"Thou tellest my wanderings: Put thou my tears into thy bottle: Are they not in thy book?" - ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭56:8‬‬

My little sister has always loved art. She's always been a very talented artist. As things were getting more stressful in my life and my little sister became more and more interested in art, my aunt decided to let us take art lessons at a local class. She thought it would help my sister improve at art and let me have something to do.

When we decided to go to art class, we never would have guessed that the art teacher would change our lives. She was a woman named Ms. Karen, who loved the Lord more than anything else and had a mission to share the gospel with everyone.

Her classes were made up of students based on skill rather than age (the class my sister and I were in was for intermediate-advanced students under 18 years old). As we worked, she would read the Bible to us and have us ask questions and explain how to apply it to our lives. She would also share testimonies she experienced throughout her life with us.

She wouldn't stop there. She took an interest in each of her student's lives and the lives of their families. She'd check on everyone and would pray with and offer a listening ear to everyone who needed it, whether what they were going through was big or small.

Not everyone was on board with her, however. I saw her face persecution from families who didn't like her preaching the gospel and praying over their children. I saw people storm out of her studio angrily when they asked her to stop preaching the gospel to their children, but she said no.

One time, a man angrily yelled at her when she refused to stop preaching the Word to his child, and she refused. He screamed at her, and the child got scared and started crying. Ms. Karen started crying after he left, but a while later, she calmed herself and prayed for the souls of the father and child. This was one of many times I saw her share the gospel with people of various religions. I had the honor of seeing her pray with people of multiple faiths, and I saw people in her art studio become saved!

Also, when it got to a point (I saw this happen several times) when people couldn't pay to be in the class anymore, she wouldn't charge them to attend, no matter what they insisted. She wouldn't let them pay her back later, either. She would pray with them over their financial problems and check on them to see if things got better for them.

She wouldn't stop praying over people's finances; if they had other issues in their lives, she'd never hesitated to listen to them, give them a shoulder to cry on, and pray with them.

As for me, I learned a lot from her. For example, she taught me the difference between a religion and a relationship with God. She taught me that we are saved by faith alone, and she taught me that God loves me and has a plan for me.

At first, however, her talking about God made me uncomfortable. I was convinced God hated me. She shared her testimony with me and told me about how she was an imperfect person just like me, but how God loved us anyway and gave His son to die for us.

My aunt started to love to hear her talking about God and would come to the studio at an empty seat to get to know Ms. Karen too. She would sit there and work and chat with Ms. Karen, and eventually, I became more accepting of God.

In the early days, my aunt and little sister would listen to her talk about God, and I would shy away and not listen. She convinced my aunt to join a church, and I remember in the first sermon we went to, I was crying, trying to hide my face, thinking, "God, why do you hate me? You don't want me."

But He proved me wrong. God wanted me to suffer so I'd have to run to Him. He made the world reject me so He could accept me. I remember the day when I first felt His love, and I decided to seek after Him from that point on.

Ms. Karen and my family became so close that she became like another family member. She passed away from COVID-19 in the year 2020, but in that same year, she lost her husband of 50 years to COVID-19, she almost lost her studio due to financial problems, and her kidneys started to fail, and she was miserable from having to do daily dialysis.

Although I miss her a lot, I know she's in Heaven with her Father. She can be with her husband again, she never has to worry about finances ever again, and she has no more pain and suffering. She will forever be an inspiration to me.