Cheering Up the Kids!
My name is Karen, I’m a full-time Family International missionary in Mexico, and I came up to Houston for a short visa trip, when Katrina hit Louisiana. Since I love to sing and perform, I was invited to join a group of “crazy clowns” to go and cheer up the refugees with some happy music, skits and lively songs. And it’s been a blast. At first I was only going to stay for a few days, but then I felt that the Lord was asking me to delay my return to Mexico and continue visiting all the shelters for a couple of weeks.
On Sunday we first visited a church converted into a shelter for 300 people. They were so thankful we had come as they were swamped with extra duties and did not know what to do with the children to keep them entertained and happy. After our clown and magic and singing show we prayed with all the children and their parents.
We then spent some time encouraging the parents who are going through great despair coming to grips with the fact that they have lost their homes. We shared with them how the Lord is our greatest strength in times of trouble like these.
After this shelter we went to the George Brown Center which has been also converted into a shelter for approximately 4,000 people. They were very organized here and had a very nice area set up for the children. We also performed here and the children and parents really got into the songs and the games we played. We had some nice colored story books we were able to distribute to the children and made balloon animals for them as well. We discovered that the more we gave of ourselves to lift and encourage the people the happier and more energized we felt as well. It’s been a great experience sharing our faith with the refugees, and we hope and pray we can visit as many shelters as possible in the coming weeks.
We have a few needs which you might like to help us with:
1)– Gas money to go to the different shelters
2)– A small portable sound system as we are losing our voices.
3)– A house or apartment in the Houston or Dallas area where we can base out of as we are
currently staying with friends but it’s very crowded.
4)– Funds for printing encouraging gospel literature and coloring books for the children.
