The Scythe Attack

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, December 9.

By Andrew McChesney

T

hirteen-year-old Nancy was walking to school with a sharp scythe in the West African country of Ghana.

Teacher had asked the children to help cut the grass around the school, so Nancy had borrowed the scythe from her father. She was ready to cut grass.

Then tragedy struck.

On the way to school, Nancy met a 16-year-old relative, Akuba, and the two girls got into a quarrel.

Akuba accused Nancy of spreading an untrue rumor, and Nancy angrily
defended herself.

As the argument heated up, Akuba snatched the scythe from Nancy and waved it threateningly.

At that moment, Nancy’s father appeared. Someone had seen the girls fighting and rushed to alert him.

Just as Akuba lunged toward Nancy and swung the scythe at her, Father stepped between the two girls.

The scythe sliced off the tip of Father’s nose.

Nancy was in tears. She felt devastated.

Father was rushed to the hospital.

Nancy tried to go to the hospital with him, but someone held her back. She tried to retaliate against Akuba, but someone took the girl away.

Unfortunately, the physician couldn’t reconnect the tip of Father’s nose.

He treated the wound and placed Father under the care of a nurse named Esther at the hospital.

Father spent some time in recovery at the hospital.

He was impressed with Esther, and he introduced her to Nancy.

“She’s a good nurse,” Father said. “I’ve always wanted you to become a nurse.”

Nancy saw the care that the nurse gave Father.

She also was impressed.

She resolved to become a nurse.

Several years passed, and Nancy graduated from high school. She looked for a nursing school and found the Seventh-day Adventist Nursing and Midwifery Training College.

At first, she thought that only Adventists were allowed to study there. She wasn’t an Adventist.

But the college accepted her application. Once she began her studies, she realized that many students were not Adventists. Some even weren’t Christians.

Nancy had always considered herself a Christian, but she had second thoughts when she attended a week of spiritual emphasis at the college.

A pastor taught from the Bible how to live a Christian life, and she realized that she hadn’t been living a Christian life. She wanted to be a real Christian. At the end of the week of spiritual emphasis, she decided to surrender her life to Christ and be baptized.

Today, Nancy is 22 years old and a new woman.

Her life has changed completely since she gave it to Jesus.

She used to only read her Bible in church on weekends, but now she has personal devotions and reads the Bible in her room every day. She also prays. She can’t wait to graduate and care for people as a nurse. She may even continue her education and become a physician.

“My father was happy when I said that I wanted to be baptized,” Nancy said. “He knew my past life. He was happy to hear that I have changed through the college and have a new life.”

Your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering that will help the Seventh-day Adventist Nursing and Midwifery Training College, where Nancy studies, expand with the construction of new classrooms and dormitories. The college opened with 22 students in 2015 and now has 770 students. Demand is high, and the school lacks the capacity to admit additional students. This is a real mission school, where only 30 percent of the students are Adventists. A number of students, like Nancy, join the church every year. Thank you for considering a generous Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on December 30.