“At least I won’t die from lack of water to drink,” Mina mumbled in an attempt to keep up her spirits. Her arm, trapped under a boulder in a remote mountain stream, alternated between excruciating pain and numbness. The giant crawfish that she had been trying to dig out definitely was not worth dying for. She knew that it was only a matter of time before she ran out of strength. Her nose, mere inches from the water, would sink below the surface, and she would drown.

Scenes from her life began flashing through her mind. She remembered running and giggling with the other children in the mountain village where she grew up. Skipping forward, she thought about the day that the most handsome guy in the village offered her betel nut in hopes of courting her. It seemed like only moments later that they had two beautiful children and were moving closer to relatives in the village of Suri.

That was when their life had taken a strange turn. There were Sabbath keeping Christians in the village of Suri. Mina and her family could hear them worshiping through the thin bamboo walls. “It is our job to invite everyone to worship Jesus,” they would always say. But why had no one invited Mina and her family? She wanted to meet God, too.

A spasm in her arm brought Mina back to the present. The memory of overhearing the Adventists worshiping God persisted, though. I wonder if I could pray even though no one has invited me? she wondered. “God, I don’t know if I am doing this wrong, but I have nothing more to lose. If you can, would you help me?”

There was a roaring from deep under the earth, and the ground began to rock back and forth. The boulder that had trapped her arm shifted. In an instant, Mina found herself standing on the riverbank with no recollection of how she got there. Looking down, she saw that her arm, crushed under the rock a moment ago, was whole and pain-free again.

With tears of joy coursing down her cheeks, she ran home. Kneeling in front of her husband and children, she told them how the God of the Adventists had saved her. “I am still too shy to go to church without being invited,” she concluded. “But we have to go. Their God is the true God.”

Of course the Adventists welcomed Mina and her family with open arms. It turns out that they had been just as shy to invite them as Mina had been to join. If you were to travel to the village of Suri and ask Mina, she would tell you that she knows God is alive and is watching over us. And then she would remind you, “Never let your shyness or embarrassment hold you back from inviting everyone you meet to experience Jesus’ love.”

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