Dearest friends,
Paris Street Show
What an incredible thing we have seen God do! We went to Belleville, a place in Paris with a high immigrant population and many Moslems. Our friend Peter has been doing street ministry with Open Air Campaigners for 16 years but did not expect that we would have a crowd of more than 10. More, he warned us there might be trouble, verbal or physical abuse. In truth, this was a place that he often shared until the war with Iraq began, and since he was an Englishman, he had not returned there in 2 years.
We began to pray. I was really missing our puppet team as Anna and I were there alone, planning to tell a story and then tie some balloons for the children. I am short and felt myself getting smaller as we prepared to start. We knew that only God could do what we were trying to do. He must pour His Spirit on the afternoon, or we would fail.
More than we asked or could have imagined, God did. We did not have 10 people listening to the Bible story, we had 100. Peter was shocked. The crowd was full of Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, and French people who claim no-one. They truly listened to the story of Zaccheus and the miracles of Jesus. More, we explained how they could know Jesus.
A man came up and took my chalk and started drawing on my picture. We could not stop him, but a homeless man came over and took him away. Amazingly, the crowd had begun to yell at him, ‘Let her finish. We want to hear the story.’ How can you explain this response? Only Jesus!
Dunkirk
We are amazed at the way the Father arranged everything for us this week. Although we knew nothing about this when planning the schedule for this week, the team in Dunkirk have been granted permission by the town council to do a street show this Saturday and Sunday afternoon in the central square of the town.
While the team have prepared an awesome program, they had little equipment with which to carry it out. In God’s providence, we were able to come to them with many new puppets and further supplies, including a sound system, just a few days before their big event. God is so good!
Please pray for Christine, Delphine, Corinne, Katell and Mathilde, and those who will be helping them to tell the people of their town about the love of God for them this weekend. This opening is really a miracle. The North region of France is a very hard place for the Gospel, and it is very difficult to get opportunities to share outside the church. But this time, the town council was delighted with the idea, and even offered to provide electricity for the team if they needed it. Please pray for God to pour out His Spirit on the team and their work this weekend, pray for the weather to be just right, pray for people to stop and listen with their hearts, pray for them to be drawn into the Kingdom, and pray for the team and the church to be encouraged and spurred on to greater things still. Pray for the authorities in Dunkirk and the region, that they would soften towards the Gospel, without which they, and the people they have responsibility for, are lost for eternity.
Thank you for praying with us!
In Jesus,
Linda for
Anna and
The 2 French puppet teams