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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Black (10/15/09)
She wasn’t the kind of person people just walked up to. She wore black clothes, all black, all the time, and her skin was too-pale from rarely ever staying outside more than five or six minutes. No one ever saw her running around, but she looked thin as a pencil. On top of that, her face, thin lips somewhere between pink and gray, dark circles surrounded her eyes, which always seemed to stare off as if her mind was elsewhere, wore a generally stony expression.

It wasn’t just her appearance that warned everyone away. It was her attitude. She acted disinterested, and didn’t stay with the conversation, assuming she ever got into it. When the counselor had pulled her in during school on the excuse that her distance from people was caused by her cousin’s being shot while at war, she’d insisted that she didn’t need any help coping and refused to talk about it. After two hours of trying to get her to talk, he’d finally given up. And she’d gone on, distant as an outcast among the Puritans.

She couldn’t be saved. There was no way she could have accepted Jesus into her life. Everyone thought so, but no one bothered trying to talk to her. “It’s hopeless,” they’d say. “It’s not as if she’d listen.”

It was probably true. “So then why,” wondered fifteen-year-old Anna Covings, “am I trying to talk to her?” Somehow, Anna had never been completely with their thoughts about that girl—Rachel Sanders was her name. Rachel didn’t go to church. It was impossible. There was only one in Stone Heights. The People’s Church, they called it, even though the name plate had broken off years ago. And Rachel didn’t attend it. Maybe that was why everyone thought she was a hopeless sinner. Except Anna, who thought there was always hope. Maybe everyone else had given up, but she never would.

Anna felt her stomach knotting the day she finally summoned up the courage to approach Rachel. What if everyone else was right? What if she really was an atheist? What if she wouldn’t listen, or worse, if she reacted with hostility?

That was just a risk she’d have to take. It had all seemed so easy when she’d played it out in her head. But it wasn’t. “Lord Jesus, help me,” she prayed. “I know You want all of God’s children to come to know You. Give me the courage to help her.”

Almost immediately Anna felt a weight lifted from her chest. Then she walked over to where Rachel sat on the steps and sat down beside her.

“Rachel,” she said. When Rachel didn’t respond, she said again, “Rachel.”

This time, she turned to her. “Huh?”

“My name’s Anna. I wanted to talk to you about Jesus. You know He wants all God’s children to know Him…and I want you to know Him. Please, please listen to me, because I think you’re really a good person deep down and I want you to be saved,” Anna said. Her words came out easier than she’d expected.

Rachel’s eyes were wide. “What do you mean? I’m already saved.”

“You are? Why don’t you go to church?” Anna felt puzzled.

Rachel shrugged. “I tried it once. Too many politics. The pastor kept talking about how this candidate was all wrong because of this, or that candidate wouldn’t work because he did that. You know? Church and politics don’t mix. But I do serve God.”

She sounded like she was having a harder time forcing out her words than Anna. Oh, they were true, but she just had a hard time saying them. “Maybe she’s not cold. Maybe…she’s just timid, and that’s why she doesn’t talk much,” she thought.

“Rachel, can I ask you something?”

“Hm?” she’d lost the conversation again. “Oh, what? Sure.”

“Why don’t you ever listen when people talk to you?”

“I listen. I just sometimes get distracted with my own thoughts. Everyone here talks about such godless things, you know? And that counselor, he thought being dead was like dead as a doornail, and that I needed to learn that there is no afterlife. But there is, and if you serve God, and accept Jesus, it’ll be a good one.”

That day, Anna felt her views changing. Rachel wasn’t some no good outsider. She was someone who, choosing God over man, had decided that it was best to connect to Him, instead of being accepted as part of society.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Laury Hubrich 
10/25/09
This is a good story to teach about not jumping to conclusions. Good job.
Marie Fink
10/26/09
It never hurts to try and enter into a relationship with someone. The worst that can happen is a little rejection that in time, we all can get over. We never know when we can be entertaining angels. In this case, you may have found an angel in Rachel. Maybe. :)
Ruth Brown
10/27/09
Good writing. We get so judgemental.
Jan Ackerson
10/28/09
Interesting story--I wish more teens were like this!

I wonder if that's the best approach to witnessing...without establishing a relationship first? Maybe that's just my own comfort level talking.

You've got an important lesson here--don't jump to conclusions.