As a child in Rwanda, Roger* knew very little about love or compassion. He was 4 years old when his country spiraled into civil war and genocide — a conflict that claimed the lives of over 800,000 men, women, and children.

Roger’s father, an alcoholic, beat him. When he tried to escape and live with relatives, they turned him away. He wanted to enter the local university, but his chaotic home life prevented him from completing his studies.

As he grew older, he began drinking to cope, just like his father. Roger felt directionless, struggling with heartbreak and tragedy his entire life. And he is not alone.

Potentially hundreds of thousands of Rwandans still suffer from the impact of the genocide. God’s Word is their only hope for healing.

That is why we are so grateful for our financial partners who are helping place Bibles in hands and hearts across Rwanda. As hurting people like Roger receive their own Bibles and engage with God’s Word, their lives are transformed!

“By God’s grace, it was wonderful to get that Bible to keep my heart from going to darkness,” Roger says. “Reading the Word of God makes me happy. The Bible is a gift for all my life, my eternal advisor. Now I have peace in my heart because I know the direction.”

The young man says God’s Word changed the course of his life. Without it, “I would have been in prison . . . and a drunkard,” he says. “No Bible, no life.”

The continued faithfulness of American Bible Society financial partners places Bibles in the hands and hearts of people who have nothing else to hold onto.

*Name changed to protect identity.