Sharing the Word – literally!

Sometimes one Bible has to be shared among four people in rural China.
In a village in Henan Province, live two sisters-in-law, Cao and Du. Both in their late forties, they are subsistence farmers growing mainly maize. Both are Christians but could not afford a Bible.

A Bible costs the equivalent of 40 eggs in China.

“We have to pay for fertiliser for the crops, food and an education for our children,” said Cao. “There’s not enough to purchase a Bible. We’d need to sell another 20kg of corn or 40 eggs to buy one”. They each earn around $200 a year.

But a gift meant that they were able to have a Bible – they share it between the two couples.

This article is from The Word at Work – Spring 2010.