IRON-WILL ROSA
IRON-WILL ROSA
Kingdom Kids devotions authorize Jesus’ LORDship over our lives.
Matthew 5:15-16: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
“Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Down a long winding red-clay road in Hamburg, Alabama, Rosa Young lived a generation after American slavery ended. Rosa was free, but never fled Alabama. Each morning, Rosa got out of bed and prayed that God’s Spirit would walk accompany her hundreds of miles, enlighten her with His Word and sink His Gospel deeply into every heart she could find.
Summers are hot and sticky in Alabama. Neither the scorching sun nor sapping humidity could squelch Rosa’s iron will to share Jesus’ love. Farming families who lived among rows of cotton were populated with ex-slaves. These people were Rosa’s targeted mission field.
Her entire life sprang from one dream of planting Gospel seeds among her brethren. Only God could fulfill Rosa’s dream. This story highlights Rosa’s life as a champion to the people in Rosa’s backyard. Rosa Young earned the name “mother of Black Lutheranism in Alabama”. St. James is a three-room school and church she helped found in Buena Vista, Alabama.
In Rosa’s book, Light in the Dark Belt, she wrote, “It unlocks the door of opportunity where you may enter many a home and tell people the old, old story of Jesus and His love.” This slight woman blazed a trail for twelve African-Americans ordained as pastors in the 1920s-40s.
Dozens would follow. They were needed to serve the Lutheran churches and schools she helped establish.
In 1917, Rosa Young founded St. Andrew Lutheran Church. Its remains are found by hiking six miles up a deeply rutted, narrow dirt road through a heavily wooded pine forest. The collapsed church could only be seen through heavy undergrowth.
A simple while cross greets visitors with the old, old story.
Take Home Nugget
With God’s help—we, too—can share Jesus’ Gospel light with others, person-by-person, beginning with the lesson linked below. Do you know the song?
“Tell me the old, old story,
Of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory,
Of Jesus and His love;
Tell me the story simply,
As a little child,
For I am weak and weary,
And helpless and defiled.
Tell me the old, old story,
Tell me the old, old story,
Tell me the old, old story,
Of Jesus and His love.”
Tell Me the Old, Old Story lyrics by Arabella K. Hankey, 1866.
Adapted from “Shining the Gospel Light”, “From One, Many” and “Church History 101” by Ms. Christine S. Weertz. June 5, 6, and 7, 2018. Portals of Prayer devotional magazine. Missouri.
J.D. Griffith
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