Walking 186 Miles to deliver Bibles in the Democratic Republic of Congo

In 2007, the first shipment of Bibles reached Kindu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Maniema Province. Kindu sits along the Lualaba River, hundreds of miles from the nearest major city, and for generations has served as a transport hub, but that has never made it easy to reach. Much of Maniema’s interior remains remote, connected to Kindu itself only by dirt roads and footpaths.

Students at the local Bible school didn’t wait for easier conditions. They set out immediately to get the Bibles into the hands of believers scattered through that interior, often the hardest places to reach.

The bicycles provided for the students came equipped with racks built to hold several boxes of Bibles each. But some students realized they could carry more if they walked the bikes instead of riding them, using every inch of the frame for cargo. One student, pictured here in a pink shirt, walked his loaded bicycle 186 miles back to his village.

This story didn’t originate with Global Christian Book Fund; it came to us from a missionary on the ground in the DRC. But it captures exactly what we see again and again in the regions we serve: a hunger for Scripture that people are willing to walk hundreds of miles to satisfy.

“This is close to the distance from Boston, MA to New York City! When people on the ground are so committed to advancing the gospel with their own sacrifice how can we just stand idly by? These individuals, and stories like them, inspire me to do everything I can to provide Bibles and other resources to countries desperately in need of them. I hope you feel the same way.”

— Ray Hendrickson, President, Global Christian Book Fund

This story is one of the reasons Global Christian Book Fund remains committed to distributing Bibles to those who need them most, in countries around the world, year after year.