Father Antonio Gutiérrez, a Salesian in Bo, Sierra Leone, needs 10,000 copies of the Children’s Bible for his diocese. So that, with the Word of God, the parish of Santa Teresa develops and strengthens.
In his diocese there are 150 Catholic schools and up to 1,000 students in each of them. The media are very precarious and school supplies and books are almost conspicuous by their absence. Almost, because in many of them the children have a little book that the little ones preserve as a treasure. It is the ACN Children’s Bible “God speaks to his children.”
“For many it is quite an experience to have a book in their hands. They can learn to read and, at the same time, know the Word of God. Reading opens the eyes, the mind and the heart, and the Word of God inspires courage”, comments Fr. Antonio.
One day this priest posed a challenge to his students. He estimated that each book could cost 50,000 lions (the equivalent of 5 euros). And he asked each one to contribute what they could. Together they reached 1,000 lions . Father Antonio asked them something else:
“Every time you read in this book, say a prayer for those who contribute the other 49,000 lions.”
The father repeated the challenge in the rest of the classes, and with the thousand lions per book he financed a summer camp for those who could not contribute anything.
The priest called the children’s attention to those who act in silence and without whom the Word of God could not be spread. “Also that person who can barely move, but in his wheelchair translates the Children’s Bible into the dialects of the country . “
Many of these children will only have one book in their lives, the Children’s Bible.
For him, the Children’s Bible is also a Bible for the family, as many adults acquire it for themselves and for their children and grandchildren.
