In our journey of faith and ministry, we often face the temptation to judge others by outward appearances—whether consciously or not. Yet Scripture reminds us time and again that God sees the heart and values each person beyond what the eye can see. The following story is a personal testimony from Sam and Sadie Doherty that brings this biblical truth to life. It highlights how a simple act of kindness, extended without prejudice, opened the door to unexpected blessing and divine provision. This lesson, rooted in James 2:1–4 and echoed in Hebrews 13:2, should shape how we approach others in everyday life.
“Treat Everyone Equally – this is a lesson which is clearly taught in Scripture. It is also a lesson which I learned from my wife, Sadie, in the early days of CEF of Ireland. In those early days we were still a small and struggling organisation. We had almost no financial support, no full-time workers and a tiny office in our capital city Belfast. Sadie looked after the office and its small stock of literature and visual aids on a part-time basis.
One morning, a man came into the little office. He was well known in Belfast as a rather eccentric Christian, who paraded around the city centre carrying billboards with bible texts on them. Most people ignored him, but he was faithful to the ministry God had given to him. He had seen the name of CEF outside our little office, and, one morning, he came in to see who we were and what we were doing. I feel that many people, including myself, would have been quite brief and even hurried in our response to him. He was apparently quite poor and did not seem like a prospective donor or helper. But Sadie spent the whole morning with him, showing him our literature piece by piece, and sharing our plans to reach children in Ireland with the Gospel. They had “a cup of tea” together, he thanked her for her help and left, with his billboards, just before the office closed. That evening Sadie shared with me her meeting with her visitor, and neither of us thought any more about it.
However, the next morning, when Sadie returned to the office, there was an envelope in the post box with a letter of thanks from her visitor, and a cheque for 30,000 pounds sterling (in present day currency). In his note he asked that we should use it to build up our literature and teaching aids and use it to expand our ministry, especially in the recruitment of full-time workers. Several months later, he gave us a cheque for the same amount. Later, he gave us two houses and two mobile homes to sell, and he bought us our first vehicle to enable one of our new full-time workers to travel around the country and promote our work.
Sadie and the rest of us had not known that David Ferran was a very wealthy man, and God used him to set Child Evangelism Fellowship of Ireland on its feet, for it to reach many thousands of children with the gospel and for it to become one of the biggest parts of worldwide CEF. And I learned the lesson from Sadie to treat all my contacts the same way, and not to ignore or give very little time to those who did not seem able to help the work. (Read James 2: 1-4 to see this principle portrayed and add Hebrews 13:2). You never know who God will call and use to fulfil His plans, as He did with dear David.”
* This is an extract from Mini Mag by Sam Doherty. Sam, who introduced the work of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) in Ireland and later served as Regional Director in Europe, shares his insights on 75 years of ministry in this publication You can subscribe to receive this publication here
