I don't normally have many "wow" moments. Maybe due to my age or maybe it's the society in which we live. Nothing really takes me by surprise anymore. Well, I recently had me a moment where I just stopped dead in my tracks. I teach the junior's Sunday school class at my church. I love this age! They are old enough to pay attention and add their input in the class. I try to encourage the kids each week by rewarding them with bite size candy bars for 1) bringing your Bible, 2) quoting the week's memory verse, 3) bringing a quarter for the 10/40 Window Bible project. Recently a regular member brought a visitor. When I was going around the table assessing what each child should get, I asked the visitor if he brought his Bible. He told me he didn't own a Bible, but wishes he did. WOW! I thought everybody owned a Bible. I mean, I personally have 5 or 6 Bibles. I keep one at work, one in my car, one just for church, one for my devotions, even one on my phone. I am happy to say that our church has printed paperback Bibles, so I was able to give him a copy of the New Testament. He was so excited. It made me wonder how I often take the Word of God for granted. I mean, we live in the Bible belt...doesn't that mean that everybody has a Bible? Sadly that is not the case.
My church, Calvary Baptist Church, is a sponsor of the 10/40 Window project. This is the geographical area located from 10 degrees north to 40 degrees north of the equator. It stretches from the Phillipines in the east to the western coast of Northern Africa. This "window" is home to 66 nations and 97% of the unreached people of our world. This 10/40 window is the most gospel neglected place on earth. That is 1.4 billion souls without a Bible or a church. Can you imagine going without a Bible? Think about the things you would not know. You would not know how or why you are on this earth. You would not know about God. Even worse, you would not know about heaven or hell. Imagine living in a place where there were no churches, no church camps, no VBS, no preachers, nobody to tell you about how Jesus died for you. The 10/40 project is ran by First Bible International. They are responsible for getting different translations to the different nations. For every 5.00 we give, it prints a Bible that goes to someone who has never owned one. To date, my juniors have bought 18 Bibles. That is over $85.00 that 9 & 10 years have raised just by bring a quarter each week. Little is much when God is in it. It is also a reminder that we all have have a responsibility to do our part in fullfilling the Great Commission no matter what our age. Sometimes, I think we put more emphasis on the "uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8 says Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. To put that in perspective for me, Jerusalem would be my Tallassee, Judaea would be Alabama, Samaria would be the USA, and the rest of the world would be my uttermost.
I am proud to say that the day I gave the visitor the Bible, he accepted Jesus as his savior. It was a reminder to me that while I sit comfortably in church each Sunday, comfortable in the fact that my family is saved, there is a world right outside those doors that do not know that Jesus died for them. I don't have to go to the uttermost part of the world to find people lost and undone. People who need Bibles.
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