Page 27 - Consider The Lillies of the Field - My Story: Jill Kemp

The original owners of Palmer's Nurseries in Auckland were Christians
and their sister, Mrs. Jackson, sent her daughter, Marion, to school,
with 3 yards of brand new, green and white gingham material, for my
sewing, after she told her mother how sorry she felt for me. Mrs
Jackson had never even met me! I have never forgotten her kindness. I
was con-stantly in trouble at school for not having completed my
homework, the teachers never knowing that I was not allowed to do it at
home, so I tried to fit it in during school hours. It wasn't until just before
I was to sit my School Certificate Sec-ondary School Examination, that

the teachers realized the difficulties I was having and contacted my
parents. It was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, that although
I was bright at school, I failed to pass the examination because of a terrible
upset I had home on the morning of my Geography paper which caused
me to arrive at the exam half an hour late and in my stressed state forgot
to take any coloured pencils from my bag. I was too shy to ask the
Examiner for them so my paper was handed in without any of the maps
being col-oured and I failed to pass the paper by only a few critical
marks. This disappointment added to my already low self es-teem.

There were many other precious people too and my best friend at
school was also a Christian! The loving kindness of Christian people to my
sister and me as we were growing up, was incredible. What about you?
What about your neighbour? What about that little kid? How can you
help? Can you be Jesus' hands? I saw kindness in Christians and I
thought, “When I grow up I want to be like them, I want to be a Chris-tian.”

I fell in head over heels in love with Bob, at school, when I was nine
years old (although he never knew.) I carved his name on my
windowsill and I prayed for him for nine years, never, ever really
expecting that he would be the least bit in-

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