a very different place than the airline chose for us. I have an enormous dislike for rodents, so it seems that I am always dealing with them as the Father tries to teach me more patience and gratitude. I thought that the big dead rat in my room earlier in the trip was bad, until I had to sleep with a live rodent our last night.
You can imagine our shock when we arrived at a literal 5 star hotel. What a difference! Something happened that gave me a wonderful opportunity to share with 3 men in the hotel and 4 taxi drivers. One driver accidentally forgot to unload one of our bags. As soon as I realized the mistake, I went back to the airport and began to search taxis. I was praying, asking God for help, and aware that we should probaly expect to never see our bag again. Always I tell the children that the Father is concerned about all of the details in our lives and that He can do anything. By 5:30 in the morning, I was back at the hotel with our missing luggage. Praise God!
All of the taxi drivers and the men at the hotel were aware of the problem and asked why I was not mad. As they listened to the Gospel, they became very excited and began to translate and share with the other men around them. In 2 days, I had only 3 hours sleep, but God was so good to us. As crazy as the end of our trip was, I would choose to do it all again because of all that I saw God do. God is amazing!
SUMMER TEAM
I am in America, but not home. I am in the Baltimore area with 3 wonderful young puppeteers. Malachi Armstrong and his sister Naomi, along with a puppeteer from Missouri, Lindsay Williams are traveling with me this summer. Please pray for us as we have a very intense schedule over the next 3 weeks. After about 2 weeks in this area, we will actually finish the summer schedule in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and Sevierville Tennesee. We need your prayers as we really want to do a good job and are short staffed. More, please pray for the children that we will share with as many live in difficult places. Ask the Father to make us bright lights!
PERU
What a fantastic time the Father gave us in Peru! We left Peru witha new puppet team in Cusco, a resupplied team in Chosica, and 4 very happy Sunday School teachers who also received supplies and training. More, we were able to give our bus driver supplies so that he had equipment to share with the children in his village. Also, we helped several other friends who needed help to reach different groups of children with the Gospel. We also sent equipment to Brazil for the 6 teams that we have there.
We shared with thousands and thousands of children and heard hundreds calling on Jesus to save them. Wow! God gave us a great adventure! Thank you all for standing with us in prayer!
PRAYER REQUESTS
Please ask the Father to provide the necessary support for the rest of this year. Like most missionaries, we have been notified by many churches and individuals that they are reducing or cancelling our support due to their present economic problems. Just pray! I know that the Father will give us all that we need, but we must pray! Thank you!
In Jesus, Linda for the Team