“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
I hope and pray everyone has had a good day. We had a wonderful day with the Church – the kids way outnumbered the adults, but there were a few adults that don’t normally come. There was singing and then the Jesus movie. I got to hold many babies today and had one little girl that would not let go of my hand. The children are taught that they are not to sit in the chairs, but because she was glued to my side an exception was made. I sat for a long time with a tiny sleeping baby in my lap and the little girl in the chair beside me that went to sleep and drooled all over my arm! When the baby woke up she promptly threw up on me. Oh well, it all wipes up and was well worth the chance to love on these little babies. Raelee had her share of baby holding, much to her delight!
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
After the movie, Christian gave a message to the people inside the church and part of the children came outside with Raelee and I. There were two other ladies that I am forever grateful for helping with the children! I also had a great interpreter, it is important to have someone who understands what we are talking about. It’s not enough that they can just interpret the words, but to know the context and be able to present it in a way for everyone to understand. I gave my testimony, and then while I used The Wordless Book, Raelee showed the matching color on the dolls necklaces. The wordless book has on one side just the color and the other tells what each color represents . I want to give a special thank you to the great, indispensable Donny Lee, our friend, organizer and magic man, for The Wordless Book. Also a big thank you to all the ladies at Good Hope Baptist Church in Anacoco, LA for their hard work and laughter and love in making 100 dolls for us. I know you have been waiting to see the smiles on children’s faces when they received them and I have been praying for the best opportunity to give them out. Today was the day! We gave 95 dolls out, and it was pandemonium even with the ladies helping us. These kids don’t know what “make a line’ means! And they were all so afraid they wouldn’t get one. The trick was trying to keep track of the ones coming back trying to get more! We got down to the last 5 dolls and Prosy said that’s it. I told her we may as well give them all out but there were kids coming from across the road when they saw that something was being given away so she said no more! But then with such humility she asked me if she could have 5 dolls for her children and I told her of course. She had spent the entire church service wrangling kids. You can see in the pictures there were many many there! Almost 100 little ones and the building is pretty large but it was full! Then I noticed she was pointing at the tub we had the dolls in and I told her she could have that. She cried and hugged me. She hugs me often, and usually it last about 2 minutes too long! But I am grateful for her!
Finally, at 2:00 we parted ways, me exhausted, Raelee ready for a nap and many, many very happy kids. I am thankful for the 9 that came forward to receive Jesus as their Savior and I plan on doing my part in keeping up with them and teaching them. We are getting a slide and catwalk for Raelee this week, and building a bench for the kids to sit on outside so that next week we will start doing the felt board Bible stories that an a generous man bought for us. There are hundreds of pieces that have had to be cut out. I believe it is going to be such a great tool for the kids and adults alike.
I pray everyone had as happy a day as we did, and took a moment to remember and be thankful for the love of a Savior Who loves us so much He gave His life so that we could know Him and have relationship with Him. Raelee gets so excited about the crucifixion of Jesus – that he died but 3 days later He came back! I pray that today around the world there are many people who now have that same excitement and awe!
“The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name.” (Luke 24:46-47)