There is one family that we have known for a long time. Juma is the mom and she started coming to the Swahili church a while ago. She got baptized there. She has a lot of kids – 9 of them in all. The oldest would be a senior in high school but she has been staying home to help with the other kids. The youngest is a new baby! She was born two months ago.

Fortunately for them, they recently moved out of their apartment and into a house which is good because they have such a big family. But the problem they have is the dad is very sick and he had to stop working. He needs injections which cost a lot of money. So Juma is working very hard now.

We brought the family a lot of food, some baby clothes and, of course a Bible. Actually, we brought two Bibles – one in Swahili and one in English. The two oldest kids are learning English and they can understand it and wanted an English Bible too.

Juma was very happy about everything we gave her, especially the Bibles. She was carrying the baby girl around on her back. It seemed like she didn’t even know the baby was there, but the baby seemed really happy and was sleeping.

This was a very big family and they have some problems. They need a lot of help. I was glad to help them by giving them all those things, but I was especially glad because Juma was happiest about getting that Swahili Bible. She liked getting the food and baby clothes, but the Bible really made her smile.

There are so many families in Clarkston that don’t have a Bible! Desiree and Echa have nine children and their family is one that didn’t have a Bible until I brought them one last week.

The family is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and they moved to Clarkston three months ago. In their apartment I saw that they have very little furniture and they asked us to bring some for them next time we come. They only had a small couch and a chair in their living room and when all of the nine children came out to say hello to us, I couldn’t believe how many people were in there, and there weren’t enough seats! I never saw such a big family in one apartment like that before.

None of them could speak English very well but they speak Swahili so I gave them a Bible in Swahili and they all liked it and were thankful. They all took turns holding it.

After I gave them the Bible, my dad prayed for them. They have some problems because they still haven’t found a job. Desiree is trying to get a job at a chicken factory. They also have a daughter with special needs and they asked my dad to help them with that.

Before we left, we gave them some food from the food pantry. They almost took it all! The only thing they left were the bags of string beans. They never saw them before.

I was glad to see such a big family and get a chance to give them a Bible. Now they can read it whenever they want!

Today I visited the family of Abedi. She is Congolese but she spent most of her life in the refugee camp in Tanzania. She is the first wife of a man who has three wives. The second wife lives with her kids on the other side of Clarkston and the third wife lives with her kids in Tanzania. Abedi has five kids, and she said her husband has about 14 kids altogether.

Abedi lives in Plantation apartment complex and it’s not a very nice one. She has lived there for three years but she wants to find a new one because the rent is now $2,000 every month! There was water dripping from her ceiling and black mold on the walls. She didn’t have any couches, just some folding chairs that we sat on. She works in a window factory but her day off is Saturday so that’s why we came to visit her on Saturday.

She was so happy when we arrived. She wanted a Bible in Swahili for a long time, but she didn’t expect us to arrive that day. She said it was a blessing to get an unexpected visitor. While we were sitting with her, two more unexpected visitors arrived. They just came in and sat with her for a little while and then they left. They didn’t come for any reason except to talk and visit a little bit. Abedi said this was a very special day for her because she was receiving so many unexpected visitors.

We gave her the Swahili Bible and she clapped her hands. My dad told her that now she could read the Bible and make sure the pastor is telling the truth in his Sunday sermons. She liked it a lot.

I felt bad for Abedi because of her apartment and also because her husband has so many wives and he isn’t a Christian. But I was also happy because Abedi could feel like she was blessed just for receiving some visitors to her apartment. And she was so happy about getting a Bible!

I delivered another Bible this month to someone whose name means “Well Done” in French. Well Done and his parents live in an apartment in Clarkston and they needed a Swahili or French Bible in their home. Well Done is Congolese and works at the post office near the airport and he can speak English. I gave him a Swahili Bible and he was really grateful for it. Well Done has been going to the church my dad started for the last couple years. When we got to his apartment, at first he wasn’t there because he was helping his sister who got in a car accident. So we just sat in his apartment with his parents and a lot of other people until he showed up. He said his sister was fine but the car was not. And then when he got his Bible he was so surprised and very happy about it. He kept smiling and saying “thank you” many times. He said now he could bring his Bible to church and read God’s Word every day.

Today we visited Binti and I gave her a Swahili Bible. Last year she visited my dad’s church and she heard an announcement about Bibles for any family that doesn’t have one. She signed up for a Bible that day and has wanted one for a long time.

Binti is a co-wife. That means she is the second wife of a man who has two wives. They can do that in Congo. When we came to her apartment there was like a big group of people already there. They were having a kind of funeral there because the baby of the first wife died. It was sad and they were trying to comfort the first wife. Binti was very busy and her main job was cooking for all the people who came. So we had to go to a friend’s apartment nearby and Binti met us there later.

