Today we held a youth program at the church. We invited the neighborhood children and had about 25 people from ages 5 to 25 show up. In addition, Ann who has been faithfully coming since receiving Christ earlier this month came as well. Ann is the person who was planning to kill her children and commit suicide that I spoke about in a previous blog.
This past Sunday, I had a chance to talk with her after the service. She shared about how she is excited about receiving Christ and the hope she now has as a result. As a result of our conversation, I learned that Ann desires to continue to grow in her walk with God, but did not have a Bible and can barely put food on the table and so buying a Bible was out of the question.
I promised I would buy her a Swahili Bible and bring it this weekend. On Friday, I stopped by a local bookstore and spent the $7.50 for a Bible.
Today as the conference was finishing I walked over and gave Ann the Bible. Honestly, it was a small thing to me, but the tears that came gave me a small glimpse of how important a Bible was to Ann. I was humbled in that moment. I have 2 Bibles available to me on the Race (on my kindle and a trim-line NIV) when I am trying to live a life of abandon with as little as possible. Back in the U.S., I don't want to even think about the number of Bibles I have sitting in bookcases. I take for granted the ability to have a Bible at my fingertips.
In addition, Ann explained how excited she was to actually be able to read and study the Bible. She shared her desire was to become an evangelist so that she could share about Jesus with other people who were desperate and without hope like she was when we met.
I know the last few weeks, it has been a chore for me to spend time in the Bible reading and studying. Today, Ann put me to shame as she shared her passion to read the Bible and her excitement about having her own Bible. She finished our conversation by sharing that her dream is that someday I will come back to Kenya and she and I can go do evangelism together in her neighborhood. I am humbled and convicted about what a true gift having access to the Bible is and how an inexpensive gift ($7.50) can mean so much.
