During our visit to Kenya last month, we had the privilege of distributing a small number of bibles, translated in the native tribal tongue, to the pastors and ministers in the rural village of Sikalame. Most of these men and women of God came to the meetings without a bible of his or her own. To see their joy and gratitude to receive the gift of God’s Word was emotionally overwhelming. Sadly, we did not have enough bibles to give to everyone who came without one, and I was deeply grieved. As a result, I came home determined to provide bibles to everyone we missed.
While planning to raise funds to purchase bibles for these men and women, I realized many pastors in these rural villages can’t afford a bible, especially one translated in his or her native tribal language. Some have pages of a bible they preach from, and others preach from memory of what they may have read or heard. Looking around my own house, I have a KJV, NIV, ESV, Message, Amplified, etc., not to mention commentaries, dictionaries and parallel references, as well as exhaustive electronic and online resources are my finger tips. These only account for my personal library, and not what my wife and children have. I’m sure you can count the plethora of biblical resources at your disposal too. Frankly, it’s pretty disgusting.
I’m not trying to judge us; merely putting in perspective what we have an abundance and take for granted, they have little to nothing. These men and women of faith are on the front lines of the gospel. They face cultural, political, religious and demonic opposition, oppression and persecution every day. They truly know what it means to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” I don’t believe it’s too much to ask they have the fullness of God’s Word in their hands.
We are kicking off a “Mile Long Dollar Bible Campaign”. To anyone in youth ministry this may look familiar. I admit, I am tapping into the archives. Here is an explanation for those who don’t understand: 10,320 dollar bills laid end to end = one (1) mile. Our goal for 2011 is to purchase and distribute 1500 bibles to the rural pastors in western Kenya. To accomplish this, we need to raise about $10,500. So to make it fun, I figured we could start with a mile of dollar bills.
We would love for you to partner with us on this project. Although this is ongoing project, we wanted to start out small with a target. Remember, no donation is too small or insignificant, that’s why it’s called the mile long DOLLAR.
