She was a little Chinese girl who lived in Malaya, and she was known as Elder Sister. Her father and mother were very fond of her, and she was a good help in caring for Younger Sister and her small brothers as well.
But now Elder Sister was sad at heart. Her father was in debt, and if he did not pay back the money he owed to the money lender, he would be in great trouble. Elder Sister’s grandfather had once said that long ago in China parents used to sell their daughters to people who wanted servants. Sometimes they sold them for keeps, sometimes just for a few years. “Much money was paid for a strong, hard-working girl,” the old man had said.
This set little Elder Sister to thinking. Poor little pagan girl, brought up among people who had so many gods; she never heard of that salvation which could be had “without money and without price.”
In the city where they lived were many white people. White people had more money than the Chinese and Malayas; they paid good wages to their servants. But Elder Sister made up her mind to sell herself outright and pay off her father’s debt at once.
Putting on her nicest clothes and combing her black hair, she made her way to a house of her choice and timidly tapped on the door. A little fair-haired, blue-eyed English girl appeared, and smiling at the little visitor she said, “Good morning, do you want to see Mother?”
Surely it was God’s guiding hand which led little Elder Sister to that door, because people in that house were true followers of the Lord Jesus. They had gone to that land to preach His gospel of redeeming love.
“Yes, please,” replied Elder Sister.
Just then a white lady appeared, and with a kindly smile she asked, “How can I help you, little Sister?”
“Would you buy me for eighty dollars?” she asked.
She then told about her father being in debt, and they had no money, and tears rolled down the little girl’s cheeks as she spoke.
Then the white man appeared, and after talking together with him the lady said, “Little Sister, we could not buy you. But we can help you like this. Would you like to come and work here to help me in the house and to be a playmate to my little daughter. We would lend you that eighty dollars and you could work without pay until you earned it.”
Elder Sister raised her shining eyes; it sounded too good to be true.
“But you must first get permission from your parents,” said the lady. “Go home now and tell them, and tomorrow I will come and see them myself.”
Little Elder Sister ran home and told her parents her story. They listened and then they talked things over with Grandfather. “Let the child go,” he said. “The Christians are good people-she will learn only good from them.”
Elder Sister went back to the white people and did indeed “learn only good.” She learned of the Saviour who bought with His own precious blood men and women and children, Chinese as well as white.
When she came home in the evenings, Elder Sister had much to tell her family. Little by little the Chinese girl came to know the love of Christ and His salvation—of a God who cares for the children and longs to have them for His own.
Quick to learn, before her debt was paid off, she could read a little. They gave her a little copy of the gospel of John in Chinese, and she took this home and spelled out its blessed message to her family.
The time came when Elder Sister told her parents she wanted to be baptized, but they raised no objections. The little girl’s heart was full of joy. She felt the day would come when others in that household would find the joy that she had found and know the Lord Jesus and accept His gift... given “without money and without price.”
ML-10/02/1977