Martha's First Bible

Martha's First Bible

When our CRM teams do on-the-field training events, we always carry out scripture resources to give to church leaders.  They normally take the form of solar powered MP3 players, micro SD cards for phones, etc.  Giving away scripture and scripture resources in these forms is most helpful because those whom we train are generally illiterate.  This is especially true of Sudanese women.  However, at times a lady will attend a training who can read but does not own a Bible.

In the case of the lady pictured above, Martha (not her real name), she can read several languages, but her issue was she had never owned a Bible. Actually, in the Muslim culture in which she was raised, women are not allowed to touch the Quran or books considered holy. So she was given an English Bible by a team member.  Though raised in the Muslim faith, she came to the training very open to the Gospel.  God had in the past given her dreams which she interpreted as leading her to seek truth she did not yet understand or have access to.

When she first read from the Bible, she was with Amy, a team member.  She opened to Genesis 1 to begin reading aloud.  Not too far into the chapter, she read verses which Renee had just quoted as she told the Creation Story.   Reading the same words Renee had quoted earlier caused her to exclaim "what Renee said is true!  I can see it for myself in the Bible!"

Martha apparently stayed up late each night reading her new Bible.  This meant at times during the day, while the training was happening, she would fall asleep or be so sleepy it appeared she was not paying attention.  At first, this was taken by the teachers as a lack of interest.  However, later on in the week the truth would come out.

During the week of training, the ladies were challenged to write a song or perform a drama which went along with one of the 42 stories of the first Story Cloth.  Martha composed one after she was baptized.   She wrote it on the chalkboard located in the conference room.  She was happy to be able to sing it for the whole group.  A big indication that God was indeed had done something in her life through what she had heard and experienced during the week's training.

Martha and her Song

Before requesting to be baptized, she relayed to team members that God had given her a dream the night before.  In the dream she was trying to wash her hair, but no matter how much she scrubbed, she could not cleanse her hair.  Then she saw that someone was trying to hand her something, something precious which, if she could obtain it, would enable her to become clean.  Upon awaking, she realized that "something precious" was the Bible, the Word of God.

On the fourth day of our training event, five MBBs were baptized and Martha was one of them.  Receiving baptism is a very big deal for folks coming out of Islam, a step not taken lightly.

Please join us in praying she will keep singing her song, and come to compose many more.  Pray she will be a faithful steward of the teaching she received by sharing the Bible stories with other women.  Pray she will stand strong in spite of the persecution bound to come her way.