When he finished writing the book "Who Is Jesus?", he spread it out, knelt and dedicated it to the Lord, asking Him to use it to bring people to salvation. He thought if two thousand or three thousand people were saved it would be great. From 1964 until 1988 the Bible Way materials had spread to 22 countries in Africa plus many other countries in the world. It is only a "God thing" the way it continues to be used. - Mary Small, wife of Tom Small author of Who Is Jesus?
Mary Small emailed me last week after reading my email update on how one hundred Who Is Jesus? books have been sent to India. What she wrote has stayed in my heart. She said her husband Tom laid the manuscript for the book, Who Is Jesus?, on the floor and prayed over it dedicating it to the Lord. What did he ask for? Tom asked the Lord to bring two or three thousand people to faith in Christ through his book. Well, the Lord has done that and then multiplied it two or three hundred times!
While I was thinking about Tom Small and how God is still using his book, Who Is Jesus?, 55 years after Tom writing it, I received an email from Vincent in Kampala. He said he was sending me a good story of how God has changed the life of one our young leaders. It was the story of Isaac, a medical student in the main hospital in Iganga, Uganda, who has been changed after reading Tom's Small’s book, Who Is Jesus?.
Isaac told me that he was very confused with the messages he heard from the different churches so he decided to stay home and not be anything. He wasn't born again. He wasn’t a Christian. He wasn’t a Moslem. He was just there, existing. One day, Tom, a friend of Isaac’s who had come to be born again, came where he was and shared with him John 3:1-8, the story of Jesus and Nicodemus and how to be born again. Isaac heard the message but did not want to be born again and pray that day, so Tom gave him the Bible Way book, Who Is Jesus? Tom challenged Issac to read it. Isaac did and God spoke to his heart. He understood the truth of the Gospel and who Jesus really was. He had never learned this in any church. Isaac said that he decided to be born again. He prayed on a Wednesday to be born again and God changed him. He now knows he is born again and is sharing this message of Jesus and Nicodemus with his friends. He is glad he is no longer in confusion but knows the truth.
Isaac is a young man with passion. He has a teachable heart. He was asking many good questions during his training in Kampala just wanting to learn. He asked us to pray for him as he continues to share the message. Isaac is very, very smart and he knows what to do. After the training, he told us how he has the message and now knows how to train his friends so that the whole Eastern part of Uganda will hear this message. I am seeing Isaac as great tool for Iganga and other parts of Uganda. He is a changed man. - Vincent, IMFC Team Leader, Kampala, Uganda.
Tom Small never got to meet Isaac (He is the man in middle of the photo. This was taken at his baptism in Kampala last week.) or any of the hundreds of thousands who have been transformed by the Lord through the reading of his book, but they are real, theirs stories are inspiring and they are the fruits of Tom’s labor for Christ. I can only pray that the Lord will bless my efforts for him as he has Tom Small's. May I be as faithful in my task as Tom was in his. This story has helped me. It has challenged me.
Thanks Mary for taking the time to email me. Thanks for sharing this personal story with me. Thanks for being a part of the story that has brought us a beautiful book, Who Is Jesus?, that God is still using to change people’s lives. Thank you.
I pray this story will encourage you as it did me. I pray that it will challenge you to be faithful and not tire in your work for Christ. I pray that it will allow you to see how the Lord can use your works to bring a great harvest of fruit for his kingdom during your life and far beyond it. Do your best. Don't stop. Don’t give up. Finish your task. Then spread your arms and pray over your efforts giving them to the Lord.
Thanks for reading this. Thanks for praying for us. Have a great week. May God richly bless you and your family.