Praising the Lord for a Bible

One of the cool stories from Brazil we told on the ministry blog was about the lady at the library in Ingazeria. Daniel, Sheila, Cheryl, Bonita, Kesia, and I were doing door to door evangelism and honestly, it was very frustrating. We visited 3 different houses and all were older people, very set in their beliefs and not open at all to what we had to share.

As we left the last house a young girl we had met previously found us and asked us to come see her mom. She was working at the public library and wanted us to help her encourage a friend who was a new believer. So we headed over to the library.

When we got there, the friend was already gone so we visited with the girl's mom. She was so excited to see us and was just joyful. She really had the joy of the Lord and it flowed from her. We were chit-chatting and she told us she had a verse she wanted to share with us.

As she looked for it, someone asked if there was a Bible in the library. She said no and so somebody pulled one from their backpack and handed it to her.

THIS was her reaction:



She immediately lifted her hands and started praising the Lord. It was amazing. I was like "give her another one!"

We asked if her daughter had one and when she said no, we gave her one too. That got this reaction:

Well, we just started emptying our backpacks at this point. We ended up giving both daughters a Bible and left one for the new believer friend. We left a few for the library and for her to give to other believers she knew who didn't have one. She told us that Bibles were very expensive there and that people had to share. Even the ones in the library had to be read there, not taken home.

The Portuguese Bibles we bought to give were only about $7! Before we left a friend gave me $20 for Bibles and apologized because "it wasn't much." Well, it basically bought 3 Bibles and changed 3 peoples' lives forever! Don't tell me that's 'not much'!

To see her raise her hands and praise the Lord EVERY time we added to that stack of Bibles was the most moving and emotional display of gratitude I have ever seen. Her first reaction was to praise God! Not us! And thank you Lord for that. Because it wasn't about us. We may have been the bodies actually physically giving her the Bibles, but she knew where the blessing came from and she gave Him glory!

Oh Lord, may I forever be changed by the gratitude I saw that day. How often do I take for granted all that I have and it is ALL from You. And it's all YOURS.