Bible Poverty

I am privileged. So is the rest of my family. So are many of you. We can know the One True God and we have his book in our very own language. Actually, we have numerous translations in our very own language. Go ahead, go count how many bibles you have in your home. What about all the ones you have easy access to?

So, the point of this is that I am beyond thankful for knowing God and having access to the book through which he can speak to me in such a personal way. And I can give that gift to my kids. In addition to reading the Bible, I can hide the words in my heart through meditation and memorization. I feel this is an integral thing for me to do in my own life and to help my children do to. For the Word of God is living and active and able to help me each and every day.

Our family has several ways that we hide God's Word in our hearts. We have a memory box that we review from each day around the breakfast table. We have some scripture CDs in our car that we listen to. And, this year, I memorized Romans 8. That is 39 verses. Well, I mostly memorized it. I can recite it using the first letters as a prompt, but that counts right? :) I am still working on it. Olivia memorized 39 verses from the book of Matthew this year. She read the entire book of Matthew and then she memorized (and copied) select verses as a part of the My Father's World-Exploring Countries and Cultures curriculum. Below you will see the videos of her and I reciting. Olivia, unlike me, needed little to no prompting. It is amazing what she can memorize. We included Emma in my video, hoping her cuteness will give you reason to watch. :)

But there are many people in the world who do not have access to the Bible at all and there are many who do not have access to it in their heart language. My friend, Katrina, wrote an amazing blog post last September that inspired us. Go read it but come back, please. :) We are going to get involved by donating $78 (that is a dollar for each verse O and I memorized) to The Seed Company for their One Verse campaign. For $26 dollars you can translate one verse of the bible for a people group that don't have access. Our family will get to translate 3 verses for the Vidunda people in Tanzania (my friend's chosen group).

 Will you join us? We did the memorizing and we would love for you to give in response to that work. (like pledges) Or you can certainly take the challenge to memorize too and then donate based on your memory work.  Here is the link to donate. Thank you!