Chocolate cookies! Paulino had never tasted anything so good in his whole life. In fact, he had almost never tasted anything sweet before. Sometimes his family had dried fruit, but this was the first time they had ever been given anything so sweet and so good as chocolate cookies.
Paulino and his family lived in a mining village high in the mountains of Bolivia. The owners of the mine knew how to get people to work for them. They paid the workers a wage but also gave them some extra free things that had never been seen before in the mountains ... special things like sugar and chocolate cookies. When Paulino tasted those cookies, he was glad that his 16-year-old brother was old enough to work in the mines. His family would go to the mining storeroom and carry home their share of sugar, cookies and other free items on their donkeys.
Sadly, working in the mines was very hard on the miners’ health. The air deep inside the mines was bad, and the miners often got sick. After two years Paulino’s brother died of the lung disease that was the result of the bad air in the mines.
Were those cookies as good after Paulino saw his brother die? Losing his brother was a high price to pay for some sugar and cookies, and it was, perhaps, the first time Paulino thought about death.
Sad to say, Paulino and his family had never heard of God’s loving plan of salvation. They had never been told the good news that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Paulino and his family only had a religion of fear that told them to do certain things to try to please God. They had never read the good news of the Bible that says, “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name” (John 20:31).
Paulino did have one opportunity to learn these things when he was a boy. Gospel preachers sometimes passed through his town in jeeps, and since they did not have time to stop in every place they threw gospel papers out the window. But Paulino did not pick them up. Grown-ups warned him, “Don’t pick up those papers! They have a curse on them!” They did not know that “gospel” means “good news,” nor did they know that the good news of those little papers could bring everlasting happiness to them.
Even if Paulino had picked up one of the gospel papers, he could not have read it. He had never been to school and did not know how to read. There was little reason to learn to read in Paulino’s village. Books and newspapers were almost never seen. But it was really Paulino’s religion and his own fear that kept him from even touching those little gospel papers that brought honor to God and joy and salvation to lost sinners.
Paulino did learn that there was a book called “The Bible.” He had never seen one and he did not know what it said. His poor father, however, was a slave to strong drink and often when he was drunk, he would call out, “Bring me a Bible.” Paulino wondered what that book could be and why his father would call out for it when he was upset.
As he grew up through his teen years, Paulino never heard that God loved him and wanted to give him joy and peace. Later when he married and had a young family, he moved away from the mining town to an area near the jungle. He had other relatives there who had learned to read the Bible and had accepted God’s loving offer of the forgiveness of their sins through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
These relatives read the Bible to Paulino, and soon God’s love worked in his heart so that he accepted Christ as his Saviour. Paulino began to understand that those gospel papers tossed out the windows of the jeep brought happiness, not a curse. He understood that there was a very good reason to turn to the Bible when someone was upset — it had the answers from a God of love. All the joy and peace of believing God’s Word, the Bible, now belonged to Paulino.
At the age of 25, Paulino began to learn to read. He knew that he should read the Bible for himself. After he learned to read, he read God’s Word every day to his family. He is now a grandfather, and not long ago he stood up before a group of Christians and brought joy to their hearts as he explained the precious verse in Romans 8:28: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
It is not likely that anyone ever told you not even to touch a gospel paper. Most likely either your parents or friends have even encouraged you to read this little book. But have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Saviour? Are your sins washed away in the precious blood of Christ? “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Turn to Christ today for salvation, and you also will find that God’s Word, the Bible, will bring joy and peace to your heart. “Being born again ... by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23).
Next you can read about one of Paulino’s sons, Wilfredo, who heard his father read God’s Word every day.