Growing up in Bangladesh, Adi* was very lonely. He remembers there was never enough of anything — food, love, or attention.

When he was seven years old, Adi’s life changed. His barren life became even bleaker. “My mother went away with another guy, leaving my father behind,” Adi remembers. “My younger brother was a baby then and I fed him cow’s milk when my mother left us.”

The extra duties weren’t the worst part of the change: “We didn’t get the love and affection of our mother,” he says. “This is the most awful memory of my life.”

Desperately lonely, Adi turned to the one friend he could count on: Jesus. He had learned about Jesus in church, but now he came to rely more and more on his Savior. “He loves me,” says Adi. “Always I pray to Jesus that He might save and help us to live.”

As Adi grew, so did his thirst for God’s Word. He wanted to know more about Jesus and his heavenly Father, but the cost of a Bible put it beyond his reach. And then, at age 16, Adi received his first Bible when he attended a Bible seminar sponsored by the Bible Society. Because of the generosity of Bible Society partners, this lonely young man gained access to God’s Word whenever he wants. It’s a gift he has quickly learned to use.

“I always pray before reading the Bible, and it helps to lead me in the right path,” he says. “I feel reading the Bible keeps my heart clean. I get everything in the Bible.”

The Bible also gives Adi a natural way to reach out to friends, leaving him not quite so lonely. “I love so much my first Bible and thank God that I can be able to share the story of the Bible with my friends,” he says.

Thanks to the support of American Bible Society’s financial partners, lonely children like Adi in Bangladesh and around the world can find comfort and hope in God’s Word.

*Name changed to protect privacy