‘Burden’ leads to life of Bible work

ST CATHERINE’S, Jamaica — Aileen Dobson worked in a garment factory for more than 30 years. She wanted to leave, but had a ‘burden on her heart’ for her colleagues.

After 25 years as a volunteer for the Bible Society of the West Indies, Aileen Dobson still actively distributes Selections, sells Bibles, and takes God’s Word onto buses and into hospitals and homes for the elderly. Jamaica. Photo: UBS/Larry Jerden (JAM01DJ-35)

“I had a burden on my heart that the workers there were not really reading the Bible,” Mrs Dobson explains. “I had a burning desire to get the Bible to these people before I left.

“I wrote to the Bible Society and got three Bibles, which I took to work to sell. That’s when I found out there was such a hunger for the Word of God in that factory! People kept asking me for Bibles, and I kept going to the Bible Society for more.

By the time Mrs Dobson eventually left her job, every worker in her factory had received a Bible. And many of them read their Bibles and came to faith in Christ. “Today,” she says, “they are worshipping in churches all over Jamaica.”

Mrs Dobson was not raised in a Christian home, but her mother did send her to Sunday School. When she came home and told her mother that she had become a Christian, however, her mother said, “Well, I’ll give you two weeks.”

Wandered

“I was so sad,” Mrs Dobson remembers. “I got no encouragement at home, but my aunt would read Bible stories to me. Every Sunday we would sit around that rocking chair and hear the stories of Jesus – it was a great influence on my life.

“I was a teenager when I became a Christian, and with no encouragement, I wandered – but not for long! And I have been happily walking and talking with the Lord ever since.”

Mrs Dobson became interested in the Bible Society when she saw two men in her church unloading Scriptures from a van. She asked them about it, and joined the Bible Society from that time. Later she volunteered to lead the work in her church, and even to recruit other members. She also became the person who would ‘remind’ members to pay their pledges to the Bible Society.

Eventually, she expanded her vision and began recruiting members from other churches in the St Catherine’s area. Soon she became a ‘hub’ for Bible Society activity, with other volunteers and members coming to her for materials.

Now, after working with the Bible Society for 25 years, Mrs Dobson is still actively giving out Selections, selling Bibles and taking God’s Word onto buses and into hospitals and homes for the elderly.

“Recently I was blessed when I was feeding the homeless,” Mrs Dobson says. “I had six lunches left, so I took them to the infirmary. I knew there was a man there who had given his life to the Lord, so I got a Bible from the Bible Society and carried it to him.”

On a later visit, however, a lady at the infirmary told her she had bought the man’s Bible from him.

Startled, Mrs Dobson said, “Well, are you reading it?”

“Oh, yes ma’am,” came the reply.

“Isn’t it marvellous that this lady is making use of God’s Word,” Mrs Dobson asks, “and that she was so hungry for the Word of God that she bought a Bible from another patient!”

Mrs Dobson says it is wrong to think that because Jamaica has a rich Christian heritage, people can easily buy a Bible.

“Not so,” she declares. “When you talk to people about Christ, many of them say, ‘But I don’t have a Bible,’ and they don’t really know where to buy one. I point them to the Bible Society. And when someone really can’t afford one, I go to the Bible Society and ask for free copies. Or we will assist in buying two or three for them.

“We have to be workers for the Lord, and let people know that the Bible is the best book to read,” she says. Sometimes she receives some unexpected help!

“I had a prayer meeting every day at noon, and one day there was an earthquake,” Mrs Dobson recalls. “I told the workers, ‘I think you should really come and pray’. And they did. I think that is why some of them received those Bibles! And after they read the Bible, they became interested in the things of the Lord.”

That, she says, is an example of why she is committed to Bible Society work. “A lot of those who received Bibles are now happily walking with the Lord,” she says.

But the real reason she loves the work, she insists, is because of the Bible itself. “It is the Word of God,” she whispers. “If you are not reading the Bible, you do not know about your Creator or your Saviour. That’s why I love the Bible.