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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: FAITH (strong, confident belief in God) (02/26/15)
When Anna Maria was a little girl living with her grandparents, she heard stories told by missionaries who visited their home. Those stories began burning like a lamp inside her. She wanted to do what those missionaries were doing. She wanted to be a lamp in the darkness and despair of people who had lost hope. To be a lamp to others, she herself had to walk through dark valleys, to understand what true darkness means.

The painful questions about being loved and rejected kept nagging her. Was she loved by her parents? Why did they reject her? Why did she not live with them together with her siblings? Later, at the age of sixteen, she moved to live with her family. She never mentioned the pain she had felt through childhood; still it was clawing at her heart, almost tearing her apart. She was a stranger living in the family who had ‘rejected her’. The darkness within her engulfed her. There was no way out.

Jealousy towards her siblings was eating her. Why had they lived at home while she lived with relatives? Did their parents love them more than they loved her? Why did she have to find work in the city so soon after she came home. Why did she have to give part of her pay to her parents? The ‘why-questions’ just made the pain a lot worse. Still she never uttered those questions out loud.

Years later she remembered this pain and the darkness she had been through. The lamp in her heart had not been completely snuffed out. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out”. Isaiah 42:3 (NIV)

It was just those trials and that pain which gave Anna Maria a brighter glow in her lamp when she finally was able to travel to China and later to other countries in Asia. The fire in her lamp was often in danger of being snuffed out by trials she felt were beyond her capacity. Each time a Word from her Bible gave her new strength to go on. The same Lord, who healed the pain of her childhood, bringing new fire to her lamp, came again and again with the promise:

“I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, and a to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. Isaiah 42:6-7 (NIV)

Her lamp was not snuffed out, even though she died many years ago. Her children and their children continue to live in the light of the faith she shared with them.

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3 King James Version (KJV)
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This article has been read 814 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
C D Swanson 
03/05/15
Beautiful heart rendering story and the journey in which we travel, all bound by the cords of faith.

God bless~

Phyllis Inniss 
03/08/15
Thank God for Anna Maria's faith. The lamp that was lit in her by those missionaries who visited her grandparents' home never died. Perhaps that is why God placed her there, even if she couldn't understand it. Her children and their children were the beneficiaries of her faith and carried it on.
Penny Neimiller 
03/09/15
("each time a Word from her Bible gave her strength to go on.... ") Living out faith day by day. A great example of what it is all about.
Thank you for a great read and reminder.
Toni Babcock 
03/10/15
I love the title - and I want to learn more about Anna Maria - why she was separated from her parents etc. This appears like the beginning of a longer piece. Well done.
C D Swanson 
03/12/15
Warm congrats for your touching read.

God bless~
Trace Pezzali
03/29/15
I want to know more! You captured my interest by the snippets of her life. I so wish the word count was more than 750 words so I could know further the things you touch on. That's really good storytelling.