We piled into the van, 14 of us plus the driver, and headed from Sakata, the site of the Open Air Meeting we had just attended, to retire in Zomba for the evening. Isaac, a Timothy (disciple) whom I had met the day before, slid in the seat beside me and I began asking him how his day had been. The discussion led me to ask him 1) how far he travels to make one-on-one contacts (5-15 kilometers); 2) how many times he goes out to make these visits (2-3 times a week); 3) how often he gets to preach in Open Air Meetings (1-3 times a week); 4) what Bible he uses to preach the Gospel, was it a New Testament, or just a single book of the Bible, or did he have a complete Bible (he borrows a Bible because he has not been fortunate enough to have a copy of the precious Word of his own).
His answer about the Bible rocked me, and I had to tell him, as we traveled down the dark, dusty, bumpy road, that it was really sad for me (because I had numerous , 15-20 maybe?) Bibles sitting on shelves at my house; and also really sad for him, because although the Word was so precious to him, he had to BORROW a Bible to accomplish the task he believed the Lord had assigned him.
As I asked him what Bible he would prefer, English or in his native tongue Chichewa, he simply replied that it didn’t really matter to him…he just wanted a Bible! Stunned again by his simple reply, and thinking of all those Bibles on my shelves 8,000 miles away, one of my fellow team members who had been listening intently to our conversation, handed his Bible to Isaac from the back of the van, saying simply “It has my name etched on the front cover, but you're welcome to it.” The smile on Isaac’s face pierced the darkness of the night…Isaac now had his own Bible!
How precious is the Word of God to me? I continue to ask myself that question as I think back on that experience a little more than a week ago in Malawi…
Robin Palesano
CFO
Posted on
Fri, May 13, 2011
by Robin Palesano