A reward for learning how to read: her very own Bible

We started our day by giving away twelve new bicycles to church-planting pastors, courtesy of gifts to the Mobilize a Minister Fund. All twelve church planters had been pre-screened months ago, and they had been anxiously waiting for this day. None had ever owned a bicycle in their lives, and none could afford the $100 price tag. All have testimonies of planting churches, which until today, they’ve been doing by foot or by riding a mini-bus or on the back of someone’s bicycle taxi. They told us that now they could go faster and further and be more fruitful for the kingdom.

As always, I felt unworthy to wash their feet, much less be the one who gave them bicycles. When we said goodbye, some would be bicycling as many as twenty miles to return to their homes. One of them is sixty-three years old. How I wish they could all be sponsored through our Native Missionaries Support Program.

Their bicycles will not only help them take the gospel further and faster, but can also provide them with a source of income

Church-planter Francis Wamalwa, age 65. He fled Uganda during Idi Amin’s reign of terror, and has since been evangelizing and planting churches in the mountains of the Kenya/Uganda border. He was thrilled to own his own bicycle for the first time in his life.

Just after that, Becky met with a Christian widow named Philigona Wafula, in order to give her $525 from the Widows Fund that will help her start a sewing business. When her husband died eleven years ago, his brother confiscated her land, house and possessions, a story we’re getting used to hearing in Kenya. She was left destitute with three children. She barely survived by doing odd jobs.

Caring friends paid for Philigona to go to a tailoring school, but she could not afford what she needed to start a business. So she’ll be using her grant from the Widow’s Fund to purchase two treadle sewing machines (one for an employee), fabric and materials, and to pay the initial rent on a small place for her business. Philigona had been pre-screened months before with the help of her pastor, a Heaven’s Family-sponsored native missionary named John Omondi, who was with her when she met with Becky.

John also brought with him another widow named Judith from one of his house churches, with whom Becky met to explain the screening process. She cried when Becky gave her $75 to pay the school fees for her high-school age son, who had to drop out of school six weeks earlier because of lack of finances.

Widow Philigona, with her pastor, HF-sponsored native missionary John Omondi, in the background

Another Christian widow whom we visited today named Beatrice Masakhwe. She has worked very hard to start a tree-seedling business, and by saving her profits, she was able to purchase the cow in the background. She is requesting a business-expansion loan of $1,000 so that she can grow more seedlings, as she is facing more demand than she has supply.

Later in the morning, we attended a graduation ceremony for about twenty-five adult believers who had just completed a one-year course in a local church where they learned how to read. Each was given a Bible, paid for from our Bibles for Believers Fund. In fact, an association of house churches in Louisiana had recently given the $300 that was used to provide those Bibles, and they did it just before New Orleans won the Super Bowl. (Let that be a lesson to Christians in other U.S. cities.) Four portraits of happy Bible recipients follow.

Becky and I spent the afternoon traversing Kwanza District by car with another Heaven’s Family-sponsored native missionary, Erick Situmah, who has been planting house churches. We visited four of the seven he has planted in Kwanza, and at each one, saints were waiting for us. It was so special for us to fellowship with them inside typical rural African homes made of cow chips and clay. Most are just two rooms.

The house church concept is really catching on in East Africa, and it certainly is speeding the multiplication of disciples. Erick was introduced to the idea by reading The Disciple-Making Minister.

Greetings from your family in Kenya! The first house church that we visited today.

The second house church we visited this afternoon

At the fourth house church that we visited, Becky noticed a little boy who had something wrong with his eyes (see photo below). He was able to see, but limitedly. We asked Erick to take him to the local hospital first thing on Monday, assuring him that if that little boy could be helped medically, we would take care of it (through the Critical Medical Needs Fund). I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have the resources immediately available when we encounter these kinds of needs. Can you imagine being the parent of such a little boy and being helpless to seek any medical intervention because you are so poor?

The highlight of the day was dinner with about ten pastors who gathered to share with us their appreciation for all that Heaven’s Family has done for them and how their lives and ministries have been dramatically changed through studying The Disciple-Making Minister. Several confessed how their former motives had been wrong, as they secretly longed for recognition and big churches. One of them, the former "bishop" Noah Mulati, told us that he had been promoted from "bishop" to "brother" since reading TDMM, and has since planted many churches. Some of the pastors told us stories of how they have distributed thousands of copies of TDMM to pastors across eleven East African nations.

