It is near to us, in our hearts, today

What book can transform a nation? - The answer is, the Bible.

There are certain books in the Bible that I just haven't read straight through;
books like 1 & 2 Samuel -- well, that all changed yesterday..

Maybe you have wondered what a group of midwives do with their free time while they are settling into a new country awaiting permission to work in the hospital?

We decided to read through the whole Bible together as a team!! It has been so incredible, so so so amazing!!

Starting yesterday we made small groups and took different books from the Bible to start reading. The purpose of this is to read the whole book in context and get the full story. And to read the Word out loud, which is an important part of the whole thing because hearing the Word of God does something, something radical.. like bringing revelation - and transformation, which is why I am convinced, it's living and active, sharper than any two edged sword..

I feel so grateful.

My small group read outside in the courtyard yesterday for about 4 hours. We didn't do anything else during that time - we just read. We started with the book of 1 Samuel, then 2 Samuel, and today we began reading the gospel of Matthew. Tomorrow we hope to start reading the book of Acts, which is about the early Church.

Samuel is a book about wild men. Matthew is the beautiful account of Jesus, a 14th generation descendant of the great king David ( who we just read about in Samuel ) and how Jesus brought a message to the world that had never been preached before..
love that turned the world upside down.
I am eager to get into the book of Acts tomorrow and see how the early Church lived life together.

getting the Word in my heart,
Orissa

PS. Today we made some friends on the steps of the Church where we live. The children were outside after school waiting to be picked up so we stopped to talk to them --
They said their national anthem for us in Hindi; and then I had to sing the American anthem with Bek for them! I do think we croaked as we strained to reach the high parts, but o well - it made the children laugh!
In the end we sat around with them discussing the Bible and how much Jesus loves.
It has been a full day - full and wonderful.