Todd and I headed up to Tinyari (pronounced more or less like tin JAW dee). We carry books up there every Wednesday and have a great relationship with the kids and staff in the school (there are about 50 students and four teachers). We were going to be a bit late, so we sent the books up with a teammate who also goes up on Wednesdays. We got there before he did, so we went into the school to apologize for the delay. When we entered the courtyard, the teachers had their children reading the few books they had. They were in small reading groups of four or five students, reading the stories out loud. They didn´t do that before (as far as I know).
When the books arrived, we put them on the table and the kids came running. I was sitting and watching the kids read when a woman came and sat down next to me. She asked about Audra and the kids and we chatted a bit. Then she said, “I want to tell you about something special that has happened in my life.”
“Great,” I said.
“Since you´ve come here,” she said (her “you” refers to the whole team of missionaries here), “I´ve really seen God in different ways. I live in the same house with my daughter, my sister, and my brother and his wife. Before my sister-in-law and I didn´t get along. Since y´all have been coming here, it´s changed. We share things. We talk more. It´s the power of God! God is great!”
“Yeah,” I said, “Everything is possible.”
“It certainly is. God is amazing,” she said.
She´s starting to give some bibles out to members of the community. “This is not just a book,” she tells them. “I´m not going to give it to you unless you promise to put in to practice what you read.”
