By Jesse Mungalo

BSU Volunteer

The Gospel of John project under the Bible Society of Uganda organized a Bible reading Marathon in the Gospel of John to engage the students at Gulu High School in reading the word of God. The Marathon was designed in such way a participant would read the number of verses out of the 879 verses in the 21 chapters of the Gospel of John within one minute. The Bible Society offered free copies of the Gospel of John to the students who attended the event which was mainly attended by senior one, two, three and four students. The main objective for this Marathon was to engage young people in reading the word of God, access the impact and ability to apply this biblical knowledge in their daily life. Out of the 75 students who attended, 43 managed to take the readings and 6 merged as best reading in accordance to the set rules by the organizers. The participants read verse by verse from chapter one as the others were following in the same copy and those who read the bigger number of verse within one minute were awarded.

The best reader read 13 verses and was awarded a cash prize of UGX 50,000/=, the second reader’s position had a tie of 3 participants with 10 verses were awarded UGX 24,000/= and the third reader’s position also had a tie of 2 participants with 9 verses and also awarded UGX 15,000/=.

The Head Teacher on awarding the best readers he encouraged the students to read the word of God and uphold his path in all virtues of life. After the reading session, participants shared their reflections on the word they read and one Aciro Lillian commented that the verses read made her realize the love that Christ Jesus had and that encouraged her fellow brothers and sisters to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. The best reader Rwotomiyo Brian pointed out the greatness of God and the respect we owe Him for the big things He does for us as from the reading he took in chapter one and in his shared he committed to give his highest respect to the Lord by praising, preaching and obeying the word of God. Another student shared from Chapter 5 verse 5 that even if you’re “invalid” to the community around you and in other aspects of life like academics the Lord Jesus Christ can do something in your life and also urged fellow students to pray always and in all thing seek for His Guidance.

The organizers thanked for Head teacher of Gulu High School for the opportunity granted to carry out the event in the school premises as well as the continued partnership with the Bible Society of Uganda.
At the close of the speeches and awarding session, the participants shared a soft drink with a bite which they enjoyed dearly.

In conclusion the Marathon was a success as youth were engaged in reading the word of God, participants received free copies of the Gospel of John and there was a sharing on how the word of God impacted their lives during the event.