"Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path." - Psalm 119:105 ESV
and a light to my path." - Psalm 119:105 ESV
We want to share with you an incredible story of the power of God's incredible Word!
An incredible gift.
Kids loved receiving their new Action Bibles, donated by ChildHope. We loved being able to put those Bibles in their hands. It did not take very long for us to hear testimonies:
- Kids from the school near the notorious Palmasola prison showed up to church with their new Bibles so they could learn how to use them.
- A high school student from that same school was in the hospital to undergo tuberculosis tests. He had his mom bring his new Bible to help him pass the time.
An incredible visit.
God opened the door for us to enter the Palmasola prison, where a number of kids sponsored through ChildHope used to live, and where a number of sponsored kids’ parents still do.
We went in to talk to some students' fathers. The school was able to share report cards and important information with the dads. A pastor friend was able to share from God's Word. Then, we were able to hand each of them a copy of God's Word so they could read it for themselves. We gave them each one of the same Bibles we had recently given their kids. They were excited. We were excited.
An incredible opportunity.
On the way out of the prison, we were given the unlikely opportunity to visit Mery. She is mother to a couple kids sponsored by ChildHope at the school in Samaria. She had been imprisoned shortly before our visit. She would later be proven innocent of her charges. However, that was not much consolation in that moment. A mom behind bars. Her boys left with her parents. During our visit, we gave her one of the Bibles. She is a Christian, and we wanted to encourage her.
Mery has since been released from the prison. She is now back at home with her kids. That is where I recently had the chance to visit her. I asked her about the Bible, and that is when she shared the following beautiful testimony with me.
An incredible testimony.
Mery brought her Bible to an office where she was working within the prison. It became a community Bible. Other ladies began reading God's Word too. Ladies who had never read the Bible before. A friend commented to her about how she had never understood the Bible so clearly as she did then.
When Mery left the prison, her friends asked her to let the Bible stay behind so they could continue reading it. She did. Mery still visits her friends in prison. They recently asked her to bring a notebook and pen with her, because they have been copying Scriptures from the Bible she left for them to read in their cells. They are so hungry for God's Word!
The incredible God!
We never know all that God has in store when we follow the steps of His plan for our lives. But we do know that, whatever it is, it will be incredible, because God is incredible!
In this case, what began as a project from ChildHope to put God's Word into the hands of kids at partnering schools throughout Latin America turned into an opportunity to leave copies of the Bible in a notorious Bolivian prison. As people read these Bibles, God continues to speak His incredible Living Word!
