It is a very sad reality that all over the world children and adults are being told that they can not speak about Jesus or even say His name. While in Atlantic City this summer we encountered such a situation with a little boy named Jair…

It was night three of Bible Camp. We had spent each night teaching about the life of Jesus and who He is. During the final craft, which was making a salvation bracelet, I heard a little voice begin to say, “I can’t say Jesus.” As he repeated his declaration it got louder and louder until it turned into a child’s cry to be heard. I walked over to him and the other boy of which he was yelling this at and asked them what was going on.

This little boy, couldn’t have been older than 6 or 7, looked up at me and exclaimed, “I can’t say Jesus, I am Muslim.” Apparently he was sitting next to another little boy who was telling him a lot about Jesus. I looked at the situation and smiled. Here we had a tarp full of children putting different color beads on a piece of cord, each bead represented a characteristic of Jesus, and this little boy, proclaiming that he can not say the name Jesus, as he was saying His name over and over while making his own bracelet. 

Instead of telling him anything, I just began to help him make the bracelet. We came to the red bead, I read off of the small slip of paper that was on the tarp in front of him, “The red bead means ‘God shed His blood.'” Jair looked up at me and asked, “Who did that?”

I smiled again and said, “Jesus did, because He is God.” Jair no longer declared that he couldn’t say Jesus’ name, instead, he said, “My grandma is Muslim, my mom is Christian, but she doesn’t go to church.” I told Jair to look at me. He put down his bracelet and looked right at me. I smiled at him and said, “Jesus is God and He loves you very much. Ask Him ‘who He is and what is His name’ and He will show you.” He didn’t resist, he and I finished the bracelet and I tied it on his tiny wrist.

When Jair was leaving the tarp he came up to me and gave me a big hug. 

Would you please join us in praying for this little soul and that Jesus would speak to his heart loud and clear.

…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with your heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation… WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED”

                                                                                              – Romans 10:9-10;13