A few weeks ago while in Ecuador a very interesting thing happened to me. A teacher whom had been sitting with me every morning asked me if he can buy my bible from me. Now to some this may seem like no big deal but to me I almost gasped in dismay at his question. Simply because he had divulged to me on our morning talks that he didn’t believe in God. That and it was a really cool looking bible. It was a travel size bible enclosed in a silver metal case with a raised cross on the front. Which looked almost hand drawn. You see my plan was to keep that bible and give the other simple black one I bought specifically for that purpose. This is where God always flips the script .
I’m going to rewind the story a bit and go back to the first day of school. A big yellow coach bus would pick us up, kids and teachers in the morning. A lot of the teachers didn’t have cars so they rode on the bus in the mornings. I wanted some alone time so I decided to sit by myself. Well, God had other plans. A teacher whom I wasn’t shadowing decided to sit with me on our hour long bus ride and every day after that. Some days we’d both sleep, read or get into deep discussions about life. He would always ask questions about my Christian life or questions about God but would quickly say right after that he didn’t believe in God. That he’s the kinda person that believes in Science and needs to see things to believe them. Even though I knew the Lord put it on his heart to sit with me and ask me questions because deep down he believes but a past life hurt made him stop believing.
The last week of school he asked me “How much did you pay for that?” And at first I didn’t realize he was talking about my Bible. He asked a few more questions like where I found it and what not. Then asked me if he could buy it off me because it was so beautiful. This is where on the inside I was doing somersaults of joy but tried to look calm on the outside. I then said it’d be illegal for a Christian to make someone pay for a Bible(which is a joke) and he laughed. I told him he can have my Bible under one condition. That he give me a few days because I wanted to write something nice in it for him and explain how to read it. He agreed and the last day of school I gave him the Bible. As he was holding it in his hand he traced the raised cross over and over with his finger while saying how beautiful it was. I can’t even explain the Joy that I was experiencing when I saw Him do that.
Towards the end of the ride he still told me he didn’t believe in God and I just smiled because even though he was saying that I knew the Lord was already softening his heart towards Him. I’m so happy I got to be a part of that experience and witness the beginning of something beautiful forming.
Please pray for the teacher in Ecuador whose name I’m keeping private. Pray that he continues to read the Bible I gave him and even pass it along to someone else in the future in the same position he was in before he read it. Also, please keep those precious kids in your prayers.
Love , Monica
