The word precious(sarobidy) has come up a few times this last week in the villages, and then again yesterday in the prison. The first time it came up, we were sitting in a small hut. The floor on the hut was threatening to collapse, but all 20-30 of us were huddled in there. They were eager to hear the story that we had come to share that day! The people that we work with don't have bibles in their dialect. There is a bible in Malagasy language, but only about 20-30% of the language is the same. We bring them anyway, so that as we tell the stories, they can understand that they are from the Bible and not something that we made up. We always ask who is able to read, and if we are lucky we will find 3 people raise their hand, but only one of them can actually read, and sometimes there is no one able to read. We ask them to read the story out loud, and because they don't understand the words, we then retell the story in dialect, and discuss the meaning of the story. They always want to sing after that, which I love, but I have no idea what they are saying, and then they do this clapping thing to show us that they are thankful for us! We have been doing this for several weeks now, and they are seeing value in the words of a God who loves them. This week the president of the village was with us, and as we handed out the bibles for them to keep with them, he began to instruct the people on how to hold them, take care of them, and keeping them from becoming broken! He told them that this was the most precious gift that they could receive, and now if the foreigners don't return, we can still learn! We are so grateful that people have partnered with us to be able to give these Bible's to people who have never even seen one, let alone have one as their own! It is a true treasure to them. Now, we just need some one to come teach them how to read:)
Then it happened again at the prison. Keep in mind that this prison has been determined the worst prison in all of Madagascar due to the lack of food, and the amount of people that are imprisoned there. Some days they don't get fed at all, or they get dry cassava! The government is corrupt, and they are not providing for these people. They are suffering to a degree that I have never seen before.
This week, as we were handing out the Bibles one of them said to me, "this gift if more precious than bread", which is what we bring and give to the prisoners. As I drove home and thought more about what he said, "this gift is more precious than bread" I began to think of his circumstances and many of the prisoners there. Here he is saying the gift of God's word is more precious than bread, and they are physically starving. Then I started to ask myself, what would I choose if I was starving? If there was someone holding a loaf of bread in one hand and God's word in the other, what would I choose? Continuing our drive home I kept thinking about this and I realized that is one of the hardest things someone would have to choose. If there were something I really wanted, needed, and desired being offered to me, but then, in the other hand is what God has to offer me, what would I choose? Sometimes it's really easy to answer that hypothetically but when you're faced with the decision to follow God or our own desire what will we do? Is God's way so precious to me that I would choose Him over food, money, family, friends, or a lifestyle? Am I so spiritually hungry that my physical hunger doesn't even phase my decision to choose the Bread of Life, instead of the desires of this World?In Him,
Kurtis
