Traditionally, people think of the Bible as a printed, bound book. However, today the Bible is also available in numerous electronic formats. Its efficacy in an electronic format, however, remains the same because the power is not in the medium but in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Word Incarnate (see John 1:14).
In Beni, a city in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I witnessed the wonder-working power of God’s Word. Church members there began to study the Bible with the inmates at the local prison by using solar-powered players containing the audio Bible and Bible studies that Adventist World Radio provided for them. After being exposed to God’s Word through these audio players, many inmates accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and requested baptism. In February 2013, I was privileged to visit the region and to baptize 22 inmates in a makeshift baptistry—a fresh hole dug out of the ground, covered with a plastic tarp.
One by one the candidates came from their cells, escorted by a church elder or deacon. As they received their certificates and a Bible in Swahili after being baptized, I could see the loneliness and helplessness had disappeared from their eyes; they were now completely transformed, glowing with hope and freedom in Jesus Christ.
That is the transforming power of the Word in action!
—Dowell Chow serves as President of Adventist World Radio, Headquarted in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.