Locked-Up Lucky

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, August 16.

By Andrew McChesney

S

even-year-old Lucky didn’t go to church in Zimbabwe. No one in his family went to church. But then friends started inviting him to go with them to church on Sabbath.

Lucky went with them to the Seventh-day Adventist church. He liked it so much that he invited Mom to go with him.

Mom went with Lucky to church. But she didn’t like it very much.

At church, people worship God. But Mom didn’t worship God. Like many people in Zimbabwe, she worshiped her grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. Even though they were dead, she thought she could talk to them.

During the sermon, she whispered to Lucky, “Do people in this church disagree with my beliefs?”

“Yes, they do,” Lucky whispered back.

Mom didn’t say anything more until they got home. Then she yelled at Lucky. She yelled at Lucky every day for the next few days. Then she fell silent and refused to talk to him. Lucky kept going to church.

After three months, Mom broke her silence. “You’re not allowed to leave the house on Saturday mornings,” she said.

Mom made sure he didn’t go to church. She locked him in his bedroom and only opened the door after church was over.

When Mom saw that he still believed in God, she decided that something must be wrong with him. She didn’t understand why he didn’t want to worship dead ancestors like her. She asked a traditional healer who also worshiped dead ancestors to come to the house to see what was wrong with Lucky.

But Lucky didn’t want to talk to the traditional healer. He ran to the bathroom and locked the door.

Mom came to the door and yelled, “Why are you refusing to talk to the healer to find out what is wrong with you?”

From behind the door, Lucky explained that the Bible teaches that people cannot talk to dead grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents.

“When people die, they cannot hear or talk because they are sleeping,” he said. “Why do you want to force me to do something that I’m not comfortable with?”

Lucky spent the night in the bathroom.

Early in the morning, he opened the door and crept back to his room. Mom was asleep. Crawling under a blanket, he fell asleep.

But when Mom woke up and saw him in bed, she yelled, “Why are you in my house since you are a Christian? Go to the Christians, and stay with them!”

“This is my home,” Lucky said. “I grew up here. If you don’t want me to stay here, where do you want me to go?”

Mom didn’t reply, and the two didn’t speak to each other for the rest of the day.

The next day, Lucky promised that he would stop going to church. He was tired of fighting with Mom.

Lucky kept his promise for a year. But friends kept inviting him to go to church, and finally he went. He didn’t tell Mom.

Several years passed, and Lucky graduated from eighth grade. One of his friends planned to go to an Adventist high school, and he also wanted to go there. He asked Mom for permission.

Mom wasn’t sure that it was a good idea, but Lucky convinced her that the Adventist school had better teachers.

Only a month into the school year, Lucky gave his heart to God and got baptized. Mom was upset, but after a while she calmed down. Then something amazing happened. Mom became interested in God. Lucky brought home a Bible from school, and they began to read it together. Then he invited her to go with him to church again. Mom went. Today, she is going to church with him every Sabbath. Lucky is praying that she will give her heart to God.

Lucky shared his love for God with his mom through a Bible that he borrowed from an Adventist school in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering this quarter may help other children also share God with their parents. Part of the offering will be used to give Adventurer’s Bibles to children in Zimbabwe and in the other countries of the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division. Thank you for planning a generous offering on September 27.