I am part of a ladies' Bible study at my church, The Bridge Bible Church here in Bakersfield, California. We meet at Table 10. It is a round table like all the others in the church auditorium. It is a tight squeeze when all twelve of us show up on Wednesday mornings! Naomi is our table leader. She is also the leader of our Abide women's prayer group.

Marj is the hospitality leader for the ladies of Table 10. She also happens to host the Abide women’s prayer group Monday mornings (every Monday morning) in her lovely home. She delights in doing special things for her friends and today she treated us, whom she calls “His Girls of Table 10”, to a gourmet luncheon at The Guild House[1] in Bakersfield, the beautifully refurbished historic Barlow House. Shortly after we moved to Bakersfield last year I read about the Guild House and have driven by it several times and thought it would be nice to someday visit it, and today I got to. I love old houses and architecture.

Naomi and Janna, our table co-leader, went out early this morning to get all the little items needed to make up 12 gift bags, one for each lady at the luncheon. It was to feature a cookie from Sweet Surrender, Bakersfield's iconic confectionery. I'm talking gourmet cookies here.

Nothing worked out right. Everything Naomi attempted in her pursuit of assembling the perfect gift for the ladies, to be presented at the luncheon hosted by Marj at The Guild House, fell flat. All the while Naomi kept hearing a little voice in the back of her head to do this other thing.

So Naomi, telling us all this as we sat around our table at The Guild House feasting on Chicken Dijon and wild and white rice, got up and reaching to pick up something from the table behind her, said that instead of gourmet cookies for us, she wanted to use that money so some little girl might have a life. She turned back and surprised me by reaching across the table and handing me an envelope. "She Is Safe"[2] was written on the front.

Of course, I immediately got choked up, knowing that inside that envelope was the money that instead of buying gourmet cookies for us well-fed ladies, would now go to buy a goat for a family in Nepal. I praised God through my tears. In fact, we all praised God that Naomi listened to that little voice in her head, as she proceeded to tell us about the little girls in Nepal who are sold into sex slavery by the time they are 12 years old because their families are too poor to feed them, and how a goat can be the means to rescue them through the ministry of She Is Safe as they partner with a Nepalese ministry to rescue these girls.

Naomi believes that goat is needed more than we need gourmet cookies. She's so right.

When I got home from the luncheon I put She Is Safe’s address on the envelope, stamped it and the mailman picked it up on his rounds.

Happy birthday, Jesus. May You have one more jewel added to your crown.

(The names have not been changed. These are real people and I am privileged to call them my sisters—and my friends.)

---

[1] The Guild House serves gourmet lunches at the historic Barlow House to raise funds to support the Henrietta Weill Memorial Child Guidance Clinic. (Taken from the Guild House website.)

[2] www.SheIsSafe.org