And a Little Child Shall Lead Them (Isaiah 11:6)
A Miracle in No Man's Land

Outreach teams headed for Trench Town and No Man's Land today to set up the first Children's Rally scheduled for 3:30 in the afternoon. One team
worked on the staging. Another team blew up balloons to invite the children in Trench Town to the rally. The last team cleaned the ground near the stage of debris so the children could sit and enjoy the crusade. The sun was hot. And clouds threatened. It rains every day here around the same time, four o'clock in the afternoon. It thunders and pours and then it stops. One little girl invited to the crusade had asked "Why would you do it then? It always rains at that time." The team member replied, "We've been praying that God would hold back the rain."

A team followed an SUV equipped with loudspeakers and festooned with balloons and streamers around the streets of Trench Town inviting the
children to the rally in No Man's Land. We were struck not so much by the poverty, which we were prepared to see, but by the loss of dignity in the people of this violence-ridden and desperate place. Later that evening we heard that the Lord gave our outreach leader this word that very morning:

He sits in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places does he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lies in wait to catch
the poor: he does catch the poor, when he draws him into his net.

He has said in his heart, God has forgotten: he hides his face; he will never see it.

Psalm 10: 8-9, 11

The children began to follow us drawn by the festive SUV. The Holy Spirit drew them like a pied piper, and we returned as a scraggly little parade to the rally grounds. More children came, from the north, south, east and west. Perhaps two hundred gathered with some older siblings and parents here and there.

And God held off the rain.

The ominous clouds formed a donut around No Man's Land. Where we were was bright sunshine, everywhere else was dark clouds. The children played, clung to the TSC team members and ran happily around the field, as if this were just another playground. The rally began. The children listened and followed. Several gave their hearts to the Lord. Many were prayed over. All received the love of Jesus. A Jamaican colleague walked over and introduced his wife. Quietly he said, "This has never happened before - children playing in No Man's Land. This is a miracle."

Suddenly, we realized the truth in what he said. No Man's Land evoked fear in the people of Trench Town and Kingston. In fact many had said they would not go to the crusade if it was in No Man's Land, and here were these children, drawn by the Holy Spirit, dispelling the fear. At once we saw the wisdom of God - the simplicity and greatness of his plan. How can you fear this place, where the children played and laughed and ran? And we remembered that it was just the day before that the schedule for the Children's Crusade had been changed completely, because it was no longer to take place in it's own area with its own stage. Now it was to be done from the same stage right before the main crusade. His ways are so much higher than ours! The children would lead the way for the adults to come. The fear that the enemy had sown these many years was to be broken. This was indeed a miracle only the Lord could have done.

"Lord you have heard the desire of the humble: you will prepare their heart, you will cause your ear to hear: To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress."

Psalm 10: 17-18