Photo by Denease Bohannon
While our team was in Nicaragua this year, we ventured out from Padre Ramos to a neighboring village called Los Zorros. The ministry has been expanding over the last several weeks and our team got the privilege of helping share food and the Word of God with some of the local villagers who live in this remote part of Nicaragua.
I am highlighting this woman because of her response to our team as we handed out Spanish Bibles and rice. Even though I was not there with this team, her story has evoked some penetrating thoughts for me to consider. You see, when our team handed her this Bible, she immediately began to cry and then she uttered some powerful words in spanish. When translated we heard that she said: “this is the greatest blessing I have ever received”.
Thinking through that phrase, the setting and the meaning of it all, here are three powerful things this lady has taught me.
1) There are still people in the world today who do not have the Bible in their own language.
As a fairly well-seasoned and well-traveled missionary, I know this but what a powerful reminder that even in a country with a language that has Bibles, there are still countless thousands that do not have their own copy of the Word of God. On that particular day we handed out close to 25 Spanish Bibles to families who did not have a copy of their own. Not one person that we offered a Bible to turned it away! If you would like to donate to provide more Spanish Bibles to Los Zorros or Padre Ramos, please contact us for more details.
2) She was very thankful for the Word Of God.
I know that we are busy and live in a land of plenty thus making us take God’s Word for granted. Most of us have more than a couple copies available in hard text not to mention the innumerable translations available to us online. Not this lady. This was her very fist copy of the Word of God and being given a copy brought her to tears. She was thankful, grateful and honored to have a copy. How do I treat and value God’s Word? Do I view it as a Source of Life and Hope? Or do I take it for granted?
3)She valued God’s Word above everything else.
Our team had been handing out bags of rice that day along with the Bibles but this lady ignored the food and said her greatest blessing she had ever received was this Bible. Sometimes I forget that the Bible is God’s express words to us. It is His very thoughts, stories and account of History from His very own hand. This woman said this was her greatest blessing…not getting food for another day, not being alive and able to walk or have a job, but getting a copy of God’s Word in her own hands! She valued being able to read God’s story, learn about Him and from Him through this spiritual book that is unlike any other. This woman has reminded me that I need to value God’s Word above everything and look to it as my Source to understanding God and His ways. God’s Word gives us hope, understanding, knowledge, wisdom and insight in the mind and heart of God. There is nothing else on this planet that does that and this lady recognized that.
I may never know her name, but hearing her story and sharing her story has been a blessing. I have definitely been challenged to do what I can to get more Bibles to people who need them, to be thankful for the Word of God that I have and to treasure God’s Word above all else. How about making a decision now to spend more time in God’s Word and let it transform you and then invest in getting more Bibles translated to be a blessing to others who are seeking a relationship with Christ?
George Lockhart: seeking to become a wholehearted follower of Jesus
vision2hear 