I sat at the bench with African children sitting around me listening to the testimony of one of my teammates. When a verse being read I would let the kids look at my Bible because they did not have Bibles with they. Most of the children would look at the Bible for a little bit, following along as the verse was being read. There was one little boy who would continued to look at the Bible, flipping through the pages. He was very curious about the Bible.
The passage in Matthew 25 of the parable of the talents was brought up. I helped him find the passage and we followed along together. Then he pulled a notebook from his backpack and began to copy down the passage asking me questions along the way. That’s when the Holy Spirit impressed on my heart to give him my Bible.
The conviction was heavy on my heart during the rest of the talk. I fought it, not wanting to part with my Bible. “But God I’ve had it the whole race. I have a lot of notes and things in it. It’s a leather bound Bible that was a gift for this trip. Maybe if wasn’t such a nice one I would give it away. And besides what would I read if I got rid of it?” I knew these were all pretty lame excuses. After talking with a teammate about the conviction I was truly able to see these excuses for what they were and admit it to myself. I knew what I had to do. So once the other kids had gone off to play, I sat down with this little boy. I handed him the Bible, his hand gripped it tightly and I encouraged him to read it everyday.
As the team and I were getting ready to leave I saw him walking around holding the Bible close to his chest, hugging it. I knew then that I had done the right thing.
