‘This book has given me a new life’

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — When Maria* received a telephone call from the Bible Society in Costa Rica, which was doing a small scale telephone survey about whether people had Bibles at home, she was irritated.

“No, I don’t have a Bible because I’m an atheist,” she told the caller. She found the question “stupid”, she now admits, because it was not relevant to her lifestyle. She was even more irritated when, as part of the survey, the Society offered to send her a Bible free of charge. But then she decided to play along and say yes.

Calling me

“I thought I would test the people calling me and see if they would keep their promise and send me a Bible,” she explains.

“A few days later my husband brought in a parcel that had come for me in the mail. I thought, ‘At least they kept their promise’, and put the Bible on my bookshelf, where it stayed untouched and unopened.

“I had problems with alcohol and after a while it became so bad that my husband decided to leave me. This was a turning point in my life – I saw no way out of the situation except to kill myself. But then my eyes fell on the Bible sitting on my bookshelf.

“‘Can God help me?’ I wondered. I started reading the Bible and found real comfort and encouragement in it. But I needed guidance about how to read it, so I took my Bible with me and went searching for a church.

“I found a church and told them, ‘I am reading the Bible but I need someone to help me find out how it can change my life.’ I started going to church regularly. This book has given me a new life. I want to thank the Bible Society for sending me a Bible even though I made fun of it.” (WR 387/21 - 8/9.04)