All it took was one act of kindness – a Bible in particular, to turn the tide for eight year old Phoenix and her brother, seven year old Kingston Walywyn, who were being bullied by a kid from their bus.
Like most kids, they were getting frustrated.
According to Phoenix, the bully constantly called them names and this made them want to confront him at times.
"It made me feel like I wanted to yell at him," Phoenix said in an interview with KHOU.
Instead, the siblings told their parents, who asked to have the bus seating arrangement changed.
At first, it seemed to work but the taunting started again, to the frustration of their father, Vaughaligan, a preacher at the CT Legacy Church in Pasadena. He said that as a father, he was on the verge of confronting the bully himself because of what was happening to his children but thought the better of it.
Instead, he prayed for a peaceful solution to the problem and God gave him the answer that he needed.
" So, I prayed about it and God said, 'You know what? Let's get this kid a Bible. Tell him Jesus loves him and invite him to church and see what happens.' "
Phoenix said that they gave the Bible to the bully and two minutes later, as he was about to get off his stop, the bully apologised for all of the bad things he did to the Walywyns.
Even the pastor, who believed in the power of the Bible, was surprised that it worked that quickly on the bully.
"I was like, 'Really? So that kind of caught me off guard that it worked that fast," the pastor said, adding that he was glad that the word of God made an impact on the bully.
The name calling and the taunting has stopped since and the children couldn't be more happy about it.
"I don't know, maybe [the bully] started to read the Bible at his house and found the Scripture about it," Phoenix said.
