By Reverend Joshua from Kaveri Kala Manram, our partner in Sri Lanka. This blog was originally preached as a sermon during a collaborative service between a Leprosy People’s association in Batticaloa and the local church.

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I’ll never forget the moment when my Sunday School teacher asked me to play David in our skit. I was 10 years old. Standing before me was the biggest boy in the class, our Goliath. My knees shook. My voice trembled.

“I can’t do this”, I whispered.

But my teacher knelt, looked me straight in the eye, and said: “Joshua, God doesn’t call the strong. He strengthens the called. That’s why you’re perfect for this part”.

Reluctantly, I took my place on the stage. With a deep breath, I swung my imaginary sling. And to everyone’s surprise, especially mine, Goliath fell.

What I learnt that day still echoes in my soul: God specialises in using small things to do great miracles.

We’ve all read about David’s courage or Goliath’s defeat. But I want to look at something that everyone has missed – the stone. The small, smooth, ordinary stone that became God’s extraordinary weapon.

In our world today, Goliath still roars. Through the crushing stigma of leprosy that isolates God’s children. Through the discrimination that says “unclean” when God says “beloved”. Through systems that treat symptoms, but can’t treat souls.

The armies of medicine, policy, and science march out daily. And we praise God for them! But like Saul’s troops, they often stop at the valley’s edge. They tremble before the giant’s taunts: “your treatment can’t touch my stigma! Your programmes will never break my power!”

Enter David. Not with Saul’s armour, but with a shepherd’s sling. Not with military strategy, but with five smooth stones from a brook. And the first stone did what entire armies couldn’t. It found the chink in Goliath’s armour.

In Sri Lanka, I’ve witnessed modern day ‘Davids’ – Leprosy People’s Associations. The courageous members of these groups have hurled their stones. The stone of testimony, asserting that “I am more than my disease”. The stone of dignity, saying “I am made in God’s image”. And the stone of community, proclaiming “we stand together”.

The Lord declares: “Not by might not by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). And in 1 Corinthians 1:27, Paul reminds us that “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong”.

We are building Leprosy People’s Associations in Sri Lanka to be like David, encouraging them to find their stones.

We ask people affected by leprosy, “what has been placed in your hand? Is it your story, your pain, or a unique gift?”.

We polish these stones through prayer. David’s were smooth from the water’s work, and we ask God to prepare our new weapons.

We aim for the forehead. We don’t just address symptoms of leprosy. We strike at the root of stigma, fear, and isolation.

And we remember that when David’s stone struck Goliath, it wasn’t the end of the story.

Today your stone can do something amazing. It can shatter someone’s shame. Break the chains of isolation. Open the doors that experts said were sealed.

When we achieve this mission together, our stones will become the crowning jewels of our celebration. They will shine as bright as diamonds!