Gideons International Presentation

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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If I can have your attention and give you just a minute or two to kind of get settled and before we start.

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I'll give introduction in the meantime. We're pleased today to have with us

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Tito Musioka. I hope I pronounced that right. Who is the National Director of the

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Gideon International for the country of Kenya. And in addition he's involved in private activities, private businesses as well.

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But the reason he's here is that Gideon's International has their international convention in the summer.

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And the week before that convention many of our international visitors are encouraged and facilitated to come into local areas.

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In this case we're talking about the Association of North Dakota and South Dakota. And so he's had a very busy week visiting, touring

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North Dakota from top to bottom, left to right. And ended up in Grand Forks yesterday and this afternoon he's jumping on a plane and heading towards Louisville, Kentucky for the next week of activities.

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So this is the end of the local tour but the beginning of the international convention. And so we're pleased to have him with us.

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I had the privilege of listening to his presentation, a longer version of the presentation yesterday and a chance to visit.

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And I think a couple of notable things that you should look for. One is that the cultural environment in Kenya is much different than it is here.

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And there are some good things about that. There are some difficult things about that. And I think he will point out some of those.

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But also you'll see the work of the Gideons especially among younger people.

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So with that I'm going to turn it over to Tito and we're glad you're here. Thank you.

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My name is Tito, as you have heard. I love the Lord as my personal savior.

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And I come from Kenya. I'm a businessman in Kenya and a member of the

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Gideons International, the national director for Kenya. So when I come to America or I'm out of Kenya, I'm actually representing my country and the

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Gideons and auxiliary members there. I just want to say that I was blessed by the sermon.

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I've used the text that the pastor used,

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Matthew Chapter 13, about the sower. Because the

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Gideons International Ministry, we sow the seed. When we go to schools, to universities, to colleges, we'll invite everybody who wishes to take a copy of God's word.

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And we believe in Isaiah, the word of God in Isaiah 55 and verse 11, that my word that comes out of my mouth will not return to me void.

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We have very many testimonies of pastors and many Christians in my country who say that they were given that little

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Bible in school and it started building faith in their lives over time.

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And also in accordance with the Romans Chapter 10 and verse 17, that faith comes by hearing.

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And even as I share with you, we are very conservative in our

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Christian faith. We go word for word in the Bible the way it is. It was a joy to see, this is my second time to be in a

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Lutheran church service. And I thank God for today and for having you, for having received me.

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Thank you for your love. Dawn picked me yesterday and we are together today with Chris.

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So what we are seeing is Kenya. Kenya is in Africa. The equator splits the country into two so that we have equal day and equal night, 12 hours and 12 hours of each.

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We do not have winter. We do not have summer. We have a cold season and a warm season, very good climate.

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And it's a beautiful country and I know some of you will visit our country.

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And there it is, it is eastern part of Africa, bordering

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Ethiopia to the north, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Somaliland to the east and then

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Indian Ocean. I want you to look at what we do because we go to schools.

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80 % of scriptures which normally are the

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New Testament with the Psalms and Proverbs, it goes to schools, to young people in school.

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And when you look at the joy of this girl, my country people are not wealthy, many of them, in fact, 35 % live below poverty line, so there's no budget to buy a

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Bible. And when we go to schools and we give to students like this girl you are seeing, she will take it home, read it with her parents, read it with her brothers, friends, and then faith starts developing as they read

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God's word, which is planted into their lives. But at this juncture

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I want to tell you that most of these Bibles, over 90%,

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I want to say 99%, come from this land. It is you, you give.

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Whenever the Gideons are here and you take an offering and you send to the

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Gideons International, that offering is translated into what you are seeing and ends up with the students or girls like this one who will share it in our family.

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So we were colonized by Britain.

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We got our independence in 1963. We are 43 different communities speaking different languages in one country.

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Our population is not like you. It's big, over 50 million in my country.

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And English is our official language. You go to school, you learn in English.

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Everything is in English. But we also have Swahili. Swahili is a street language.

