Reading the Bible with Mary

 Yesterday I went to borrow a special gardening tool from my nearest neighbor friend, Mary. I stayed to talk for a bit, surrounded by her 9 children and drank the cup of tea offered to me. Before I knew it, Mary brought out a book of Bible stories in English and tried to start reading it to me. It was a more difficult level of English and she was struggling so I ran home to get the Beginner's Bible that I've been using for reading with Isaac in home school.
When I opened the Bible to the bright, colorful pictures, Mary and all 9 children crowded around to get a peak and see what was written on the pages. We began in the beginning with Mary sounding out each word and after each sentence, I interpreted it into Arabic to make sure she was understanding what she was reading. After the first story of creation, I could see she was energized and beaming at the great reading she was doing - and in English as that! She stood up suddenly, grabbed my hand, and told me we needed to show this to the other ladies. We wandered over to another student's house where a bunch of the ladies had gathered to drink afternoon coffee together. After greeting everyone and accepting a cup of coffee of our own, Mary excitedly told them all that she'd been reading Bible stories in ENGLISH! Soon the Bible was being passed around and everyone was trying to sound out the words on their own.

Eli came home to me glowing as I cooked dinner. While I stirred my spaghetti sauce, I smiled to myself as I realized that God brings those amazing opportunities out of nowhere. What a joy it was to help a sister in Christ experience the excitement of reading God's Word for herself in English!