Page 60 - Senior Link Magazine Summer 2024 - Online Magazine

Exceptional

SENIORS

So Far,
Extraordinary!

Linda Merriott

by Jane Bromley

inda Merriott began life rather friends’ lives back
conventionally, growing up in home.
LLubbock and graduating from
Frenship High School. She earned a “I was always
degree in Child Development from drawn to the children on the streets.
Texas Tech while simultaneously A friend and I asked God to give us
working in the shoe department at a creative way to reach children. He
Sears. helped us develop a beautiful mime
set to music about the redemptive
Her first job was teaching story of the gospel. It was so effective
Kindergarten in the Dallas area. After that we witnessed both kids and
three years, the young teacher moved adults embracing the kingdom of God.
back to Lubbock to teach in Slaton, That mime has been performed all
but something else was stirring in over the world.”
her heart. “I had always felt that
God would someday send me to the Linda was amazed at the way God
mission field.” Linda’s ordinary life led them. “One time, our team was
began to exhibit signs of “extra”- ministering in a deaf school in Korea.
ness. After a year at Trinity Christian Suddenly, God opened all their ears,
School, she attended a training school and it became a school for the hearing. everyone wanted boys, and tragically,
with Youth With a Mission (YWAM). Many parents and children came to seven out of ten baby girls were being
That led to a decision to join YWAM’s know God because of that miracle.” killed at birth.
effort in Singapore as a part of the Far The team also ministered in many When Linda received word that her
East Evangelism Teams (FEET). She red-light districts. “One time I was father was dying, “I came back to
describes that season as “an amazing preaching near a brothel in South Texas and to a season as Trinity’s
time of seeing God move in people’s Korea, and an American soldier drama (creative ministry) teacher.
lives, through healing, deliverance, became enraged at our message. He I will never forget the students’
provision, and salvation.” Linda’s life knocked me across the street, but we tremendous performances of The
had moved a long way from ordinary. just kept on performing, and many Crucible, Sound of Music, Cinderella,
girls came to know Jesus.”
She became the director of the FEET Much Ado About Nothing and so many
teams in Singapore and committed At the time when most of Linda’s more.”
to YWAM in Asia for eight years. “I friends back home were starting Perhaps because of her
lived in Hong Kong and Singapore families, Linda and her team often unconventional life, Linda had never
while traveling and ministering in ten encountered Chinese mothers who married but always desired to be
nations. I smuggled Bibles into China would beg the missionaries to take a mother. “I was so moved by the
and was once arrested for doing so.” their baby girls to America. At that desperate mothers in China, I began
That didn’t resemble at all any of her time, China had a one-child policy; to ask God if I could adopt. After one

60 Lubbock Senior Link