From a Whiteboard to the Bible: God’s Word Is Transforming Kenyan Children

The Power of God's Word Transforms Lives

When did you receive your first Bible? Maybe you received one from a family member as a gift when you were still too young to remember. Or perhaps you were given a Bible when you first came to know Christ as an adult. For many of us, to hold the treasure of our own Bible in our hands for the first time is forever stamped in our memories.

The Word is powerful—breathed out by God so that we may know him (2 Tim. 3:16). So when the Bible is placed into someone’s hands, it has great power to transform. Last year, donors to Crossway made it possible for Bibles to be given to boys and girls in an Awana program located in the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya. Many of the teachers didn't even have a Bible themselves, but had to borrow one to look at the verses they were teaching for the day.

We recently sat down with Cecilia, the Awana Program Director and one of the teachers at Ruiru Bible Baptist Church. She shared with us her personal experience of the transformative power of God’s Word in her life, and how she has seen the boys and girls in her program changed as a result of the Bibles they’ve been gifted.

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How did you come to know Jesus and become involved with Awana?

Up until seventh grade, I did not know about Jesus. I was going to a nearby Catholic church just because it was Sunday. It was one of those churches where you go and fellowship, then go back home—nothing was taught from the Bible. But one day, two people came to our class, and they taught us about Jesus. And they asked the class, “Who wants to get saved?” I raised my hand. They didn’t lead me to Christ at that moment, but they took my name down and asked for the directions to my home.

About a week later, they came to my home. We didn’t have couches in our home, just some small chairs. So I took the chairs outside, and we sat together there—me, the two teachers who asked if I wanted to be saved, and my mother. They explained more of the gospel to me, and that’s when I gave my life to Jesus. From there they welcomed me to their church, one that preached the gospel. . . . I grew in my faith over the years until eventually I became a youth leader with the youth ministry of the church. While I was in this role, there was also an Awana program going on at our church that I was not interested in. But over time I started to stay after church to watch what they were doing with this program. It was then that I became interested in Awana, and I’ve been working with them ever since.

Why do you think it’s important for children to come to Awana?

I received my first Bible when I attended a camp with my church as a youth. During that time we participated in a memory verse competition with other churches. I was the first one to finish memorizing the verses. I was given a Bible, a very good Bible, [and I still remember many of those verses today]. So I’m an example of what can happen when children are given a Bible. These children represent the future generation. So if we hold them with love, and the Lord has given us the charge to teach them to know the Bible during their time at Awana, then they will become the people who reach the generation after them.

Why is it so challenging for these children and their families to get a Bible?

Most of the parents are less fortunate. Some cannot work or others are drunkards who don’t know the need for a Bible. . . . Getting a Bible here is actually one of the requirements for school, but the cost of a Bible is around 500 shillings, and that is not easy for a parent to get. . . . And for those who had Bibles and brought them to Awana, they received them either from other families or their parents who are teachers of the Word.

Even for me, when I was a youth in our home, I had never seen my mother with a Bible. And I’ve never seen my father with a Bible. So when I got mine, I really treasured it. I took it with me wherever I went.

What difference has it made for the Awana program and for the children to have Bibles?

It has made a very big difference to receive these Bibles from Crossway. Before we received them, the Bibles available in the program were very few—maybe eight or nine kids would have to share one Bible. Most of the time even the teachers had to use a whiteboard to write a few of the verses on because they didn’t have Bibles either. So as a teacher you would have to write the verses on the whiteboard using the one shared Bible, then take the Bible to someone else to write on their whiteboard.

But now every child has a Bible. So when the teacher says something like, “Somebody open to John 3:16,” everyone jumps to open their Bible and races to get there first. And this year, we have offered for them to participate in a Bible quiz because they have Bibles of their own now. Often I see the small boys and girls, like my son, for example, who are lying down with their Bibles in front of them and opening to different pages. There are some pictures that they really like going through and seeing. Most of those little kids don’t yet know how to read, but they still like going through the Bible and looking at the pictures. And for the older kids, the Bibles are having a very big impact as they get to read the text for themselves.
And for us as teachers, the teaching has now been made much easier. Each teacher will sit with a group of around fifteen or twenty students, and everyone in the group has a Bible. Now they never have to write the verse out on the whiteboard and ask the students to copy it down because the memory verses are right there in the Bibles the students have in their hands.

What kinds of change have you seen in the children over time as they continue to read their Bibles?

The children are memorizing God’s Word, and they are inviting other kids to Awana so that they can get a Bible too. And our rule is that in order to get a Bible, a child must come for four Sunday afternoons, which is when we host our Awana program.

But we’ve seen change happening in the parents too. Their view on church is starting to change, especially if they haven’t been attending. But they’re seeing it is having some impact on their child. That makes them more interested to visit and see what it’s all about.

Recently, one of the boys who was given a Bible brought his father to church. His father is known to be a drunkard and so the boy stays with his stepmother. We’ve supported him over time, both through giving him the Bible and even some clothes. But one Sunday in August of last year he came to church with his father. And there are so many other parents too who are coming and they often ask us, “Can I get a Bible?” Unfortunately we have to tell them the Bibles are just for the kids, and there are not even enough for all of them. So we promised them that if we could get more Bibles we would give them a Bible too.

By God’s grace there are thousands of children throughout Kenya and the Global South who now have Bibles of their own. These lives are being changed at young ages, which will impact them and generations after them beyond what we may know on this side of Heaven.

This spring, you’re invited to join us as we continue to provide God’s Word to those in need—children included. Every $3.50 you give delivers a Bible into the hands of someone who may have never had a copy of their own. Would you consider helping us as we seek to provide one million Bibles throughout the Global South?

Praise God for the ways he has powerfully worked through these Bibles already to speak the good news into the hearts of children. Pray for the Spirit to continue powerfully working in their young lives.

Pray for the many more Bibles that will be distributed throughout the Global South to allow people to read the Word of God for themselves.