Those ten pastors estimated that they have planted close to 120 house churches in Kenya in the past three years, not counting those they’ve planted in surrounding nations. It was humbling to listen to them, and I want to pass on to you their thanks, as you are the ones who have made these blessings possible through your gifts to the Books for Pastors Fund and the General Fund of Heaven’s Family.

Tomorrow is another full day of visiting more projects before we fly back to Nairobi and then off to Tanzania. — David

We recently received some encouraging testimonies from several people in Myanmar (all of whom live in the region where Cyclone Nargis made landfall) who were blessed to receive their own copies of the Bible as the result of contributions to the Bibles for Believers Fund. The first testimony is especially moving as it is from an older woman who had been Buddhist her entire life until one of our partners put the Word of God in her hands. We hope you are blessed as we share them with you.

Khin Myat

My name is Khin Myat of Bawing village and I was a Buddhist. There are some Christians in our village, but I never made fellowship or friends with Christians. I knew nothing about Christianity or Jesus before. When Nargis destroyed all the houses on May 3, 2008, everyone was so upset and disappointed. No food, no extra clothes and no shelters. We were like animals having nothing.

After the next two or three days later, some people rushed to our village. They were strangers to the villages. And they comforted us, talked to us with big smiling faces and encouraged us with great words. And they gave us rice, water, clothes, roofing sheets of plastic and some medicines. They really loved us! They have great sympathy for us! Since then, I was wondering and thinking about who they were, why did they love us so much! Many things ran into my heart. They gave us supports in respective of race or religion, equally as us. One of my friends told me that, “These people came from a very far place, they are Christians, Jesus is their God.”

Since then, I had a burning desire to know about Jesus and Christianity. Then I approached a Christian and asked him everything what I wanted to know. He explained me many things and finally he told me this: “If you really want to know about Jesus, please read the Christian Holy Bible.” That is a big problem for me. No Bible is left in our village, no money for buying it, and no where to go to get. At that very time some people from Love in Action Ministry came our village again and this time they gave us the most precious and the most I need–that is the Christian Holy Bible.

Since then, I studied it carefully and now I know who is Jesus – and I am now His child. I had accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior.

I Thank God.

Naw Phaw Shi

My name is Naw Phaw Shi of Taphian village. In the time of Nargis on May 3, 2008, I lost all my possess things. Nothing was left. Among many properties that were lost, losing the Holy Bible made me most grieved, it was the greatest loss for me. While I was very sad praying for a new Bible, the angel of the Lord sent the workers of Love in Action Ministry to our village. Oh how precious is the gift that I received from them- THE HOLY BIBLE! It gave me strength, happiness and hope. The most precious heritage for me!

Ma Ma Win and Tun Tun

My name is Ma Ma Win (pictured left) from Simma Village. I was just a new Christian and I did not trust the Lord whole heartedly. But when Nargis beated me, then I cried out to the Lord to help me. While I am so discouraged and disappointed, I received a beautiful Bible from Love in Action Ministry. I read it continuously for one week with prayers. At last, the Lord answered my prayer and then I received joy and peace to the Lord. Now I am very happy, as being a child of God. Jesus is now my personal friend of mine and I have no fear any more, even Nargis can’t beat me again.”

“My name is Miss Tun Tun (pictured right) of Apyauk Village from the Irrawaddy region. I never heard about Jesus or Christianity. One day, I received a Bible and a tract from Love in Action Ministry and I read it. It caught me so deeply and I read it for ten days non-stop. One day some thing happened in my heart which is so strange for me. I went to my best friend Sister Ma Ma Win for a bible discussion, which really touched me. It was about the prodigal son. When the days went by, at last, I came to know that I am no longer a prodigal daughter. Because now I am a daughter of King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus cleanses me of all my sins. So I must receive Jesus faithfully unto death. The world may hate me, punish me, but I will never turn back.

On behalf of these and others like them, thank you so much.

In Christ,

Emily Growden

Director, Bibles for Believers Fund

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