“When I grow up, I want to help girls who are in need, just like I am now.”
Thank you for investing in the next generation. God is using your gift of Bibles to change the lives of children all around the world. One of these children is Lesly, a 14-year-old girl who was neglected and then abused by her own family members.
When Lesly was a young child, her family moved from Honduras to Guatemala. But soon after, her parents joined a local gang and were subsequently arrested, convicted, and sent to jail.
Young Lesly was sent to live with her aunt and uncle, and sadly was abused in their care.
“It was the most terrible thing to happen to me,” she says. “I then had to find the courage to tell my family, and the only solution was to move into a [shelter]. It was heartbreaking because I then lost all my family.”
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
That is when the gift of a Bible put Lesly on a journey of spiritual and emotional healing at the shelter.
“Every Thursday a group from Bible Society of Guatemala came to give us Bible workshops,” she says. At first Lesly did not want to listen because she thought it wouldn’t help her, but she kept going to the study group. Then one day she heard a Scripture verse that changed her life:
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23, NIV).
It was there I realized that even if anything happened to me in the past, I can take care of what goes into my heart,” Lesly says. “This changed my outlook and my life for the better. When I grow up, I want to help girls who are in need, just like I am now.”
Thank you for providing Lesly — and so many other girls like her — with a first Bible. With God’s help and through your generosity, Lesly has a new perspective on the past and is moving forward in her life today.
