The coronavirus was spreading, and schools were shutting down across the United States and the rest of the world. Eleven-year-old Katelyn and her 9-year-old sister, Kallie, ended up back at home on the Navajo Reservation right in the middle of the school year.
The coronavirus was spreading, and schools were shutting down across the United States and the rest of the world.
Eleven-year-old Katelyn and her 9-year-old sister, Kallie, ended up back at home on the Navajo Reservation right in the middle of the school year.
Katelyn and Kallie stayed in the girls’ dormitory while they studied at Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School. But when the school was forced to close to keep the children healthy, the sisters traveled home to a town located about 90 minutes away by car in the state of Arizona.
Being at home didn’t mean being on vacation. The girls still had classes to attend and homework to do. Their teachers were preparing everything online. The only problem was that Katelyn and Kallie didn’t have Internet access at home. They also didn’t have indoor plumbing, and electricity came through an extension cord from a relative’s house next door. Not even their neighbors had Internet. In fact, hardly anyone in the neighborhood had Internet — except for the Seventh-day Adventist church down the road.
When the church’s pastor learned about the situation, he invited the girls to use the church’s Wi-Fi for their studies.
Katelyn and Kallie found themselves skipping along the dirt road day after day to do their schoolwork at the church. As they walked, they smiled as they remembered good times at Holbrook school. They sang happy songs about Jesus that they learned at the school.
One house they passed was known as the local “drug house.” The house’s paint was peeling, and one of the windows was broken. People seemed to go in and out of the house at all hours. Church members had visited and prayed in the home, and the neighbors’ little children had come to church for Vacation Bible School. But none of the grown-ups seemed interested in God.
Then one of those grown-ups noticed the cheerful sisters. When Katelyn and Kallie’s mom walked by the house one day, the neighbor ran out.
“Why do your daughters smile so much instead of often looking sad like my little sisters?” she asked. “Why are your daughters always singing?”
The questions surprised their mom. But she was pleased that the neighbor had noticed Katelyn and Kallie, and she invited the woman to find out why they smiled and sang.
“We’re going to have a family worship this evening under the cottonwoods down by the streambed,” their mom said. “Would you like to come?”
That evening, the neighbor kids came to the cottonwood grove. Their mom read a Bible story, and everyone sang songs about Jesus. The children liked the worship service. “Can we do this again tomorrow?” they asked.
Katelyn and Kallie did something spectacular. They became missionaries to their neighbors, even during a very difficult time for themselves. Their smiles and songs showed Jesus’ wonderful love to a family that seemed impossible to reach.
