Thankful for the Bible

I received a beautiful email this morning from my father. In it he listed some of the the things for which he is thankful and one was the Bible. If I were to make a list of things that I am thankful for, shamefully, I am not sure I would have remembered to list the Bible. Later this morning I met with a Shawi pastor friend of mine and was reminded how thankful I am for the Bible.

He had been upriver for 10 days, visiting four remote villages, three of which were completely unreached with the gospel. He has a heart to visit the unreached villages and share the love of God with his neighbors. He receives invitations by the people to visit. They tell him, “We have heard of you Christians, that you live peaceful lives and do not fight, please come to our village and tell us more.” In most non-Christian villages, the people make masato, an alcoholic yucca drink. They drink it in excess and drunkenness is normal. The men are typically violent and physical and sexual abuse is commonplace. So when they hear of a village where the people live in peace they truly are curious and want to know more about it.

During the meeting the pastor told me all about his travels. In one community 25 people came to Christ, in another 20 and in the third 10. Then he told me the story of when his canoe rolled over.

We are in the rainy season and it has been raining a lot. The rivers rise fast, flow fast and can be dangerous. He was on a small flooded stream when his canoe rolled. This can be very dangerous and even deadly to the passengers not to mention everything can be lost down river. Thankfully no one was hurt when it rolled. Also thankfully he used a piece of rope to tie his motor to the canoe and after a change of oil and gas it was running again. At the bottom of the river he found his backpack of clothes and his tools. Yet he was missing his precious keyboard, a speaker he had borrowed, and the clothes from another pastor that was traveling with him. He always travels with his keyboard and plays worship music wherever he goes. The people love it because he sings in the Shawi language and the people understand. He loves his keyboard and had built a red wooden box to store it in while traveling. The box floated downriver and at a community farther down a fellow believer saw the box, recognized it as the pastor’s keyboard, and fished it out of the river. He then flagged him down when he passed and by the grace of God he got his keyboard back, unharmed. Even farther down river they found the other pastor’s clothes, but they never found the speaker.

He told me about the rest of his trip and then we began to discuss what is next. He kept saying, “There are so many needs and it is urgent that we help.” We talked about discipleship and church planting and how we can help these new believers. Then Jennifer asked, “Do they have a Bible?” “Not one,” he replied. Not in Spanish nor in Shawi.

We can not get any more Shawi Bibles. They are in the process of changing it because the Shawi alphabet has changed and they are revising the Bible. We bought all the rest of the first edition Bibles and they say they will not reprint until the revision and the remainder of the Bible is translated into Shawi which could take years. We only have five Bibles left. We can give a Bible to the village to share and we can give them a Spanish Bible.  We can work at getting them audio Bibles and a way to listen to them.  I just counted and I have 5 Bibles for my personal use sitting on my desk.

Today we had a nice Thanksgiving Day meal with the other missionaries here in town. We enjoyed fellowship and companionship with our missionary family. There is a lot for which to be thankful. Today, I am thankful for access to a Bible in my language that I can read and understand. 

I am thankful for the Bible. 

Your word is a lamp for my feet, 

a light on my path. 

Psalm 119:105