“Rick,” a young teen, attached himself to me as I was staying in his town to teach English, so I took him to lunch. As we ate, four men in sequence walked by our table and muttered something to the boy. I asked what they’d said and he replied, “It doesn’t matter,” but the attempt to intimidate him was obvious. Our friendship deepened, and as my time there was ending, we exchanged gifts. Much as I wanted to tell him about God, I never felt it was safe to do so.

Four years later I returned, but Rick and his family had moved to the big city. Miracle of miracles, a relative had brought Rick back to the village for the summer! He came at once to my hotel, and I could see he was depressed and broken over trouble in his family. This time, I felt led to tell him about Jesus’ love for him. As I pointed to verses in the New Testament in Rick’s language, he exclaimed, “Oh, is that a Bible? I never saw one before.” Presenting it to him I said, “This is 10,000 times more valuable than the gift I gave you last time. Guard it like gold, but you need to keep it a secret for now.”

Rick wrote to me later, thanking me again for the book. “It encourages me every day,” he said. Rick is in danger daily just for owning and reading a Bible. Please pray for him.

Go

SIM seeks English teachers for short and long term assignments in Central Asia.