Harold Weaver serves on the board of trustees at Columbia International University. He passed along this story in his June financial newsletter:
Ravi Zacharias ministered in Vietnam during the war. While there, he enjoyed the services of a young man who served as his interpreter, Hien. After Vietnam fell, the Communists arrested him and charged him with collaborating with the CIA because he worked with missionaries. He was imprisoned and beaten frequently and severely. They took his Bible away from him and began to attempt to brainwash him into believing that there was no God. Daily they beat him and told him to forget about his God. They also forbid him from speaking in English, his beloved language.His torture went on day after day. He was beginning to break and began to question if God truly was real. He had been separated from all believers and all evidence of the reality of God and he was beginning to think that if God did exist, He must have abandoned him.At the low point of his punishment, the main guard came and told him that he would have to clean the latrine that day. The prison was bad enough to endure, but the latrines were unbelievably horrible. Both liquid and sold waste had to be removed as a part of the cleaning process. It was considered the lowest and worse part of prison life.He was finishing his duty, emptying the last trash can. In the darkness, he thought he saw a piece of printed paper in English but he couldn't be sure, so he quickly made sure no one was watching him. He picked it up, tried to wipe off the solid waste and other trash from it as good as possible and put it in his pocket to check it later when he was alone.Later than evening, he took the paper out and found that it was a page from his Bible, Romans the 8th chapter. His eyes identified the 28th verse, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." He couldn't believe his eyes. He read on, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?....Who can separate us from the love of Christ...Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."He realized that God had not forgotten him. He was so overjoyed that he went to his captor and asked if he could be allowed to clean the latrines again. His guard told him that he would not only clean them the next day but he would have clean them everyday as long as he was in the prison. As he went about the terrible task the next day, again he found another page of his beloved Bible. Once again he cleaned off the waste as good as possible and put it in his pocket. Each day, he found more pages. He then realized that God was returning his Bible to him. He later learned that the guard that had given him this punishment was using his Bible as toilet paper.Every one of us has an unlimited supply of Bibles in every conceivable translation, size, color and binding as well as numerous types of spiritual literature and study aids. We have churches on nearly every corner with people almost begging us to avail ourselves of spiritual enrichment. We have television, radio, tapes, CDs and other forms of communication available. All of us tend to simply take their availability for granted.The question we all have to ask ourselves is what are we doing with all of these available resources? Are we adequately using them to glorify the Lord in ways that please Him and advance His purposes? I am sure that all of us think that we do, at least until we hear of a story such as Hien's testimony. There is always a risk in having an abundance of anything. I have long maintained that when we are blessed, we receive those blessings as a responsibility to use them for the benefit of others, not just to enjoy them ourselves. I believe that God will hold us all accountable one day for how we have handled the stewardship of blessings.
