Ambrose traveled to Mombasa, Kenya for a one-week training earlier this month, near the border of Tanzania and Kenya, on the coast of the ocean. Most of the people there were illiterate. On the second day of the training, a woman who was attending exclaimed with excitement: “I do not know how to read and write, but now I have a way to study and teach the Word of God!” Later that day, she shared a testimony from when she told her sister the story about the woman who bled for 12 years (Mark 5:21-34). After telling her sister the story, her sister went on with her day. By the time she went to bed that day, she had forgotten the story. She was very discouraged. But in the morning when she woke up, she heard a song that went: “I am well, I am well.” When she sang it, immediately the story came back to her mind, and she began telling that story with the people she knew. She was so excited to have a way to learn the Bible and keep it in her heart. She said, “For me, I really struggle to read and write. But I am so glad there is a way that I can learn the Bible.”
There is a church that is being planted in Mombasa, and they are using the Heart Bible method to teach the people. They have also begun using it to teach the children at the church, and they are loving it and learning the Word of God as well. In the area where this church is being planted, the majority are Muslim people. So this story-telling method works well for evangelism because they are not intimidated by the physical Bible being pulled out and read from. Instead, they are open to hearing a story, and are learning about who Jesus is.
Ambrose took a group out to evangelize at night, where they shared the Heart Bible stories. When the Gospel message was shared, someone stood up and said in amazement, “this is not the Gospel I know.” He said this because so many people in that area have only heard of the prosperity gospel. Ambrose used the story of Nicodemus to help them understand what it means to be born again, and for the first time, they heard the true Gospel message. Five people came to accept Jesus as their Savior that day!
Ambrose is hoping to go to pastor Ezekiel’s church (you can read about pastor Ezekiel in the blog post titled, “The Heart Bible in Rwanda”) at the end of the month to help train and develop leaders. He is currently teaching the Heart Bible in his home, but is in need of a physical church building where they can meet to learn the Bible. He is an ambassador for the Heart Bible in the area, and he has easy access to reach people across the border with the Gospel because of where he is located. The people there are hungry for God’s Word, and they are in need of more leaders, so Ambrose hopes to go there to complete more trainings, so that leaders can be raised up and share the Bible with even more people.
In Uganda, the Heart Bible has been very effective. His hope for the people there is that they would become “walking Heart Bibles”. The people at the church he visited have started a Heart Bible group that meets everyday. Each day a different person comes prepared to share a new story. They share the story, repeat it, have someone else share the story, then another person and another person. Over and over the story is shared out loud, and then they study it together as a group. There is a woman in the group who loved the story of Jonah. She asked Ambrose if she could learn it and share it the following week. He said yes, and she learned the entire book of Jonah, all four chapters, and taught the story to the group the following week.
Since teaching the youth in his church the Heart Bible, Ambrose never has to invite them to come; they always want to come on their own. One young man said to him, “we want to study with you. This is different from anything we have heard before!” They are confident in sharing the stories, and are eager to learn more.
We are continually amazed at how the Heart Bible is transforming the lives and the hearts of people all over the world. It is empowering those who never thought they could study the Bible on their own. They are learning the stories, studying who God is, and seeing how the stories encourage their hearts day by day.
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