Bible-toting woman is on a mission from God
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___PEARLAND--Little red wagon in tow, Lawana Sharp goes about her ministry to her neighborhood. Sometimes her rheumatoid arthritis forces her also to use her walker in addition to her wagon, but she still goes on.
___She must. She feels compelled to see God's word put into the homes in her neighborhood.
___"It is such a delight to use that walker to deliver Bibles," she related. "If I'm going to have to use that thing, that's the best possible thing to be using it for."
___Just over a year ago, Sharp said, God gave her a vision to see a Bible placed in every home in her neighborhood.
___"It's such a simple thing. I just put a Bible, a gospel tract with a clear message, a church bulletin and a note about our church and an invitation to come," Sharp said.
___She is careful not to include just any gospel tract. "I look for a tract that has a clear presentation of the gospel and is clear about the need for repentance," she said. "If you're going to plant seeds, plant good ones."
___While Sharp does most of the distribution on her own, many members of her church, Shadycrest Baptist Church in Pearland, assist in the ministry through prayer and financial support. That support has enabled her to deliver a Bible to every home in her neighborhood of more than 300 homes.
___While she has lived in her home for 22 years, this is her first attempt to really reach out to her neighbors, she said.
___"If God took me right now, I could die knowing that maybe I didn't reach my community all these years, but at least now I know they all have had God's word placed in their homes," she explained.
___While many Christians are involved in missions work and give to world missions or participate in shoe or coat drives, many neglect the people who live on their own streets, she said. "We forget to bloom where we're planted."
___She believes this is a ministry anyone can do.
___"You don't have to reach your whole city at once," she said. "That's the ultimate goal, but you just distribute the Bibles as God provides the Bibles."
___That's the way Sharp has accomplished her ministry. When money for Bibles comes in, she goes to the LifeWay Christian Store and buys Bibles and distributes them. She doesn't wait until she has money to buy a great quantity, but whatever she has.
___Now that she has covered her neighborhood, she will begin to start on others as funds become available, she said.
___Although her ministry has not brought large numbers of people to her church, it has brought some, said her pastor, Stephen Daily.
___"Every one is important," Daily said. "It has been helpful to us in reaching the unchurched, and that's an important part of any ministry."
___Sharp doesn't evaluate her ministry by the number the people who come to her church, however.
___"We've seen a couple of people come, but we see this more as a planting ministry," she said. "Whether people come to our church or not, we are doing this to bring glory to God and to place Bibles in homes so that God can do what he wants to do with them in his time."
___Sharp said God's timing was perfect for one woman who came home from her father's funeral to find a Bible hanging on her door. She was hurting and called the church after finding the Bible and other materials.
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