Bibles and Balls

So in all of this, Kim and I had decided that we were going to buy a bible for every child at the Hope for the Hopeless. We had decided it earlier in the day and now that the embassy and visa situation was clearly out of our hands, we had some shopping to do.

Tom had a friend of a friend that owned a book store. We drove around looking for it and then found that it had been moved to a back alley. And lucky us, it was closed. About an hour after the search for this store began, Tom was not eager to give up. He called and found that it was an inventory day and that with a purchase as large as ours, they would accomodate us coming in if were wern't opposed to leaving without a receipt. Kim and I laughed. We had not gotten a receipt for one thing we had bought to this point and didn't even know that they knew what a receipt was! We agreed to buy knowing that we would not be looking to exchange or return!

We stepped in and purchased 50 Bibles in Amharic. Each Bible cost 47 birr ($4.70) and they were nice quality leather bound books. We were pleased. We also bought 4 soccer balls of the highest quality you can find there which is just a vinyl ball for 30 birr each. While buying the soccer balls, I got approached by a boy and his brother. The boy asked if he could have a ball and Tom quickly shooed the boy away. I stopped him in his tracks and told the boys I would buy them a ball. After all, it was only $3 to me and I knew it would mean the world to these kids. Tom encouraged me to buy the cheaper one and I refused. I told the boys that it was because Jesus loved them and they smiled with delight as they ran off to their mother whom was working in a shop down the way that they also lived in. Kim said that I couldn't see but the boys were so overjoyed as they ran off that they litterally were glowing. As we drove off, I pointed to my camera to ask if I could take a picture and the boy proudly raised his new ball for me to capture. It made my heart happy! So simple and yet it meant so much.