Binti was so tired from the work, but she was really glad to get a Bible that she could read in Swahili which is her language. She said she would read it every day and try to learn more about God. She also said she wanted to start coming to the church. We prayed for her and we gave her some food that we had in the car, and she asked us to come again and teach her about the Bible.

We ran out of Swahili Bibles, but we just got a full box of new ones last month.

We have some Bibles available in French, Spanish, English, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Nepali, Amharic and Swahili.

Let us know if you need one!

Today I brought another Swahili Bible to someone who never had one before. Furaha lives with her sister and the family of her sister’s husband. Furaha is 20 years old and she is finishing high school this year. She wants to go to Georgia State next year. She is living with her sister because her sister needs help taking care of the baby. So, Furaha takes care of her nephew when she is not in school.

Furaha’s name means “joy” in English and that is my middle name! She goes to my dad’s church and she plays the guitar for the choir. We gave her the Bible to read in Swahili and she was so excited to get one of her own. She never had one before in her life. We also gave the family some food and kitchen things like bowls and plates and they were so happy. The mom was actually dancing in the doorway as we were leaving!

I liked giving the Bible to Furaha because her name is like mine and also she was really happy and thankful to get a Bible of her own.

On the day after Christmas, I got to bring a Swahili Bible to someone who never had one before in her life! Here is what I wrote from that day:

I woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. It doesn’t snow that often in Georgia but it did today. Me and my dad went to Fatima’s house. Fatima is not her real name. She didn’t want anyone to know she was getting a Bible and she didn’t want us to take her picture. But she was really glad to get her own Swahili Bible!

She has eight kids and they moved a couple days ago out of their apartment and into their house, so she had suitcases and boxes everywhere. There were lights and flowers on the walls and some pictures were hung up really high near the ceiling. But there wasn’t much furniture – only a couple couches.

After we gave her the Bible, she was really happy. We prayed for her and then she asked us to eat some food but they didn’t have any chairs or tables so we sat on the floor. She gave us fufu and daga. Fufu is like soft cornmeal and daga is small, dried fish that she got from Tanzania. We only ate with our hands. I rolled the fufu in one hand until it was a ball. Then I scooped up some daga with it and I ate it!

I felt good when I saw that Fatima was so happy about the Bible and about us eating her food.

Last month I had the chance to bring a Bible to a family that didn’t have one yet. The family of Honore is from Congo but mostly they only remember Tanzania where the refugee camp was. Honore is a taxi driver and he lives with his wife and children, his mom and dad, and some of his brothers and sisters. They used to live in an apartment, but my dad helped them move into a house about one year ago. It is a nice house with a lot of flowers.

Honore’s mom is a Christian and my dad led his sister to the Lord and baptized her last year. But Honore had some bad experiences in churches before, but he was happy to get a Bible to read on his own. I gave him a Swahili Bible and an English Bible too because he knows English. Now he can read the Bible in two languages if he wants to.

We prayed for him and his family. I hope he reads the Bible a lot and learns that Jesus loves him and died for him.

Hi everyone! Yesterday I visited the family of Mr. Konki with my dad. Mr. Konki is from Congo, and he is not a Christian. He lives in an apartment complex called Clarkston Station. It is not very nice. It has a lot of boards on the windows from thieves and fires, and it has a lot of broken glass on the sidewalks.

At first, we didn’t know where Mr. Konki’s apartment was exactly so my dad and Mr. Thomas had to knock on a lot of doors to find the right one. When we went in his apartment little kids were watching TV and there were curtains on all the walls and the ceiling. Mr. Konki’s wife had to go to work so we didn’t see her very much. She said she works very hard, but Mr. Konki doesn’t work.

Mr. Konki said he has a big problem with drinking too much alcohol. He doesn’t have many teeth left because of it. He said his drinking friends have to call him “Konki Master” when they see him.

Mr. Konki’s first name is Herode. He was named after King Herod in the Bible. My dad asked him if he knew about King Herod in the Bible. He only knew a little bit so my dad talked for a long time about Jesus. Herode had a lot of questions especially about Adam and Eve and sins and sacrificing sheep.

At the end he said he understood the story of Jesus but he wasn’t ready in his heart to be a Christian. He said he would think about it some more. So we gave him a Swahili Bible and also a movie about Jesus in Swahili. He was really surprised and happy about it! My dad prayed with him and then we took some pictures together.

This morning our friend Mr. Thomas called my dad and said that Herode showed all his friends the pictures and now they want us to bring Bibles and visit them too!