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Everybody, you don't have to go to school to know Swahili. And we have the testament also in Swahili.

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And then we have our mother tongue. So everybody in Kenya speaks three languages.

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Your mother tongue, English, and Swahili. My daughter speaks

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French and the other one speaks German in addition. You can learn those ones.

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Then our economy is just like here. It's mainly agriculture. We grow coffee, a lot of coffee, but we don't drink coffee.

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We drink tea because we are colonized by the English and they take tea.

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So that is what we do. And our coffee is Arabica, the high quality coffee.

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And then, of course, we have many other crops. Tourism is very important in our country.

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We have a lot of people coming as tourists from here, Europe, and all over.

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And then the service industry. This shows that our population is young.

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Most of our people are young. They are in schools. And these are the people we are giving

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God's word. These are the places where we are sowing. This is the soil where we are planting

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God's word. And we believe that as they grow up, then with God's word, they will protect it.

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And we do not have to end up like the situation here, where you cannot go to schools or preach in schools, as I will say shortly.

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We have a lot of these fellows, these fellow animals. You come to Kenya and they are there.

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Christianity in Kenya began in the 19th century through missionaries who came from Europe and America.

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We have a lot of colleges in our hometown, in our country, mainly sponsored by people from here.

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And therefore, that has been great. And because of that, 80 % of our population are inclined to Christianity.

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They may not be born again. But if you ask somebody, are you a

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Muslim, are you a Hindu, are you what? Everybody, over 80%, they will tell you,

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I'm a Christian. Of course, when you follow up, you will find that the guy is not a committed

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Christian. But that makes it easy for us to take gospel to schools and many other places, because nobody is opposed to Christianity in my country.

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The Muslims, about 10 % only. The ministry of Gideon's was begun in 1967 by men from here.

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They came to our country, started that, and now we have 135 camps, where we now, from that camp, we visit an area.

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We have already distributed about 40 million scriptures in my country since the ministry was started.

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On average, we are doing 1 .5 million to 2 million every year, distributing

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God's Word in my country. And of course, as I said, 80 % will go to young people in schools, and then, of course, we place in hotels, hospitals, prisons, and the military.

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Looking at this guy, this is what happens when we go. It's such a joy to go to a school.

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And when you go to a school, the school will stop. We just go to the headmaster or headmistress, tell them we are the

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Gideons, we have come. And the entire school will stop. Sometimes, even when they are doing exams, they stop the exams.

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They will come out on parade, and then we'll give each person one at a time.

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And when they have them, then we are given like 15 minutes to address them and tell them about Christ.

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Because you can still go to hell with the Bible if you have no relationship with Jesus Christ.

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So we speak to them and encourage them to read and be able to meet

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Christ, be able to receive Christ as their Savior. And sometimes as we leave a school,

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I remember a school I went, and when the others went to class, 26 girls remained.

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Then I asked them, what would you want me to do for you? They said, would you pray for us?

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We want to receive Christ. We want to begin this journey with Jesus Christ.

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So we led them to Christ and prayed with them, told them, read the

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Bible every day, pray every day, have your own testimony that you are born again, you are transformed.

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Continue growing using this testament that you have. This is a school

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I visited. It has 850 girls, and we were allowed to wait for lunch hour.

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They all came out. We gave each one of them a copy of God's Word, and then we were given time to address the entire school, which

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I did. God really used us, because when

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I asked those who wanted to make a decision for Christ, 103 put up their hands.

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Then we went to a separate room. We prayed with them. We told them how they should start the journey by reading

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God's Word every day, by praying and having a testimony, and introduce them, because this is a boarding school.

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When they go home to their pastors and go to churches where they use a

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Bible, and tell their pastor that they now want to walk, and they want to walk in a

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Christian way. They want to be discipled by the pastors. Now, if you look at this one here, these are very young girls.

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Again, we go to schools like this, and the girls from grade four in my country, they took grade eight.

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That is elementary schools. We give them and talk about God with them.

