Sticks and Stones

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6 ESV)


This last week was a whirlwind! So much was happening that I barely had time to catch my breath. But I've had a chance to relax, and to process everything that happened. And there is one day in particular that stands out as a "God Day". And that was Thursday.

Over the past few weeks the older boys and girls at our campus had received training on how to plan and execute a vacation bible school. They had learned so much, and I didn't want them to just stick it on a shelf. So I set out to help them organize an outreach so they could use all of the wonderful tools they had learned.

I showed up to the campus on Thursday morning expecting to spend an hour or two coming up with a  lesson plan, so that we could keep it in our back pockets for when the right time arose to use it. Little did I know that God had a different plan for us that day!

When I walked through the gate, I was greeted by 12 eager faces, ready to take on the world with the gospel. Somewhere in our cross-cultural communications, they had come to believe that I had prepared a lesson for them to teach, and I was going to take them out that day. Being the over-planner that I am, the idea of piecing together a lesson and then sharing it right away had my stomach in knots (honestly, it was probably just something I had eaten the night before). But how could I look at those sweet faces and tell them no?

So we sat down and quickly came up with a two lessons, one for the boys and one for the girls. And then we were off! Rita, one of the house moms, and I took the girls down by the Bhagmati River, picking up children as we went. We found a great little venue, an empty dirt field with dead rice stalks littered on it. When we started, there were 9 kids with us, and by the end 11 had gathered!

My girls were THRILLED! They could barely contain it as they skillfully explained there way through 45 minutes of vacation bible school.

I wish I could say it went off without a hitch, but God wanted to open our eyes just a little more.

About 10 minutes into our lesson, I watched an elderly lady cross the river towards us, carrying a large stick in her hand. She came right up to us, and started yelling in Nepali. I decided to ignore her, hoping that she would get bored and leave. But that didn't pan out too well. One of my girls came up to me and said the woman was asking why we were gathering here. Without a second though I told Premshila to inform the woman that we were talking about Jesus, and she was more than welcome to stay and listen to our story. That only angered the woman more.

She picked up a rock.

I went from 0-60 in half a second.

I calmly stood between the woman and my girls, braced and ready for whatever may happen next. You could have heard a pin drop in the soft dirt behind me, it was so quiet. We waited. And waited. And the woman continued to yell, pretending to throw the rock at my girls.

I turned around briefly to see the 7 terrified faces of my girls, looking to me. With all the strength I could muster, I shakily told them they could continue singing. Our new friend was more than welcome to stay with us, but if she wasn't interested then I believed God would protect us, and she would go away.

Honestly, I wasn't convinced it would end that simply.

But my girls didn't bat at eye, and just kept singing.

Then the Nepali woman threw her rock. It didn't hit anybody, just a big clod of dirt. I bristled. NOBODY throws rocks at my girls. Nobody. She started swinging her stick around, and I sent silent prayers to God asking for protection, knowing there was no protection we needed other than His wing.

And suddenly the fight drained from her eyes. She slowly lowered the stick, and retreated back across the river.

And for the first time in 10 minutes, I inhaled. What a precious breath that was.

God had protected the girls so that they could continue sharing about Jesus with our new friends.

After it was finished, I was ready to go back to the campus, exhausted and shaken up from our visitor. But the girls looked at me and almost in unison said "where are we going next?"

Oh the bravery, trust, and faith shown by my girls.

As we walked on, sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone, they kept telling me how excited they were to be able to talk to people about Jesus. They said that so many people talk to them about Jesus, and tell them what they should know and believe, but they never have the chance to share that with anybody else.

They were BEAMING as they shared their excitement, which bubbled over into my own heart.

How refreshing to see teenage girls who will stop at nothing to further the gospel. They inspire me each day to be more and more like Jesus.