My Liver Has Left Me!

By Charles Kowak

"My liver has left me!" stuttered Joe, shaking with fear.

Joe was a grassroots, village man who had never gone to school. He could not read, knew nothing of the Bible and did not attend a church. He was known to spend much of his time and money gambling with others in the village. However the night he asked me if he could be involved in the consultant check of the Gospel of John, God spoke to me in a dream. "Charles, do you only like educated people? So how is it that Jesus cared for the uneducated and poor people?" In the morning I told my wife, "God has chosen Joe to help in the checking."

Joe was in for quite an adventure, one that would change his life forever. Although Joe had never flown in an airplane before, nor had he ever experienced the cold of the highlands of Papua New Guinea, the biggest challenge for him was facing the hard questions of the translation consultant and interacting with the content of the scriptures. This was when he whispered to me that he was "losing his liver."

"Don't be afraid," I assured him, "God will help you."

He began to warm up to the questions. Previously he had thought the Bible was full of some sort of nonsense stories for English-speaking children. But, here were real historical events, talking about all the significant things of life, and all in the Lindrou language. At break-time, Joe was excited. "It really is true. God is helping me to understand His Word."

That afternoon, he asked if he could take a printout of John to his sleeping quarters. During the night, grassroots Joe taught himself to read, consuming entire sections of the Gospel of John. "I can read God's Talk in my own language!" he told me the next day.

"God has given you this gift. Thank Him for it" I said.

He did, and Joe's life has truly been transformed. Now Joe spends much of his time praying and reading the Lindrou scriptures, and is an active and powerful witness to the youth of the village to turn from gambling and other vices and to trust Christ. Recently Joe told me, "Charles, you let me help in this work of Bible translation and I found the real food of eternal life. I am praying for you for I want all the Lindrou people to be able to eat this spiritual food and have the same life that I have found."

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