Peter’s story in Kenya began with something surprisingly small: a biblical discipleship resources, a Basic Series booklet about pain and suffering.
A few pages. A simple cover. Biblical truths presented in a way that could be easily understood and shared around the world.
Place that resource into the hands of someone searching for hope, struggling through suffering, trying to hold a family together, or learning how to follow Jesus—God can use something small and simple to bring lasting change!
With The Basic Series, ServeNow provides free, easy-to-understand biblical discipleship resources on topics such as faith, marriage and family, pain and suffering, persecution, forgiveness, and Christian living. Translated into local languages and shared through churches and ministry partners, these resources help people understand God’s Word and put biblical truth into practice in everyday life.
And the stories coming back remind us just how far the impact of one small book can reach.
Finding Hope Through Biblical Discipleship Resources in Kenya
In Kibera, Kenya, Peter had been using alcohol to escape the difficulties and pain he faced. After he encountered The Basic Things You Need to Know About Pain and Suffering.
Through its biblical teaching, Peter began to understand that suffering wasn’t something he had to escape through destructive coping mechanisms. He could bring his pain to God.
Peter shared, “I stopped drinking to ‘forget pain’ and started praying through it. My wife says I’m a different man.”
Yet Peter isn’t alone.
In fact, across Kenya, the same resource is reaching people carrying grief, disappointment, financial hardship, trauma, and questions about where God is in the middle of suffering.
A widow who once suffered alone is now leading a support group for other widows. A man who lost his job started a savings group whose members pray together. A youth leader is using the material to counsel teenagers. Women inside a prison are studying and praying together.
As a result, people who receive encouragement are beginning to encourage others.
The Impact Doesn’t Stop in Kenya
Peter’s story is one of many showing what can happen when people receive biblical teaching in a language and format they can understand.
In Burundi, Jacqueline and her husband studied The Basic Things You Need to Know About Love, Marriage and Family at a time when their home had grown distant. As they began applying what they learned, communication returned. Today, their family studies the Bible and prays together, and Jacqueline says there is joy in their home again.
In Niger, believers equipped through The Basic Series are already multiplying what they received. A small community of Christians has launched a Bible school at Vie Abondante Church in Maradi to provide biblical teaching and prepare others for ministry.
In Uganda, biblical teaching on Persecution is encouraging Christians facing opposition because of their faith. Sister Harriet faced threats against her life through her evangelism work, and her original church structure was burned. When she was nearing the point of giving up, The Basic Series encouraged her to continue seeking God. Today, she is helping encourage others.
Different countries. Different circumstances. And yet the same simple truth: when people are equipped with understandable biblical teaching, what they learn doesn’t have to stop with them.
Why Translating Biblical Discipleship Resources Matters
Different countries.
Different languages.
Different circumstances.
But the need is remarkably similar.
People want to understand who God is and what His Word means for the circumstances they are actually living through—marriage, suffering, persecution, faith, forgiveness, leadership, and everyday Christian life.
That’s why The Basic Series is intentionally written in accessible language and translated into languages people can understand.
Because the goal isn’t simply to distribute books.
The goal is to place understandable biblical truth into someone’s hands and trust God with what happens next.
Sometimes that looks like a husband putting down the bottle and turning to God in his pain.
Sometimes it looks like a husband and wife talking, praying, and studying the Bible together again.
Sometimes it looks like a persecuted Christian finding the courage to keep following Jesus.
And sometimes the person who was first equipped becomes the one equipping others.
Peter may have said it best:
“My wife says I’m a different man.”
A small resource can seem insignificant.
Above all, when God’s truth reaches a heart ready to receive it, the story doesn’t necessarily end with the final page.
Sometimes, that’s where the story begins.
