The following devotion is taken from the devotional book Extreme Devotion, and it is a wonderful testimony. As I read these words I was reminded of the passion I had as a new believer. I received Christ as Lord & Savior in my freshman year of high school and remember longing for the Word of God and owning my own bible. You may find this hard to believe but my parents didn't own a bible and for a number of months would not allow me to have one. After many days and weeks my friend Gail, who shared Christ with me, was able to "smuggle" me a bible and give it to me at school in the library. I remember devouring the words and taking every minute I could to memorize and share the words with everyone around me. So I can only begin to imagine what these dear saints feel when they receive their bibles through the work and love of this 22 year old saint. Read on and be encouraged.
Each clickety-clack of the train wheels bounced the Vietnamese Christian woman’s frail body painfully on the hard wooden seat. But she was on a mission.
She needed spiritual food for the Christians she led in North Vietnam. Three congregations of people were praying that their leader would be successful and bring back precious copies of the Bible.
Her work back home was tiring. She was the only mature Christian in the area, and she had planted the three churches from nothing, winning one soul at a time through her personal witness. She had no car or even a bicycle. She walked or paddled a small wooden boat to her church meetings.
She had faced police threats and harassment and her Buddhist parents’ dismay because of her faith. Now she rode the train across eight hundred miles for three consecutive days, hoping to find one believer who could help. Finally she reached Ho Chi Minh City.
There she met visiting western Christians who gave her Bibles for the Christians in the North. They also gave her a bicycle to help her minister to the three congregations. Before leaving, they prayed together, asking God’s blessing on her travel and her ministry.
“How old are you?” one of them asked, just as she was about to leave. The woman smoothed strands of black hair away from her face and whispered, “I’m twenty-two.”
Child prodigies have special abilities beyond their years. We may know of someone who finished college at age fifteen or wrote a symphony before age twelve or who excelled at a sport by age sixteen. Often our response is jealousy; we wish we could do something great in our youth and gain recognition for it too. The Vietnamese Christian woman did just that, but she probably didn’t have any special abilities above those of her peers. She did, however, have a desire to follow Jesus and to bring him to the people of her country. Christ calls you to be diligent for him as well. Sharing God’s love is simple enough that it requires no special abilities—just your availability.
