I told my story at toddler group, and this happened

“Story time!” I shout in a sing-song voice, the way I do every week at Barnacles toddler group.

Some children join in: “Story time!”

They all gather around on their tiny chairs with their grown-ups as they do every week. But this week I’m not telling a Bible story – nor am I telling a story about Goldilocks or the Three Little Pigs. This week, I’m telling a story about me and God’s work in my life.

A walk through town

A few weeks before, I had been walking through the middle of town using my white cane (I am severely sight impaired and use my cane in busy places and where I need to get buses but not in my local area). A mum had pulled a small child away from me in a panic. I didn’t say anything and regretted it. I don’t want children to think that someone using a white cane is scary.

The following Sunday, our vicar was encouraging us all to share our stories. A lightbulb came on in my head. Each week I have the privilege of speaking for two minutes to 25 under-five-year-olds and their grown-ups. Maybe I could take the opportunity to scatter some seeds of the gospel? I could encourage kids that God has made us all different, and that that is a great thing.

Toddler group testimony

I was sitting on my plastic chair, butterflies in my tummy, arrow prayers being fired, baby doll in my hand, and a white cane under my seat, on top of a picture of me as a baby.

I began: “This week, our story is a bit different. I thought I’d tell you a little bit of my story."

I rocked the baby doll in my arms: "When I was a baby, there was something a bit funny about my eyes. One of them kept on looking the wrong way. My mummy and daddy took me to the doctors. The doctors found something nasty growing in my eyes. It was called eye cancer.

"My mummy and daddy were very scared that this would make me very sick. It might mean I couldn’t see anything at all.

"People at my mum’s church prayed for me in the name of Jesus, which means they talked to God. I went to hospital and the doctors gave me special treatment which made my eyes all red and sore.” I passed around the picture of me as a baby during my radiotherapy; the outside of my eyes was entirely red. “The treatment worked and killed a nasty thing that was growing inside my eyes, and I could still see some things. God had kept me safe, hooray!” Some of the grown-ups and children joined in with the cheering, which encouraged me.

I went on to tell them that although I can’t see things very well, and I struggle to read books, there are other things I can do such as tell stories. I showed them my cane and explained how it helps me.

I told them that God has made us all different and that we all find different things hard, and that we all have things that we are really good at, and that it’s great that we can help each other.

Afterwards, I had some interesting conversations with both children and adults.

My sight impairment is not something that I often talk about. I tend to just get on and adapt things so that I can cope. If I’m honest, I probably struggle with admitting weakness and vulnerability. But I found being vulnerable with others makes them more likely to open up and be vulnerable with me. This opened up opportunities to offer to pray – to show that God cares about all our struggles. I find that even if people don’t want you to pray with them there and then, they are usually touched to hear that you pray for them at other times.

The aim of our toddler group is to support families, create community and to scatter seeds of the gospel, and my prayer is that sharing my story helped towards this, even in a small way.

PfE women is an everyday evangelism series written by women in Passion for Evangelism – an organisation committed to empowering, equipping, and encouraging women to share the good news of Jesus.