“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105, ESV)
When you begin a new journey, it’s helpful to have a guide. That’s why we read maps and plan trips before we leave. It’s why travel guides and pre-planned tours are so popular.
People often describe faith as a journey. As we go through life, we learn to seek God and navigate situations in a way that honors Him. One of the ways we seek God is by reading His Word. It is a source of help and hope in all situations.
But when people living in places like North Korea, Iran, Zambia, and many other countries choose to follow Christ, they often must embark on a journey of faith alone. These Christians live in Bible deserts, places where God’s Word is either illegal or extremely hard to find.
Because of this, many believers have never been able to read Scripture on their own. Instead, they make do with bits and pieces of verses passed on from other believers by word of mouth or scribbled on pieces of paper.
Thankfully, Bibles for All Ambassadors are doing everything they can to bring God’s Word to people and places like these. Every month, they each provide five copies of Scripture to people in some of the world’s most remote and closed-off places — like recently, when they gave Bibles to five small churches in Zambia.
While the churches were growing, the number of Bibles wasn’t. In this African nation, it wasn’t that Bibles were illegal, it was that people living in rural parts of the country could hardly afford basics like food and education, much less a copy of God’s Word.
Pastors in Zambia prayed that God would make a way for their congregations to receive Bibles. And because of the Bibles for All Ambassadors’ generosity, those prayers were answered.
In one congregation, a group of 11 men and women had recently given their lives to Jesus. Their pastor wanted to bless them with a Bible as they began their new walk with Christ, but the church didn’t have the means to do this.
When a shipment of Bibles arrived, the pastor was overjoyed. After their baptism, the 11 new believers each received a new Bible, and other members of the congregation received one, too.
For one pastor, the gift of a Bible had a more personal impact. He lives and works in an extremely rural part of Zambia. Education is not commonly available, and his wife had never learned to read.
When the pastor received a Bible, he decided to use it as a sort of textbook to teach his wife. The first words she read were the words of Jesus! Now, several others in the church and the community are learning how to read using God’s Word as well.
Nearly 100 Bibles were distributed to Zambian believers because of Bibles for All Ambassadors — can you imagine the excitement that brought?
Christians in Zambia now know they are not walking this journey of faith alone — they have God’s Word to guide them and a community of believers around the world who are supporting them.