An Indonesian girl — bullied for a rare condition — finds joy in Jesus.
Despite being bullied because of her physical appearance, Nia is full of joy and changing the way her community cares for others.
The Indonesian girl, whose full name is Karunia, was born without fingers and toes, a rare congenital condition called Apert Syndrome that makes her look different.
“There are some who bully Nia,” Chandra, her father, told Compassion Australia. “They mock her by saying, ‘Hey, look, it’s Nia, the deformed girl’.”
But she finds hope in what her dad, a farmer in East Indonesia, tells her.
“When they bully you, you can say that you are God’s gift and not a creation of any man.”
When Nia was born, her parents were grateful to God but didn’t know what to do and how best to take care of her.
Angelina, Nia’s mother said – “I just cried and wondered why God had entrusted this to me,”
Nia endured a lot of pain, high fevers and, sometimes, she struggled to breathe with the condition that doesn’t have a cure–not to mention the stares and fearful looks people in the small community gave the little girl.
With little education, and struggling to care for Nia, who needed specialized care, the desperate couple registered their baby girl into a program with Compassion International, which helped give her regular medical checkups and get funds for surgery to give Nia fingers on her right hand.
Now Nia says – “I am beautiful like my mother,” “When my friends mocked me because I don’t have normal fingers, my mom taught me to say back to them that this is what Jesus gave me.”