Devotional

ONE BLAZEOne Spark,Devotional

Acouple of summers ago, I was able to go with my kids to Kitui, Kenya, where we joined others in presenting evangelistic meetings. As a result, 21 people choose to follow Jesus Christ. The little group we left was on fire for God. That spark ignited into a much bigger blaze.

The group we left responded to Jesus’ call in Matthew 28:19–20 to go and preach, teach, and make disciples in an amazing way. They started holding evangelistic meetings of their own. When we left, we donated several resources, including boxes of It Is Written Bible Study Guides. The study guides became pivotal for the people holding That first lesson was the spark meetings of their own because they gave the new attendees a way to follow along with the that has turned into a group of speaker as well as something to review after people ablaze for Jesus. each session.

In Exodus 4:2 God asks Moses, “What is that in your hand?” These new converts didn’t have evangelistic videos, they didn’t have training on preaching the gospel, but they used what they had: the message of the gospel, the It Is Written Bible Study Guides, and the Holy Spirit as their inspiration. Every new attendee would get a copy of the study guides. That first lesson was the spark that has turned into a group of people ablaze for Jesus and kept their ministry going.

God has rewarded their efforts! Over the past year, 36 more people have chosen to follow Jesus. Last December, during the rainy season, in a baptistry that is sometimes used as a watering trough by local farm animals, all 36 people were baptized.

What a blessing it is to see the Holy Spirit working through the new converts as they spread the good news!

DR. STEVE S. KIBWAGE serves in the Information Technology department at It Is Written writing software. He is a teacher and an elder in his local church and lives in Tennessee with his wife and kids.

Volunteer

APPRECIATION WEEK

April 18–24, 2021

It Is Written honors our 95 volunteers who donated over 2,700 hours to the ministry in 2020. That’s the hours of a full-time employee! Pictured here are a team of volunteers who, during the week of Christmas, collated and packed 5,000 Korean It Is Written Bible Study Guides for shipment before the end of the year. This is just one example of the many projects our volunteers make possible each year!