This week, First Baptist Church of Bossier City, LA is in Karima, Kenya. Bossier’s children’s ministry raised money this summer at their Summer Survivor (VBS) for Bibles for Karima and their student ministry presented the funds to us at BigStuf earlier this summer, so this week their itinerary included delivering Bibles to the children of Kawamaitha Primary School.
Below is a message we received from Robyn Horton, their Children’s Pastor & team leader, about the Bibles distribution . AMAZING!
What an amazing week this has been! I wanted to tell you to “like” our FBB missions page and you can find a lot more pics. One in particular of Erica, who was interviewed by Lanny, holding the Bible with her pic and label in it.
Our Bible distribution has been amazing! We started on Monday morning as we picked up the Bibles and drove into Karima. We went to the school and unloaded and began the process of labeling and putting a picture in each one.
We then went to classes 1 and 2, and part of class 3. Our team divided into 4 groups to give the Bibles. As we entered the classroom, we were able to talk to the class and share with them why we had come. We told them we had a gift for them. John saw one girl’s face light up when she heard the word gift and she immediately started clapping. We shared that we had come because boys and girls and students loved them and they wanted to share God’s love with them. We told them that God’s Word is powerful and can change their lives, their families, and their community forever! In class 5 yesterday, I had Christopher (community coordinator) ask if any of them have a Bible or if their parents had a Bible. In that room of 50 children, NO ONE had access to a Bible. But the good news is now they do.
They were so thrilled to receive their Bibles. The children’s version Bible is amazing! The illustrations are beautiful! The kids poured over their Bible. We instructed them to write their names in it, and that almost seemed unreal to them that it was their very own book to treasure.
The pictures were also priceless. Every child wanted to know the name of the person in their picture. We found many children clutching the photos in their hands while outside playing or when we saw them walk home.
Yesterday- after distributing Bibles – 2 girls came to one of our team members and recited a verse they had learned from their Bible! One day and they were already memorizing Scripture!
On one of the home visits, one team experienced a child returning home from school and racing in to show her mother the Bible she received. They really cannot believe it is their very own.
But this week we have realized that this Bible distribution has the potential to change an entire generation. We will never be able to measure the impact on this side of eternity!
