When we moved from the farm in the eastern part of Nebraska to the ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska, the demographics changed. It was the summer before my 6th grade year. I had attended school, up until then, at the Osmond Public School in Osmond, Nebraska. There were 20 kids in my class. Now, I would be attending a country school with twelve in the entire school – grades first through eighth. My class would have the largest number of kids (5) but some classes would only have one. Raven School was 22 miles from the closest town of Ainsworth.
Within a couple of weeks of starting school that fall, Mrs. Pike announced at the end of the day, “Don’t forget, the Bookmobile will be coming tomorrow.”
I leaned over to the classmate beside me. “What’s a Bookmobile?” I asked. She whispered back, “A van that comes every month to bring us books.” Well, that’s good I thought for those that are bookworms. But, I was a picky reader and doubted that a van with a few books would have anything I would be interested in. I had already read the “Little House on the Prairie” series and as far as I knew, that was the extent of what I liked.
A brightly colored minibus tooted it’s friendly horn as it came down the lane to the school. “What’s that about?” I asked. “It’s the Bookmobile!” the other kids yelled. They ran to get in line. Maybe, I had underestimated the Bookmobile. It looked like a promising venture, but too bad they came at recess. I could have done with a little less math class.
As my turn came to step up into the bus, I was amazed at the number of books that lined both sides of the aisle. Shelves and shelves of them. It was like stepping into a mobile library for kids- for indeed, it was just that. I not only found one book that grabbed my interest, but returned to the school with the maximum allotment of three books. I couldn’t wait to get home to tell Mom and Dad about the visiting library on wheels.
With the close of many country schools in the United States, along with budget cuts, functioning bookmobiles are decreasing. The Brown County Bookmobile that visited Raven School traveled it’s last route in the late 80’s. By 2015 bookmobiles across the United States had decreased by more than a third. But along with the few mobile units still in service, there are also private citizens across the globe that have taken up the passion of providing books to rural areas.
One such citizen is Antonio La Cava, a retired schoolteacher, from Italy. He has converted his three-wheeled van into a functioning blue mobile library. He calls it the Bibliomotocarro which in English breaks down to library/books + scooter + cart. He services the remote area of Italy called Basilicata, which sits between the heel and the toe of Italy. He targets the remote villages of less than 1000 people. Antonio encourages writing as well as reading. As he stops in one village, he invites the children to write the first chapter of a story. He collects these chapters and takes them with him to the next village where those children will write chapter two. And on it goes to the next village.
When I read about Antonio, I thought of his obvious gifts – that of teaching and service. He retired from a teaching career, but has not put it on a shelf, so to speak. In fact, he’s done quite the opposite with his multiple shelves of traveling books that he delights to take to others.
We all have spiritual gifts, but it’s not always obvious which ones we have…at least to us. We each possess at least one. (I Peter 4: 10) but it’s often easier for our good friends to see our gifts than it is for us to recognize them. These gifts are given to us by God so that we can build up and encourage other believers (I Cor. 12:31) and further God’s purpose. Through them we channel God’s love to others. Makes sense, as gifts are something we don’t keep – we give them away. We don’t all get the same gifts because there are various tasks to be done, but they all work together in unity to build up the body of believers. James Goll, author and Coordinator of Encounters Alliance, puts it this way: The gifts of the Spirit are like the colors of the rainbow, blending together to achieve the end result.
A few examples of spiritual gifts are: faith, mercy, giving, knowledge, discernment, prophecy, serving, teaching, speaking in tongues, hospitality, wisdom. Romans 12, 1 Cor. 12, and Ephesians 4 all speak about spiritual gifts. If you have difficulty determining yours, ask a close friend that knows you well. Pay attention to what others say you are especially good at. There are also spiritual gift assessments available online. Once we find our gift, we are encouraged to use it to God’s glory.
Knowing that different gifts are given to different people, promotes harmony within the family of God. We should understand that every gift is important…ours, theirs, everyone’s. We could liken it to a stanza of music notes. We know that a middle C has a different job than a high E. They are both equally important within the stanza and we respect what each one contributes, for their differences are what makes the song beautiful.
Keep on readin’ and I’ll keep on writin’.
