Down in the Dominican Republic, in a little two-room house in a jungle, lived nine-year old Leida, with her parents and sister and brothers. At one time they were not a very happy family. Mother and father were always quarreling, and when father would be away, sometimes for many days, they would have to get along as best they could without him. Often they had only bananas, mangoes and oranges that they could pick from the trees near their home.
One day father came back so excited and happy about something he had heard in the village. He had been to a gospel meeting there, where he had heard that Jesus loved them and had died for them on the cross of Calvary; now there was nothing left for sinners to do to be saved and go to heaven but to believe that He died for their sins, and rose again. Eternal life was a free gift from God. He kept saying over and over again, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
At last Leida could say the verse too, and started to teach the other children to say it.
The next time father came back from the village he brought a Bible and a hymn book. He asked Leida to read to them, because when he was a little boy there were no schools for him to go to, so he could not read very well. Now he wanted Leida to help him learn to read, because he wanted to read the Bible for himself, and oh, what joy it was to sit together with mother and the rest of the family, reading the lovely stories about the Lord Jesus.
Leida and her brothers and sister had to go a long way to school through jungle country. They would start out about 6:30 in the morning, with one little donkey for the younger children to ride on. Usually they met other children on their way to school, and they had a happy time together.
Leida was very anxious to learn to read better herself so she could learn more about the Lord Jesus.
Father and mother didn’t quarrel as they used to, and father was home more too, working in the fields most of the time, so that they always had something to eat.
One thing they had learned from the Bible was that having trusted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, they belonged to the Lord Jesus, and that they were not of the world even though they were in it; they didn’t want to go to the places or do many of the things that they used to. Even the songs they once sang did not please them any more. They were now new creatures in Christ Jesus; old things had passed away, and behold, all things had become new (2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)). But oh, how they loved to sing the hymns and choruses from their little hymn book. Father would go to the village every Sunday morning, and come back Monday morning with new tunes for the hymns until they knew nearly all of them by heart.
One day father came home very happy. It was because the missionary and his wife were coming to their house for a few days to have gospel meetings, so their neighbors could hear about the Lord Jesus too! Father and the boys went around inviting their neighbors right away.
What a happy busy time it was, trng to clean up their little house, to make one of the rooms nice and comfortable for the missionaries to put their cots up in. Mother and father and the two younger children would use the other room. But the two older children and Leida were to sleep on the floor at their grandmother’s home.
ML 02/15/1959