As he slowly pushed open the creaky old door, dust and dirt fell on him. Leoncio went in anyway. The old adobe hut had been empty for many years. He passed by it every day on his way to work in Tacabamba, Peru.
In one of the small rooms he found some old schoolbooks. Along with them he also found another old book. He brushed it off, but it was still musty smelling from being damp and old. He opened it up to the title page: Santa Biblia (Holy Bible).
Leoncio had never had a Bible of his own. He had never even read one. He sat down on an old wooden bench in the hut and began to read. This book was very interesting. Several hours went by. When he finally decided he’d better start for home, he took the Bible with him.
During the next few weeks, he spent every spare minute he had reading the old Bible. He soon learned that he was a sinner and needed a Saviour. Soon after, Leoncio accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his very own Saviour.
“You are foolish!” said his father when Leoncio first told him about his “new Friend.” But Leoncio went on reading his Bible anyway and talked about it to his family.
Soon one of his brothers also accepted Christ as his Saviour. After that, one by one, all of Leoncio’s brothers and sisters became Christians. But his father and mother would not accept “this new idea.” “How can you be saved when you haven’t gone to the church?” they would ask. Leoncio would explain that the Bible contained all of God’s words and that they could read it themselves.
After Leoncio had prayed for his parents and read the Bible out loud to them for many weeks, they also found peace through accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. They not only had heard God’s words, but they saw how it had changed the lives of their children.
It was an old, musty Bible, but God used it to bring new life to a family.
ML-08/25/1996