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Daughter of the King

S.W., South Asia

 

In one of the poorest nations in South Asia lives a woman that I have often called Cinderella because of her extreme poverty and the mistreatment she has often received from her family. I first met her about ten years ago when she came to my house looking for work. Although I didn’t have any regular work for her, I would frequently give her some mending to help some with her income. As I came to know her, I found that she lived with her elderly mother and school-age daughter. Her husband had left her when her daughter was born. Cinderella was convinced that part of the reason she struggled so and was often cheated and abused was that she had never gone to school. She was determined that her daughter would get a good education so she would not have to struggle like she did. However, going to school costs money. When she couldn’t find a full-time job, Cinderella worked several part-time jobs, walking sometimes two or three miles between jobs. Taking a rickshaw would have meant spending some of the precious money needed for living and school expenses.

One day I asked Cinderella if she would like to learn to read. With surprise and unbelief, she looked at me and said, “Do you think I can?” We began our classes the next week. Included in each class was a short reading from the Bible. Slowly she began to understand God’s special love for her, and one day she accepted the Lord Jesus as her own personal Savior. Once she was saved, she had a new goal for her reading classes. She wanted to be able to read well enough to read the Bible on her own. After seven years of classes, she is now able to slowly read selected Bible verses. Cinderella was able to put her daughter through school, but her situation has not changed much. She still has struggles and is very poor. Her troubles are always balanced, though, by her new view of life. One of her favorite things about being a believer is that she is God’s child. “It doesn’t matter what I have here,” she says. “I can’t take anything with me when I die. But all my riches are in heaven, and that will be forever. I’m the daughter of the King!”