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Now, the third girl does not qualify, because she is in a lower grade, but she is envious of the others.

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You can see, envious of the other two girls who start reading this book, because it's a book that is the first time.

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This book becomes a textbook in the school. They bring it to school. It is used for religious and Christian education.

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These guys are miserable when you look at them, because they are waiting for us to come and give them.

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Sometimes they will sit there for six hours waiting for us to come, because we see many schools.

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One day, finish this school, go to the other one, go to the other one. But we eventually arrived there, and they were excited.

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They had no lunch, no nothing, just waiting for us. This is a scenario. Normally, if you ever come to my country, and you are part, because we normally get teams from here, helping us also to go to schools.

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Then, if you look at this, this is one school. Over 2 ,000 students.

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When you go there, you better have sufficient Bibles, because if you don't have sufficient

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Testaments, those who don't receive don't want to go home. They want you to give them

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Testaments. As we give these Testaments, we believe we are giving them

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God's Holy Word. What we give them will be read at home.

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They will read with their friends, and faith will start growing. These days, whenever I meet pastors in my country,

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I always ask them, Do you know the Gideons? Some will tell me, Yes, there are people who give

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Bibles, and they gave me one. When I was in school, I asked them,

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Has it helped you? The man said, Don't you see that I'm a pastor? Faith grew in me.

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I read, I underlined, I memorized, I worked with my pastor in the church, and eventually

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I went to Bible school. This ministry has great impact in my country.

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These girls sitting on the ground, they have received their copies, and they are very happy.

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Look at these students, they are reading. They have been given a book that they did not have.

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Look at these students, again, they are reading a book that they did not have. This lady, she is an auxiliary, a wife of a

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Gideon, and although she has a child, she is carrying that child. Briefly, let me say something about this lady.

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This lady is a Muslim, or was a Muslim, and I arrived to see her, and I knew she should have been killed, just before I got there.

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But God is God. She is a school teacher, and every time

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Gideon would go to their school, she would get a copy. One teacher asked her, do you read what you get?

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She said, no, you know I'm a Muslim, I just find it not good to say no to somebody giving me a gift, so I receive and just keep it at home.

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So this lady told her, you go home and read from the book of Proverbs.

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And you know, that is a very beautiful book. So this lady went home, meanwhile her husband is the leader of the

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Muslims in that town, he's a sheikh, and so they keep the faith,

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Islamic faith in that town. So she goes home, gets into her bedroom, and locks the door, so that the husband does not come in.

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Of course, he wasn't at home, but she was fearful. And the moment she began reading the book of Proverbs, the

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Holy Ghost fell on this lady. She loved every word she was reading, and she developed that habit of reading from the book of Proverbs.

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Within a short time, she decided to go to church. She loved the church, she loved the pastor, the message he gave, the choir, the singing, and she felt

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God was pulling her to be a Christian. Then one day, one Sunday, she also went to church, of course hiding.

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And when the husband came, he asked this boy, Isa, where is your mother?

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And the boy said, my mother went to church. Went where? To church?

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The man could not believe. The father, the husband. So he drives to the church, goes into the church, looks for her, grabs her, pulls her out of church, puts her into his car, and promises her that he would kill her.

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Takes her home, and he beats her to kill. And you know, for people in that faith, killing someone for your faith, you get a bigger reward in heaven.

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So he beats her, she becomes unconscious, she faints, blood everywhere, but she does not die.

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It's like God had another plan. He puts her into his car, takes her to a hospital, drops her there, and just goes.

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People pick her there, I think he just dropped her anywhere near the hospital.

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And then they take her to hospital. She stays for several months in hospital.

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God heals this woman. And then, when she is completely healed, she comes home.

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She decides not to prefer any charges on this man, but she tells him that,

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I'm leaving you now. I've decided to be a Christian, and I will not be with you.

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This young boy says, I'm also going with my mother. I'm not going to remain here.

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And now I'm talking with them at her brother's home. And she told me that to go anywhere she needs escort, because that man would organize that she's killed.

