Meet Kembrel

"If I can reach just one, it was well worth it.  I've done my part."

I've heard this said many times by those who have committed their lives to reaching, teaching, and guiding others. Preachers, motivational speakers, coaches, teachers... they all understand that when they're fishing to catch the masses, not everyone will "bite". They know, though, that after preparing bait and prepping the boat and waking up early in the morning to get the right catch, there's beauty and fulfillment in pulling in that right one, even if it's the only one.

Such has been the case with me on the Stories That Teach Girls Book Reading Tour. At every book reading session, many have taken the bait, but there has always been, on every stop of the tour, that one girl who I was able to pull in and know that my day of fishing was just for her.

Meet Kembrel.

I met Kembrel at the book reading session in Lake Charles, LA. As is the routine for each book reading session, I read a portion from one of the stories in the book, The White Scarf, and I teach a lesson that ties in with the story. The girls do a couple activities inside the lesson and then we end with a book signing, because after getting only a portion of that story, THEY CANNOT WAIT to purchase their books to read the rest of it.

As girls come up to the book signing table, I ask their names and ask them to spell it for me. Several girls had come through before Kembrel, so by the time she got to me, I was in a groove.

I asked her her name. She said, "Kembrel." (prounounced Kim-brell)

I heard her, but I didn't really, because even when I ask their names, my ears are already tuned in to hear the spelling of the name so I can write it and then write their personalized messages.

I said, "Okay, spell it."

She spelled it. And I stopped in my tracks. I looked up at her and said again, "What's your name?"

She said it quietly. 

I said, "One more time?"

She repeated it.

I said, "Okay, spell it for me one more time."

She did, but she did it very quietly. I barely heard her. There were people all over the room, talking and laughing. I asked her to spell it again, and she did. And it finally clicked.

I looked at her and repeated her name back to her, and then asked, "Your name is Kembrel?"

She shook her head yes, and a chill raced through my body.

What KEmbrel didn't know, but was about to find out, was that there's a story in Stories That Teach Girls whose main character is named KImbrel. Before writing that story, A Special Design, I had never even heard the name. In fact, I didn't even want to use that name. The story had been completely written with another name for the main character that I can't even remember now, and the 7 lessons for the story had been written too. But one morning when I entered my writing session to draft some other portion of the book, the Lord was tugging on my heart to change the character's name, and Kimbrel was the name He gave me.

I fought with it. I kept saying, "Lord, why? That's not a common name. People won't be able to relate to that name when they read the story. I never even heard of that name. Why Kimbrel?"

I didn't want to do it. I liked the name I had. I tried to move on and write other things, but I couldn't even focus. Nothing was happening in that writing session, and the Lord would not let it rest. He kept telling me to change that name, so I went through the entire story and all of the lessons and changed the name from whatever it was to Kimbrel--IN EVERY PLACE IT WAS WRITTEN.

I said to her, "Girl, do you know that there is a story in this book whose main character's name is Kimbrel?" I had chills when I said that to her!

I said, "I've never even met a Kembrel. I had never even heard that name before I wrote the story, and I didn't even use that name when I first wrote the story. I used some other name, but the Lord told me to change it to Kimbrel."

She smiled. I sat there and shook my head. I had an encounter with the Lord in that moment that no one else would even be able to understand. 

I said to her, "My God! This story was written just for you, girl! I don't know what the Lord is going to teach you in those lessons or what, exactly, is in there just for you, but I believe with my whole heart that IT'S JUST FOR YOU. He wouldn't even let me rest until I changed that name."

She smiled some more. I was stunned! It took me a minute to even get myself together to write in her book.

While I was talking to her, her grandmother was standing off to the side. As I handed Kembrel her book and got up from the table to hug her and get a picture with her, her grandmother said to me, "And she wasn't even supposed to be here."

I looked over at her to read her face and see what she meant. She went on.

She said, "She's from Texas. She is visiting us, and she wasn't even supposed to be here."

I could've cried! I had "gone fishing" that day in Lake Charles, LA just for that moment, to "catch" Kembrel.

See, there was so much more to that moment than just the shock of knowing that her name was KEmbrel and that there was a story in the book about a girl named KImbrel. 

There was more to that moment than learning that Kembrel wasn't supposed to be there, but was there anyway because it was ordained by God. 

What that moment was really about was (1) the joy of knowing my obedience to the Lord created that moment. It was a private celebration between God and me for the fruit of obedience. (2) It was also a celebration for knowing the Lord was about to use that very moment, created by my obedience, to "catch" Kembrel.

I don't know. Only God knows. 
My job is to just be obedient.

God could've wanted me to put KImbrel's name in the book because maybe KEmbrel doesn't like to read. Maybe knowing her name is in the book could be the "bait" He uses to pull her into the stories that were written to teach her. Maybe this is how He wants to draw her closer to Him.

Maybe the situation that KImbrel faces in the story is similar to something KEmbrel faced or will face, and the Lord wants to use that to encourage her heart and/or teach her how to handle it, which will draw her closer to Him.

Maybe KEmbrel wasn't hearing a thing I was saying while I was teaching that night, but because she learned that there's a story with her name in it, she may feel like the whole book could actually have something for her. She may decide to read back through what I said and what I taught and get a grip on it because she now knows the Lord hand picked her to be there that night.

There are endless possibilities for why God chose to use KImbrel to "catch" KEmbrel, but whatever it is, I KNOW it's marvelous! He confirmed that in my spirit just as sure as her name is Kembrel! 

And her name is definitely Kembrel!

Umph, umph, umph! KEmbrel, KImbrel, KEmbrel...

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