A second hand Bible

Andy Burns related this experience from a day she was working at the literature table:

A Guatemalan bilingual wild-haired gentleman, Ismar, pulled up in a Movistar truck (a local cellphone service) and stopped in the middle of Santander (a narrow, one-lane busy tourist street).  He asked something in Spanish.  She thought he wanted the book What Does The Bible Really Teach? in English. He got out of the truck (leaving it in the middle of Santander with traffic building up and horns honking) and kept speaking in Spanish. Then Joel, a young local brother, said he was asking for an English Bible.  She handed him an invitation to an English meeting and said he could pick up a Bible there. He thanked her profusely, but kept talking.  Joel said he wanted a Bible that day, so Joel got into the truck with him to take him to the Kingdom Hall to pick one up.  Andy explained that we may only have used Bibles brought down from the States, since orders seem to be behind in printing English Bibles. All this time, cars were honking and traffic was backed up! 

Andy was nervous about this young man getting into a stranger's truck, and gave him 20 minutes before she'd call for help!  Right at 20 minutes, Joel and Ismar drive up with big smiles. Ismar stopped the truck in the middle of the street again, pulled his Bible up to his chest and hugged it with a huge smile, and said Thank You! Thank You!  Thank You! in English.  

Ismar came to the next meeting with his Bible and invitation in hand.  He was welcomed very warmly by all.  Bill and I sat with him, and Bill helped him find scriptures, and someone else gave him a book about Jeremiah that we're studying.  

He came to a second meeting - with his hair cut somewhat!  (We had not said a word to suggest a haircut!)  And Bill offered to study the Bible with him, and he eagerly accepted!  In fact, he works (and studies) just a couple blocks from us.  And when Bill first arrived for the study, he asked eagerly, "How do you like my hair?"  He had cut it AGAIN!

Ismar and his Bible

 So sweet. 

The used Bible?  It was from Bill Swenson, the father of our dear friends Catherine and her husband Mark Richardson.  

Do you have any Bibles that you don't use anymore? Do you have some unclaimed ones in the Lost and Found?  Maybe we could find a way to get them down here to Guatemala, where they will be loved and used!