A refugee family that recently came from Burundi needed a Bible. They speak Swahili and so they asked me to bring them a Swahili Bible for their whole family.

The parents were really glad to get it. The father was worried because he said his children were learning things in school that he didn’t like. He said the favorite foods of his kids are now hamburgers and pizza – American food! He was worried that his kids were going to forget about their roots, like their food and their language, things like culture. He said they were forgetting about where they came from. And he was also worried that his kids were learning about bad ideas and bad behavior in the school.

But when I presented the Swahili Bible to the family, even his children seemed very excited to see the Bible. They were reading from it in Swahili.

I think that even though the children will grow up in a different culture from their parents and learn to eat different foods and wear different clothes, they still have one big thing in common – their faith in Jesus.

I saw that the parents were trying to pass on something to their children so that they don’t forget where they come from. The Bible does that for all of us!