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I asked her, who prayed for you? She said, I prayed. I prayed myself,

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I prayed. I told her, you know the Gideon Testament as a section where you can pray, a prayer of repentance.

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I told her, I want to pray for you again, to be sure that you are born again. So I prayed for her.

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I was with other brothers, and we committed her to the Lord. We promised to be praying for her.

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A few weeks, five months later, I called the pastor of the church where she goes, and I asked him, how is

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Zubed? The pastor told me, she's no longer Zubed. Her name now is

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Susan. She has got into Bible study. I have been able to train her, teach her scriptures, and she's one of the most active members of my church.

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Then I went to see her again, and I requested if she would come to our pastor's banquet and give her a testament.

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She told me I would be killed. If I live here, and my husband knows

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I'm going somewhere, he follows me, although we don't live together, he will look for people at that end, and I'll be hurt.

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So she's there. God, and I know that she's now speaking to many other

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Muslim women using the testament that she has, and the faith that she has.

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Now, I know time is far gone, and I can go on with the testimonies, so I will not go very far, but I want to thank you.

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I want to thank you for sending these scriptures to us. We come, there's,

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I wanted to show you, perhaps I just show you something here.

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Yeah. We have, yeah.

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My country, the per capita income is only $2 ,000 a year.

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$2 ,000 a year. That is the per capita income.

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And you can see the disparity is big. There are people who are very poor, where the family budget will not allow for a

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Bible to be bought. The primary thing is to buy food, some clothing, and shelter.

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So you can see the role that Gideon plays in that country by providing scriptures for families.

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35 % of our people earn less than $2 a day.

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That 5%. That's a lot of poverty. But they are very worthy people as well at the same time.

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So I come to America and also thank you. Tell you for reaching these people who are so poor.

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These young people who become, later, some of them become pastors, Christians, just because they were given a

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Bible. Last time, before I came here, I met two engineers. And I asked, my brother introduced them to me.

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He said, my brother is a member of the Gideons. Then I asked them, do you know the

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Gideons? They say, yes. Are you not the people who gave us Bibles when we were young?

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Then I asked them, we are, but tell me, did those Bibles help you?

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They said, yes. They helped us. We were able to know God because we could read, as we read other subjects.

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So that is what you do to people in my country. And my prayer is that because of what you do, the money you give, which is translated into Scriptures, those men, pastors, will be able to help take the

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Gospel far and wide in accordance to the Great Commission. In accordance to Matthew 24 and verse 14, where Jesus said that this

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Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached into all the world and to all nations as a witness, and then the end will come.

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So these people will now go, as I have come here, to many places, and God will bless you for what you do.

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When you see a Bible, like the girl you saw, it's a chain. Somebody like you gave.

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That man went to print that Testament. That Testament was shipped to a country like Kenya.

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And the Gideons there received it, took it to a school, placed it in a hospital, or in a hotel.

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And then the miracle continues because those girls will go on, and those boys, and using it and telling others.

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And then we are seeing the Kingdom of God expanding as people come to know

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Him. So may God bless you, and it is a joy to be here. I know there isn't much time, and it's like the time that I was given is gone.

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I will not proceed. I could proceed with other testimonies. But I would like you, if you would like to ask a question, or make a comment, to do so.

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So may God bless you. Anybody would like to make a comment or question?

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Thank you, Tito. I would suggest that Tito has, his schedule is flexible after our

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Bible study is done. So we can stay here for a while, and anybody who wants to sit and visit, we had a chance to do that yesterday.

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It's a great time, great opportunity. So there will be time available after our Bible study for you to sit and visit with Tito and ask questions and learn more about Kenya, more about the

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Gideons and the experiences that they have. So thank you very much. I just want to pray, and before I pray,

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I say that reverend, in my country, time is elastic.

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In your country, it is inelastic. So, I agree.

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Father God, we thank you. I want to thank you for these men and these women and children here, who have given so much to my country and others.

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They have been generous. So God, I thank you.