After losing her mother and father to violence in Liberia, Akeelah* lived with an aunt. But she was soon kicked out to the street when she got pregnant at a young age. “I felt like an orphan without a mother to care for me . . . and hopeless,” she remembers.

Since Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world, suffering from years of brutal civil war, Akeelah struggled to survive. She tried selling small things at the local market. “It was on one market day that I first heard about Jesus, God’s Son,” she says. “This radio was playing and telling stories about Jesus.”

Akeelah says, “I listened that whole day . . . and from that day, I always sold my things near the talking Bible to hear more about Jesus.” She explains that she “knew there was a God, but I did not know Him. I saw the Bible with other people, but I did not know what was in it.”

Akeelah began attending the church of the people with the “talking Bible.” She wanted to hear more about God and even prayed for a Bible of her own.

Thanks to the generosity of American Bible Society financial partners, Akeelah’s prayer was answered! “The Bible Society visited our church and distributed Bibles,” she says. “Reading the Bible in my own language was like having God Himself talking to me. God’s Word has transformed me greatly.”

This is the eternal difference our partners are making by sharing the life-changing power of God’s Word!

*Name changed to protect privacy.